Drama Update - February 2016

Even though our blog posts have dwindled to few and far between, we continue to watch dramas off-the-blog like a student studies for O' Level exams. (Thank you YouTube, thank you wifi, and thank you smartphone.) So, we decided to do this post just to give you a snap shot of what to watch or what not to watch as far as the dramas that we are watching go. For simplicity's sake, the dramas are in alphabetical order. But you'll know the duds - cos pointing those out is kind of our speciality. *smirk*

100 Din Ki Kahani

This drama is an easy watch with an interesting enough story to keep you coming back. Sanam Chaudhry and Furqan Quraishi look good together and the side stories are also entertaining and not just fillers. Due to some unknown reason (to me), this drama has stopped airing. I feel pretty cheated because I looked forward to this every weekend. #SoSad

Highlight: The churail nand's husband is planning to dethrone her the same way she is ousting her own sister-in-law and I can't WAIT for karma to come bite her in the butt. 

Abro

OMG. This drama - I am head over heels in love with it, and for the life of me, I AM NOT SURE WHY. LOL. Eight episodes in and this appears to be the classic Akbari-Asghari type drama of acha beta vs burra beta and achi bahu vs burri bahu. The drama is moving at a steady pace and, quite frankly, I managed to happily (understatement here) binge watch the episodes because it keeps you engaged. 

Highlight: Some ah-may-zing performances that will leave your heart bleeding like the characters'...

Low light: The actress playing Abro is a bit (read: humongous) of an eye and ear sore - she's loud and has an annoyingly monotone dialogue delivery.

Aitraz

Holy crap. Where do we start? You have this plethora of big names - Sania Saeed, Imran Abbas, Sana Javed, Gohar Rasheed - and this completely brainless story that continues on repeat and makes you want to question your sanity for bothering to tune in week after week. Seriously, thank your lucky stars if you managed to not watch this disaster.

Highlight: Nothing. Nada. 

Lowlight: EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS DRAMA. 

Bay Qasoor

If there was an award for most Depressing Drama, this would be the perfect contender. I started to watch this for Samina Peerzada, but now I'm just left wondering why she agreed to do this drama in the first place. Luckily (or unluckily?) the pace of this drama keeps me coming back just to see how things could possibly go even more wrong for the poor ma and beti. 

Highlight: Sajid Hassan's character's round about turn has been perticularly engrossing. He just randomly goes from absent-father to father-of-the-year and, in my humble opinion, only an actor that is so well seasoned can pull off that kind of a change and leave us convinced. Bravo. 

Lowlight: Hira makes me want to slap someone. And the phuppi ka spoiled brat beta is bad enough being a spoiled brat, but he can't act either. Annoying times infinite. 

Gul E Rana

Since we already have a detailed post on this drama and why it should be dumped, I won't write more here. (I typed this before I typed the Lowlights. Grrr. This drama...Grrrrr) 

Highlight: Zafri was the only highlight for me because atleast he was amusing.

Lowlight: Adeel. Feroze Khan playing Adeel. Adeel's wardrobe. Rana. Rana and her being a prude. Rana being a doormat. Asher and his questionable motives. Taya. Rana's mom that only appears once every two episodes. The lack of story. The lack of intelligent conversation between Rana and Adeel. The lack of intelligence period. 

Mana Ka Gharana

Hmmm. I have mixed feelings about this drama. It has a story, it has well sketched characters, it's moving along nicely...overall it has no issues. Yet, when I watch it, I keep wanting a key storyline - the big POINT of the whole drama. Is it about good guys finish last? Is it about how money is the root of all evil? Is it about true love always wins in the end? What is that big wow that makes this drama special? I'm not sure yet. However, it's an easy watch and I really need to watch something that will help me renew my loyalty to Sana Javed after Aitraz and Paiwand.

Highlight: Shehroz Sabzwari wows as Khizer aka the most perfect guy on this planet. You can't wait for Mana to come crawling back to Khizer after all the zulm her fiancé is heaping on him.

Lowlight: Barring the big wow, nothing to report.  

