Drama Update -- August 2016

Good lord - how did we manage to neglect the blog so bad? My heartfelt apologies to everyone who has been so patient with us! Thank you for STILL stopping by - I promise there will be (by hook or by crook) a new post up this week! But for now, let me go ahead and post an incomplete-but-now-complete post that I started in June. (I know, I know - beghairti ki inteha. Tauba!) Of course since I did it in June, I had to do over any reviews I had changed since then...so the opinions are totally up to date.

Honestly, I didn't watch any dramas for a month (month and a half? Two months?) and then spent a week, right before Ramadan and well into Ramadan, binge watching them. And then I got caught up with summer vacations and travelling and spent the last week catching up, so I haven't completely caught up with some dramas that were on my to watch list. (Which is good because I just promised yall another post within the week so...)

A lot of the dramas I was watching came to an end -- Naraaz, Sehra Mein Safar, Abro, Tere Mere Beech, Bay Qasoor. The last four of those were all the good vs. evil type but for some reason while the dramas managed to deliver on the evil, they didn't manage to satisfy on evil getting a taste of their own medicine. So that was kind of a bummer. 

At any rate, here's the rest of what I missed and caught up on...

Aap Ke Liye

I kinda like this, so far. It's another one of those poor girl marries rich guy stories (which I'm a sucker for) and if you don't watch the OST, you can convince yourself that the drama will play out like an epic Barbara Sharif Bollywood movie - you know, where she gets married to the guy and then evil saas aur nandoon ki akal thikanay karti hei in the most hilarious way possible.
Highlight - The fact that the hero and heroine are years apart is a part of the story, so it doesn't gross you out as much as it should. Arij Fatima plays the smart mouthed/borderline annoying Washma effortlessly. It's a breath of fresh air to see Waseem Abbass playing a slimey old lech instead of the evil/worthless ghareeb lardkion ka baap.
Lowlight - The actress playing the younger sister, whose storyline no one (i.e. me) gives two cents about.

Dil Lagi

I know I said I wasn't too thrilled with this drama in the beginning, but it finally won me over (matlab, with only two episodes, one would hope so!). Anmol is blinded by misunderstandings and anger and she's gonna regret her hurtful actions. Mohid couldn't be more of a picture perfect Prince Charming if he tried, but Anmol manages to (kind of) bring him to a breaking point. Shit hits the fan, ladies and gentlemen, but luckily gets resolved instantaneously (speaking when you compare it in in drama time). I love how Anmol's mom, sister, mother-in-law and nand are all actually trying to help her and not appearing and disappearing from the screen as a bunch of the writer's after-thoughts. 

Highlight - Imran Ashraf is hilarious as Mohid's sidekick and the comic relief and his love story with Anmol's sister is sweet and cute. He's an absolute treat to watch.

Lowlight - Can. Not. Stand. Mehwish. Hayat. Ufffff... And quite frankly, I don't care how good of a reason Mohid had to slap Anmol, it's still abuse and it's still unacceptable. "I slapped her for her own good." Wow. *taalian*

Main Sitara 

This 60s based drama effortlessly took us to a time and place when Bollywood produced classics we still love today. It's easy to imagine the characters as a part of that era. Saba Qamar makes you fall in love with Surraya, and root for her when she grapples with becoming Sitara and staying loyal to the woman who helped her get there.
Highlights - Everyone in their role shines. The casting in this drama -- wah. Dil khush hogaya!

Lowlights - ....and then there's Meera Ji, which is the only weak link. Her stilted - and unconvincing - dialogue delivery are an epicfail.

Note: Season Two is currently airing, but I haven't watched any episodes yet :(

Man Mayal

Well guys, Ayesha Khan finally made her appearance and it gives me immense joy to say, "I told you so." The drama has officially derailed and left us wanting to ask a million questions - why has the evil naukar become the most loyal naukar? Why is Salauddin so blind to Jeena and her maneuvers? Why is she living in his house?! Why is Manu such a door mat? The only character that makes sense is Mikael who has, at least, stayed true to his character. 

