*drum rolls* Ladies and gentlemen, Hassan and Farah have finally tied the knot! Since it took such extreme circumstances for the two to get married, I am a tad bit relieved that they finally tied the knot in the fourth episode without further dragging because I was honestly sick and tired of the same monologues over and over again. I had already prepared myself for the worst so when I saw Farah’s father all set for hanging himself, I wasn’t shocked at all. This is not something I’d like to be joking about but seriously, our plays are taking emotional blackmailing to a whole new level! His intended stunt actually made him the savior of the day because that’s exactly what was needed to make Hassan utter the six magical words: Mein Farah say shadi karoon ga! 

”Maana kay Hassan shadishuda hai, ek bachi ka baap hai magar woh Amir say laakh darjay behtar hai.” Among the many implausible twists and turns of the plot, the most questionable one has to be the way Farah’s parents don’t have an issue with the fact that Hassan is married and has a seven-year old daughter. Believe me, this is the first time I’ve seen parents letting out a sigh of relief after finding a damaad who is not even an eligible bachelor. On one hand, they are too conservative to break off Farah’s engagement with the guy she detests and on the other, they are liberal enough to accept a married man as their son-in-law. Hello? Farah is blindly in love (zzzzzzzzz) and if she thinks this entitles her to become a home wrecker, I think she should re-question her priorities! Everything is NOT fair in love and war. Period. Farah is struck by love and her parents are driving me up the wall because their decisions show a lack of forethought- they marry her off to Hassan by taking advantage of  Amir’s absence. No matter how psychotic and short-tempered Amir is, I still think it was ethically wrong to take such a huge step without even officially calling off the engagement.

The writer clearly wasn’t tired of all the pre-marriage drama because right after Hassan and Farah say, ‘I do’, another striking revelation embraces Hassan: Aisha is expecting! Perfect timing, no? Oops, now that I come think of it, I realize I didn’t even mention Aisha in the earlier part of my review but don’t worry, she is used to being sidelined and quite surprisingly, she never seems to mind :P About Aisha, I know she loves her hubby to bits but ever since Farah entered Hassan’s life, the change in Hassan’s attitude towards his wife and daughter became pretty obvious and you don’t have to be psychic to guess that he has become faintly aloof and tense. Strangely enough, Aisha doesn’t seem to realize that her significant other is not as loving and caring as he used to be and yes, we often saw Hassan messaging and calling Farah late at night but I don’t know what was Aisha doing all this time! Also, Hassan is not even excited about his child  but I don’t understand why can’t Aisha put two and two together and come up with the conclusion that something is seriously wrong with her husband. She is gullible beyond belief and I am not liking her this way.

If there’s anything that’s working for Hassan, it definitely has to be his luck. I mean, while his pehli biwi is easy to fleece, his dusri biwi is proving to be quite saabir and as long as her piya’s name is attached to hers, she doesn’t have anything to worry about! Hassan is currently romancing with two young ladies  and this irritates me to the core! It’s Fahad Mustafa’s last play and I don’t know why he wants to end his career with a character that has absolutely nothing likeable about it. Even though it was Farah who confessed first, I still deem Hassan the fasaad ki jurr because he took great interest in Farah since the beginning and this obviously gave away the wrong signals. I feel the writer wants us to assume that Hassan loves both his wives at the same time but I refuse to buy that.

So this was it, folks! The lighting problem remains unsolved :/ I must say the OST is really nice and easy on the ears and somehow makes it easier to stand the extra-long scenes :)

Are you watching Dusri Biwi? Share your thoughts!

