THE WEEK THAT WAS

Dunk | ARY, Wednesday 8.00pm

In a sad and an unprecedented turn in Zanjabeel Asim Shah’s story, Professor Humayun (Naumaan Ijaz), who was rightly/wrongly accused of harassing a female student Amal (Sana Javed), commits suicide because he couldn’t bear to live with the humiliation the accusation brought him and his family. The scene where he is discovered by his wife Saira (Yasra Rizvi) and daughter (Ghana Ali) was moving, with Yasra owning the scene as the dead professor’s shocked and shattered wife Saira. Also unexpected was how Amal’s young and angry fiancé Haider (Bilal Abbas) responds to the suicide incident. Can’t quite tell yet if he is just sad or at all remorseful at the professor’s death, but surprisingly he goes to the graveyard between flashbacks of him manhandling Humayun in front of Saira and Ghana. With Naumaan Ijaz’s role now done and over, Bilal Abbas has all the stage to show us his craft. Is Haider another Wajih from Cheekh, or has Bilal Abbas got something new for us?

Shajar-i-Mamnu | Urdu1, Mon-Fri 8.00pm

Never a dull moment in wealthy businessman Halit’s (Talal Bulut) house, with ex-wife Aliya (Sevval Sam) and her wicked ways in full swing. So far, the crafty Aliya has managed to wiggle out of the sticky situation, where her ex-boyfriend Sinan (Kivanc Kasabali) turns up as Halit’s daughter Zehra’s (Safak Pekdemir) new husband. She has also managed to create so much trouble for Halit’s new wife Yilzid (Eda Ece) that the latter decides to leave Halit’s house, and ask him for a divorce. Yilzid’s sister Zainab (Sevda Erginci) leaves for the US, leaving behind ex-boss-cum-boyfriend Alihan (Onur Tuna) pining for her, as he realises how much he loves her. If you loved Bold and the Beautiful and Dynasty, this is totally up your alley.

What To Watch Out For

Pehli Si Mohabbat | ARY, Saturdays 8.00pm

All eyes are on PSM, this season’s highly anticipated serial written by Faiza Iftikhar, with leads Maya Ali and Sheheryar Munawar returning to the small screen after six years. Fashion designer Hassan Sheheryar Yasin makes his acting debut as the religious and conservative Akram, the antagonist. Widower Faizullah (Shabbir Jan) married Nargis (Rabia Butt) from a dubious background that the neighbourhood led by Akram is overly sensitive about. Faizullah’s daughter Rakhshi is so heartbroken at her dad’s remarriage that she sobs deep into the night, so that Aslam (Sheheryar Munawar) the newly engaged boy next door can hear her loud and clear. Next day, when the nosy neighbourhood decides to pelt stones at Faizullah’s house, Aslam jumps into Faizullah’s house and bumps into Rakhshi, the magic cupid moment happens, and they fall in love. Of course they grew up together as kids but separated as Aslam grew up in another city. While the neighbourhood has nothing better to do but to pressurise Faizullah to leave the neighbourhood for marrying Nargis, a sweet little romance has begun between Aslam and Rakhshi, where they gawk at each other whenever they can. Aslam has conveniently forgotten that he is engaged to his cousin. Let’s hope this turns out to be a magical love story and we get to see some of Maya and Sheheryar’s chemistry from Parey Hut Love..

Published in Dawn, ICON, February 14th, 2021