Ohkay so, looks like the time has come where we’d have to bid farewell to all those amazing characters that we were introduced to. I think the writer is leaving no stone unturned to make us detest those characters that we once used to love & those characters that were a strength of this drama. I must say, the sudden shift in the personalities & thinking of these once-normal characters is marking the downhill of Mana Ka Gharana!!!

Mana got to shop to her heart’s greed when she was with Shehryaar & he didn’t miss a chance to feed her time & again that he spent a lot of money on her. Gul Bahar is like a negative broken record who is only there to say things that are totally unnecessary & over the top repeatedly. I must say, I found it ridiculous that even the engagement was happening on Shehryaar’s terms & conditions. I didn’t see an official proposal being ever made to the whole family, he just came, liked Mana, called her, shopped with her & next thing we know, they’re getting engaged.

Khizer did everything to make Mana & the whole Gharana happy while keeping his feelings for Mana aside but sadly, no one saw that. The whole issue that happened between Happy, Shehryaar & Khizer was convincing in a way that it showed how short-tempered & arrogant Shehryaar is, but the discussions, conversations & the conclusions that followed that event were disasterous & made no sense whatsoever!

Why is it that we never saw anyone from the family questioning Shehryaar’s mindset. Why is it that none of them had the guts to blame Shehryaar for the wrong he did. After Shehryaar & Gul Bahar left & everyone was sitting for the sake of conversation, I thought we’d get to see how everyone was disappointed with Shehryaar’s behavior but Saleha turned everything against Khizer & blamed him for putting Shehryaar down. I would’ve agreed to it if Khizer had raised his voice or if he had misbehaved with Shehryaar too but going by what we saw, Khizer only requested him to make truce with Happy but everyone blamed Khizer for the things he didn’t even say or do.

I am actually shocked to see how illogical & irrational Saleha has become. All the things she said about Happy & his social standing were disgusting. Just because her daughter has bagged a rich psycho, she now thinks she’s in a position to look down on everyone, which is ridiculous. I am actually so disappointed at the writer that where she showed us amazing characters that were unique & different, now the same characters are becoming so weird & annoying that it is getting intolerable. I so wish at least one of them had told her that Shehryaar was at fault & not Khizer. Maalik did say but he didn’t say it convincingly or authoritatively, which showed that a part of him also believed that Khizer was wrong.

Honestly speaking, I know this will sound harsh or rude but I so wish that apart from rolling eyes & wheelchair, Ghalib uncle says something. He goes like Saleha is being jazbati because of Mana, but I guess he was mistaken & used the wrong word because Saleha wasn’t being emotional, she was purely being greedy. I so wish that after whatever has happened, at least Ghalib was shown to be doing some thinking & being a bit skeptical in regards to Shehryaar & Mana’s engagement because if a guy can get so snappy at such a small incident, wonder what he’s going to do with Mana if she infuriates him ever. So, not being able to see any sort of reaction from Ghalib uncle being a father, was another disappointment that came along as well!

Gul Bahar is just using Shehryaar to get back at Maalik & she is not ashamed to admit it. I think even Shehryaar is stupid to be following her lead because the one who couldn’t do well in her marriage won’t let Shehryaar have a happy life too because she has already started to spew venom & has started to turn him against Mana & her family & Shehryaar is allowing her to to interfere more & more in his life. I find it funny that now when Maalik has blamed Gul Bahar, Saleha is turning out to be her lawyer & defending her in front of everyone, whereas if I’m not mistaken, Saleha disliked Gul Bahar because she put Maalik through so much suffering, so why is it so hard for Saleha to put two & two together & think that when Gul Bahar can show so much of ignorance in regards to her husband, she won’t be their well-wisher at all.

Also, I am disappointed in seeing Mana & the greed in her. Just because she shopped with him for a while, she has come to a conclusion that she can not live without him & he’s the only guy who can make her happy. I loved the things Khizer said to Mana but I am not too sure what is it in Mana that’s giving her so much confidence in her intuition about Shehryaar. Mana has never stepped out of the town before in her life & she has never ever interacted with anyone outside of her family before, so how can she be so sure of Shehryaar? What makes her think that he loves her & he’s the one for her?

