A review on Pakistani drama TV series, Fraud Episode 18 (2022). The new TV series is directed by Saqib Khan and written by Zanjabeel Asim. Fraud is a story of love, innocence and treachery as our protagonist is manipulated into marrying a forged personality. Fraud is an iDream Entertainment and ARY Digital Production.
+ Crew
- Directed by Saqib Khan
- Written by Zanjabeel Asim
- Produced by Abdullah Seja
- Production by iDream Entertainment
+ Note
Fraud is a case study of Pakistani families who always strive for betterment of their children. Obsession with wealth and power almost always ends up leading to unfavorable consequences. The director Saqib Khan is known for his numerous television projects and his upcoming cinematic film Ghabrana Nahi Hai (2022).
+ Main Cast
- Saba Qamar as Maya
- Ahsan Khan as Tabriaz
- Mikaal Zulfiqar as Shaan
- Rabia Kulsoom as Maila
- Adnan Samad Khan as Nael
- Mehmood Aslam as Nisar
+ Plot
Fraud is a story of Maya whose father wants her to marry into the richest family that he could find. But wealth does not equal character as she ends up marrying a wealthy man named Tabriaz who, through his trickery, makes life for Maya full of deceit and fraud.
+ High Points
i – Episode 18 devoted numerous scenes to their main protagonist of the show Maya and I am all for it. Since the first few episodes, Maya is incredibly underdeveloped but I am glad we got to see her excel in her professional life. Anything other than Maya being depressed about her love life. And this episode showed that Saba Qamar can handle the role quite well. Her passion and interest in her work and career was quite evident from her performance.
ii – Tabriaz and his antics grow more absurd and diabolical with each passing episode. But as cheesy as his methods of charm are, it is still nonetheless entertaining. But this unfortunately opens another box of problems which I will discuss in the low points section.
iii – This may seem out of the ordinary but combining the two parallel subplots of Tabriaz and Shaan has made the show much more coherent to watch. It ended up breathing some life into the Shaan’s side of the story which had been pretty much dead on arrival. I’m looking forward to the inevitable confrontation of Maya and Tabriaz and most certainly, all hell will break loose!
+ Low Points
i – While the episode was entertaining at times, it did certainly drag in a few places. Tabriaz was given way too many scenes with absolutely no explanation as to how he is financing his whole “project”. Remember that he is not part of the team anymore. How many people are working behind him and are getting paid? None of these questions are ever addressed and are conveniently swept under the carpet.
ii – What in the world was this scene about? Just another example of time wasting and bad screenwriting.
iii – None of the subplots that Shaan has been a part of, ever led to something bigger. Case in point, the new secretary. So he found out about her malicious plan. No repercussions? No blow out? Just a few seconds phone call scene? At least three episodes were dedicated to this subplot and… nothing to show for it. Subplots in Fraud have been pretty much a miss and more so as the show is creeping its way towards the finale.
+ Overall
A worthy episode but certain scenes dragging a tad bit too long destroyed the overall pacing.
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