With this play, I am sitting on the fence. The story so far is cliched but the presentation is good. Some of the characters are quite interesting while the others are not so much, as for performances; everyone is doing a great job except for the leading lady.

The story revolves around two families and an angry young man, whether he is the villain or supporting actor, only time will tell. For now, he is a very impulsive, aggressive and emotional young man. The two families are obviously the hero and heroine\’s.

While our hero Zohaib had lost his parents at an early age, he is still an independent, self-made, sweet, dependable man. The leading lady\’s daddy is the Zalim Daddy in every sense of the word. Waseem Abbas is playing a very strict dad and husband who is critical of everything and is extremely hard to please. While her mother obeys his every command but she is definitely not an oppressed or mazloom aurat ( thank God ). She knows how to handle her husband.

This drama is doing ok so far but I have some serious issues with it. First of all, Armeena Rana Khan playing Dua cannot act even if her life depends upon it. Her weakness is even more obvious while delivering emotional performances and what makes it worse is her dialogue delivery. I sincerely wish she would take acting classes.

Secondly, Dua has miserably failed to win the viewer s\’s sympathy, even if her daddy is the most zalim daddy on ARY right now. I mean, the girl comes from a very typical middle class background, her parents are old fashioned and strict and knowing fully well that girls in her family always go for arranged marriages, she entered a relationship. Maybe we could have given her benefit of doubt but her choice of partner was the worst choice possible, keeping in view the standars her parents had in mind. Ok, so Pyar Keya to darna kya, right ? But what makes me question her sanity is that when her boyfriend is out of the city and she needs a confidant, she goes out with his friend. I mean, Hello. What is she thinking ? She is asking for trouble.

When Dua\’s parents are seriously considering Zohaib\’s proposal for her, she still dosen\’t say a word about it to Hamza ( who is in Islamabad due to his job )because she dosen\’t want him to rush back to Karachi and loose his job. Again bad judgement on her part. If they are so in love, then he should have been informed and that way he could have atleast talked to Dua\’s parents.

Hamza ( the very angry young man ) comes from a broken family and you can clearly see, that he has been scared for life. He is blunt, extremely emotional, very possessive and highly impulsive. Another feather was added in his cap, when he flunked in college and wasted a year just so he could be with DUA. Once again the viewers are supposed to shower their sympathies on Hamza but again I don\’t see why. He has no direction in life, only looks for a job so he can marry Dua, is so suffocatingly possessive that at times he makes Dua cry, he hardly has any qualities that you wish to see in a good husband.

No wonder Dua\’s father refused to even meet Hamza but this is where the trouble starts. Dua has bluntly refused to marry anyone but Hamza. Her parents\’ inflexible attitude isn\’t helping matters much.

Now, in this entire scenario the only person I am feeling sorry for is our sweet, sensible, innocent, guy next door hero Zohaib. He has no idea what\’s going on at Dua\’s house and the way things are going, I have a feeling he is gonna end up being married to Dua. But that would be only the beginning of his misfortune. Our angry young man has already declared \” is love story ka hero bhe main hoon aur villain bhe \” so he will neither forgive nor forget Dua. Obviously, that would cause problems for both Dua and Zohaib.

Now coming to the positives. Acting for most part is commendable and so is the execution. Overall feel of the play is still kept light thanks to the character of Arsala and that is a very important plus. The pace is good and if they maintain this pace and quality of performances, I have a feeling this play could actually be one of ARY\’s top dramas of this season.

Written by Kiran