I must say, even though I’m still following this drama but I am so disappointed in the writer because she has ruined all those unique characters that we loved & liked to watch. This drama was different because the things that these characters said made sense & they seemed very real, but now they all are turning out to be very superficial & hideous. Also, I am not too sure why Maalik is taking so much time in finalizing his divorce to Gul Bahar. He should get over with it ASAP so that Gul Bahar gets a message loud & clear that her chance of getting back with Maalik is numbered! Please share your thoughts about this episode of Mana Ka Gharana.

Keep Supporting,
Cheers,
Zahra Mirza.

PS: Please keep the Shuhada of Charsadda & their families in your prayers.

Ohkay so, production of Momina Duraid, writing of Qaisra Hayat & direction of Ilyas Kashmiri; Aabro is airing at 8PM on HUM TV on Sundays from the last 5 weeks. The screenplay of Aabro is written by Umera Ahmed, which is something that has attracted a lot of viewership to this drama. Overall, Aabro isn’t a must watch but has been executed properly without much loopholes, therefore it can be followed without expecting too much from it in terms of entertainment or story.

The story of Aabro revolves around 3 families that are interlinked. First comes the family of Zubaida (Farah Shah) & Anwar who have 4 childern. Ali (Noor Hassan) & Abid (Ahmed Zeb) are their sons along with two daughters, out of which Samra is engaged to be married. Then comes the family of Zubaida’s sister Shahida (Humera Bano) & Jamshed who have two daughters, out of which Fauzia (Zainab Ahmed) is the center of attention. Then last but not the least, comes the family of Sakina (Asma Abbas); a widow & a mother of Hamid (Imran Ashraf) & Aabro (Mehreen Fayyaz).

The story begins by showing that Ali & Aabro are interested in each other & are going out. They both are very much in love & plan to get married. Ali’s mother Zubaida is a very family oriented woman who believes that she has a control over her children. She wants what’s best for them & that is why she believes her sister’s daughter Fauzia is a perfect choice for her son Ali. Ali belongs to a middle class family & Zubaida believes in morals & values, that is why she believes that Fauzia fits the bill of her ideal daughter-in-law as she knows that her sister Shahida has raised Fauzia with the same mind-set that Zubaida endorses herself.

Sakina works as an janitor in the college & works as a maid at the house of the principal of the same college. Sakina has given up on her son Hamid because she knows that he was never interested in educating himself. She puts faith in Aabro because she thinks Aabro would be the one who can turn the tables for the entire family. On personal request of Sakina, her Madam (Ismat Zaidi) gives admission to Aabro in the college because she feels for Sakina & knows that despite being a single mother, she works really hard to provide for her children.

Aabro asks Ali to introduce her to his family but Ali can’t really find the right time to do that & just when he is thinking of talking to his mother about Aabro, Zubaida finalizes Ali’s engagement with Fauzia. Even though Ali tells his mother time & again that he doesn’t want to get married to Fauzia, she doesn’t pay heed to what her son says as she is too keen on saving her word & reputation in front of her sister. Surprisingly, it is Ali’s father who feels that Ali isn’t happy with the situation but Zubaida assures him that he is mistaken because whatever she did happened after knowing Ali’s opinion on that matter.

Aabro finds out about Ali’s engagement with Fauzia & that’s when she decides to step in. She speaks to Fauzia directly & tells her that Aabro & Ali got married, therefore she should call her engagement off. Things get heated & that’s when Fauzia’s parents take a stand that they would never allow Fauzia to get married to Ali. On Ali’s request, Zubaida goes to meet Aabro just to find out that she is completely opposite to Fauzia, making her even firm on the decision that she’d never allow Ali to get married to such a girl who has been raised like that. Now the things are going to get pretty ugly because Aabro has decided to elope with Ali & looks like Ali has agreed too because he knows that nothing that he’d say will convince his mother. So let’s see what more do they have in store for us.

First 5 episodes introduced all the characters properly & I think the writer has done a good job in bringing out the personalities of all the characters in detail. I think it is appreciable that just when the drama is in the initial stages, all the characters have gotten enough coverage so that the audience can understand them better. Even though the drama has ‘been there, seen that’ written all over it but it still provides satisfactory content to tune in on the weekends.

