Khuda Dekh Raha Hei - Episode 1

Here's another drama that I can't quite explain why I was looking forward to. N would say it's because I have this thing about Sajjal Ali - but hey, she's the one still  watching Chup Raho. Haha.

Anyway - this drama promises to be all kinds of crazy with people taking shameless licenses with religion and characters presenting one front and actually being something completely else underneath.

But basically - they had me at all kinds of crazy... 

Sure enough, look at all this 'religious' stuff going on right at the beginning.

And if that wasn't enough, yeh istikhara karnei wali Aunty ko he dekh lo. Enough to scare you sleepless for the next week or so. But, I guess the scarier she is, the more people perceive her to be 'religious' and she has a kind of center set up where people come to ask her to make dua for them or make an istikhara for them.

Naik parveen (Iisthikhara wali aunty - Khalida) has two kids: Zoya and Moiz. One is in love with a rockstar and the other is in love with a fashion designer. Zoya (Sajjal Ali) is an A-grade student and complies to her mother's expectations at home. Outside of the home, she is a normal teenager, with a willing accomplice-in-crime bff and the school rockstar is in lurve with her.

Moiz is taking care of the family business and mixing business with pleasure cos there isn't anyone to supervise him. Typically, he is the boy of the family and his mom thinks he is the perfect mehnati bacha. Moiz's girl friend is some top-notch designer (on Facebook) and she is very clear that she has no plans to be the gharailoo bahu. 

If anyone of yall wanted to give Khalida Begum the benefit of a doubt - you may want to reconsider in light of the kind of problems she is doing isthikhara for (see exhibit above). Clearly, Khalida is taking quite a lot of religious license. Oh, and people pay her too. That's never a good sign... 

Enter Hero: He's a rockstar. And he's in love with Zoya and wants to marry her. I'm glad we aren't going to waste 8 to 9 episodes with them meeting and falling in love. He's serious about marrying her too and Zoya is upfront about his choice of career being a no-go with mommy dearest.

PS: Checkout the Boyzone poster in the back from 1996. #Yowza

Zoya does not approve of her mom's side business. Khalida thinks she is doing mankind a service by making dua for them.

Sanam (Moiz's significant other) launches her...boutique. 

*Sigh* Where do I even start?! Yeh kounsi bekaar tareen boutique hei? Have these drama makers even bothered to check out the stores our designers have these days? For heaven's sake: peechay dus rupay wali stall ki cheezain lagi hui hein. And to top it all off:

Of course, Sanam-Ji ka business kaisa chal ra hei, woh tu we can all judge by this conversation...

Ironically, Moiz seems to be middle class and Sanam upper class - but she is the one asking him for money.

Zoya's bff is at this ground breaking boutique opening, and she's not gonna let the chance to spill the beans to Zoya pass her by. Luckily, it looks like brother and sister have a congenial relationship and Zoya promises to keep Moiz's secret, but she wants to meet Sanam.

Parenting 101: No combined studies allowed. Especially at a friend's house. Especially after dark. Especially like NEVER EVER.

Under pretense of studying with her bff, Zoya is going to Junaid's concert. And it's not the first time it's happening...

Zoya is allowed to go - but not before she agrees to performing a 3 day wazifa (for what? who knows...). While performing the wazifa the first night, she hears her dad have an asthma attack and rushes to help him. A showdown occurs with Mom pissed that Zoya left her wazifa to help dad, and Zoya arguing helping a beemar person is more important that some lame wazifa.

Sanam seems to be spelling trouble  all on her own for Moiz, but apparently she has an eligible brother with some issues. Aise issues, that everyone in their community is aware of them and no one wants to marry their daughter to him. So, Sanam's mom is looking for a bahu from outside of their community, jo unkay betay se dabbi rahay.

Sawaal sirf yeh hei - Will Sanam's mom insist on exchanging her daughter for Khalida's? Or will Khalida use her religious manipulations to get Zoya married to the rotten apple instead of Junaid.

Zoya at the concert. Because lord knows we are being setup for (at the very least) a good 15 episodes of zulm and sitam on poor Zoya - so let's enjoy her smiley face while we can...

This drama promises to be another time pass for me. I'm relieved the relationships are already in place, so hopefully the pace will be steady. Agha Ali is convincing as a college rockstar who is genuinely in love with Zoya, and Bushra Ansari is scary as heck as Khalida. Dad has asthma - so there is little hope that he will be able to survive long enough to help poor Zoya when she eventually gets married to someone that isn't Junaid.

But then...why watch a drama if you have no hope to be surprised? :)