Saturday nights on Hum TV haven’t been producing any mega hits lately but Hum continues to be my default for quality entertainment. Having pretty much given up on binge-watching dramas, I find it cumbersome to devote myself to watching something week after week only to find the storyline painfully reminiscent of something I’ve seen one too many times. Hum TV’s latest venture, Mol, is produced by Momina Duraid and Satish Anand, directed by Ilyaas Kashmiri and the concept is by Faysal Manzoor. The script however is penned by Amna Mufti- the genius behind Ullu Baraye Farokht Nahin and curiously enough she also has Izteraab to her credit.

Mohabbat ka koi Mol Nahin hota... Can’t buy me love! If an outsider were to form an impression based exclusively on our recent dramas, they’d be forced to think of us as a regressive lot with overbearing men, desperate women and the ultimate sacrificial lamb all bound together in a trinity. While the first poster made me secretly hi- five myself remembering the pearls and Urdu lettering of “Durr-e-Shehwaar”, my enthusiasm fizzled out at the next image of one man and two women. Sigh! How much longer will we have to put up with this? The pessimist in me urges me to call it quits but the tiny little optimist whispers otherwise.

Mol wasted no time introducing us to the main characters and their contrasting lives. Shehreyaar (Faisal Qureshi) is to a thirty something bachelor living with his parents (Nadeem and Ismat Zaidi). From the get go, we get to sense this father-son duo are at loggerheads. Daddy can’t accept that his grown son is entitled to making his own decisions and all those years of control have led to his son distancing himself from his family. To make matters worse, he has arranged Shehreyaar’s shaadi with his much younger niece Sajjal (Iqra). One look at Sajjal and you’d be forced to wonder which era she belongs to. Why is this pretty looking girl wasting her life pining for a much older man who clearly has no interest in her? Much before she was born, her Taya promised he would make her his Bahu…

Then we have Emaan (Naveen Waqar) who lives with her parents and sister in Sakhhar. Emaan is a strong, confident woman, not afraid to speak her mind and she works with children with special needs. I felt her dinner table conversations were too fake- we could’ve easily done without them. Shereyaar requests for a transfer to Sakhhar to escape his family. As a Deputy Commissioner, he is invited to the school where Emaan teaches and develops an instant liking for her. Let’s see how their relationship develops.

For a first episode, things were well paced. I like how we are seeing dramas based in other cities in Pakistan. There’s no dearth of beautiful locations in Pakistan and it’s a refreshing change to see that in our dramas. Even though the characters have been well established, I didn’t take an instant liking to anyone. I think it’s too early for predictions but I’m just dreading this turning into another dosri biwi drama. Let’s see how the story goes…

Kanwal Murtaza