Even though there’s nothing appreciable about Aabro but I think she is better in a sense that she is not after Ali’s money or didn’t fall for him after finding out that his family is doing well financially. She just fell in love with him for who he is & yes, she is someone who wants everything in life but still she has never once considered that she can mooch off her future husband Ali. There’s a fine line between being in love for genuine reasons or to pose you’re in love just because you’re a gold digger but Aabro isn’t that & she actually really loves Ali & yes, all the things she expects from him are the things any girl expects from her future husband. Aabro has never once thought of changing herself because she thinks Ali has accepted her the way she is & this is something that’s a huge mistake on her part because no matter how much Ali loves her now, after marriage, her nature is the main thing that will prove to be the reason behind them drifting apart. Aabro is immature, impatient & inconsiderate & it is actually quite surprising that Ali can’t see that. Ali happens to belong to a good family but even he has allowed himself to get swayed by a girl like Aabro, that is why he doesn’t see any faults in her & is creating a havoc in his home for her sake. Aabro surely has Ali wrapped around her little finger but then she is not solely responsible for it because Ali has given her that much of an edge to be able to do that.

Honestly speaking, in the initial episodes, I liked Ali’s mother & thought she was justified for thinking that as a mother she can take important decisions on behalf of her children but the way she ignored Ali’s pleas even after hearing from him clearly that he doesn’t want to get married to Fauzia & the way she tried to impose her decisions on him made her look very unreasonable & irrational. I am glad that at least the husband in their couple is wise enough to think that Ali is entitled to choose his life partner & that he won’t be able to make Fauzia happy if he himself won’t be happy with his marriage but Zubaida resorted to lying just in order to save herself & add more weight to her decision. I thought Zubaida was a wise woman as well like her husband but I don’t think that’s the case anymore because if she would’ve been wise, she would’ve been able to foresee the mess that now her & her sister’s family is facing, which is just a result of her lies & a result of her turning away from the reality.

Also, I am not at all a fan of Fauzia’s character. Why do the writers always show that behind every sulking lifeless girl, there’s a guy she is dying to get married to. Why do they think it is justified to show that no matter how the girl gets rejected point black by a guy, she still would want to get married to him. Ali happens to be Fauzia’s one & only love, her first love of the life (if she has one) & she is ready to do everything to be with him. Even after personally getting a call by both Ali & Aabro & also after getting a final verdict from her parents especially her father, Fauzia is taking a so-called stand that she still wants to get married to Ali & will never call off her engagement. Like seriously, Fauzia actually made me feel disgusted by her display of lack of dignity & self-respect. Just when I was expecting that Fauzia would be the one calling Ali & giving him a piece of her mind, she was mad at her parents for breaking her engagement with Ali, which actually left me in a state of shock. Why do the writers feel that they need to show that a girl who supposedly is strong-headed will take a wrong decision that too for the sake of a guy who is least interested in her. I so wish Fauzia stops being so ridiculous that too for the sake of her one-sided love because she is turning out to be a mentally weak person! Also I believe Shahida’s meltdown was absurd too. Just when Shahida saw that her daughter Fauzia wasn’t taking the news of her broken engagement well, she decided to side with her & accept her decision of getting married to Ali while completely being ohkay with the fact that he was already married. Even though Ali’s not married but right now no one in her family is familiar with the reality so to see Shahida being perfectly fine with the fact that Fauzia will become Ali’s second wife made me cringe (a lot)!!!

Overall, the direction & the acting of all the actors has been good but I feel Mehreen Fayyaz should tone it down a couple of notches, whether it’s her dialogue delivery, her expressions, her gaze or even her makeup. She does fit well in the frame of Aabro’s character but she is over-doing it a bit. She has a long way to go in terms of acting & I hope she improves because for now, her eyes look completely bland & expressionless. I now think Noor Hassan should change his look, if not anything, at least his hairstyle because he happens to appear in one drama after another but isn’t experimenting with his looks at all. He has a same hairstyle if we look back starting from Firaaq to Muqaddas to Tumhare Siwa & now Aabro, I hope he’s not trying to become another Ahsan Khan in terms of monotonous styling. I must say the only actor who has actually forced us to feel for the character she is playing is Asma Abbas. She is phenomenal as Sakina & you actually understand what she is going through & how hurt she is but is still putting up tough facade to face the world. She doesn’t believe in crying over how diffcult her life is, she believes in moving her muscle to fight it out, which I feel is commendable & is refreshing to see. Farah Shah has acted brilliantly too & I loved her acting in the 5th episode in particular where she is mad at her son & can’t explain how helpless she’s feeling. The rest of the characters are very typical & have nothing new to offer but are being portrayed well by the actors. Sadly, these sort of stories have been aired so many times that we can’t help reading between the typicality they offer but I really hope it turns out to be a bit different in the episodes to come & ends at a good note with some very strong underlying message. Umera Ahmed’s name is something that is forcing me to have some hopes with this drama. Please share your thoughts about the first 5 episodes of Aabro, would love to hear you guys out & also let me know if you guys would like to see the weekly reviews of Aabro. :)

