Month: September 2019

A review on Pakistani TV Soap Series, Bhool (2014) aka Fault. Its Distributor is Hum Entertainment.

+ Crew
I. Directed by Asad Malik
II. Written by Syed Wasi Shah
III. Produced by Momina Duraid and Gemstone Production
IV. Theme Music Composed by Wajid Saeed

+ Note
Bhool was aired on Hum TV from 13^th Jan 2014 – 24^th Apr 2014. It consists of total 76 episodes. At 3rd Hum Awards series was nominated Best Soap Actor for Shehroz Sabzwari, Best Soap Actress for Sanam Chaudhry and Best Soap Series for Momina Duraid. The story is set against a backdrop of political intrigue revolving around a family that suffers from love, hate, selfishness and deceit.

+ Main Cast

1. Shehroz Sabzwari as Shazain
2. Sanam Chaudhry as Hira
3. Sara Khan as Nida
4. Haya Sehgal as Hira’s Step Mom

xxxxxxx

+ Supportive Cast

5. Behroze Sabzwari as Nida’s Father
6. Saleem Sheikh as Sardar Jahanzaib (Hira’s Father)
7. Fazila Qazi as Nida’s Mom
8. N/A as Homicidal Manic

+ Plot

Shazain and Nida run away from their families to get married. After some years Shazain who is now happily married family man, is introduced to Sardar Jahanzaib and to his young daughter Hira who took some years to recover from her nervous breakdown after losing her mom. After their first meeting, Hira’s only hope of living is the love towards Shazain that is to win him by any means necessary.

+ High Points
i – Haya Sehgal performance as Hira’s step mother was very effective and good while mild performances by everyone else.

ii – Nice to see Saleem Sheikh on TV screen after long, long time. Welcome back!

+ Low Points
i – Nida looked older than Shazain, more like bhabhi than wife.

ii – Nervous breakdown of Hira earlier and late episodes was expected but with too much shout and cry. I would prefer watching some other channel instead.

iii – What a couple of goons did Hira hires to kidnap Shazain’s wife, that Nida attempts to run away two times. And speaking of kidnapping, to know that anything could had happened to his wife… we are shown that on the night of kidnapping, her two kids are so worried that they order pizza and then they both and Shazain sleep peacefully in their rooms.

iv – We are shown that Nida has not eaten anything or very minor while being hostage that she is malnutrition but still have enough energy to run away to some distance without them the two goons knowing. Plus the room where she is kept as hostage looked so fragile to be opened with one hard push only.

v – After losing Nida, her parents are not shown at all especially her father to make any efforts in investigating or force arrest Shazain or fight the custody of his grandchildren as he once said to do in mid episodes.

vi – Sardar Jahanzaib never gets to know that his only daughter ever hired goons to kidnap and murder someone. Not only this but the fact that the same goons he had hired to kill his second wife for political gains.

vii – At one time, Hira’s father seemed very desperate to get his daughter married to any guy and in next few episodes, he lost the interest to get his wish fulfilled.

viii – If God forbids someone’s loved one is kidnapped once, then he / she would increase the security measures and restricted that person’s outgoing as does not want to repeat their same mistake twice. However, here we are shown that even after Nida’s kidnap and return home safe, no security measures or restrictions are been implemented. Instead, this is what the same goons take the opportunity by trespassing, break in to their house and steal their valuables and kill the person for what they were hired to do. Wa! Wa!

Oh, and speaking of the valuables, normally people keep their jewelry and valuable items at locker rooms of a bank but here Nida’s all the jewelry is still kept in their boxes, inside a cupboard where any person even a maid can steal it easily.

ix – Whenever you see someone sleeping in their rooms, their room lights are always brightly lit on.

x – Honestly, there was nothing new to watch here. The love obsession is something, ‘Been there, done that’. It means, we have watched SO MANY movies and TV series using same story on and on. Come on now! If you want to invest in a soap series, please write something new and different. Not interested to watch ‘Ghisi Piti stories’.

xi – Yes, naturally the finale was predictable… by 10 miles at least!

xii – The real story / interest began by 28^th or 29^th episode. Now except for the reviewers, how anyone in the public would watch this soap series with interest? What first impression you are giving us? People who have nothing else to do might watch your soap series just to kill time. I can assure you that it was real challenge for me to watch this soap series till the end.

