Ek Kasak Reh Gayee highlights many clichés that exist in our society; from the molvi figure who knows all about the teachings of Islam except that sometimes it is easier to win hearts with kindness than with force and from the dictum that when girls step out of the house, it is bound to have horrific consequences. The first episode of EKRG was strictly okay but the second one was slightly better. I am definitely not sold just yet but am not completely disappointed either. The sole reason for looking forward to this show was that it has two of my favorite artists; Sanam Saeed and Mikaal Zulfiqar. Other than that I must confess that I had to look up the writer and director on the internet in order to find out more about them, only to know that I hadn’t watched any of the plays directed by Dilawar Malik and couldn’t really find any details about the writer K Rehman. The play has been produced by Erfan Ghanchi and Imran Sheikh.
Ek Kasak Reh Gayee is the story of a young girl Paras or Paaris? Seriously some of the names in our dramas nowadays are so brand new that I am not even sure how to spell them, I hate to say this but sometimes I feel like our writers go out of their way to come up with the most unheard of names for their characters ! Lets just say that Paras is a mixture of Kashaf from ZGH and Zeb from Silvatein – which is not a bad combination at all. Paras isn’t Kashaf completely because she is not negative and she isn’t complaining all the time. She isn’t totally Zeb because although she is fully dedicated to her social work but her family background is very different from that of Zeb’s. Paras lives with her taya (Javed Sheikh) who is a topical molvi, he tries his best to make Paras and her sister to observe pardah and tries to ensure that they don’t stay out till late but the girls have a mind of their own. He believes that ” NGO wale kufar ke agent hei ….aurtun ko baghi krne ka kaam krte hei”!! He has his own twisted version of what happens in weddings that are arranged in shadi halls and the “nasty” things girls and boys do in colleges!!
Paras has very close ties with her boss Bia (Hina Bayat), she is a mentor and a friend who gives Paras strength whenever she feels like she cannot go on anymore. Bia and her brother Shehryar (Mikaal Zulfiqar) have an ideal relationship. Raania (Mehak Ali) is a very close family friend who is in love with Sheryaar. Although Bia wants Shehrhyar to marry Raania but it seems like Shehryaar isn’t exactly interested in Raania.
EKRG is definitely not one of those plays which you fall in love with instantly. There are number of reasons for that. The first and most important one being that the drama has a very depressing feel; the lighting is very dull and the background music is too slow, weird at times and annoying too. The strange Arabian music in the background whenever molvi sahab appears on screen comes across as funny and the sad background music seems very forced at times. The background score should compliment the scenes and not take over completely but sadly enough in this case in some of the scenes it completely takes over. Mikaal Zulfiqar’s character for now appears to be nothing more than that of the chota bhai, I hope we see the hero in him soon or maybe we won’t! His character in Mirat-ul-Uroos was not at all impressive so I am not sure what to expect. He is definitely a good actor but sometimes he seems so disengaged from his characters that I feel like he has more energy in the commercials he appears in. EKRG is going to be Mehak Ali’s second play, the first one was Talkhiyaan. I never liked her acting in Talkhiyaan although the dialogues were very powerful but the body language and expressions never impressed me and her acting is the same in this play too.
I think it is going to take some time for her to polish her acting skills. Sara Khan is much better in this play as compared to Bari Apa. Mohsin Gillani is yet again playing the heartbroken father – he really needs to do something other than that! Sanam Saeed didn’t do very well in the scenes where she is explaining to her mother how much her work means to her but she was super as the caring and protective older sister.
Until now it seems like the story of EKRG isn’t going to be extraordinary or brand new and in these two episodes the direction was strictly okay too. I have a feeling that Mikaal and Sanam will look great together so I will continue watching it but a lot depends on the story too.
Fatima Awan