Highlight - Nothing. (Personal highlight: I managed to abandon ship like 10 episodes ago...really, I feel for everyone still watching this crap.)

Lowlight - Jeena calling Salauddin her "cutie patootie." My ears, they burn. Ayesha Khan is horribly miscast as Jeena. And Hamza Ali Abbassi's affected deep voice - I guess he's trying to portray how solemn/deep/sangeedah Salauddin is - is distracting and dumb. 

Mein Kaisay Kahoon

Honestly, I didn't bother to keep up with this. It started out cute enough, but it dragged on and on and on and I didn't feel like wasting my life to catch up. But I heard it ended well...so...if you watched it, picture me giving you a high five ;)

Mera Yaar Mila De

This drama - regardless of its many many plot holes, is my favorite mistake. It's filmy, it's fun, it's easy to watch. It also reminds me more and more of Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, except the heroine and Ajay Devgan actually had the decency to get married before he dragged her to Europe to find her one true love. I was all in for Mushq giving Fahad the "tum nei mujhe pyar kar na sikhaya, laykin Dabboo nei mujhe pyar nibhana sikhaya" speech, which didn't happen #Sad. But still, this drama was fun and filmy and I loved it....Hmm...I feel like I repeated myself there....

Highlight - Towards the end Striker gets limited screen time, but Sundus Tariq makes up for it as the talkative and bubbly Iqra. 

Downside - The younger sister's evil sister-in-law and her husband who can't stand up for her. I don't know why they needed this side story at all. Why didn't Zeba just get her happy ending?

Tum Koun Piya

I love Ayeza Khan, I like Imran Abbas, and I'm into cliched dramas about evil mother-in-laws, so this drama ranks pretty high on my watch list. The story flows effortlessly and even though it's predictable, I find myself won over and looking forward to each episode.
Highlight - Hina Bayat is off-the-charts convincing as the evil mil with double standards. Yasir Shoro is also killing it as the baighairat and gold-digging brother-in-law.

Lowlight - Sumbul and Ramish's relationship is a bit of a weak link, if you ask me. Sumbul seems too much of a strong and smart girl to let Ramish get away with the stuff that he does. (I'm glad she left.) Ramish's mom's wardrobe continues to distract.

Udaari 

Let's just cut to the chase - if you can only watch ONE drama airing right now, make it this one. The story, the lessons, the casting (for the most part), the acting, there is not a single thing that detracts from the awesomeness this drama brings to our screens every week. Ahsan Khan is easily the man of the hour - he should win every award possible for his amazing portrayal of the snake Imtiaz.

Highlight: To take such a sensitive topic and present it so flawlessly...I'm impressed beyond words. Bravo Team Udaari!

Lowlight: Farhan Saeed, as the arrogant band vocalist turned lawyer, is probably the weakest link amongst the players of the drama. 

Zindagi Tujh Ko Jiya (aka 100 Din Ki Kahani)

I haven't caught up with this either. I probably will though...eventually. I do know that it ran for a total of 60 episodes...#OneDay

So there you have it folks, dramas I watched, dramas I enjoyed, dramas I am rooting for, and dramas that I dropped. On my list now are Besharam, Saya E Dewar Bhi Nahi, BeAib, and maybe Intezaar and Dhaani (which airs on Geo and I haven't watched a single drama from Geo that wasn't totally blog worthy). I keep going back and forth on Zara Yaad Kar, but I think maybe it's just too far in to catch up with now, so it might just continue to be a miss as far as I'm concerned.

Thanks again for all your support and the kind words you've left while we were on our short hiatus! Hopefully, we'll continue to post more regularly now.

Happy watching!

Tum Koun Piya - Episode 1

So finally, woh din aa he gaya jiss ka humein (what just me? Ok then, mujhe) itni shidatoon se intezaar tha...TUM KOUN PIYA FINALLY BEGAN AIRING!!

Ahem. Right. Now that that's out of my system...Let's talk drama. 

