Zindagi Gulzar Hai has it all; outstanding dialogues, flawless direction and brilliant acting. I must start this review by appreciating the director Sultana Siddiqui in particular for a job very well done. The way the day to day lives of the two lead characters have been shown running parallel to each other is just immaculate. Add to that Umera Ahmed’s script and a group of very gifted actors at heir best and you get a masterpiece ready to enthrall you on Friday nights.
Today’s episode opened with Zaroon and his friends sharing with each other how they felt about the new girl who topped the list and told “Zaroon the great” off! While Asmara and Zaroon are amazed at the kind of crowd that makes it to such top universities, Osama likes Kashaf instantly! On the other hand Kashaf’s first impression of the university is that studying with rich people was not such a good idea after all because she can never “compete” with them. At night when kashaf writes her diary she complains to God but she wakes up in the morning with a completely different frame of mind. Kashaf realizes that it would prove to be futile trying to compete with her college mates on the basis of clothes and status so she decides “kuprun pe time nahi lagana, parhai pe lagana hai”. This is what I absolutely love about Kashaf’s character, she may complain about a lot of things in life but at the same time she knows how to make life livable for herself, even against all odds. Zaroon and Kashaf both think about each other while writing their diaries and Zaroon thinks that Kashaf is proud and has no class. I did not quite understand why Kashaf felt that Zaroon insulted her in the class because the poor guy only said hi and did not get a chance to say anything else.
Okay so just when I started feeling that Asmara was acting unreasonable by getting jealous of all the other girls, we saw Asmara and Zaroon’s parents thinking of tying the knot. I have to say that this particular track of the story gives me a very “been there done that” feeling. Both the families and the girl eagerly want this proposal to go ahead but I have a feeling that the concerned boy is not going to jump on the idea (I could be very wrong of course). Why do I think so? Well because Asmara is exactly like Sara and Ghazala and why would Zaroon want to marry someone like that? Zaroon’s conversation with his father and everything else that we have heard from him till now suggests that Zaroon has very conservative ideas when it comes to how a man and a woman should run a household. It is very obvious that the women run the show in Zaroon’s house and the men are somewhat scared of even sharing how they feel about things. The men of the house are actually not allowed to intervene in anything, Ghazala just gets up and goes to Malaysia. Although Zaroon’s father has accepted the way things are, Zaroon would never allow his future wife to do all this to him. I have to say the relationship between all these family members has been very nicely portrayed. Had Ghazala been a housewife, it would have been difficult to understand why she exercises all this control and freedom.
Another big blow to Zaroon’s ego today had to be the C he got in the assignment, now how did that happen? I thought he was a very good student. I thought the scene where Zaroon is more interested in Kashaf’s assignment than his own was a very good addition; so many students do that in real life too. We see Kashaf aiming higher and Zaroon has some serious completion coming his way.
I like how the music from Hadiqa Kiyani’s version of the OST plays in the background in all the scenes with Kashaf in them and Ali Zafar’s version plays in the background in all of the scenes with Zaroon in them. Both the versions are well suited for these two characters that are entirely different from each other.
Today’s episode was engaging and entertaining but I have to say that I would have liked to see more of Zaroon and Kashaf “interactions” in some way. Shehryaar Munawar looks good in this role and I am looking forward to seeing more of him. Fawad Khan was absolutely brilliant in today’s episode and he totally owns the character. I am eagerly waiting to see how the story unfolds.
Fatima Awan.