Keep Supporting,
Cheers,
Zahra Mirza.

Ohkay so, this episode of Tere Mere Beech was happening but not engaging because the story hasn’t moved forward at all from the last couple of episodes. Seems like they will be introducing a new character & the twist in the plot will happen then, which I hope is enough to keep the drama engaging for quite a long time!

Zubaida got quite a lot of coverage which wasn’t required because that thing didn’t really affect or add more to the developments of the story, in fact it looked more like a filler scenario as it didn’t change anything at all & there was no outcome of that situation that was shown. Zubaida felt she was insulted & she chose to draw her lines by not attending the reception & also by leaving for her village without notifying Nighat. Zubaida was upset quite a lot but Salma & Hareem added more fuel to the fire. Seems like Zubaida couldn’t do much herself that is why she passed it onto Hareem to insult Ali’s family on her behalf. I don’t understand, being Hareem’s mother & guardian herself, how can she not foresee the consequences Nadia would have to face if anything of such sort happens!

Nadia is trying to adjust to the new environment & Ali’s mother isn’t making things difficult for her. She has only made her point clear time & again that she wants to keep a low profile & doesn’t want to mingle with Nadia’s family. It was good to see Nadia & Ali having a conversation apart from the typical problems that they were facing ever since they got married. I liked how they both talked to each other about their childhood & the things they wanted the most. Nadia & Ali are both very different people but somehow they are compatible with each other as well.

The new character that made an entry today was of Asad, who happens to be Ali’s younger brother. Looks like he will have a lot to offer too & he will also have an affect on Nadia & Ali’s lives as well. So far he looked like a happy-go-lucky sort of a person but as the preview suggested, he’s going to be a bit different than he seems.

Fahad continues to fool Hareem because he has found an easy target. Fahad only wants Hareem’s property because he thinks he will get a kick-start after getting married to Hareem that he was waiting for all his life. Hareem questions him every now & then regarding the things she is curious of & also, the things that she finds a little odd, but even though Fahad manages to convince her, it is her equation with Nighat that makes Hareem forget everything that bothers her about Fahad & she then becomes a bit more persistent on the fact that she only wants to get married to Fahad. She thinks he is the only reliable person that she can fall on but that’s her mistake & no one can stop her from doing that to herself!

Overall, this episode was ohkay but the preview seemed interesting. Looks like Asad will show interest in Hareem & it will cause trouble for both Nadia & Ali. Please share your thoughts about tonight’s episode of Tere Mere Beech!

Keep Supporting,
Cheers,
Zahra Mirza.

Haye! Shuker! Just when I was at the brink of throwing up, this episode ended & I am so glad that not only the episode, this dramatic drama ended too which had no purpose to serve whatsoever. Before going on with the review, I will definitely say that the admins at Hum TV should really get their definition of ‘entertainment’ checked & rectified because these sort of dramas actually do not fall into the category of ‘entertainment’ from any angle.

While watching this episode, the only thought that crossed my mind was, what took them so long to wrap this drama up. Nothing that they showed in this episode was something that they couldn’t show 2 – 3 or may be 5 – 6 weeks ago. It was just as boring as the rest of the drama & was even slow because I couldn’t sit through it & watched it on the go!

Rania reached the decision that she wanted to help Samra through her husband because other than that, she saw no option & her mind didn’t work in any other direction which could’ve told her that there were million other ways to empower & help Samra. Rania thought she had an ATM card named Aazar, so she could lend it to Samra to use for her personal expenses. Well, at least Rania does earn some points for being genuinely worried about Samra & wanting to help her but Aazar & Samra were proved to be the losers right till the end.

