A review on Pakistani TV Drama Serial, Mera Naseeb (2011) aka My Fate. Its Production House is MD Productions while its Distributor is Hum Entertainment.

 

+ Crew
I – Directed by Adnan Ahmed

II – Written by Samira Fazal

III – Theme Music by Waqar Ali

IV – Produced by Momina Duraid

 

+ Note
Mera Naseeb was aired on Hum TV from 1^st Apr 2011 – 26^th Aug 2011. It consists of total 21 episodes.

Indian-American author, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has accused the writers of the show of plagiarizing her novel Sister of My Heart for the story of the serial. However, the writer had mentioned earlier that it is a drama adaptation of a story provided to them while she (writer) had no prior knowledge a plagiarized work was being provided to them to work with.

The Opening theme ‘Boond, Boond’ song is written by Momina Duraid and performed by Komal Rizvi.

 

+ Main Cast

1. Syra Yousuf as Nazia Fahad
2. Sanam Saeed as Shazia Moiz
3. Sakina Sammo as Habiba / Phupi Ammi
4. Rubina Ashraf as Sajida
5. Samina Peerzada as Salima

 

 

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+ Supportive Cast

6. Imran Aslam as Fahad
7. Imran Abbas Naqvi as Moiz
8. Bushra Ansari as Nazia’s Mother-in-Law
9. Sajid Hasan as Shazia’s Father-in-Law
10. Adeel Hussain as Shahbaz

 

 

+ Plot

Two best friends, Shazia & Nazia are born at the same date. Bizarrely, their fathers were also expired at the same day as well. Both the girls live same house with their widow mothers and aunt. Shazia is shown as a bold outspoken whereas Nazia is a pretty simple girl. They live under strict house rules by their mothers from the society. The story takes a turn when one of the girls falls in love with a guy.

 

 

+ High Points
i – Sanam Saeed performed very strongly on-screen while her character supported her act throughout the drama serial. Her bold character gave incredible encouragement to our society for women power.

ii – Sakina Sammo as Habiba/Phupi Ammi was fantastically played. She proved us all to be a very good actress. Other Honorable Mentions are: Imran Aslam, Rubina Ashraf and Imran Abbas Naqvi.

iii – This drama would help the viewers to see what kind of problems our females face with strict backgrounds and pressurized in difficult times.

 

 

+ Low Points
i – I am not such a big fan to watch TV serials where unnecessary violence / tragedy is shown in able to get more good ratings. People who are habitual in watching such serials may find it okay but it does not work for me. It is a habit of Pakistani TV dramas to make their serials over dramatic and insert unnecessary tragic scenes where it could have been easily avoidable. Even if you did watch it… you can watch it only once.

ii – This drama’s target audience was for females basically. So yes, this is also one of the reasons why I find it difficult to watch it with interest.

iii – In our TV drama serials, in almost all of them we see that anyone at any time can enter people houses as their main gate or door is never locked (or somehow, they always have keys to it). Likewise, in this drama as well Habiba & Sajida enter the rent home of Shazia without bothering to knock the door/ring up the bell to show as if they were entering their own home!

Logic in these kinds of scenes just goes out of the window.

iv – Sajjad Hasan performance as abusive husband & father-in-law seemed as though he was forcing himself to be in that character. It did not look natural. Also, that when his character starts having flash backs of his cruel behavior (in much later episodes), we able to see one of those flashback memories which Shazia saw it only as her nightmare and none of that really happened in drama serial reality.

v – I felt that Imran Abbas Naqvi’s character was not properly written. I understand and accept that he fears that he might / have become just like his abusive father yet at the same time he tries to change himself towards positivity. However, his sexual attraction towards Nazia is shown in a very flirt type manner whereas his sober personality with others does not make any sense. The only explanation can be given is that he perhaps has split personalities (which was not the intent of the writer).

vi – After first few episodes, Adeel Hussain’s character became absolute useless! His existence did not really matter as such. And then his apology letter to Nazia was way out of proportion and pointless.

vii – In another flashback we see how Nazia’s & Shazia’s fathers have really died while the true character of Salima is also exposed. After their deaths, two questions still remain that how no one in the neighborhood had listened to their loud quarrel and noises of gun shots? How did they get rid of the two dead bodies? It’s not like we have professional hit-men / assassins here, who did their job nice and easy.

viii – Almost all of the problems what our society females face are shown here. Let’s see… we have sexual harassment / flirting, strict mothers with outdated mindsets, domestic abuse, suspicion of extramarital relationship, forceful marriages, pressurized of giving birth a son, forced for abortion, threat of giving divorce, abusive husband, earn in the place of alcoholic & a bum husband, cruelty, barrier to freedom of speech and many more.