Tum Koun Piya has begun with all the cliches of a desi drama love story - the ghareeb but sughar and beautiful lardki, the khaali jaaib but izzatdaar lardkion ka baap, the unbelievably ameer and class defying lardka, the daulat ka garoor kar nei wala ikhlautay betay ka baap...I mean seriously. Nothing new here. 

There's also a separate story of Zarnaab and his chakkar with the khala ki beti and his all knowing chalaak maa jiss ke jeetay ji un dono ki shadi kabhi nahi hogi. 

Needless to say, these two families - Erma and Zarnaab's - are about to meet in ways yet to be seen.

With all this predictability, I guess the main question is, am I recommending or not recommending this drama? Hmmm...honestly, the first episode manages to keep my attention and I'm looking forward to watching more Ayeza...and of course, Imran Abbas isn't too hard on the eyes either. #FanGirl

I am happy to announce, however, that I haven't let my love of Ayeza blind me to any delicious bits in the drama. Here are the best parts I saved just to share with you all.

Erma and Ramish's first encounter...

Ghareeb baap that must've gotten Henry VIII's bed from the Queen of England for his service to the crown...

Yeh aankhoon ki ghustakian...Imran Abbas looks like he wants to kidnap and defile her, not make her the love of his life. And Ayeza Khan makes these weird glaring/sleep walking faces in return. #ActingFail #WheresTheLove

Depending on how the drama goes, I may or may not do a regular piece on it. But, as always, we'll be sure to keep you all posted on how we are feeling about the drama in our Drama Rating box (located on the right of the web page...not displayed on the mobile version, sorry).

Until next time - happy watching!

Nazo - Urdu 1

So guess what I did today. Watched a drama. A new drama. That's right.

I stumbled upon this while browsing through YouTube. Got excited but didn't watch it straight away and promptly forgot it's name. So today I had went through three days worth of YouTube recommendations just to find this drama again. Yeah, that's how excited I am about this.

It stars Atiqa Odho, Zhalay Sarhadi,  and Sonia Hussain.

Only two episode have aired so far so there's not much catching up to do.[Disclaimer: (I started writing this review a few weeks back and then got sidetracked by life in general. Since then 6 episodes have aired and I've loved them all)] Atiqa odho plays Tabassum, a single working mother to Samra (zhalay sarhadi) and Naazo (played brilliantly by Sonia Hussain) who suffers from severe learning difficulties since birth. Samra is the older lover sister who takes care of her sibling with the love and attention usually shown by mothers. She also works but has to regularly run home due to the hired maid running into difficulties while handling Nazo. Tabassum is also loving mother but takes the tough love approach with Nazo. This is the reason for constant altercations between Samra and her.
Through flashbacks we find out that the father like typical desi men wanted a son and instead got a mentally challanged daughter. He insists that Tabassum put Nazo away in a mental institution but when she refuses he drives off in a huff and promptly dies in a car accident. 

instant karma bitch!

Samra has repressed memories of her childhood and blames her mother for her father's death.
  Tabassum wants Samra to get married and live a normal life, and she keeps arranging rishtas. These don't work out as Samra insists that Nazo will stay with her and prospective grooms and their families are scared off.

I won't go into details of what happens in the two episodes that I've watched. It mainly consists of a whole lot of back story and mother daughter fights. 

In episode two due to negligence of Nazo's caretaker, she ends up in hospital with pneumonia. Here our hero Habeel makes his knight in shining armour entry. I know this is a drama but I found the situation highly unbelievable. A distressed Samra gets knocked down by a passer by in the hospital. The guy who knocked her down just keeps on walking but aik meel duur se chalta huwa hero comes to help her.

Haseen ladki falling down and a dozen desi humdard not rushing to help her??? Hmmmmmm not buying it.

I haven't seen any dramas with Ahmed Ali as the hero Habeel, but I have seen his chusstice league youtube video with Osman Khalid Butt. So I have high hopes for his acting. Back to this drama. Habeel is in the hospital taking care of his sister who is in hospital for an appendix operation. One more flashback and we know she's divorced. From the concerned looks he keeps giving his sister and the extra tests the doctors keep doing it's obvious that it's not really the appendix. 