P.S:  Naya saal mubarak ho doston!! God bless you all :)

Honestly speaking, there’s not much about Farah that makes any sense to me. A purposeless being with half-dyed hair and tomato-red pout, lazing around a light-deprived house, DESPERATE for a glimpse of her piya- well, that’s Biwi No.2 for you! And now that her sautan is in hospital and she happens to be completely farigh, she decides to dedicate some of her time to the hospital because sautan ki ayadat aur piya ka deedar at the same time- this isn’t getting any better! She is trying very hard to prove that she is her sautan’s well-wisher but the bottom-line is that she married Hassan while she was aware of his first marriage so for me, she is a home-wrecker and even though she is acting all goody-goody and concerned for Aisha, I feel kay ab sautan say pyar jatanay ka koi point nahe because it’s all too late and my impression of her is not changing just like that. I find Farah’s dialogues exceptionally lame, ‘Mujhay aap say koi shikayat nahe hai, Hassan’ (why the constant pained expressions, then?) and after the news of Aisha’s consciousness, ‘Shukar hai-Hassan ab sakoon say sou tou sakain gay’- this had me in bits! Seriously, get a life! There are bigger problems than your piya’s beauty sleep.

Farah and Hassan- this lethal duo is gutsy to say the least! I mean, there you have your Biwi No.1 in bed and right in front of her, you are talking to your Biwi No.2 about ghar ka kharcha and whatnot, and I was amazed to see how casually Farah introduced Hassan to her friend in the hospital, without taking into consideration that Aisha’s bhai may be within earshot. Well, with this audacity and carelessness, it’s not much of a surprise that the cat is out of the bag. Okay so Aisha’s brother, Ahmed is now aware of Hassan’s second marriage. Is it just me or Hassan deserved a slap fair and square when he actually looked Ahmed in the eye and smugly declared that Farah is his wife! This guy still has the guts to make eye contact and well, there I was, thinking there is a limit to besharmi.

I actually felt for Aisha today because not only has she lost her child, but there are a lot more striking developments awaiting her:
a) She won’t be able to have kids anymore
b) Her husband has a Biwi No.2 namely, Farah
c) Her sautan is expecting!!

I really think development a) could’ve been dropped but I’m sure the writer has something horrible in mind. You know, when Farah suggested, ‘Aap bacha adopt karlega’, the way Hassan replied, ‘Shayad kar bhi lain’ gave me a bad feeling about the future installments-in the attempt to prove that Farah is the biggest bechari and qurbaani ka bakra you’ve ever met, I hope the writer doesn’t make Farah give up her baby to Aisha because if that happens, we’ll definitely do something about ARY digital.

I know Ahmed only wants to do what is in the best of Aisha’s interests but I don’t think hiding the news will do any good to her. He plans to force Hassan into divorcing Farah and the promo of the next episode suggests that we are in for a lot of cheekh pukaar but honestly speaking, I want Aisha to see for herself how disloyal Hassan is because until then, the story will not progress.

Share your thoughts on this episode.

Maryam Mehdi

And exactly at 8:54 p.m, for one last time, Biwi No.1 and Biwi No.2 came twirling back to their piya and the piya glanced at Biwi No.1 (I still don’t know what for) and ta-da- ”Dursi Biwi” came to an end! Here’s to not having to put up with any more what-on-earth-am-I-watching feelings, BHAI BHAI tantrums, OTT supporting characters, aaja-piya-mein-ne-tere, ishq-mein-jeena-seekha background feats, extra-long, excruciatingly annoying & forced crying sequences,  baby-snatching schemes, piya-snatching plots and I guess the best of all- no more twirling!! And if this doesn’t call for a celebration, I don’t know what does! Yep folks, life’s cool :D!

The most suitable background score for the ending scene could’ve been this poem: I love you, you love me, we are a happy family…Let’s just say that this was the most pathetic last episode I’ve ever watched and to tell you the truth, this episode alone makes all the other dusri biwi plays look a zillion times better! I couldn’t help thinking about the dusri biwi plays I have watched to date and the list includes Shukk, Aahista Aahista, Bari Aapa and others-none one of these serials showed biwi No.1 and biwi No.2 living together happily ever after so in this regard, Dusri Biwi has indeed set an unprecedented trend. Sooo creative, right? But my question is, if they really had to show something entirely different to what’s normally shown in our plays, why couldn’t they show Biwi No.1 & 2 standing on their own feet and leaving their heartless and repulsive piya for good?

