A review on Pakistani drama TV series, Raqeeb Se – Episode 16 (2021). The new TV series is directed by Kashif Nisar and is a production of Momina Duraid Productions. Raqeeb Se is a HUM TV Production.
(Note: If you’ve already read the review of the previous episode, you can skip directly ahead to the High points section).
+ Crew
- Directed by Kashif Nisar
- Written by Beegul
- DOP by Hassam Mairaj
- Music Composed by Hadiqa Kiani
- Produced by Momina Duraid Productions
+ Note
Raqeeb Se is the newest HUM TV Production and is once again the collaboration of the award winning Writer/ Director duo of Bee Gul and Kashif Nisar.
The title of the show is heavily inspired by a poem from the legendary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz when the young poet fell in love with a girl next door in Sialkot. But alas, as luck would have it, she one day unexpectedly left the city, only to be reunited years later when Faiz was already an established poet in the circles of Urdu literature. This encounter inspired Faiz to write a poem “Raqib Se!”. The backstory of this poem plays a crucial role in the premise of the show.
+ Main Cast
- Hadiqa Kiani as Sakina
- Noman Ijaz as Maqsood
- Sania Saeed as Hajra
- Faryal Mehmood as Insha
- Iqra Aziz as Ameera
- Saqib Sameer as Rafiq
+ Plot
Raqeeb Se is a call of Maqsood’s dark past that could potentially destroy his present life. In order to escape her abusive husband, Sakina, along with her daughter Ameera, flees from her village to find shelter at her former lover’s place, Maqsood. Unfortunately Maqsood, who still holds a grudge against Sakina’s past actions, refuses to aid her in her most dire situation. But his wife, Hajra, seems much more sympathetic to the situation and lets Sakina stay at their home till things are figured out for the future.
But can Sakina be trusted to stay out of Maqsood’s life or will they be tempted to rekindle their lost love and in the process, destroy what Maqsood and his wife Hajra have built together?
+ High Points
i – Even after Insha’s nika, she still feels alienated from the rest of the family. Maqsood and Hajira are, at this point, completely obsessed with the situation of Sakina. So much in fact that they are neglecting their own child in the process. That is some clever storytelling, both Noman Ijaz and Sania Saeed were fantastic in this episode.
ii – The continuing tensions between Maqsood and Ameera is a great way to show how young minds can easily be fascinated (or abused) as they are incredibly impressionable. The bedroom scene was brilliantly handled with Iqra Aziz’s performance living up to the task at hand. Well known for being such a chatterbox, Maqsood is probably the only person who could leave Ameera for loss of words.
iii – The change in scenery from city to village is always a nice visual touch to keep the audience’s attention going. The location scouting of the show has always been top notch and feels quite authentic.
iv – (SPOILER ALERT! If you would like to avoid it, please skip to the Low Points section).
This episode finally makes the move to let Sakina go back home to her abusive husband. Of course, morally it’s an appalling move but the show had been teasing this for so long and could bring up potential interesting plot elements for the show. Sakina would rather sacrifice her well being in order to disappear from Maqsood’s life once and for all. The obverse relationship dynamic between Sakina and Rafiq Ali is brilliantly handled. On one hand, Rafiq wants to treat her nicer by buying her food at the train station but still will never let go of the notion that she is his property and is now being “returned” back to him. Rafiq is a despicable, cowardly man and for once, the show brought this to the forefront with such tenacity.
+ Low Points
i – One of the annoying things that Raqeeb Se does is that after a cliffhanger from the last episode, there is no pay off to it. The last episode ended with Hajira about to reveal her past till Maqsood enters the room and in this episode, that scene is completely ignored. No reaction from Insha. Nothing. As if that scene never happened. She at least should have protested why she has not been given any answers to mother’s past yet.
ii – Although the performances are good in this episode, not much noteworthy happens. Still the same old problems. No real plot or character exploration.
iii – The sporadic fight between Insha and Abdul was awkwardly presented. I can understand if Insha is the one who instigates it since she has a lot of frustrations regarding her family’s secrets but why Abdul? Why the sudden jealousy to her cousin Kashif? Has the nika ceremony instantly made him a grumpy husband?
+ Overall
Episode 16 was good but nothing extraordinary in terms of character development. Still, the performances were great enough to breeze through the episode.
Rate: 3.0 out of 5 stars
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