"kuch nahi hoga apko" in drama language means he's effectively signed her death certificate. Oh and the hero thinks Samra is Nazo's mom. Lol. 

Another potentially important character is the mom's friend/colleague, played by Sami sani. Considering he's only played shady side villains lately I have a feeling his entry is going to cause all sorts of problems for Samra and Nazo.

Shamsi isn't sure if our drama industry will do justice to a sensitive topic like this. I think we've done it before in ....(child marriages and marital rape)  And to a lesser extent in kankar (domestic violence). It is up to the writer and director to bring an important topic like this to our society in a manner that leaves an indelible mark on our collective conscious. We need stories like this to teach our society about the needs of special children and get rid of the stigma we associate with their families. Especially laying the blame of any problems with children entirely on the mother's shoulders. 

If you aren't already watching this drama...start now!!

Jackson Heights - Episode 26

So we're finally going to see the end of Jackson heights tonight. Keeping up with tradition i'm a whole week late with this episode update. sigh. Some weeks im running around trying to catch my own tail. Anyway let's get on with it. This is what happened last week.

Bhatti Sahab shows his dying mother a picture of his beloved Salma ji.

So after all the genuine niceness of Bhatti Sahab, I have decided to let him have this small screen time of cheapness....Carrying around a pic of Selma like a teenager...
Laykin Nani ko pasand nahi aaee kia? Cos the next thing you know...

Meanwhile - back in the US - these two lovebirds cuddle...

The romance is interrupted by a phonecall from Jackson Heights ki Gossip Girl, Javed Bhai.

Jamshed acts like a total jerk, pushes away gossip guy and runs away to cry privately.

And when Jamshed learns about his nani's death, he is very heartbroken...unfortunately, I was not - at Jamshed's heartbroken-ness, because he's been an absolute jerk and he had it coming.

And then there was this gem of a scene, with the two leeches caterwauling away at how much they loved nani...and then finally  Bhatti Sahab flings the 18,000 rupee phone in their face that they had money to spend on vs the 5000 it would've took to paint nani's kamra.

Bijamalo - after confronting Jamshed - continues on his task to single handedly deliver the news of nani passing away, and spill every secret he knows. Next on his list Selma. Looks like you owe Bhatti more than you think Selma Ji...Salma ji actually believes the gangsters agreed to leave sikander alone and forgoe their money after some verbal persuasion by Bhatti Sahab.

okay so Javed bhai says it more nicely than that but the gist was the same.

It's wedding day for Wolverine and at the last minute he gets a call from his shady lawyer asking for more money.

The show must go on for Jamshed - unless his shady lawyer calls him. Then he ditches his soon-to-be bride and runs to try to avert a potential disaster.

Unfortunately for him, Rizwan is dafa baazi le gaya. Rizwan out bids Jamshed's rate and the lawyer delivers tape recordings of his shady dealings with Jamshed to Michelle.

Jamshed almost knocks out all of Rizwan's teeth.

Rizwan the superhero saves his lady love michelle

So Michelle finally finds out. But after so many obvious red signs that her character overlooked, I just couldn't work up any empathy for her.

Guess who is still being nice to Bhatti Sahab? YUP. The bhabi from hell. No brownie points for guessing what her motives are.

Once again Aliyah is dishing out good advice which is just flying off the top of Salma ji's head. Also... How does salma manage to make, Bhatti sahab's mom dying, about her and her problems?

After the wolverine almost weds buddhi Aunty fiasco, Michelle locks herself away, refusing to even open the door for Rizwan. 

When she finally does open the door, Rizwan wastes no opportunity to remind Michelle of her stupidity. 

Cathy comes back...errr to tell Selma not to give up Bhatti and how awesome Bhatti Sahab is, and how he gave her the house...

I mean - come on. Now the writer is just stalling...