Man Mayal

Hamza Ali Abbasi returns to our screens to play the poor, hardworking, in love with a girl way out of his income bracket, chotay sheher ka lardka, dreaming along the lines of papa kehtay hein bara naam karayga...*picture me raising an eyebrow* I want to be enthusiastic, really, I do, but didn't he just play this character in Pyaray Afzal?
Highlight: Great visuals. The OST sounds like something from Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas soundtrack (and I loved the music and Madhuri in that movie, so in my book, that's a win). Aiman Khan - even though she's just playing the little sister - deserves honorable mention.
Lowlight: Ayesha Khan is in it. I repeat, AYESHA KHAN IS IN IT. Lord help us all...

Mein Kaise Kahoon

An evil Bhabi, a sister-like best friend, a dur ka rishtaydaar eligible bachelor...all these components make this a cute drama to watch as a relief from the other hardcore stories on air these days. 

Highlight: Maria's love for Samar and sitaron ka haal are endearing. 

Lowlight: Episode 6 promises to be heartbreaking. Bummer. 

Naraaz

Faisal Quraishi redeems himself (after flops like Mein Bushra and Mol) and gives us Naraaz. Naraaz has a solid story and I love watching how seamlessly the director has managed to capture subtleties of relationships. Honorable mention for Asad being an amazing friend, and the voice of reason, to our boy Azlan through his trials.

Highlights: Faisal Qureshi and Sarah Khan share an electric chemistry onscreen. Aazar is cute as a button, and his one-on-ones with Nana Abu are absolutely adorable. 

Lowlights: Azlan's ex-colleague, Aisha - it's just unappealing how desperately obvious it is that she has the hots for Azlan. 

Preet Na Kariyo

Thank god Hum TV decided to apologize for airing crap like Gul E Rana and Sangat by airing gems like these. Wonderful characters, wonderful dialogues, wonderful acting. Applause for all the actors. Ahsan Khan reminds us why we love him.

Highlight: I am officially a Hira Salman fan. She has managed to paint a flawless picture of Shagufta, and create a character who you will hate but love, disapprove of but admire.

Lowlight: The casting of Shagufta's younger brother grown up. Kaheen se Bhai nahi lagta woh uska. #CastingFail

Sangat

Saba Qamar takes on the topic of rape, but the plot got lost within the first few episodes and never recovered. It was less about her and her story and more about Shahvez and his quest for forgiveness for an unforgivable act. I'm sorry, were we supposed to sympathize with that animal? 

Highlight: It's over. 

Lowlight: Let's just do everyone a favor and not discuss this hideous drama, its hideous story, and its hideous message.

Sehra Mein Safar

Another time pass that I'm tuning into weekly just to see where the drama will go. I like how they have shown a very natural progression of how Iqra's life has changed and how these changes are effecting her as a person.

Highlight: Ali Kazmi returns to our screens and if he was irresistible in his tanks, he's even cuter as the nerdy glasses wearing Ayaz.

Lowlight: Iqra and her prudish ways. Seriously, you can maintain a distance from men and not be confrontational or rude. Gees. 

Tere Mere Beech

This drama doesn't bring anything new to the table or any mind blowing performances, except Sanam Chaudhry who has done a phenomenal job portraying the conflicted and proud Hareem, which is why I keep watching. 

Highlight: looking forward to how Agha Ali's character is going to react when he finds out his heiress isn't an heiress. #Woops

Lowlight: Saba Faisal as Nighat. Her treatment of Hareem is abominable and her character is borderline crazy because she can't decide whether to be nice to Hareem or yell at her (sometimes for no reason).

And there you have it friends - a nice, long, round up for this month of some hits and some misses that we are watching. Of course, even while we complete this there are some new dramas starting that we're looking forward to (Mera Yaar Miladay and Pakeeza to begin with), so go ahead and leave us a line in the comments if you enjoyed the post and would like to see something similar next month!

Until then, happy watching!

Gul E Rana - Episode 13 Update

Psych...this is more like episode 11 and 12. We'll get to episode 13 once you've forgotten what happened in episode 15. Can you blame us if we're late? We are forcing ourselves  to watch this dung heap and then write it up as well.


I just want to let it go on record that regardless of how the beginning episodes of this drama lulled us into a sense of, 'This drama will be good,' we all knew that the only reason we considered watching this drama is because we wanted to see the Feroze-Sajal chemistry with our own eyes. And as anticipated, all has gone to hell as far as storyline and character development goes. So, it's only fair that we update our rating and present to you...

