While prepping dinner a few weeks ago, my ears started bleeding from constant rhetoric and bad news running on TV from every part of the world. So, I switched the channel to HumTV, reminding myself that there will be nothing good to watch anyway. While paying little or no attention to the screen, Shanakht kept on running in the background and what drew me really in were the conversations as well as the topic. While I had my ears been filled loud and clear about HUM TV’s decline in the last year or so, Shanakht has come as a pleasant surprise. To me, one of the greatest strengths of the drama is that it does not merely presents its characters as caricatures and treats different strata’s of our society at the same level (more on this later). Furthermore, what is even more pleasant to eyes and ears are the reactions of all the characters and situations. They are what normal people would do and feel. Hey at least we are spared the awkward stares, silences and monologues! Coming to this episode, Annie while clearly knowing and understanding Kashaf’s position still conveys her parent’s wishes to her sister as she does not want to disrespect their decisions. Kashaf’s love interest, Harris due to external family problems is unable to send his proposal. Kashaf instead of moping in the corner meets up with our Hashir. From their onwards, Hahir gets a reality check and in process gets his big “desi ego” bruised. Instead of thinking about or reflecting on his own decision about Ainny, his parent’s wishes, he becomes a bighi bili and DHUMM DHUMM DHUMMM car comes back on Huma and Amjad’s steps. For Kashaf everything falls in place as Amjad and Huma view the returning of the car as an insult and rightly so. Hahir is such a lalo that after this harqat he also gets an earful from his parents, but instead of super over the top reaction, they ensure he apologizes to his aunt and uncle and has a proper chance to say goodbye to Ainny before leaving for England. It’s endearing to see Ainny holding no grudges on her part for all that transpired between the two families. We are also introduced to Fahad Mirza’s role as Roshan who is a happy go lucky “molvi” according to Hashir’s first impressions of him. He is coincidently the son of Ahmad’s business partner, the family we met in last week’s episode. The episode ended with Annie’s mom announcing that she would like to get Ainny married as soon as possible. The alluring aspect of the episode for me were the beautiful way each character brought out of their point of view without seeming over the top. How Shireen politely explains to her son about the drift that would be caused because of Hashir’s initial reaction, how Amjad reacts to Hashirs immature and sudden decision to give the car back, how Kashaf gives Harris a piece of her mind, especially when he refuses to let his family know about their relationship. There is also something positive to be said about the main characters. Hahir might be good at heart, but he is also very human at the same time and his rash decisions and kanoo ka kacha hona make him nothing to worship about. Even if there is a chance between Ainny and Hashir, he has a lot of growing up to do especially from a sheltered life he has lived in. Annie might be vulnerable from her family and society’s attacks on her changed appearance, but she takes it as face value and remains vigilant and strong. Kashaf could easily succumbed to family pressure but she sees Hashir through and through and isn’t afraid of consequences or talking directly to him. Sadly, very few of characters present on our TV screens posses these traits. Allah sab ko hidayat day! My only peeve would be, and maybe this is just a dramatic liberty on the writer’s part is that, in all these years, Rohan and Hashim’s family have been business partners. Wouldn’t Hashim’s parents have talked to Roshan’s parents at least once, introduced both of their children before leaving for a foreign country and education? Have Hashim and Roshan never crossed each other’s paths before? At the end of the day, the drama is not merely about hijabs, beards or skinny jeans. Its conveying, how we carve our own identity, or shanakht based on our own virtues and understanding of the world around us. The characters remind us that we should be questioning the norms and stereotypes set up by any particular strata of society. I am really looking forward to how the story molds from here. What do you guys think? Will the drama uphold our expectations? Written by Maria