The writer might defend this by saying that all this was shown gradually to see how the two sisters became strong women and fought for their rights. But having all these problems in small space of time i.e. just 2 – 3 years is very less. A long passage of time period let’s say 8 – 10 years would have looked realistic and be acceptable.

ix – Of course, we do have a cliché ending! I mean, what did you really expect from it?

x – Whenever Rehan Sheikh is included in a TV serial, would always find him in small roles where he makes appearance in only 2 – 3 episodes and his character always dies in it. His previous works that I have watched are Udaari (2016), Beshahram (2016) and now this Mera Naseeb (2011) with similar fate.

 

 

 

+ Overall
Mera Naseeb’s unquestionably well-meaning message is served by chaos of problems with melodramatic clichés and over-forceful moralizing.

 

 

Rate: 2.0 out of 5 stars

 

A review on Pakistani Drama TV Serial, Dusri Bivi (2014) aka Second Wife. Its Production House is Big Bang Entertainment while its Distributor is ARY Entertainment.

 

 

+ Crew

• Directed by Anjum Shahzad
• Written by Samina Ejaz
• Music by Ahmed Jahanzaib
• Produced by Fahad Mustafa & Dr. Ali Kazmi

 

 

 

+ Note

Dusri Bivi aired on ARY from 1^st Dec 2014 – 4^th May 2015. It consists of total 23 episodes. Fahad Mustafa had announced that this drama would be his “Last” television commitment.

 

 

 

Main Cast

1) Fahad Mustafa as Hassan

2) Hareem Farooq as Ayesha

3) Maha Warsi as Farah

 

 

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Supportive Cast

4) Ahmed Ali as Aamir

5) Dr. Ali Kazmi as Ahmed

 

 
+ Plot

Hassan, a loving husband and a father, is a CEO of his company where his colleague Farah works. Soon after a true friendship bond is made between Hassan and Farah, she finds herself falling in love with him. Once Ayesha (first wife) learns about her husband’s marriage to Farah in secrecy… nothing remains the same.

 

 

+ High Points

i – Maha Warsi as Farah performed soundly and really looked as true loving wife.

ii – Nice to see a change of character as the main antagonist of this drama series.

iii – The tense scenes shown once married and bringing in your second wife in the same house where your first wife lives… it was directed very nicely.

 

 

+ Low Points

i – The tension created during hospital scenes where Hassan has to decide whether the mother or the baby life is more important to live? He knows well who is responsible for this… it could had brought out Fahad Mustafa’s great acting… he could had easily been remembered by this drama series performance but we were not so lucky. The performance in those high intense scenes was just mediocre.

ii – The reason shown to us as to why Hassan marries Farah is so WTH! I mean, are you serious?? Is Farah’s father that lame? Unbelievable!

iii – A miracle occurred when a baby is born. We all adults know well that how a new born baby looks like? But here we have a baby who looks like a few months old. I asked a friend on the baby appearance (just to make sure) … and she said that the baby looks at least six months old! Imagine the stupidity by the team of this ‘Great’ drama series.

iv – In Pakistani dramas, car accidents are as common as in Indian dramas, plastic surgeries are.

v – Aamir character is so badly written. Not only had he reminded me of the character Rohit from the Bollywood film Dil Chahta Hai (2001) but his character so irritating that even the main characters as well as the viewers hated to see him appear. You would say that this is what they wanted to show, right? No, this is not what I mean by ‘Bad’. What I am saying is we as viewers wanted to get rid of this character ASAP so that we could move on with the next phase of the story.

vi – Every house that shown to us, no one had enough money to buy few bulbs for their homes to lit up? The rooms are shot in such gloomy state as if these people are always a victim of load shedding. Only day light is helps them, where able to see who they are talking to or where they are going?

