Looking back at my first review for Pyaray Afzal ,it seems we have come a long way baby . Kahan hamarey innocent gali /mohally mein Cricket kehlney waley Afzal aur kaha Afzal Bhai … two murders key baad DON. After playing with us for most of this episode by suggesting Afzal really has gone over to the dark side we learn he is working undercover , Quelle surprise or maybe not . From the beginning this serial has been so reminiscent of seventies era Bollywood that I really did not fall of my chair, in fact I actually perked up and smiled. Wouldn’t it be nice , wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Government of Pakistan actually cared enough to clean up Karachi this way? So I’m all in, let Afzal make Karachi safe again , perhaps that is just what we need to do ..Fake it till we make it.
Meanwhile in Hydrabad , Farah is being forced or guilt tripped into marrying Vasey Chaudhry’s Psychiatrist character we saw a few episodes back. While Vassey always looks kind of cute on screen, any man who is not interested in whether his prospective bride likes him or not and keeps creeping up on her at literally their second meeting should be rejected out of hand . I have a funny feeling that Doctor Saheb may be left standing at the alter when Farah suddenly realises that she just cannot live without Afzal. She will of course arrive at his doorstep just as he decides that even though he doesn’t love Yasmin he is going to marry her anyway because she prays a lot and prayer has the power to change taqdeerey and because Farah …well you get my drift .
Despite the distance and lack of interaction between Hamza and Aiza’s characters , they still share an odd ,old fashioned kind of chemistry. You can see it in Afzal’s face when he thinks of Hyderabad and it’s there in Farah’s searching gaze each time she quietly visits the his house. They are searching for each other’s faces amongst all the others they see around them. Hamza Abbasi , Aiza Khan , Sana Javaid and Suhai are all a treat to watch. I just missed Molvie saheb and Ruqeyya begum this week. Nadeem Baig has done a fabulous job of keeping this story fresh and fast . I have my fingers crossed that he won’t go back to the lambe , lambe scenes and even longer dialogues which made some of the beginning episodes seem a bit stretched. Khalil ur Rehman Qamar’s dialogues are gems but even gems must be cut and polished to make them shine.
As a rule I am against stretching any serial beyond its capacity, but so far Pyarey Afzal has managed the unique, unheard of feat of actually getting better with time rather than downgrading to a soulless, purely commercial version of the original concept. So to the powers that be go ahead sell your sodas and washing powders and whatever else makes ARY Digital and Six Sigma bucket loads of money, but just make sure you keep up the quality and don’t stretch the elastic so far it snaps back at you .All that money will be spent in a few months however the feeling of being “had” may make the public a lot more wary of taking the bait next time.
Written by Sadaf