What is more shocking to know is that this soap series was nominated in Best Soap Series on Hum TV awards! What?!?

+ Overall
A number of love obsession films rip-off, Bhool is a highly predictable, mediocre thriller drama.

Rate: 0.25 out of 5 stars

A review on Pakistani TV Comedy Drama Serial, Farwa Ki ABC (2015). The Production Company is A-Plus Entertainment.

+ Crew
I. Directed by Sohail Javed

II. Written by Aamna Mufti

III. Produced by Sadia Jabbar

+ Note

Farwa Ki ABC was aired on A Plus from 24^th Jul 2015 – 18^th Dec 2015. It consists of total 20 episodes. The characters of Farwa and Mustansar reminded me of the similar main lead characters from the classic American musical film, My Fair Lady (1964).

+ Main Cast

1. Soniya Hussain as Farwa
2. Adnan Jaffar as Mustansar
3. Ahmed Hassan as Gogi
4. Yasir Mazhar as Junaid

xxxxxxx

+ Supportive Cast

5. Irsa Ghazal as Begum
6. Khalid Anam as Saeed
7. Shehryar Zaidi as Junaid’s Dad
8. Faryal Mehmood as Aqsa

+ Plot

A fun-loving girl haunted by ABC and her new English tutor. She will go to any lengths to stay away from studies, even if it means becoming the biggest trouble maker for all!

+ High Points
i – Ahmed Hassan’s performance was far better than rest of the cast while Soniya Hussain and Yasir Mazhar did okay. Ahmed played boyfriend role as ‘Gogi’, the carefree, school drop-out and lover of Farwa very reasonably.

ii – Junaid’s obsession of white color, either in the shape of clothes, walls, jewelry etc was amusing to watch.

+ Low Points
i – After 5^th episode, one would realize that there is no story left for the viewers as this drama was stretched till 20 episodes in total which were too many to consume! Instead it would have been better if it was a miniseries with max. 5 – 6 episodes only.

ii – Naturally when there is hardly any story to move further then yes it would become boring with no motive to watch. I completely lost interest to know what was happening in further episodes including the finale.

iii – Most of the characters were dryly written with no developments in their respected roles.

iv – The production team’s intentions seemed as if to throw money, make aimless TV drama and waste viewers’ time.

+ Overall
Farwa Ki ABC is a collection of mostly missed gags which is tied together with a thin plot.

Rate: 1.0 out of 5 stars

A review on Pakistani TV Drama Series, Noor-e-Zindagi (2017) aka as Spiritual Life. Its Distributor is Geo Entertainment.

+ Crew

• Directed by Siraj ul Haq
• Written by Sarwat Nazir
• Created & Produced by Abdullah Kadwani & Asad Qureshi

+ Note
Noor-e-Zindagi was aired on Geo Entertainment from 15^th Jul 2016 – 27^th Jan 2017. In total it consists of 29 episodes.

+ Main Cast

1. Ayesha Khan as Noor Jahan
2. Syed Jibran as Saleem
3. Anam Tanveer as Gulshan Ara
4. Noman Habib as Waseem / Saleem’s Brother
5. Sajida Syed as Saleem’s Mother
6. Saleem Mairaj as Saleem’s Friend #1
7. Adnan Shah Tipu as Adnan / Saleem’s Friend #2
8. Faria Sheikh as Zebo / Noor’s Sister

xxxxxxx

+ Supportive Cast

1. Yousuf Shakeel Kamal as Noor’s Father
2. Hira Pervaiz as Mehrunisa / Noor’s Sister-in-Law
3. Ismat Iqbal as Gulshan’s Mother
4. Somi Dawood as Mano / Saleem’s Sister (Younger)
5. N/A as Mehrunisa’s Sister-in-Law
6. Humaira Bano as Mehrunisa’s Mother-in-Law
7. Hanif Bachan as Mehrunisa’s Father-in-Law
8. Shameen Khan as Saleem’s Daughter

