Yeh Mera Deewanapan Hai

Yes, I realize I haven't written in a LONG time. There are actually several reasons for this:

1) I'm watching my usual load of dramas, but only LIKE....2.  Dramas are unusually terrible these days.

2) I have a baby and she's highly attention seeking.

3) It seems like with the effort to make quality films, all our popular television faces have up and left for greener pastures, leaving television with the likes of Sumbal Iqbal and Sania Shamshad types....and don't get me started on the actors. 

But I apologize for the delay! A lot of shows have ended as well, namely Diyar E Dil, but I didn't want to constantly focus on ending shows, so let's talk about a real gem on air right now.

There's no other way to describe this show but underrated.  Airing on A Plus and starring Junaid Khan in a leading role, the show on paper didn't seem like a winner - but was I wrong and how! From the first episode onwards, this show has been nothing short of a winner. I'm not sure how it's faring in ratings, but as a viewer, I sincerely think this show is great! 2 nights a week almost doesn't seem like enough!

The show boasts of an ensemble cast, including Saima, Javed Sheikh, Irsa Ghazal, Sundas Tariq, Anoushay Abbasi and, of course, Junaid Khan.  Everyone plays their role incredibly.

The show tells a tale of a young boy, Jahangir, who feels trapped in his life, constantly witnessing his mother being mistreated by his father and his family. Almost as a form of escapism, Jahangir falls for the much older, but beautiful Mehtab, a nurse in his father's practice.  The show follows Jahangir's love and his familial troubles.

The episodes featuring Jahangir as a teenager are both endearing and painfully stifling, only because the going-ons are so intense. But post-leap, the show has taken a great turn and has made the drama even more enjoyable.  I'm eager to see more interaction between Junaid, Sundas and Anoushay's characters, while still holding out hope for Mehtab's fate.

The camera work and production values for this show also deserve special mention - the show is a visual treat to watch.

After so long, it's nice to see Junaid in a role of substance. It's so refreshing to see Junaid in a role different from his usual "I'm a jerk" roles. Jahangir is poles apart from Junaid's usual black and only black roles. While Jahangir has turned slightly negative post-leap, this role actually has heavy shades of grey and the viewer actually understands where Jahangir is coming from. Props to Junaid Khan for that.

This is a show I would highly recommend. It's meaningful, yet entertaining and tells a fascinating story that has lots of scope to play out in the upcoming episodes.  If you aren't already war thing, this is me telling you that you're missing out!

Happy watching!

Let's Talk About Endings

Alright, since my last post (which I admit was AGES ago), several shows that I watch have come to an end - in fact, most of them, as I now find myself picking up numerous new ones in order to have something to watch!  Haha.

As it's been a while since my last post and it's also been a while since some of these shows ended, I am going to keep this post short and sweet, giving my opinion on the shows as a whole, rather than reviewing the final episodes in detail.

So let's get started!


Alvida 

This ended a long while ago, but I feel it never got the acknowledgement from me that it deserved.  Alvida was not intelligent drama.  It was not a critical masterpiece.  It was not brilliance on television.  What it was, however, is the stuff entertainment is made of.  This show brought a refreshing change to the Pakistani drama scene (especially in the last year) - something thoroughly entertaining that had the audiences waiting to see what would happen next.  Imran Abbas, Sanam Jung, Sara Khan and Zahid Ahmed knew what they were doing when they signed this show.  Each actor was given scope to show their talent.  Even an actress like Sara Khan, who generally plays very "dull" roles, was able to shine as Pareesa.  Zahid Ahmed was brilliant as Rameez and proved that his role as the playful guy in Mehram was only the beginning.  The show went through so many shifts in 20 episodes, I almost forgot the initial track with Uroosa (Naveen Waqar).

If there were any flaws in this show, they are the following:

1)  What happened to Pareesa?  I wanted to see what ultimately happened to her, especially considering she was left with nothing and had to come back into the same family.

2)  I wish Rameez was shown getting caught and it wasn't simply verbally said.  It seemed to easy and quick of a wrap-up in that regard.

Otherwise, this show was great from beginning to end.  Kudos to the entire team for a highly entertaining, fast-paced show that kept me interested throughout.  This show comes highly recommended from my end.

Ishq Parast 

It's hard to put my thoughts towards this show into words.  The p.remise for this show was great - it was "Dhadkan" (Bollywood) all over again:  Passionate lover, incredibly sweet husband, torn wife.......but then somewhere, somehow, the show just lost it.  And the sad part is, I can pin-point exactly where this show went wrong.  But let's get back to that in a moment.

