A review on Pakistani Drama TV Series, Khaani (2017 – 18). Its Production House is 7th Sky Entertainment while Distributor is Geo Entertainment.
+ Crew
- Directed by Anjum Shahzad
- Written by Asma Nabeel
- Music by Sahir Ali Bagga
- Song (OST) by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
- Produced by Abdullah Kadwani and Asad Qureshi
+ Note
Khaani aired on Geo Entertainment from 6th Nov 2017 – 2nd Jul 2018. In total it consists of 31 episodes. ‘Khans’ are often tagged as brave and headstrong community in our society. Khaani name is given to the feminism character for bravery.
This TV drama had been on hiatus since 2nd Apr 2018 due to the ban of Geo Entertainment Network but resumed again on 23rd Apr 2018. The OST is which has more than 27 Million views on YouTube.
Khaani has created a few new records of popularity and has soon become viral especially on social media. The episodes were uploaded on the official channel page on YouTube has garnered millions of views and keeps trending on the top 3 positions. It has been winning hearts nationally and internationally. Before the telecast of last episode, a campaign was started by Geo Entertainment about the end of Mir Hadi’s story and was largely appreciated by the Khaani viewers.
Its story is inspired by a real-life incident surrounding the murder of Shahzeb Khan by Shahrukh Jatoi on 25th Dec 2012 which caused wide-spread outrage in the country. Till this day no justice has been served.
+ Main Cast
- Sana Javed as Sanam Ali Khan/Khaani
- Feroze Khan as Mir Hadi
- Mehmood Aslam as Mir Shah
- Saman Ansari as Sitara Shah
- Salma Hassan as Sonia Salman Ali Khan
- Rashid Farooqui as Salman Ali Khan
- Muhammad Mubarik Ali as Arham
- Qavi Khan as Hamid Malik
xxxxxxx
+ Supportive Cast
- Seemi Pasha as Iffet
- Shehzeen Rahat as Sara Ali Khan
- Malik Emad as Ali
- Shehzad Mukhtar as Mithal
- Khushi Maheen as Raima
- Rimha Ahmad as Sana Ali Khan
- Ali Ansari as Sarim Ali Khan
- Qazi Wajid as Judge (Cameo)
+ Plot
One unfortunate day, Mir Hadi shoots dead Khaani’s brother over a petty issue in broad daylight. But Mir Hadi is defended easily by his political father by the help of his vast wealth and powerful friends. They even force her family to pardon their son.
Before signing, Khaani, the victim’s sister curses Mir Hadi of an unimaginable destruction.
+ High Points
i – A huge round of applause for Feroze Khan’s outstanding performance as Mir Hadi a rich spoiled son of a very powerful and rich politician. I have watched a number of projects where he always gives strong performances but here he plays as an iconic character that would always be remembered by for times to come. His huge character shift towards guilt ridden madness and spill it all out at the court room was a very amazing scene to watch.
Though there are a number of scenes of his where he starts to see blood on his hands or the time where he confronts his father on the killing attempt of his love interest or where Hadi feels that his father isn’t doing much to help him find her were all very interesting scenes to watch.
The viewers would like to go back to those scenes and watch again & again. We all know from where this character is inspired from… if this had happen with the real life person, it would had surely fulfilled many people wishes and bought justice to the victim’s family.
ii – A salute to sir Mehmood Aslam who plays as Mir Shah an egoistic, carefully calculated mindset, powerful and wealthy political personality. His performance was very, very impressive indeed. I consider him as one of the best senior artists of our times who can play any kind of role given to him. He can play a comic role as great as a sober one. I am truly pleased with his strong, brilliant performances.
Our media production industry should be very grateful to have him with us and make our projects more stimulating to watch by having him on-board.
iii – The screenplay is well written by Asma Nabeel, who made this drama series very interesting till the very end of the episode for us to enjoy. It was moving and closer to the heart.
iv – There were many emotional and intriguing scenes to watch. I know many people, friends who literally had tears in their eyes while watching this drama.
v – The character’s transformation of Mir Hadi from rich, spoil brat to guilt ridden, spiritual person was impressively written and amazingly handled.
vi – The finale was very intriguing to watch. The team of Khaani didn’t rush things up but bought us viewers a very satisfactory end to this great drama series. Bravo!
vii – I liked the direction of this drama series by Anjum Shahzad, who made it possible to make Khaani a stimulating drama series to watch.
viii – Although the plot is inspired by a real incident, but the story becomes really exciting when Khaani’s curse starts to implement on Mir Hadi and his family. I can assure you that never did I lose interest in watching any of the episodes. This is very rare for the number of TV dramas I have watched and given review to.
