I was not that interested in watching this drama for two reasons: Aiza Khan seemed to be wearing an entire bucket full of makeup in the promos alone and Hamza Ali Abbasi seems as if he should be riding a horse somewhere or wrestling cattle or some other terribly masculine activity. Still I found myself singing the song “janney voh kaisey log hai jin key pyaar ko pyaar Mila” which is beautifully sung by Waqar Ali, all over the house. Being superstitious I saw this as a sign..well maybe not, actually  I was bored witless and decided to watch .  Well it all turned out well, Pyarey Afzal has been an altogether pleasant surprise. Both episodes were beautifully produced, directed and acted. Now there is a rare statement.

Afzal is the son of the local Imam played to great effect by Firdause Jamal. Afzal is a bad boy dabbling in charas (Marijuana), gambling on cricket and getting intense love letters from a girl. The poor Imam and his family can take no more and force Afzal to reform. The whole family dynamic at the Molvi household was quite sweet: Anuoshey Abbasi as Afzal’s younger sister Arifa, Saba Hamid as his doting but sensible mother were just right. There was a wonderful chemistry between all the characters which facilitated by some deft editing made the scenes of confrontation between father and son very watchable. Aiza Khan and Sana Javed play Farah and Lubna the spoiled daughters of wealthy Shaikh Saheb. Farah is not sure about her impending marriage to Mehtab Chawla played by the adorable Umer Naru.  She is supposedly a strong willed young lady who says she wants to study in economics in London while Mehtaab thinks London is only good for shopping and honeymoons. He has so much money he doesn’t even have a job which would put any sensible girl off. I say sensible but Farah seems a little light weight in the sense department. She isn’t stupid but her plans to avoid the marriage seem doomed to failure as Mehtaab is smitten enough not to mind her confession of secret lover to whom she writes letters all the time. Lubna seems a little cleverer than Farah, perhaps a little too clever. She is best friends with Afzal’s sister and may well be the author of all the letters that Afzal receives. The twist is that Afzal thinks Farah is sending those letters though she ignores him at every opportunity.

I loved the way this was shot: the director (Nadeem Baig ) and his Dop have done a fabulous job with Khalil ur Rehman’s wonderful script . Hamza Ali Abbasi surprised me; I loved him as Afzal the charming bad boy who still manages to seem a little naïve. Umer Naru is simply perfect as Mehtab ( Farah, girl you could do worse ) bringing a lot of nuance to the role …I fell in love when Aiza turns around to find him standing there waiting for her on the roof in the first episode. Message to Aiza Khan: you are naturally beautiful, so why this much makeup? OK, complaints over Aiza managed to capture the playful, spirited Farah wonderfully. I am not too sure about Sana Javed, perhaps the character is meant to be annoying but at times I wanted her to calm down. Pyarey Afzal doesn’t seem to have any particularly deep storyline or social message but it seems like a fun drama with characters that connect. My only complaint so far is the overload on the background score. It is meant to enhance not compete with the story and so far it is treading a thin line which I am praying it doesn’t cross. Hopefully, the Pyarey Afzal team has maintained this standard throughout the serial.

written by Sadaf