Help me out, I don’t understand why on earth Aisha’s Bhai and Bhabi Jee were given soo much importance in this episode? Bhai’s monologues, Bhabi’s words of ‘wisdom’ and whatnot! ”Dusri shadi koi gunaah tou nahe. Aur Aisha kay saath yeh sab iss liay horaha hai kyunke uss nay Farah ko baddua di aur uss kay saath nainsaafi ki.” It does seem like Bhabi Jee wouldn’t mind if her husband gets married for the second time and considering how generous she is, I suggest Bhai Jee should actually consider that option! And I couldn’t believe my ears when she straight off declared that Saman went missing because karma had to get back at Aisha. Well, if that’s the case, Farah should be suffering because she is a home-wrecker and Hassan should be suffering even more because if there’s anyone to blame, it’s him! And I don’t get how one mere conversation between Bhai and Bhabi actually brought about an inqilaab in Aisha and after overhearing all of this, she actually asked Farah for forgiveness? Why does she even take her Bhabi so seriously? And I just wanted to bang my head against the wall during the whole exchange of duas scene- all of a sudden, there were so many gehri & philosophical baatain and sooo much emphasis on pul sirat, karma, baddua, dua and whatnot! After all this heavy duty karma talk, I have to ask this again: why did Hassan get away with everything? When this guy first made an appearance, he came across as someone truly in love with his first wife. But only the writer can explain why did his character take a 360 degree turn and all of a sudden, he was in love with his colleague. He married her and justified it by, ”Bus sab achanak hogaya”, he has given nothing to his wives except for tears and lies and any random person can easily tell that this guy is a loser BUT isn’t it infuriating that his wives are actually desperate about ”winning” him over? What sort of image of Pakistani women do these plays project? He’s supposed to be the ‘hero’ when he is anything but that? They make it seem like it’s actually possible for a guy to be truly & equally in love with both of his wives! When Farah first made her appearance in this play, she came across as an independent woman striving to stand on her own feet and that’s one of the reasons she didn’t like her fiance because he was suffocatingly controlling and wanted her to stop working. But it’s ironic how after her marriage to Hassan, she was confined to the four walls of her house and yet, she didn’t object for a second and was pretty much okay with it!

Saman’s disappearance and everything related to it was full of loopholes!! First off, the search squad included Hassan, Bhai, Bhabi and even Farah’s parents but hang on, where were the police? Secondly, Saman actually knew Farah’s number by heart? How is it possible for a little girl like her to trust her newly discovered aunty more than her own mother? Explanation, please!

But I must say that Saman finally got her happy ending. She now gets to share her room with her baby BHAI! I’m sure she must be on cloud nine! This ending didn’t work for us but it definitely worked for her :D.

And while Hassan was asking himself, ”Mujh say kia gunaah hogaya? Allah hum say bohat naraz hai!” I was hoping he’d declare it aloud that this second marriage was nothing but a HUGE mistake. I was hoping he’d ask Aisha for forgiveness once again but surprise surprise, nothing of that sort happened. And when Hassan was saying, ”Allah mujhe bemaari de deta, mujhay utha leta”, I couldn’t help thinking how wonderful that would have actually been! Even Aisha didn’t point it out to him that the reason why we are in this mess is YOU!! Instead, the scene ended with Aisha asking Hassan to donate all his money to the charity, genius, right?

Sorry to break your heart, writer, but despite your incessant attempts to prove Farah’s bechargi, I couldn’t feel a thing for Farah and that’s that! A home-wrecker is a home-wrecker. But the truth is, I didn’t feel for Aisha either. This woman, she didn’t have an ounce of self-respect. All this time she has been blaming her sautan more than her infidel husband and there were times when I just wanted her to shut Hassan up but she didn’t! She, in a way, allowed Hassan to treat her the way he did.