The show was ultimately about the bond of sibling relationships, specifically the relationship between Zohaib and Arsala.  Zohaib pampered Arsala and raised her as his own daughter.  It was nice to see Arsala's growth from a spoiled, brash girl to a mature, sensible wife fighting for what (she thinks) is right.  However, the problem I have with the ending is that Arsala's growth could've ended there.  She never did anything wrong. She didn't know any better.  She thought she was doing the right thing by defending her husband and was completely unaware of how devious, scheming and disgusting Hamza truly was.  So was it really necessary for Arsala to die?  Yes, she wanted to end Hamza's existence, but her explanation that she couldn't face Zohaib and Duaa really did not sit well with me.

How would Zohaib be able to live with Duaa happily after all of this?  Essentially, this is actually ALL Duaa's fault.  And now I'm coming back to where the show lost the plot.  This entire situation could've been avoided.  How?  Well, it's simple. Zohaib already knew about Duaa's past and was supportive of her.  So why exactly was Duaa unable to approach Zohaib and tell him "Hey, this guy who is sending a rishta for Arsala?  Well, he's my ex-boyfriend and he's trying to make my life hell."  This was the easy solution to everything in the show.  Yes, I understand that there would be no storyline left had she done that, but that's the fault of the writers.  There should've been more effort put in there to create a feasible problem.  Now Duaa, ultimately, looks like a really bad person because in her fight to prove how pure her Ishq was, she destroyed an entire family.

So that ultimately sums up my feelings towards Ishq Parast.....a show that started off great, but was lacking as the story moved forward.  I loved all the performances though, especially Jibran, Armeena and Areej Fatima's.

Overall, the show was good, but was let down by a disappointing ending.

Aye Zindagi

This is going to be quick.  Nimra and Nimra's entire family was made up of insane, kookoo people who had no idea how to maintain family relationships or how to forgive little things.  Why did Ami need to hold such a huge grudge against Taimur?  Why did Samra have to fall prey to her in-laws over and over again, despite having moments of intelligence and realizing what they were about?  Why would she get Nimra engaged to Adeel after protesting so much against it?  Why was Nimra's father so anti-Taimur from the get-go?  Why was Nimra such a basket case that she was ready to jump from one bad marriage to the next just in an attempt to stick it to Taimur?

And ultimately.....she LIKED TAIMUR?  What on earth?  This ending made no sense, this show made no sense and the personalities of the characters on this show made no sense.  Taimur was the only character who I managed to garner any sympathy for (because I just love Affan)....and to an extent, I felt sympathy for the Hassan character, if only because of his miserable state at the end. Also, it was nice to see that the Alina character was a good, realistic character from beginning to end.  She was not a vamp, but had real emotions that any girl could relate to.  Sundas Tariq should take a bow.

Overall, this was a show with a good concept that was ruined by illogical behaviors and overly emotional characters, the worst of which was was Nimra....and Sidra Batool's performance did not make it any better.  Sidra Batool is quickly taking the place of Sonia Hussain (who has won me over since Nikkah) as my least favorite actress.

Tumsay Mil Ke

Initially, this show grated on my nerves - a lot.  But after Zillay's nervous breakdown, it was definitely nice to see the entire family getting along (minus Hamayun).  It was especially nice to see "Amma" finally accepting Zillay as a daughter and realizing the error of her ways.  It was great seeing everyone supporting Zillay and helping her regroup.

Now the negatives:  everything else.  Yes, Hamayun realized his role in the whole mess.  But that doesn't let Mahira off the hook.  She did ALL of this.  Human nature does not allow us to forgive people who do truly terrible things - and Mahira tore an entire family apart.  She used Asad, destroyed Zillay, played with Hamayun's life and killed Asad's unborn child!  This is the worst of the worst.  There is actually zero redemption here for Mahira in the real world.

But of course, we're not in the real world, we're in Pakistani drama la-la land where the writer and director had no idea how to gracefully end the show, so, as usual, they threw it all together shoddily.  Zillay forgives Mahira but has a hard time forgiving Hamayun (What?!).  Regardless, they did have a happy ending and that was nice.  Hamayun tells Asad he should give Mahira another chance.  Mahira tells Asad he should give her another chance.  Zillay tells Asad to give Mahira another chance (this was possibly the worst).  EVERYONE tells Asad he should give Mahira another chance.  WHY?  WHYYYYY????  Let's be reasonable here!!!  No.  Just no.  The fact that Asad did forgive Mahira made matters all the worse, because Mahira did not deserve a happy ending.

And was the ending hinting at Hamayun, Zillay, Asad and Mahira all living in one house again?  That would be terrible.  Anyway, this show was definitely not something I'd recommend to anyone.  At all.

Mumkin

There's so much to say about this show, but it can't be deemed a review.  It can only be a rant.  I don't have the time or energy to waste on this show, so here are my 3 basic thoughts about the show.

