A new Hum TV drama, Pani Jeisa Pyaar…where do I begin? The superb storyline, wonderful directing, or outstanding acting?

I suppose I’ll start with the story. I’ll admit that the only reason I started watching this drama was because Ahsan Khan and Saba Qamar were in it, otherwise, it didn’t really catch my attention. However, as it turns out, these two actors aren’t a featured jodi as they were in Dastaan. In fact, Ahsan’s character Saad pretty much ruins Saba’s character Sana’s life.

So there are these 3 silblings; Sana (Saba Qamar), Hassan (Babrik Shah), and Dua (Nausheen Shah). They are relatively poor and live with their single mother (Samina Ahmed). Now Hassan has this friend named Saad (Ahsan Khan), Dua and Sana’s moon bola bhai. He’s rich, but has no family of his own. He’s always at Hassan’s house, doing favors for their mother, helping them out financially, getting Hassan a job. He likes Sana, which is obvious, but as Sana is already engaged to Adarsh (Mikaal Zulfiqar), the son of their mother’s best friend, he never mentions it to anyone.

Sana is engaged, Dua is being pursued by Arham (Rizwan Ali), Hassan has a job, and everything is OK. And then, Hassan goes and gets into a fight with some hooligans in the street. One pulls out a knife, ends up being stabbed himself in the tumult, and Hassan is carted off to jail. In this time of need, Hassan’s household of women turns to no other than, Saad of course.

Sana doesn’t like Saad. She thinks of him as a brother, but he obviously doesn’t think of her the same way. Sana doesn’t like being with him, but her mother, afraid that Sana’s rude behavior will make Saad stop helping the family, makes her spend time with him anyway.

And then the big bomb; Saad, using Sana’s mother as leverage, takes Sana to a party with him, and does the most disgusting thing he could possibly do; he rapes her, and, as he is fighting Hassan’s case, threatens to send him right back to jail if Sana tells anyone.

However, the day that Hassan comes back, Sana tells him everything, and Hassan, quick to anger, kills Saad and is taken right back to jail. Sana tells Arfa Auntie (Samina Peerzada), Adarsh’s mother everything because she doesn’t want to do a fraud with anyone, and at first, Arfa Auntie wants to break their engagement. And then another bomb is dropped; Arfa was married once before, and Dua was her daughter. However, after her divorce, she didn’t want her new fiancé to break their engagement, and gave Dua to Sana’s mother. After remembering this, she agrees to have Sana marry Adarsh, telling Sana that she has told him everything, when she really hasn’t. Adarsh finds out after the wedding, gets pissed off, and that’s where we are now.

I can’t stand Adarsh’s behavior towards Sana! I realize that no man would want a wife who has been….you know. But doesn’t he realize that it’s not her fault? It seems to me that he thinks that Sana was not really raped, that it was a different story altogether. But it’s very stupid of him to think that, as why else would Sana tell him everything? And how he can act like this knowing that Sana thought he already knew? Why else would she have cried on their wedding night? I really don’t know what’s wrong with this guy, but he’s being really dumb.

And now onto the directing! To be honest, I’ve never heard of the director, Sarmad Khoosat before. Maybe that’s just my ignorance, but I don’t think he’s a very well-known director. However, he certainly should be. From the scene with the pigeons on the roof, to the scene with Adarsh’s photography, to the big chase between Hassan and Saad, to the story of Arfa and Dua, the directing in this drama has been top-notch! My favorite scene would have to be Hassan and Saad’s chase. As we all know, action scenes are not Pakistani directors’ best suit. However, the directing in this one was wonderful! Another favorite scene was when Arfa’s story was being told. Every drama has flashbacks to show a story. But Sarmad Khoosat gave a fresh spin to that, what with the actors’ silhouettes on the black background and Samina Ahmed’s voice-over. Overall, the directing of this drama is definitely one of the factors pulling me towards it.

And lastly, of course, the acting. Saba Qamar is perfection as Sana’s character. Her facial expressions were perfect in episode 10. You could really see the desperation on her face all throughout the episode. And the fear was written right on her when Adarsh was yelling at her. All the other actors have done a superb job as well. I’ll have to criticize Rizwan Ali’s acting, as his tone of voice and expressions really don’t seem to match his character, but you can tell that he’s putting in a good effort, which is all we can really ask for.

I apologize for the long review, but this drama is so wonderful, and I had to cover 10 episodes in one. Waiting for next Thursday,

—Noorie