Opening Thoughts – Aflatooni Mohabbat (Is that even a word/expression?)

Ohkay so, this episode of Jo Tu Chahay was pretty basic yet again. To be honest, even though they have changed the title of the drama, but still while watching this episode, I was wondering what ran through the writer’s mind that she decided to name this kind of cliched & below average story ‘Kun Faya Kun’. I remember when I heard the title, I automatically assumed that the story of this drama is going to be quite substantial, considering the kind of name it had, like these are some real powerful & meaningful words for us all, but now when I see this drama more & more, I really am glad that they have changed the title. I still feel Jo Tu Chahay is again a wrong title for it, because this drama could’ve easily passed as ‘Shadi, Khana Abadi’ or ‘Jethani Devrani Ki Jung’ or ‘Kunwari Larki Ke Khuwab’ or ‘Nashukri’ or ‘Mohallay Ki Mohabbatain’ or yes, going by what our Wise & Wicked Areesha said ‘Aflatooni Mohabbat’. Trust me, this is how basic & cliched the story of this drama is & I am still hoping that they will give me something substantial that will wow me but so far, I am feeling underwhelmed. I still feel this drama is worth watching, like even though it has a whole chunk of family politics but they still have kept it real, which makes it a decent drama to tune to but it is quite below average in terms of storyline!

Aflatooni Desperation:

After watching this episode, I am totally convinced that the story of this drama is based on desperate young girls who have been brought up with brain-feeding such as ‘miyan ke ghar jaogi to apne saray armaan puray kar lena’, because other than that I don’t see any reason behind all of them dying to get married, be it Bisma, be it Areesha or even our Bholi Masoom Shareef-e-Zamana Mashal. Every single episode shows one of them weaving the dream of getting married to the cousin-Bhaiyya-next-door. Areesha is lucky that she was the first one & this has made Bisma even more frustrated & our masoom Mashal has also tasted what it feels like to get approached by the cousin-bhaiyya-next-door & then just think about the idea of marriage, that is why she hasn’t been able to take that out of her masoomana mind.

I feel if the writer was going on the lines of making Mashal’s character like that of Kashaf from Zindagi Gulzar Hai, then she should’ve made Mashal a little different. I remember in the initial stages of Zindagi Gulzar Hai, Kashaf was full of grudges & complaints against Allah SWT too but then, her character was far more than that of an ungrateful woman who just cursed her own kismat & didn’t believe in doing the hard work. Kashaf changed her life & she did everything for her mother because she wanted to reward her for being her support system. Now this is what I will call a journey but now when I look at Mashal, going by what I have seen before in the form of Kashaf’s journey, I took Mashal’s complaining that way too because I felt she’ll snap out of this self-pity & focus on shaping her life but oh boy, for her, all of her dreams of studying & finding a job vanished into thin-air the moment Armaan ‘BHAI’ approached her. Mashal got all the more reasons to be ungrateful & indulge in self-pity because her armaan of getting married to Armaan BHAI couldn’t get materialized!!!

Areesha got her visa & now she was on cloud 9. To be honest, this entire situation was quite unrealistic where Hashir & Areesha started off with shadi ki shopping but no date was decided from Shama’s side? I mean where does a situation like this happen? Hashir is quite mature so I guess he should’ve analyzed the situation first. Also, I am not sure where does this happen too where a guy buys ticket for his wife when the official Rukhsati hasn’t taken place yet especially when this was not decided at the time of Nikkah? Anyways, Hashir has time & again proved that he is going to be there for Mashal & that he will take care of her smallest wishes too & oye hoye hoye hoyeeee, our masoom Mashal has started thinking about Hashir Bhai, oh no, I mean ‘un’. The preview made me roll my eyes so hard that I am now drinking a cup of black coffee to subside the headache. I wish they had edited out the scene where Mashal spoke about her future dreams which revolved around education & a career, rather they had shown her openly speaking about dreaming of getting married to her Cousin Charming because this is what her character has reduced to. I am not saying that dreaming about your marriage is a bad thing but to see all of these girls doing airee choti ka zorrrr for getting married, where one is going to Baba Jee, the other is glued to the window because that allows her to keep tabs on her boyfrand & this 12 year old Mashal is disappointed at one rishta getting wasted is really making all of them look like desperados!

So, Hashir has proved that he cares for Mashal & now after what he has heard where Mashal was yet again complaining to her friend, Hashir will go out of the way to do something nice for her & she will take this as an opportunity to think about ‘un’ yet again. I like how everyone tells Mashal that Hashir is her bhai but she has developed feelings for him, oh well, let’s ask Hashir what did he mix in those 2 scoops of ice-cream that Masoom Mashal ended up falling in Aflatooni Mohabbat for him? LOL!

Closing Thoughts – Aflatooni Cliched:

This episode of Jo Tu Chahay was Aflatooni One-dimensional. I guess the story overall of this drama is quite aflatooni cliched but let’s see if there’s something more to it than cousins longing for each other? *cringe alert*. Please share your thoughts about this episode of Jo Tu Chahay.

Keep Supporting,
Cheers,
Zahra Mirza.