It is finally over! I must admit that I was expecting this last episode to be much worse because I was expecting an 8 to 10 show tonight as well. When the drama ended at 9 I was relieved! Tonight’s episode showed that the writer of the show Mustafa Afridi is talented enough to wrap things up in less than 45 minutes even when they are so messy, I wish he would have put in the same amount thinking while penning down the Paymaan/Imroze track as a whole. Hareem’s happiness lied with her son, she did not want a man in her life and she got just that. Paymaan forgave Imroze for everything he did just like all the other good wives in our plays. Honestly speaking I felt completely detached from all the character thanks to all the crazy twists that we have been witnessing for the past few episodes therefore the fact that this last episode was short and slightly less complicated was good enough!
Imroze’s second marriage and everything that happened after it was definitely a bad move. Imroze’s explanation to Paymaan confirmed that the reason why he left Paymaan was that his insecurities got the best of him but at the same time he had enough confidence to go ahead and get married again to someone who cheated on him and left him for someone else. Why are the men in our dramas naive enough to think that a second marriage will solve all their problems?? And to top it all, Imroze has learned nothing from his experiences since he suggested: “hum teeno is ghur mei mil ke bhi reh sakte hein” !! Right till the end Imroze was willing to have both these women in his life until Hareem pushed him to the edge. Paymaan never had a problem with “sharing” her husband with Hareem, which was very strange!
“Aap ne mujhe chalna, phirna, bolna, urna sikhaya” …yeh sub kub huva?? Right from the start, the viewers were shown that Paymaan’s life with Imroze was dull, to say the least. Imroze said so himself that Paymaan had stopped being happy and that is exactly what we saw too but somehow we are expected to believe that Imroze was the best thing that ever happened to Paymaan. I still remember the first scene which was shown a few months after their marriage, Paymaan was complaining and she did not look happy.
Firaaq had many tracks but the main story revolved around Paymaan and Imroze’s relationship and the Firaaq between the two. Unfortunately, the writer and the director both failed to narrate Paymaan and Imroze’s story properly. For the longest time, the viewers kept on watching the play so that they could enjoy Tabbasum and Haider’s scenes. The viewers were unable to understand why Imroze fell in love with Paymaan, the marriage was rushed and we never got to see the dynamics of their relationships. The fact that there was absolutely no chemistry between Sanam Saeed and Mohib Mirza did not help as well. There was so much about the main track of this drama that was flawed right from the start to the end. The mystery surrounding Imroze’s character right from day one was unnecessary and the truths about him that were revealed later were not worth all the wait. After watching the first few episodes we were all convinced that Firaaq was going to deliver but once Imroze entered Paymaan’s life everything went haywire. It was an absolute pleasure watching Uzma Gillani and Syed Mazhar Ali mesmerize us with their superb performances every week, for me, they were the stars of the show right till the end! Their story was far more interesting than that of Paymaan and Imroze. Junaid Khan and Noor Hassan played their roles well. Sanam Saeed did the best she could with her character, unfortunately, Paymaan’s character took a U-turn after getting married to Imroze which was definitely not what most viewers wanted to see. Imroze’s character wasn’t even remotely likable but Mohib Mirza acting was everything one could wish for. For me, Firaaq will always be the story of Haider and Tabbasum and not Paymaan and Imroze. Isn’t it sad that we were shown all the characters at the end of this last episode except Haider’s? He was the only male character in the show who was liked by many of the viewers. Adnan Jaffar’s character and his acting also deserve a special mention here but I have to add that we could have done without these new additions.
Although Firaaq turned out to be very disappointing, I must confess that I enjoyed reviewing it nevertheless mainly because of all of you out there who contributed to the discussions. I want to thank everyone for reading the reviews especially those regular readers who are kind enough to read the reviews even after they stopped watching the play. Firaaq is being replaced by drama serial “Nikkah”, the tag line of the play is ” piya naam ki choriya…bani meri majboorian!” and I am guessing that this drama also revolves around the story of a woman whose husband gets married again – yes doosri shadi all over again!! How many of you are sick and tired of these stories??
Fatima Awan
