Really?! Are they serious?!! This is a new serial?? Which decade of the recent past did Geo find this relic from?? The storyline, the dialogues, the beyond ugly sets, the “pop” music, all were so dated and jaded. At times Mehreen Raheal looked she had walked on to this set straight from a shoot of Dastaan or perhaps Mastana Mahi (from the Larkana phase), her makeup, hair, and the pearls (what college girl wears pearls necklaces in her dorm room??) seemed all too familiar. Mikaal Zulfiqar looked like he had come out of a time warp, trying to look like a young “hot” pop star, wearing a wristband and trying to look cool, well what have been possibly considered cool some ten or so years ago. His song sounded like something I might have heard on PTV a while ago. Moreover, what college concert has an audience of 50+ year olds sitting in the front row waving their hands? As for Fiza Ali, did somebody forget to send her the memo that she was no longer an eight year old and therefore should quit behaving like one?

If, and I’m highly doubtful of that, you can look beyond all this, then I guess you might see glimpses of a story that could possibly emerge later. Mehreen and Fiza are childhood friends and are now in college together. Mehreen comes from a rich landed family and her mother, Sakina Samo, runs some kind of an NGO, and lives in a haveli in a village. Firdaus Jamal, an honest and upstanding journalist, and Seemi Raheel play Fiza’s parents. Mikaal Zulfiqar plays Ali Kamal, the hot singer who is in love with Mehreen. The first episode did nothing more than introduce these characters and set the stage for what seems like a typical decades old storyline: corrupt landed elites versus the honest crusading journalist, class differences threatening to separate the lovers, and a strong possibility of some old family feuds flaring up. And going by the OST and the promos, this tired storyline promises to be accompanied by lots of women swooning, hand wringing, crying, and wailing. I may be completely wrong in my guesstimate, and I hope I am, but until proven otherwise, I will not sit through complete episodes of this serial again.

So, why, you might ask, did I bother to sit beyond the first five minutes? Well, good question! I sat through it primarily because: a) it was Bushra Ansari’s script – I had loved her Dil Hai Chota Sa; b) it had some of my favorite senior actors: Seemi Raheel, Sakina Samo, Firdaus Jamal – their acting can make pretty much any story come alive (not here!!); and c) the lead pair – I have grown to like Mikaal Zulfiqar after his work in Pani Jaisa Pyaar and his just concluded KPKP and Mehreen Raheal is somebody I have loved since Dastaan – I know many didn’t like her in that, but I thought she did very well in it – and later I had really liked her in Mastana Mahi (except the last couple of episodes). But, boy! What a letdown!! The first episode was nothing but a complete and absolute disaster. Two thumbs down!  Watch at your own risk ….