“Dekha jo haath barhaake, sapno ki raishmi dhaage, toote mile, rishte toote mile
raaton ko main na soya, sab kuch to maine khoya…”)

Let me just start out by saying that seldom have lyrics of an OST been so aptly picturized in a drama serial…kudos to the person in charge of this.   Now to episodes 8-14 (yeah, sorry about that), bechara Hamza!! No job, no wife, sick child, an extremely selfish mother, and now no money to even fight  the (ridiculous) custody case brought on by his wife. Sitare kuch zyada he gardish mein hain.

A quick recap of the last 7 episodes; Basically at this point due to many misunderstandings and lack of communication, Hamza and Alvira are separated. Alvira had a miscarriage and when she couldn’t get a hold of Hamza, called her mom, who called her dad. By the time hamza found out and got there, Alvira’s father had already made up his mind to take Alvira with him and she agreed thinking Hamza didn’t care. For some odd reason, 7 years later she still doesn’t understand that one person HAS to work to support the family! Anyway, at her father’s house, she doesn’t know that her daughter Shiza is not welcome there and that her father is plotting to get her and Zaka married after getting Alvira divorced from Hamza. Zaka is told of the situation and he starts visiting Alvira thinking all is clear for his path. When Hamza comes to get Alvira, her (very calculated) father shows Hamza how happy Alvira is with Zaka and tells him to take his daughter and leave. Once they leave he tells Alvira that Hamza was there and only came to get his daughter…didn’t even want to see Alvira. (I swear if Alvira’s father and Fareeda Aunty from Humsafar ever got together, Satan himself would go hide)!!

While Zaka is putting the moves on Alvira, Hamza’s colleague, Fariya is putting the moves on him. In fact when Alvira (completely ignorant of what her father had done) decides to give her marriage another chance and come home, she sees Fariya making chai for Hamza and very comfortable taking her place with Shiza. All he** breaks loose and she leaves. She then tells her father to get a lawyer as she wants full custody of the Shiza. In the meantime, Hamza is left being a single father and now all of a sudden Shiza gets hit by a car and lands in the hospital. Hamza has lost his job as he seems to have the most unreasonable boss and now after getting the custody papers, realizes he doesn’t even have money to fight the custody case. Thank God for Zaineb, who has been his only true support since his mother selfishly has left him and only called once when she needed money.  The last 2 paragraphs were essentially the last 7 weeks.

A few things I don’t understand;

1) Why doesn’t Zaineb ever call Alvira or go see her about all of the misunderstandings between her and Hamza or why doesn’t Alvira call Zaineb? These two are supposed to be best friends, Alvira went to Zaineb for all of her emotional support, so why is getting in touch with Zaineb so difficult?

2) What is wrong with Zaka and Fariya? Why are they going after married people, especially Fariya? I never understood why women were made to seem so stupid in these dramas that they are running after married men. Even after causing that scene at Hamza’s house and knowing that Alvira is on to her, Fariya is still going to Hamza’s house? Why are girls being taught that it is ok to not have any self respect and go after married men? It is one of the most irritating story lines ever and completely unnecessary. I understand no one has control over their feelings, but once realized, they can certainly take themselves out of the situation so as to not wreck another person’s marriage, especially when a child is involved. Maheen Khalid and Junaid Akhter’s characters are highly annoying, which  means they are doing a great job in their characters to make them so annoying and irritating to me!

3) What’s the deal with Zaineb? Who is she, where is her family? She is so calm and gives such good advice to both Alvira and Hamza, what could possibly be the reason for her own separation? Will the audience ever find out?

Acting wise, like always, everyone does complete justice to their characters, but the last 2-3 episodes were completely owned by Fahad Mustafa, especially the scene where Shiza gets hit by the car and he races her to the hospital. He completely owned it! Sarwat Gilani and Salma Hasan are natural as always and the chemistry between all of the actors is flawless.  Direction wise, Badar Mehmood has taken a script that has been done to the core and wrapped it in new packaging making it a hit. He has managed to also bring out the best in not jusFahad Mustafa, but all the actors in the serial. Three things that have worked wonders are flawless acting, flawless direction, and flawless editing, along with the OST.

Well done team ‘Koi Nahi Apna!’