On a serious note, I would just like to say to our writers that pleasee, get over this dusri biwi obsession!! Please do your homework because according to some stats, 17% of the families in Pakistan (one-fifth of the population) are associated with polygamy BUT the way our plays show one-to-one combats of two wives sharing one roof, let me tell you, it’s not the way things are in modern and educated Pakistani households. It’s not Arab Sheikhs we are talking about- it’s Pakistan, for God’s sake! Our society frowns upon the mention of polygamy but here I was shocked how even Farah’s parents didn’t have a problem with their damaad being a shadishuda, ek bachi ka baap! Finding a ‘bachelor’ for their daughter is the first and foremost priority of parents and everything else comes after that so the kind of parents shown here are, abnormal! And there’s no dearth of eligible bachelors in Karachi but here they made it as if the only eligible bachelor in town was an over possessive and destructively impulsive maniac *drumrolls* Amir!

Lastly, the promotion of this play was repulsive to say the least. The facebook page of Dusri Biwi (it’s an officially Facebook certified page, just so you know :P) promoted it through asking questions that were downright lame and absurd. The promotional teasers relied so much on overdressed ladies, heavy jewellery, maathapattian and ohh how can I forget, TWIRLING! Haha, this drama actually gives  a whole new meaning to ‘twirling’ :D.

All the actors in this play disappointed me to no end. I wasn’t expecting this from Fahad Mustafa and his performance throughout the play was pathetic. Hareem Farooq’s performance lacked passion (not that I blame her for losing her interest) and Maha Warsi was so-so. By the way, in an interview with Dawn, Fahad Mustafa talked about Dusri Biwi and said, ””We’re aiming for a different ambiance, a very contemporary look.” Umm, where was that ‘contemporary look? Am I the only one who missed it?

I just came across this amazing tweet:

This play has been a disaster but in future, if you ever feel like you need a morale booster, just take a deep breath and remind yourself: if I can make it through Dusri Biwi alive, I can handle anything!! Haha, so, what are your thoughts on the last episode? Voice your views!

Maryam Mehdi

P.S: I would like to thank alll my readers for supporting me throughout the journey- it would have been impossible without you all! My special thanks to Silver Eyes, AW, Eashel, Mariam, Hira, Farah Ahmed, Kiran Akhtar, xox, Talha Rizvi, Kunwal Junaid, Ms Khan, Faiza, Sobia. Even if I didn’t mention your name, you all have been wonderful! And ofcourse, I can’t forget my fellow reviewers Zahra Mirza, Fatima Awan and Kanwal Murtaza! Thanks a million! :D

Any Johnny Depp fans here? I’m sure many of you are aware of this Hollywood star but don’t get excited- he has nothing to do with Dusri Biwi :P. It’s just that there’s something he said that caught my eye: “If you love two people at the same time, choose the second because if you really loved the first one, you wouldn’t have fallen for the second.” I sensed the need to quote this because for what seemed like the zillionth time, we were reminded of the ‘fact’ that Hassan loves both his Biwi No. 1 and 2 because obviously, he is a wonderboy whose heart functions a bit too differently from the rest of the sane guys. I like how Ahmed corrected him then and there because this theory of loving two people at the same time is completely implausible and no one in their right state of mind would buy it!

Okay so truth be told- the writer wants Farah to win the title of ‘the most understanding and vulnerable dusri biwi in the history of dusri biwis’ because a large part of this episode involved a great deal of forced attempts to prove how mazloom Biwi No.2 really is. Her parents are out of town, a couple of burglars break into her house, she is dealing with threats from her sautan’s bhai & bhabi, she is not feeling well and on the top of it- she is starving herself just because she doesn’t want to bother Hassan with the monetary issues! But call me dheet or what, I still can’t feel a thing for her :3. She may be helpless right now but the bottom line is that she got herself into this of her own free will so that kills all the ‘sympathy’ the writer wants us to feel for her. On a side note, isn’t it shocking how Farah’s mother is perfectly content with the fact that her damaad is a bit preoccupied with his Biwi No.1- I mean, when did Pakistani mothers become so ‘chill’?