vii – Hareem’s hairstyle is always the same no matter where she is or at what time you see her.

viii – The interest level arises after 12^th or 13^th episode. Before that there was hardly any story to watch. As I am a reviewer, therefore, I made an effort to watch first 11 episodes. But if I was one of the viewers, then just after just 3rd episode I would have switched to some other drama series instead.

ix – Fahad & Hareem performances were so-so. Although I had good expectations from Fahad but he performed way too calm than he should have been… In some places he should be using sharp tone or shout but didn’t, was really off scene for the viewers.

x – A scene takes place where an apology been is made by a character at the hospital — this would have given a proper good ending. Okay, fine! The writer thought of a twist afterwards which is BTW good only if it is digestible and its retaliation shown properly but did not. Instead it looked like as if there is no end to this drama series. We all are stuck in some kind of Time Loop. Yikes!

xi – The title really grabbed my attention and decided to watch this drama series. But the behavior deteriorates by one of the wives in such bad light as one may have lost her marbles. Nonetheless, it was not similar to Glenn Close’s performance in Fatal Attraction (1987).

xii – The ending is highly cliché and so unrealistic. It seemed to me that the writer was pressurized to give a ‘Happy’ ending. Even in the end of the finale, still very hard to believe if that character would keep herself stable and accept reality or not?

xiii – A daughter is about to die due to someone’s fault but here we have her father who is talking very nicely, calmly to that person (who is responsible) while also handing over a new born of his dying daughter to take care of. What?

 

 

 

+ Overall:

Despite having no proper story, the simplicity made it still watchable. Nevertheless, since the performances were not up to the mark while the finale was dull therefore Dusri Bivi may be best left as forgotten.

 

 

Rate: 1.0 out of 5 stars

 

A review on Pakistani Drama TV Serial, Mann Mayal (2016). Its Production House is Momina Duraid Productions while its Distributor is Hum Entertainment.

 

 

 

+ Crew

• Directed by Haseeb Hassan
• Director of Photography is Zeb Rao
• Written by Samira Fazal
• Music by Shuja Hyder
• Produced by Momina Duraid & Sana Shahnawaz

 

 
+ Note

Mann Mayal was aired on Hum TV from 25^th Jan 2016 to 5^th Sep 2016. It consists of total 33 episodes.

There may be some SPOILERS ahead!

 

+ Main Cast

1. Maya Ali as Manahil Javed / Mannu
2. Hamza Ali Abbasi as Salahuddin
3. Gohar Rasheed as Mikaeel
4. Ayesha Khan as Jeena

 

 

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+ Supporting Cast

1. Saleem Mairaj as Jameel
2. Saba Hameed as Manahil’s mother
3. Naeem Tahir as Javed / Manahil’s father
4. Shehryar Zaidi as Shahid / Salahuddin’s father
5. Ismat Zaidi as Durdana / Salahuddin’s mother
6. Mehmood Aslam as Shahaab / Mikaeel’s father
7. Laila Zuberi as Rahila / Mikaeel’s mother
8. Aiman Khan as Beeya / Salahuddin’s Sister
9. Arjumand Rahim as Cookie
10. Vasay Chaudhry as Ifti
11. Talat Hussain as Rehman
12. Lubna Aslam as Saliha / Manahil’s aunt
13. Faizan Haque as Mikaeel’s friend
14. Haris Waheed as Mikaeel’s Gambling Partner

 

 
+ Plot

The childhood friends, Mannu & Salauddin accept their love in their adulthood for each other. But their families have their differences mainly due to social class issues. Hence, Mannu receives a high-class marriage proposal while Salauddin goes to city for search of job.

 

 

+ High Points

i – I watched this TV serial till the end only because of Hamza Ali Abbasi.

ii – Talat Hussain’s character as well as his performance is praise worthy. Other Honorable Mentions: Aiman Khan, Naeem Tahir, Saleem Mairaj, Mehmood Aslam and Lubna Aslam.

iii – The first 10 episodes are very well written. It is not a typical ‘Saas – Bahu‘ (Mother & Daughter-in-Law) story where our Pakistani / Indian TV dramas are usually based on.

iv – The cinematography is pretty decent, not your average standards of our TV industry.

v – Nice work behind makeup & hair styling. The stars looked elegant on silver screen.

vi – The soundtrack “Tere Naal Mein Laiyan” by Quratulain Balouch and Shuja Haider is flourishing to listen to.