ix – Saman Ansari as Sitara Shah portrayed her character so well as a mother to a rich spoil brat that one can enjoy her performance more in much later episodes especially. The best scene I liked of her was when she begs for Hadi’s life. No doubt it is a very emotional scene to watch plus to see such a dynamic performance given by her. Other Honorable Mentions: Sana Javed and Qavi Khan.
x – Once again, a good writing, direction and great performance pulled the viewer’s closer to fall in love with the anti-hero, played by Feroze Khan. It was a very difficult task to achieve for the writer and the director, to make this possible. Good work!
xi – We see that a stupid, hasty decision is taken by Mir Shah by giving threats to Khaani’s father and Arham instead of carefully handling such a difficult situation at his home was perfectly written. Some people might complain that Mir Shah was always shown as a very wise, mature person but why he would think of giving threats?
Well the answer is simple. In such situations, these rich, big shots who think that the fate is written as they want it to be are also very over confident at times. All their lives, they have never been scared but bought fear in other people hearts who are lower in class or power, often forget that there is always a time for their downfall or difficult times in their lives. Mir Shah assumes that if he threats as he has always done that in his past life, would get away this time too but only to find it that he is gravely mistaken. And that is what exactly happens to him as well.
xii – Everyone in the cast gave a very respectable, decent performance as the script demanded it to be. Huge pat on the director’s shoulder!
xiii – The characters of Arham and Hamid Malik were very well written. They bought new life into the drama series.
xiv – Surprising cameo by late Qazi Wajid was a warm welcome to the viewers.
+ Low Points
i – It is very disappointing for me to say that there was no / hardly any physical transformation of the characters especially of Mir Hadi and his mother. What we witness here is that Hadi is all clean and tidy even after spending weeks / months living at a shrine or the remaining of his days in the jail.
We know that for a real life adaptation of the given character and for realism, a professional actor would have gone through the process of his tremendous change in his body structure by losing his appetite.
The main reasons are of having terrible guilt, heavy stress, anxiety and deep depression. A perfect example is given in the Hollywood film ‘Machinist’ (2004). A great performance doesn’t ends by expressing it out but also as character, how your body represents itself. Or perhaps, I am demanding too much from our Pakistani artists.
ii – I have grown very tired to see almost all of the roles of Feroze Khan played as ‘Bad Boy / Anti-Hero’. We all know that he is a great actor and this role too suited him perfectly but he should choose different roles for his upcoming projects. Why restrict yourself by playing one type of role endlessly one project to another?
iii – There were some minor sub plots which were there only to fill the gaps. It was the main plot only to watch.
iv – Mir Hadi’s activities (before falling in love) besides roaming around in his black Pajero, all he does do is be there at sea shore where he sits there and gets drunk? …What? That’s it? Did the writer actually do any research before coming up with this? Did she really think people would actually take this as a true picture of such a spoiled character?
v – The production design was unconvincing to imagine that this was Mir Hadi’s room. Are you saying, a rotten character like Mir Hadi has a (too) formal room? No TV, fridge, posters on the wall, computer or music system? Kamal hai!
vi – The mother of Khaani, played by Salma Hassan looked much younger than she should be. Salma looked more like an elder sister to Sana Javed than being a parent. Jokingly, I said to myself that ‘Rashid Farooqui must be very pleased to have a young woman to play as his wife’.
Yes, I do understand that the director / writer wanted to show a young mother to her children. If they wanted, they could have applied old age makeup to her but didn’t. Still, I feel that a bit older woman (physically) should have played the part. Nonetheless, Salma did a very decent job to portray for this role.
vii – In Makeup & Hair Styling we have Sitara Shah, who till the very end of the episode is still using her makeup and different colors of nail polish.
As for Arham, even when he decides to comb his hair in front of the mirror, viewers can see that he doesn’t need to as his hair is already perfectly combed. Why make it look so impractical when you are giving all your efforts to make such a great drama series? These minor mistakes should be avoided so that the viewers watch your drama without the feel of fictional story.
viii – The female to whom Mir Hadi talks to at the shrine for a number of days, there is hardly any shock by her father. His expressions are so unconvincing. Other than that, why reveal to the viewer’s everything? Keep it something ambiguous too. Don’t give away everything.
When the female approaches Mir Hadi first time, we see that his faithful servant also looks at her but in later episodes, the outcome is something else?
+ Overall
Khaani benefits from rock solid performances and gripping-ly written screenplay which ends up with a perfect finale.
Rate: 3.75 out of 5 stars
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