After 24 episodes I feel like the person who goes into a bakery and picks what looks like the best cake ever and comes out wondering why it didn’t taste sweet .For the past, I don’t know how many episodes, Natasha has been feeding a tavees to her sister to prevent her ever getting pregnant.Now I ask our readers ( I know there are two at least :Faraz and Me ;) ) what exactly does Natasha think that tavees contain? She did not strike me as the spiritual sort to simply rely on prayers so what exactly did she think she was feeding Zaib all this time ? powdered Sugar ? It beggars belief that her character did not even consider how this might effect her sister’s health when Zaib was going to hospital every other episode . Still this women had no pity on her , not until her own daughter Shanzay swallows a tavees by accident and suffers Arsenic poisoning does she realise just a little what a heinous thing she was doing .Even then she has to be pushed into moral reflection by her fool of a husband Bilal. That whole scene by the bed was a mess .After so many episodes we come to the crux of the matter where Bilal finds out all about Natasha’s bad neeyati , her cruelty,her inadvertent slow poisoning of her sister and it was like a damp squib. I did not expect the mild mannered Bilal to shout and suddenly become Rambo but somehow that scene of discovery lost it’s edge.
It got better when Rayaan entered and stayed taut till Natasha’s admission to Zaib . Call me a crazy old fashioned fool, but If someone admitted they were giving me tavees for such an evil purpose and to compound everything had almost killed me with slow arsenic poisoning I would not blow it off like Zaib .Zaib’s reaction was totally unnatural , if you are not angry at least look shocked woman ! It seemed like Natasha had just admitted to wearing Zaib’s favourite kurti behind her back and got it torn ,not that she had nearly murdered several people.
Zaib’s transformation is totally unbelievable. I had expected her character to undergo some change, some growth in understanding of her sister but no .The only credible scenes in this episode were between Rayaan and Zaib and I am not sure what they were actually fighting about but they sure looked good together. Adeel Hussain was the best thing in this episode and perhaps the entire serial . His character was the only one that seemed at all balanced or decent .He was right from the very beginning about Natasha . Mira Sethi did a great job with her character Natasha who will not easily be forgotten by me at least . All the actors in this serial have been fabulous : Amina Shaikh , Danyal Raheel and Vassey Chauhdry all deserve praise for their roles .
This serial started out on a very promising note with nuanced characters and despite the now hackneyed two sister theme an interesting story. How it dissolved into this meandering story of how evil sister Natasha must be redeemed by the sainted Zaib at the near cost of her own life is a mystery to me. If we had to have a happy ending and let Natasha off , instead of wasting time on showing us how absolutely evil she is ,wouldn’t it have been better to show her slowly beginning to doubt herself , to begin to trust Zaib or just become a slightly better person . Apparently one month of not talking back to Bilal and taking care of her own daughter is enough to put that whole” I nearly murdered my sister and Daughter through spite and Jealousy ” thing behind her? Suffice to say I think the director did a good job in the beginning but lost the narrative quite a few episodes ago .
A plea to Samira Fazal : Dear Samira we are your fans , please put your formidable writing skills to better use . Your very name on a serial guarantees it’s watchability despite the flaws, but you have set the bar so high with plays like Bari Aapa and KPKPP and Mera Naseeb ,Mastan Mahi , Mera Saeen and of course the unforgettable Dastan,anything less is hard to swallow. At this point I cannot help but remember the amazing climactic last episode of Bari Aapa and Mastana Mahi and KPKPP .
In conclusion this serial was one of the best on air but at some point it just fizzled away.
Written By Sadaf