1)  Muneeb trusted Maira so much and knew how twisted his relatives were (Natasha and Nageen), yet still became a stereotypically ridiculous male chauvinist drama character for 3-4 episodes....and then just as easily, reverted back to his understanding ways.  What on earth?

2)  Let's focus on Natasha and Waheed.  Waheed proved himself to be the world's most skeeziest, slimiest jerk on the face of the planet who not only tried to cheat on his wife, but also tried to blackmail Natasha's parents repeatedly.  And Natasha, who is depicted as such a strong, modern girl forgives him?  That's nonsense!

3)  And finally, let's talk about the nastiest man on this show who is, for some reason, projected as a nice, compassionate, great man:  Ahmed Ali.  This man basically has a wife and a kid, but is not financially set.  His boss tells him that if he marries his daughter (who is carrying an illegitimate child belonging to God knows who) and claims the child as his own, he will give him all the money he wants and he will be set for life......but with a catch!  He can't ever see his previous family ever again.  Instead of leaving his wife with some sort of closure, he just ups and abandons his pregnant wife and that's it!  He never THOUGHT of correcting things, but just happened to stumble across his family when Maira married Muneeb - pure chance!  However, he's a saint, because he stepped in and "saved Nageen's honor."  Also, can someone explain to me why Nageen was behaving as if this was all new information?  Was she not aware that Natasha was someone else's child?  That's not even humanly possible, so what on earth was that about?  Maira's mother (whose name has escaped me at the moment) happily accepts Ahmed again after he left her alone to raise their daughter and fend for herself for years.  Why?  And the sad part about the entire thing is that Ahmed Ali's feeble attempts at apologizing to Maira's mother were non-existent.  His apology was more like "Yeah, I was gone, my mistake, but now I'm back, so let's be a happy family!"  And regardless of WHY he married Nageen, he DID marry her of his own free will - so why did he feel he didn't owe her an apology JUST because Maira's mom was his first wife and he wasn't "cheating" (yes, yes you were, because you were doing it dishonestly)?  He owed every person in this scenario an apology and deserved to live his life miserably!  He did NOT deserve that hug from his two daughters at the end, declaring their love for their amazing Baba and he did NOT deserve to have both his wives.

No.  This show was an insult to women, in all honesty.  Women have a choice in this day and age to make decisions for themselves and that decision CAN include leaving scummy husbands.  Why don't writers understand this?

Shert

If I ever made a list of bad dramas of epic proportions, this would be right on top.  The only character in this entire drama that I was able to sympathize with was Afroze.  That's it.  Everyone else was disgusting, cheap and really, behaved unlike any human being I know.  Sameer and Momal were terrible, but the worst of the worst was Imaad, who thought he was a good person, but in fact was torture to even watch.  And the ending?  Wow.  What?  All I was left with was a feeling of "What was the POINT?  Back to square one!"

Don't do this to yourself.  Just don't do this to yourself.  I can't believe four talented actors and Momina Duraid were involved in this.



Dil Ka Kya Rung Karoon

I don't want to talk about this show for longer than a paragraph.  A show that started off being about a girl marrying her devar, their relationship growing and their sacrifices in life ended up being a murky game of love musical chairs - who wants to get with who? - and THEN somehow ended up being a tug of war between a biological father and adoptive parents.  I feel like the writer had no idea what he wanted to do with this show and just kept changing his/her mind (I don't know who the writer was) repeatedly through the course of writing.  It didn't make any sense.  Also, why was Dr. Sahab ultimately the one who lost everything, including his daughter?  WHY?

I don't know.  UGH.  This show.....I'm erasing it from my memory.



Mera Naam Yousef Hai

It's been too long to write a good, solid review for this show.  I will simply say this:  What started off a slow, slightly underwhelming drama grew into one of the most beautiful love stories on air in the last year.  If I fell in love with Sadqay Tumhare this year, I fell equally in love with the simplicity of Mera Naam Yousef Hai.  Imran Abbas as Yousef was perfect.  Imran has been off the drama scene for a while, but with this show and Alvida (and possibly Aitraz), he's now back on the map as one of the best actors in our industry.  Maya Ali's character Zubeidaa started off as silly and confused, but her depth grew more with each passing episode.  The supporting cast was all great and each actor added something to the show.  Special mention to Khalil Ur Rehman for getting the dialogues so right (as usual), because the dialogues were what made this story and held it together.  This is what good love stories are made of.  Mera Naam Yousef Hai comes highly recommended from me.

I also dropped Muqaddas, Kitna Satatay Ho and Juggnoo entirely from my list of shows, as they failed to hold my interest at all.

Alright, that's the end of this post.  Haha.  I apologize for how badly I have been slacking, but now that I'm finally caught up, I'll make a conscious effort to write regularly!

Happy watching!