I was expecting this telefilm to be very filmi because it has been written, directed and produced by Syed Noor. I have never watched a Pakistani commercial movie so I had no idea what kind of an actress Saima was but I assumed she would be great since she ruled over the industry for a very long time; surely one can’t do that without some good talent (so I thought)!! I wasn’t exactly blown away by Saima’s performance partially because her character had not been etched out properly. The bhabi should have come across as someone very graceful who commanded immediate respect from the audience but that did not happen. All the latkas and jhatkas, the body language and the dialogues as well were over the top and did not fit in at all. I can think of many television actresses who could have done justice to this role. Saima’s performance was much better in the later half and her character seemed more like that of a mother-like bhabi too. The theme of the movie could have proved to be very touching but the devar bhabi relationship failed to make me cry buckets of tears. I only felt for the bhabi a little and was happy for everyone in the last 15 minutes, rest of the time I tried very hard to get involved in the happenings.
Sami Khan’s performance seemed fine but somehow maza nahi aya, even with all the emotional dialogues, the bhabi dewar jori failed to move me. Until now, this had to be the telefim with most number of songs but the songs had an old feel to them. They were very melodious no doubt but they didn’t seem like the 2013 version of a 1960s movie. I found it difficult to sit through most of them because they were too slow and the presentation wasn’t very modern too. The entire first song was in an auditorium with hardly any music. The second one was also on a stage and the third one “Three Cheers For Bhabi, Hip Hip Hurray” although had a lot of dance and was upbeat as well but somehow the energy that I was expecting from that song was missing. Sami Khan was the only one who had a decent Urdu accent in the telefilm, all the other actors’ accents needed some serious polishing, from the ones playing the lead to the ones who had a brief screen appearance.
Sadia Khan; the heroine did not have much of a part to play other than creating a misunderstanding and then being the reason for it to be cleared. Saud and Saima didn’t exactly make a cute couple and their romance didn’t really make me go awww…I hope there are people out there who know what I mean.
Devar Bhabi was definitely like one of those average Pakistani commercial films which most people most often do not watch. Sami Khan and Saima in particular seemed to put in a lot of effort in their performances but the characterization wasn’t good enough. The “Tarang factor” was definitely overpowering. The shades with all the “Tarang” colors in them, the dialogues related to Tarang, the Tarang’s commercial’s music in the background and so much more that was Tarang seemed like a great deal of advertising. I didn’t see so much of Tarang in any of the other telefilms.
Overall, this was yet another disappointing telefilm, although I am usually a big fan of telefims since if everything is right they keep you glued from the get go and provide good entertainment. I have definitely watched better telefilms on many other channels and some with much stronger messages, much more emotions and much better script too. Did you watch Devar Bhabi? Please feel free to express your opinion.
Fatima Awan