+ Plot

Just like his late father, Saleem is also short tempered and a school drop-out. Instead he managed to take care of his family business in the absence of his father and bread earner. His beloved mother desperately looks for a humble, well mannered, loving wife for him who is also a very literate. To their fortunate fate, they are blessed with Noor Jahan.

+ High Points

i – Syed Jibran gave a remarkable performance as loud mouth, short temper son / husband / brother Saleem. Throughout the drama series, you would see how he realizes his mistake after taking out his anger and frustrations at his loved ones due suspicion and excessive thinking. Though lot of shouting makes the viewer’s uncomfortable to watch but in this case, it was most of the times hilarious to see his stupendous acting. Saleem probably is the most memorable character of this TV drama series.

ii – Ayesha Khan as Noor Jahan in wife role has executed it very nicely indeed. Noor Jahan is a character written as an ideal wife / daughter-in-law / sister-in-law to the in-laws family. The personality shown of Noor is beautiful, faithful, and full of light for anyone’s life as the title of this drama series indicates Noor-e-Zindagi … Spiritual Life. Ayesha Khan played her character of maturity and patience.

iii – Saleem Mairaj gave out his best as one of Saleem’s goof friends who quickly grabs enmity towards Noor (Saleem’s wife) due to her being highly literate, clever woman who can / able to control Saleem and make him avoid committing mistakes or even being a threat to Saleem’s friends easy going life. Other Honorable Mentions: Sajida Syed, Yousuf Shakeel, Noman Habib and Adnan Shah Tipu.

iv – The story is quite fascinating and how the characters are portrayed. It is something new and different to watch.

v – The character of Anam Tanveer as Gulshan Ara is very well written. Anam plays an attractive femme fatale who is a gold digger just like her mother, played by Ismat Iqbal.

vi – The direction is worthy indeed throughout this wonderful TV drama series while the viewers would notice that almost every cast member able to give out their best performance on-screen. It is mainly due to director’s call. A good director is responsible to get decent performances from his entire cast.

vii – It is rare to watch a TV drama with interest where a lot of shouting is going on, especially one of the lead performers. I myself try to avoid such dramas with lot of shouting, hue and cry but this one is exceptional.

+ Low Points

i – Noman Habib’s character as Waseem reminded me of the usual younger brother role played by Harish Kumar in Bollywood films of former super star Govinda. — Jokes apart aside, the suspicion of illicit affair between him and Noor by his elder brother Saleem and to confront it that is in able to realize Saleem that they have only sibling type relationship only was really embarrassing and shameful to say it loud to his own brother. In real, a brother would actually feel a disgrace to make his brother realize that what he is thinking is disgraceful, low level thinking.

A similar situation happens in fame Hollywood film ‘Raging Bull’ where exact same thing happens where they both refuse to reply it as it’s really shameful to answer such a question to his own brother. I believe the writer & director of the Hollywood film pulled it off properly, in most realistic manner.

ii – The 29^th episode (finale) was useless and unnecessarily shown. Yes, I do understand and know well to why the writer chose to show this extra episode although knowingly that the true ending did came in 28^th episode. But one should understand that you cannot do JUSTICE with just ONE EPISODE regarding Saleem’s offspring genetic temper flaw while Saleem still battling his own demons with a surprising twist in the end.

+ Overall
Noor-e-Zindagi brings out enough mileage off its hilarious yet emotional sequences with a team work stars’ performances which make this TV drama series an unforgettable one from a respected director.

Rate: 4.0 out of 5 stars