Ohkay so, the production of Six Sigma, writing of Rida Bilal & direction of Yasir Nawaz; Khudgarz is a prime time drama airing on ARY Digital on Tuesday at 8PM. In a nuthsell, intense acting & spot on direction made the first two episodes of Khudgarz worth a watch.
The story revolves around Munawwar’s family which includes his wife (Shaheen Khan) who he has a strained relationship with, his son Hassan (Sami Khan) & a nephew Junaid (Syed Jibran). The main problematic factor in Munawwar’s life is Hassan. Hassan being the only son gets away with everything because he has such sort of personality where no one dares to confront him, except Munawwar but then again, for Hassan even his father is not worthy of his respect.
The main plot was focused on Hassan & his psychological issues. Hassan was once engaged to the love of his life Sara but because she couldn’t cope up with Hassan’s tantrums & chose her parents’ dignity over him, she called their engagement off. Hassan till date hasn’t been able to get over the fact that Sara rejected & insulted him & in stead of reflecting upon his own mistakes, Hassan has let this anger brew inside him which has made him a bitter & angry person. Hassan then got married to Abeer (Mansha Pasha), a loner who has no one in her life except Hassan. Hassan exploits Abeer & her love for him to the fullest because he enjoys the fact that she is full fledgedly dependant on Hassan for emotional & moral support. Even though Abeer is a marketing executive & does well for herself professionally but when it comes to her personal life, she has made it obvious to Hassan that she has no personality, no liking, no disliking of her own & all she wants is him & his validation. Even though Hassan has kept this marriage a secret from his family, Abeer hasn’t been able to convince him to make their relationship public. When it comes to Hassan, he doesn’t mind saying what’s on his mind & what he feels since he doesn’t believe in giving others a chance to explain, speak or be themselves in front of him. Hassan has some serious anger issues & no one has confronted him for that!
Junaid has turned out to be an ideal son for Munawwar & his wife, as he till date hasn’t been able to forget that when his parents passed away, it was his uncle Munawwar who not only brought him to his home but also dedicated his life to raise him like his own son. Junaid is a bit too submissive & he excels in everything, probably because he is conscious of the fact that his uncle has invested so much time, energy & money on him therefore it’s his way of returning him the favors he did for him. Since Junaid has turned out to be so brilliant & obedient, Munawwar chooses to make him a part of the family business which is run by him & Hassan. Junaid likes his batch mate Rabeea & she has a high regard for Junaid as they both are each other’s support system!
Well, Hassan chooses to get married to Munawwar’s best friend Amir’s (Mehmood Akhtar) daughter Aairah (Amina Sheikh), which was basically his family’s attempt of bringing him out of the depression that he went into after his engagement with Sara was called off. Hassan himself chooses to accept the proposal while keeping his family in the dark about Abeer his wife. Aairah is a psychiatrist who is pretty focused on her career & feels passionately about what she does.
Well, things gets dramatic when Abeer threatens to end her life when Hassan tells her that he is getting married. Since Hassan can’t get over the fact that Abeer might do something irrational, he leaves the moment before his marriage & tells his father over a text message that he can not get married. Just because Munawwar knows that Hassan is capable of doing something so irrational, he pleads in front of Junaid & asks hin to get married to Aairah. Aairah on the other hand feels that Junaid has no personality but just because her father pressurizes her, she gives in too & they both get married. Well just because Hassan finds Abeer’s neighbor & colleague (Salman Saeed) pacifying her in her apartment, he leaves while making up his mind that to get back to her, he will continue with his wedding with Aairah but when he reaches the venue, he finds out that Junaid & Aairah are already married. Obviously, things don’t sit well with Hassan & he creates a havoc but Munawwar takes a stand & tells him to accept the reality.
To be honest, during the first half of the episode, when the characters were getting introduced, I was actually quite interested to find out more about them but when the second half of the episode began & the actual story unfolded, I could already see that the story wasn’t something new or special. Yasir Nawaz is known for his craft & there is no doubt about the fact that he as a director elevates the level of the story but I can foresee that Khudgarz is going to be a story about the extreme characters with a prime focus on the villain Hassan.
I wish apart from Hassan, the writer had kept other characters normal & not too extreme where Junaid is a bit tooooo simple & Abeer is a bit tooooo majboor. I have a feeling this drama’s story will revolve around Hassan & his antics which definitely will at some point test the patience of the viewers because in dramas or stories like these, the culprits are given a freehand by the writers & they get away with literally everything because the writers make them too strong to be confronted or defeated by anyone. Another thing that didn’t really sit well with me was how Amir forced this marriage upon Aairah, a daughter he has raised with so much of love & a daughter he has empowered with education that now she is a well-known psychiatrist. I found it disappointing that Aairah’s father literally begged her to get married to Junaid as if he was her last resort? For a woman like Aairah who is so well educated & is perfectly fine without a husband, to be forced into a last-minute arranged marriage with a guy like Junaid citing father’s izzat as an excuse seemed a bit forced & not too intelligent.
I will definitely recommend this drama to those who are interesred in seeing a well-directed serial with some power-packed performances. Another perk is that since they are airing 2 episodes a week, it won’t be dragged to the limit where it might become hard to sit through. Sami Khan, Mansha Pasha & Syed Jibran, all of them did a wonderful job by literally owning their characters & giving them a perfect treatment. Amina Sheikh was perfect as a well-groomed, emotional yet focused & level-headed Aairah. Sami Khan was definitely the star of the show because he was phenomenal as twisted psychotic Hassan, it was surely a nice change seeing him play a character like this who was a naqaam aashiq but had something more to offer than that label. I just hope things don’t become monotonous where Hassan will have an upperhand all the time & others will be too majboor to face him or show him his right place. Let’s see. Please share your thoughts about the initial episode of Khudgarz.
Keep Supporting,
Cheers,
Zahra Mirza.