It was absolutely ridiculous to see Aazar’s responses to Rania’s suggestions. She straight away & clearly said that she didn’t want Aazar to divorce Samra but all the answers Aazar gave told the tale of what he actually wanted. Aazar said he didn’t want to be with Samra & he loved Rania, also that he would only be Samra’s kaghazi husband but the moment he saw that he went overboard with his side of convincing, he switched the tone & all of a sudden started caterwauling about how bechari Samra is & how for him, she is only Arsal’s wife. It was so funny that where at one hand Aazar said he didn’t want to form any relation with Samra, on the other he had the audacity to say that she was his mehram & she wasn’t his bhabhi anymore. It was so obvious that Aazar was giving mixed signals to Rania to convince her to accept Samra not only as Aazar’s kaghazi biwi but as a full fledged legally & lawfully wedded wife too!!!

Oh, just as weird as her entry was, her name was exactly weird too. Lily Aunty! Who was nowhere to be seen in the entire drama, came & rescued Samra out of nowhere. At first she convinced Samra that whatever Rania & Aazar decided for her was the best but she took a U turn & ended up being a phaphay kutni who threatened Aazar with a lawsuit if he wouldn’t divorce Samra. Well, Samra proved that she was only born to be a nuisance for everyone around her. If she made up her mind, then she could’ve easily told Aazar at his face that she wants a divorce but in stead she chose to flee away & then get them both threatened by weirdly named Lily Aunty! What a beautiful way to pay them back for what they did, with that being said, at least I am relieved to see that Samra grew a backbone & decided to fend for herself rather than relying on someone else’s husband!

Also, the note at which the drama ended really made me hate Aazar even more. He didn’t grow a spine to tell Rania the depth of his relationship with Samra. If he had come clean then he would’ve looked like someone who genuinely loved his wife but in stead he chose to conceal his dirty laundry & made Rania feel even more guilty for doubting his farishta of a husband by telling her again & again that she means the world to him! Well anyways, jo karna tha kiya, shuker hai ke hamain maaf kiya!!!

Well, I think when some good dramas are going through a post production procedure, Hum TV takes out these filler dramas from their stash till the actual drama that they want to air is ready to be released. They have done it before too & they did it this time around as well, where they were waiting for Mann Mayil to complete so that they can air it on Fridays. I really hope that they don’t do it anymore because they have a duty towards their audience too who put faith in them & also with this drama, I hope the writer burns down all the pens & the papers that he has in his home because writing definitely is not his cup of tea, coffee, gulabi chai, kawa whatever! Also, with due respect, I think Sakina Samo should leave direction for those who actually know the meaning & ABCDEFGHIJLKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ of direction. Please share your thoughts about this masterpiece & tell me how happy are you to see it ending tonight!

Keep Supporting,
Cheers,
Zahra Mirza.

Dedication to the Writer: ‘Is industry ko sab kuch chahiye, TUMHARE SIWA!!!’

Ohkay so, this episode of Mana Ka Gharana was quite average because the way things were taken forward, it didn’t seem too convincing. Also, I hate to say this but I am not too happy with the way Mana’s character is turning out to be. I really hope to see her maturing on her own & realizing that she’s walking on a wrong path all by herself.

This episode mostly covered what Khizer was going through & how he was going out of the way to help Mana & Shehryaar. Shehryaar has made it very clear that he is not going to entertain Mana’s family & treat them with the respect they deserve because he is a bit too conceited & arrogant to be considerate. Where Khizer is sacrificing almost everything & most importantly his dignity by ignoring the things Shehryaar is saying only for the sake of Mana’s happiness, everyone else is turning out to be quite aloof in that regard!

Zarri, Malik & most importantly Ghalib aren’t too happy with this proposal & with Shehryaar in particular but I am amazed that no one has ever tried to give him a much needed shut up call when he puts Khizer down in front of all of them. All I see is some uncomfortable glances & raised eyebrows but no words that are actually needed in a situation like this! Like a dear reader of mine; Sabahet predicted, Gul Bahar only introduced Shehryaar to rule over Maalik because she knows that Mana is very dear to him & he would do everything for her happiness. Sadly, in this planning, where Maalik has taken a back seat & he has given a message loud & clear that he won’t let Gul Bahar rule him over again, Mana is the one who is getting trapped into it, out of all the people!

