This should have been the simple story of an overprotected girl who has an innocent crush on some actor whom she runs away to meet . In the rest of the known world this would have been a romantic comedy in which the young lady in question learns a valuable lesson about reality versus fantasy and goes home to apologise to her parents. Since this is Pakistan it becomes a life or death issue. I have to congratulate the entire Saat Pardon team for turning this romantic comedy genre into a horror story ( yes I am being a little sarcastic but not completely). The promos looked good, the OST was catchy and as I had really enjoyed Zanjabeel Asim’s previous work “Ek Nazar Meri Taraf “I was all set to keep this on my permanent watch list.  Just to clarify Haseeb Ahmed was reviewing this but was unable to continue and as I think this drama is worth another look  I am writing a kind of overview.

As I mentioned the story is fairly simple but as the saying goes, the devil is in the details .Darakshande Badar played by the lovely Suhaee lives like the proverbial bird in a gilded cage. Her doting father is revered for his piety and spends his days praying or spoiling his youngest child. Haroon is Darakshande’s much older brother, a decadent monster, who abuses his position of wealth and power in their home town but plays the upright politician and family man in Islamabad. Like most wicked men he is very careful about his own vulnerabilities and guards his sister like a hawk. The result is Darakshande is incredibly naïve and lost in a fantasy world of romance. Neither she nor her father can see what is going on right before their eyes. Haroon has inappropriate relations with their chief servant Ghulabo who is married to Shaddey a man she loathes. Ghulabo is carer and confidant in chief to Darakshande and encourages her infatuation with the actor Ahsan Murad. Darakshande finds Ahsan’s telephone number and starts up a relationship with the star, or so she thinks. In reality the person she has so many conversations with is a gender confused Producer friend of Ahsan, Badar Suleman, who feels this will help in his “treatment” to become a normal man.

The bad points of this drama are fairly obvious and I am going to deliberately mention them first. I am not against dramas or any form of media dealing with difficult subjects, I just wish there was more innovation in how these subjects are treated. Yes, do show the decadence and immorality in society but could we keep it at an aesthetic distance instead of reveling in it? The Ghulabo /Shaddey /Haroon Sarkar track is common to many dramas but its onscreen depiction had me and many others switching channels. Similarly Ahsan Murad’s liaison’s with various women, yes show us the truth but at a reasonable distance so that we can gauge its effects instead of losing the story through revulsion. Another problem is the number of tracks in this story makes it hard to keep up. There was the main Darakshande/Ahsan one, then the Ahsan /Badar , then the Ahsan /Maha,then  the Ghulabo/shaddey , then the Ghulabbo/Haroon Sarkar, then the Haroon Sarkar/wife track etc.. etc… ad nauseum

Now that’s out of the way, I have to say this drama is very well written. The sequence where Ahsan Murad manipulates his new costar Maha, Darakshande’s decision to run away and her unwanted arrival at Ahsan’s house were all very well done. Each one of the actors has been perfect. I know Mikaal is amazing as Ahsaan but please a humble plea from your fans, enough with the playboys, you are way better than this. Ali Khan who plays the gender confused producer is simply superb, his transformation into a woman should be farcical but he makes it seem absolutely serious and real. I remember him from Don 2 when he played perhaps the only believable character in that ridiculous but fun movie. Similarly, Suhaee Abro Ali has done a wonderful job as Darakshande Badar. Her pretty, innocent face, her body language, her dialogue delivery are the lynchpins of this serial.

This serial has a good, moving narrative and at this point things are becoming quite interesting. Poor Darakshande’s seduction was  shown with  thankfully  little  physical detail but it retained the impact of such a bad choice. I am hoping the director will stick with that style as opposed to the quite frankly sickening depiction of Ghulabo/Shaddey/Haroon track. Darakshande has never been allowed to develop her own personality or judgment , so she falls in to a situation a wiser girl could have avoided. This serial is definitely worth a second look.

By Sadaf