Ahmed is a caring brother and all, but I don’t think threatening Farah would do any good to Aisha because the fasaad ki jurr *drumrolls* Hassan won’t ever budge! He is stiff as a stone and what do you propose to do about a guy who can’t even feel any guilt pangs- I mean, isn’t that the least a person can do?! And now that Ahmed knows all about Farah, Hassan is bolder than ever and he has spilled the beans about him and Farah expecting a child. Since Farah is in ‘danger’, Hassan has to give her some extra attention and he is clearly having a hard time juggling multiple priorities. Well, with marriage comes great responsibility and you just happened to sign up for two such contracts so what do expect? I couldn’t help but smile triumphantly each time I saw him like this: (he deserves all the splitting headaches he can get :P)

And well, now a little something about our Biwi No.1 who is coping with a huge loss. It’s a surprise how Hareem Farooqui, despite being new to the industry, did quite an impressive job in portraying a bereaved mother’s feelings and emotions but as far as Fahad Mustafa is concerned, I think something was clearly missing and I didn’t find him as effortless and natural as I expected to but ofcourse, that’s my personal judgement and you guys can feel free to disagree :) Aisha should know better than to accept whatever excuses Hassan comes up with for spending the night out, I mean, office ki documents chori honay par puri raat bahar guzarna? She deems him perfect but tell me again, can a perfect husband leave his mourning wife all alone for one whole night when he should actually be there to lend her a shoulder to cry on? It is evident from Hassan’s behavior that Aisha isn’t on the top of his priority list and yet, Aisha says, ‘Mujhay darr lagta hai kaheen aap kay pyar mein kami na ajaye.’ Seriously, I felt like shouting: kami aa nahe rahi, kami aachuki hai!! Haan, if Aisha is too blind to notice that, tou there’s not much we can do!

So this is it from my end. You know, the play’s only saving grace has been its pace but the promo suggests that Amir will be joining us very soon and I fear that we are in for some very slow episodes. Did you watch the episode? Please share your thoughts!

P.S: I am soo sorry for not being able to post the reviews on time because my internet connection’s getting moody these days. Sorry! I hope you guys understand. Have a great day :)

Maryam Mehdi

If there’s anything I’m learning from my experience of reviewing Dusri Biwi, it is definitely ‘controlling the urge to lash out!’ Throughout this episode, I kept on reminding myself, ‘Calm down- it’s just a play.’ There’s absolutely nothing likeable about Hassan. Period. That’s one way to express contempt for him in a ‘civil’ way. But actually, this Hassan guy makes me go ballistic because seriously, there is a limit to dhitai and besharmi or at least I thought there was!! ‘Sab kuch itna achanak hogya’ and ‘Mein Farah ko khona nahe chahta tha’- that’s how Hassan explains why he married Farah and you know, I felt like punching him in the face when he said,’Shayad koi kami thi!!’ But thankfullyyyyy, someone give an award or something to his friend (the ONLY sane guy and voice of reason in this play so far) for saying all those things I wanted to say for sooo long. I would just like to comment that Hassan’s life was next to perfect and there was no void to fill, agar kami ki baat ho tou sirf Hassan mein sharam aur decency ki bohat zyada kami thi!!

And now for something that gave me this what-on-earth-am-i-watching feeling! Look, Pakistan may be one of the backward countries of the world but come on yaar, khat-o-kitabat? Ab itnay buray halaat bhi nahe huay bhai!! Give me room to breathe, please!! Did Amir ever come across as a person who’d choose to write a letter, out of all effective communicative means, for explaining Hassan’s infidelity? Face palm! Amir, who was supposed to be a force to reckon with, drops by to deliver this letter personally but since he’s a complete nutjob, he doesn’t wait for Aisha’s arrival and hands over the letter to the house maid. Andd this calls for a double facepalm. Hassan gets hold of it and well, Amir is behind the bars. Wow, the police are super fast these days. I am actually glad he’s out of the scene because I realize he was all words and no action.

