As much as I tune in for Afzal, today’s episode had Yasmeen stealing everyone’s thunder. What a fantastic actress she has turned out to be! The ease with which she speaks makes it hard to remember she’s acting. For me, her scenes were the ones that stood out. Whether she was expressing her dismay- yeh toh nahin kaha tha dil torh detey ho… or trying to appear strong- mohabbat yeh thori dekhti hai ke larki Yasmeen jaisi khoobsurat ho... she nailed her performance. Maybe it was due to the fact that I was skeptical about her ability to pull off this role, I’m overly impressed!
We were introduced to more new character’s today- Sabtain’s parents (Ismail Tara and Lubna Aslam). Sabtain as always was delightful with his witty repartee- iss kamrey ki history maloom hai mujhe- jab bhi kisi ko zaleel karna ho aap yahan lekar aati hein! Sabtain seems firm in his resolve- but what exactly is he trying to accomplish by marrying someone who calls him ghatiya to his face? Are looks so important that a man will let a woman treat him this way? The same applies to Afzal- after everything Farah did to him, he maintains that she’s the only woman he has ever loved. I’m all for sincerity but Farah isn’t exactly the best contender for it.
To be fair, other than the scenes with Yasmeen and Afzal, this episode was a slow one. There were some repetitive and forced scenes like the one where Lubna and Farah were talking (Lubna’s laugh was painfully fake and seemed to last forever). Also, the scene with Molvi Sahab going to the bakery and the shop owner gave him the same reference about Afzal being a Bhai, etc. Farah and Lubna’s visit to Afzal’s home was again more of what we’ve seen before. Those scenes seemed like they were purely time wasters. They didn’t help the story move forward in any which way. Overall, this episode felt somewhat incomplete since the story didn’t progress fast enough. Many of the scenes today were replicas of previous episodes. Afzal’s awreness about his parents disappointment- Abba ki lashkar ki sippe sulaar, was again simply using different words to express the exact same sentiments over and over again.
On the plus side, Khalil Sahab has given us some memorable dialogues that will remain with us for a long time. Acting-wise there are no complaints and each new character brings with him/her a fresh feel. But there’s only so much the actors can do to keep a show going and simultaneously keep our interest intact. I know, some die-hard fans would definitely disagree but I would rather this show ends on a high note than have it become a numbers game and remember it for the long-running drama that had a phenomenal start. Taking a queue from Yasmeen, it’s time for Afzal to man up- mard bano, Afzal SubhanAllah, hum tumharey saath hein!
Kanwal Murtaza