The way Saleha is smitten by the notion of how perfect Mana’s life is going to be with Shehryaar, I am sure it won’t take her too long to convince Maalik to take Gul Bahar back as now she would be related to Mana after her marriage too. I am sure that Maalik will have guts to take a stand against Gul Bahar for his & Zarri’s sake but I know that it would happen after a lot of emotional drama.

Honestly speaking, I am so disappointed to see Mana reacting like a child who has walked into a candy shop for the first time. When we were introduced to Mana’s character, we saw that she was the one who took care of each & everyone because she loved her family so much. She could read the minds of her family members as she has been so close to them throughout her life & except them, she has hardly known anyone, so what I really don’t understand is that ever since Shehryaar has come into the picture, how has Mana become so indifferent that she can not see how uneasy everyone else except Saleha is & how no one is jumping with joy with the news of Mana & Shehryaar’s marriage? Also, I find it a bit too hard to believe that Mana is not noticing how Shehryaar is treating her family. The thing that appealed to me the most about this drama was the way they all were shown to be so closely-knit & how they all were so considerate of each other but I see that no more & I am not happy with that!

I must say, for a woman who lives in a small town, Saleha is quite broad minded, which is good but equally bad too. Where Saleha didn’t find it odd that before finalizing the engagement, Shehryaar didn’t even invite Mana’s whole family to his house to introduce himself officially, to allow them to have a look at his lifestyle & where they’d be marrying their daughter off to, she was a bit too worried about the opinions of the family members who hardly show up at their doorstep & maintain a contact with them. I find it totally unconvincing that even Ghalib, who obviously isn’t thrilled by this whole scenario is having no say in this matter at all & he is allowing Saleha to take all the decisions on his behalf that too in such crucial matter that is concerning his only child. Saleha took a decision that someone should accompany Mana & Bam! She was ecstatic the moment Khizer agreed. I don’t know why but the ladies who lack basic sensibility are shown to be the ones running things in our dramas. Clearly, both Saleha & Mana are not that wise but sadly all the males of the house have taken a back seat & have let these two ladies on the loose to do as they please. Looks like the gentlemen have become more like spectators who’re watching a match they’re least interested in!

Khizer wasn’t allowed to step inside Shehryaar’s home & Mana didn’t find it odd at all. I thought may be she will say that if Khizer can’t come than she wouldn’t go inside too but she chose to walk in happily without even considering how insulting it must’ve been for Khizer. Even though I like this drama overall & think it is still a good watch, but somehow this is the point where the lack in the depth of script is chipping in & potentially ruining the drama for me! Gul Bahar’s whole scenario starting from her separation from Maalik to her reentry in their lives has been filled with a lot of loopholes & what gets to me is that Gul Bahar never ever left a good impression on this family but ever since she has come back, no one has tried to show some sort of hesitation & everyone looks comfortably numb with her presence. Even Maalik thinks as far as he has Zarri, he’s going to be fine but isn’t he supposed to take charge of the situation & tell Gul Bahar to leave his house immediately as she doesn’t belong here. Also, another thing that I find odd is that Ghalib has not even once tried to talk to Mana about this whole situation concerning Shehryaar’s proposal. He has not even for a single time spoken to his daughter to ask what she has in her mind & to also let her know what he thinks about Shehryaar & his attitude. I must say for the parents who only have one child, that too a daughter at that, both Saleha & Ghalib are a bit too naive, simple minded & comfortably numb!

Anyhow, this episode didn’t impress me much only because of Mana’s attitude & her family’s approach towards this whole proposal situation. Also, I am dreading seeing the next episode because Mana is going to utter that one dialouge that is a peeve of mine which is ‘Mai Shehryaar ke ilawa kisi aur se shadi nahi karoongi’. Grow up lady, seriously, grow up or curl up & dug yourself a burrow & don’t come out until your mind decides to mature & grow up too! Please share your thoughts about this episode of Mana Ka Gharana.

Keep Supporting,
Cheers,
Zahra Mirza.