Mohabbat aur waqt. Love and time. Amour et le temps.

When I first saw the promos for Adhura Milan, I couldn’t help but be taken by the aesthetically pleasing production values (for the most part!), the stellar cast of older actors (Hello, Samina Peerzada!), the hauntingly beautiful piece of music (all piano and all), and Iffat Umar’s graceful saree-clad sadness (this woman… Hai Allah!). Yes, khawateen and hazrat, I confess, I am a victim of Summertime Sadness.

Kiss me hard before you go, summertimes sadness. I just wanted you to know, that baby you’re the best… 

In a matter of fifteen seconds I had pegged (not that it was difficult) Iffat Umar and Faisal Rehman as the star-crossed lovers destined for a long separation if not death, such that every time I glanced at their faces all I could hear were Lana Del Rey’s melancholy lyrics.

Needless to state, I (definitely) got that summertime sadness (and NO, this isn’t the only time I’ll be referring to my gurl Lana!).

Those, of course, were first impressions. After quietly contemplating whether I should plunge into this drama head first or perhaps feet up (might work!), I decided to give you a review but I make no promises if I’ll continue with this one. Why you ask? There’s only so much filmi I can handle, peeps, as much as I enjoy it even I have a limit!

So let me begin by asking a few relevant questions. Is the story new? No. Is the acting amazing? Meh. Is there a certain sizzle or even a spark? Not yet. Then why tune in…? I’ll get to that momentarily.

Our story begins in (yet) another aleeshan mansion. This one includes a series of Grecian pillars, uniformed mulazameen (side note: really with the uniforms?!), a bad-tameez begum (who is this woman and why doesn’t she know how to act?), a magroor badee-begum (Samina Peerzada), and a shohar (Faisal Rehman) stuck incipiently between a nostalgic past and a poisonous present.

To complicate matters we have a (step-)brother, Dilawar (Alyy Khan), out for blood and more zameen, Bhai sahab aka Falek Sher (Usman Peerzada) who’s mediating this rather Byzantine conflict, and pindwallas momentarily pre-occupied by Gudda-Guddi ki shaadi. As if this wasn’t enough, there’s some petty politics being cooked at the grassroots by Ustaad Sultana in a manner that would make Noori Natt proud!

Solely on the basis of the story, I’d say the narrative moved fast – it was neither strained nor stagnant – with a host of characters introduced in quick succession like Alishba, Nayab, Tabriz, Dilawar, Ustad Sultana, Bibi jaan, Bhai Sahab, and a picture of (what was supposed to be a pretty) Iffat Umar. My only concern though is that these characters bring with them multiple plot lines, which will at some point need more exploration (but this is the first episode so I’ll throw caution to the wind).

What did catch my eye were the Peerzadas! Talk about “on point” and these two certainly were. Bhai-sahab was channeling all shades of Baday-sahab from Numm (side note: if that haveli could only talk!), as for Bibi-jaan, I, for one, am more than curious to see this avatar of Samina Peerzada.

Truth be told, seeing her get out of that Prado all thaat, shaan-e-shaukat, and nakhra kinds was as filmi as I like it and want it!

In the same vein, Alyy Khan was a pleasure to watch. His scheming, plotting self looks so good doing it too. Those of you in search of a real man, need only apply here (he might be acquired taste though). What was awful was the poster size picture of his Mummy-ji laden with zaaver and not enough make-up (if you ask me). Then again, the camera does add ten pounds or is it kilos?

Coming back to our rather significant point of departure: why tune in? I wish I could convince you but I’m having a hard time convincing myself on this one. Is there potential? Yes.

Do I want to wait and watch? I don’t know.

Stay tuned.

This is RB signing off. (Tweet me!)