 

 

 

+ Low Points

i – The story climbs on the peak point and ends with a decline. It eventually becomes a drag, which is really a shame. This TV serial is a high-budgeted, A-star cast and yet the viewers lost interest in this ‘Rona Dhona’ (hue & cry) TV drama very soon. Many of my friends and relatives warned me not to watch this TV serial. Still, I had to watch it for review sake. Now I know why they warned me.

It seems the writer must have said ‘Since I made this drama good and interesting for the viewers. So, now I am accepting the challenge to make the same drama serial as bad & boring as possible. I don’t care what people say, I just want to ruin the story and the characters I have written where viewers don’t give a heed to their bad happenings. Let the ratings have the downfall, I just don’t care’!

ii – Maya Ali’s character in later episodes becomes absolute rubbish and annoying. Always crying and crying. Her tears up till now have made a huge wave of sea. No one likes to watch characters in Damsel in Distress anymore. The time has moved on. People prefer strong female characters that don’t waste their time in crying and tolerating harsh behavior but rather work out on coming up with solutions.

Her character has two responsibilities which are to cry and tolerate all the wrong doings surrounding her presence. ‘Wa, Bhai, Wa’! Someone should slap on the writer’s bottoms with a steel bat. Her character is written as the worst of them all. The worst!

iii – Although, Gohar Rasheed’s performance as one of the antagonists is properly handled but he is stuck in the limbo of being ‘Type Cast’. At first, I was pleased to see him in the role of ‘Mikael’ as good, loving son. But then later his true nature is revealed. His sudden change of character in the last few episodes doesn’t make any sense! How the hell his character changes??

No hints were shown for character about to shift. As if the team behind drama serial said ‘Guys, the ratings are dropping and producer has refused to further finance this project. So, it’s better to end the drama quickly. I don’t care how you do it, just do it! Quick! Quick! The audience is stupid. They would not ask for logical reasoning behind the character’s change. I just want this to end it now, please‘!

iv – Jeena, wo hai, jis k maa baap nahi hai. Aur Aiesha Khan wo hai, jis k paas is k ilawa aur koyi dialogue nahi hai (Jeena is the character who does not have her parents and Aiesha Khan is the one who does not have any other dialogues). Aiesha Khan keep repeating her two dialogues on & on, ‘Mere maa baap nahi hai’ & ‘Mujhe Salauddin se shadi karni hai’. It becomes so annoying to listen. And due to lame reason, her character comes to an end. Pathetic!

v – ‘Jameel’ character was played superbly by Saleem Mairaj. But the writer did not want this to happen. No. He wanted to ruin his character as well by forcing his character story with Aiesha Khan’s character ‘Jeena’. If this decision lasted for a couple of episodes then it was acceptable or that Jameel to remain faithful in secrecy would had turned out to be a great twist. But no! The writer took this idiotically move of ruining ‘Jameel’ character for many episodes. Till the point the viewers shout on top of their lungs, Enough Already!

The writer turned this loving character of Jameel into ‘Manhoos’ (Dull). The eyes of the viewers must be burst out open to see one of their favorite character as no longer delightful to watch. The viewers started hating him as well along with characters of Maya Ali, Aiesha Khan and Gohar Rasheed’s.

vi – There was no story left for the Mann Mayal team. They just dragged it till the point where the viewers gained indeed strong hatred for it. Shame on the team of Mann Mayal. I truly loved your work in first 10 episodes. But slowly and gradually most of the main cast turned out to be dud in the end. Not even the good performances, editing or direction could save this TV serial as the story was going nowhere.

The kind of story they have given, this TV serial should have ended by 15^th episode. After that it is just a big black hole.

 

 
+ Overall

There is no engagement or contrasting the story to grab viewers’ attention. It is filled with weakly written characters and unnecessary 20+ episodes to a very limited story, have made Mann Mayal a very forgettable TV serial and should held in the ranks of shame.

 

 

Rate: 1.0 out of 5 stars

 

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

 

 

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+ 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