I remember talking about Aisha’s gullibility last week and my my, her gullibility graph is sloping upwards to say the least. Farah’s call today was enough to confirm all suspicions and the excuses Hassan gave were downright lame but Aishaaaaa, I don’t know what would it take to shed Hassan’s ideal image off her mind. A few serious monologues and then what? Hassan’s phony kind words and lo and behold! Biwi No.1 is happy again.

One thing that baffled and infuriated and rendered me speechless at the same time was how Hassan flew off the handle and scolded Farah when she announced the big news. I mean, family planning, anyone? If you don’t wish to have kids and your wife falls pregnant AND you react to it by scolding and blaming HER, then you should probably google: what’s the easiest way to commit suicide? But no, he won’t do that because torture abhi baqi hai meray dost!

Well, the heavyduty part of this episode was Aisha and Hassan losing their child. Trust me-I don’t wanna sound insensitive but I couldn’t feel for them. Believe me- I tried to! Hassan is shedding tears right now but I’m sure very soon it will dawn on him: hey, I have a Biwi No.2 who is alive and kicking, oh sorry, expecting!! You see, perks of having two wives? All jokes apart, it’s the writer’s frame of mind that makes me wince. *sighs* And yes, once upon a time, Fahad Mustafa was a choosy, mature actor. *weeps*

So that’s what the episode was all about. Don’t forget to share your thoughts!

Maryam Mehdi

Well, I have lost count of all the dusri-biwi-type plays I have watched but have I ever come across a Biwi No.1 as gullible as Aisha? NO! I for one have never seen her THINKING about Hassan’s sudden aloofness. She is actually shown sympathizing with him?! Look, I have got nothing against wives who are NOT shukki and trust their husbands to death. But the writer here wants all the women to know: if you can’t interrogate (sorry, that’s the only word I could think of :P) your husband like a typical, shukki wife, you are bound to lose him to the ‘other’ woman! And what’s worse is that I feel the writer also wants us to sympathize with Hassan because she is trying to portray that it’s not his fault if he’s in love with two women at the same time! My God! Hassan is lying through his teeth and *sighs* Aisha falls for his lies every single time.  Dear Hassan, when you love someone, you don’t cheat on them like that.

Amir is back into action with flaring nostrils but I hold Farah and her parents responsible for his frustration because he was known for his short temper and obsessive nature. Despite being aware of that, they ditched him one week before the wedding so what else do you expect? Amir needs to get a life! Doesn’t he have a job or something?

Okay so Farah turns out to be way too faint-hearted and a few threats from Amir were enough to give her goose bumps. Hey, if she was so timid, I wonder why she didn’t think about changing her cell phone before tying the knot with Hassan. Also, Hassan is a rich guy so how about hiring a security guard? The reason why ARY is not churning out masterpieces is that they’re way too busy with the promos! Farah’s sister came in for a late night visit and in the promos they made it seem as if Ted Bundy is rising from the dead LOL!

In my last review I talked about how Farah is proving to be a saabir, docile Biwi No.2. Her outburst today didn’t come off as a total surprise because obviously, Hassan is having a hard time juggling multiple priorities. Hassan’s approach is anything but fair, however, Farah always knew what she was signing up for. But it took a couple of monologues for our titular character to realize that she is wrong and her piya is right.
Throughout the episode, I was trying to work out what is soooo strikingly amazing about Hassan that two pretty, educated, confident women would do absolutely anything to earn his nod of approval? If you have it figured out, please enlighten me!

I think Amir will enlighten Aisha as to what Hassan’s trips to ‘Islamabad’ (ahem) are all about and I am so with him on this one LOL!

I am in love with the OST and it is apt in regards to the mindset of our Biwi No.1 and 2 :P Ohh and, it’s not like Hassan can’t afford electricity but why is his house soooo dark and gloomy ughh?!! And yes, maybe I noticed it too late but Aisha’s smile is so cute <3

Last but not the least, someone please do something about the twirling in the opening sequence. Its way toooo lame and cringe-worthy!!

Maryam Mehdi