Reasons Why We Should Be Exorcing Gul E Rana From Our Drama List - And Our Memory. 

Reason 1: Adeel, aka Douchey Devdas aka Jerkface

Our favourite character (not) from Chup Raho, Douchey Devdaas in his new role as Royal pain in the Butt Douchey is just as irritating.

Let's start with the fact that he had no sense of style. He's all like...

And I'm like...

And lets not forget that horrendous fedora which is two sizes too small for Adeel's big fat head.

Reason 2: Gul E Rana aka Majboor and Mazloom

The main protagonist Rana is driving me bonkers. She has just enough spark that gives you hope that she won't be one if those weeping wilting beauties. Then two scenes later she crumbles into a weeping willow. Thank you writer for giving us hope and then dashing it.

Reason 3: Adeel's commute
When episode 11 begins, Adeel has managed to get Rana all to himself at his Murree home. He works in the Islamabad office, but lives in Murree. I don't even want to think about the commute everyday...but Adeel thinks it's doable, so I guess we have no choice but to go with it. It's not like it's the most illogical thing happening in this drama.
Apparently the drive between Islamabad and Murree is less than two hours. Now referring to last frame of previous meme...adeel isnt home between 11 and 4. Taking traffic into consideration, lets say its a straight 2 hour drive which means if he leaves for work at 11:00, reaches work at 1:00, he then has to leave at 2:00 to be back home by 4:00.

Reason 4: The Chai Obsession

Apparently, when in doubt - or happiness, or anger, or denial, or on the prowl - have a cup of chai. They drink so much chai that by the first quarter of the episode I have to pause the drama to make myself a cup of chai. Did someone decide Feroze Khan and Sajjal Ali looked so cute in a chai advertisement that they decided to continue filming nonsense for another 2 months and call the production Gul E Rana? 

Reason 5: Haphazard flow of one scene to another

Let's talk about one of the biggest issues with this drama: the scenes don't flow and have no consistency. Scene one, Adeel says he's going out. Next scene, Adeel gate crashes Rana's property tour. In different clothes.

Or how about Adeel (who apparently sleeps in his sports jacket) decides to bring up the randomest discussion about who Rana can day dream about and Rana shuts him down. Next morning he orders her to make him nashta and then *bam* next thing you know, Adeel and Rana are sitting having breakfast together like a normal couple. #WTF

Reason 6: Behroze Subzwari

WHY WOULD YOU SIGN UP FOR THIS MONSTROSITY? It's like the drama makers could only afford him for 20 minutes worth of acting so they have to play those 20 minutes in every single episode (as a flashback) to get their money's worth. 

Reason 7: Asher Bhai

My issues with Asher are numerous, the most pressing being, again, why Imran Ashraf is doing this crappy role after his awesomeness in Mohabbat Aag Si? Is he or isn't he in love with Rana? If he is, why is he getting married to someone else? If he isn't, why does he stalk her - especially when he knows Adeel hates his guts - and cry on the phone with her? And lastly, Rana tu Asher ki zindagi ki bheek maang rahi thi Adeel se, so why is she calling him and sharing her dil ki baatein with him again?

Episode 8: Rana's abandoned parhaee

The world is full of Malala haters, but looks like Rana Bibi is another example of our society not thinking twice about girls and their right to education. Adeel's main problem was Rana meeting Asher at college - well, there ain't no Asher here. Why can't Mr. Douchey give Rana a ride to university in the city, since he commutes everyday anyway?

Reason 9: Mona

Who is this skank and why is she here? She's running away from boys stalking her to ADEEL? Matlab out of the frying pan into the fire? Darakth se gira, khujoor mein atka? 

Reason 9: Plausible Claim of Insanity

...what else explains Adeel and Rana's stupid talks over and over and over again?

Reason 10: Blaming the victim

What the f is this? So Skank Mona is hit on by Adeel (which feels like a staged scene), Rana tells her off for being enticingly dressed (apparently a tshirt and FULL sleeping pj pants are not modest enough for Shariah Inspector Rana) and then Adeel tries to blame Mona for attracting him. #Facepalm

Reason 11: The confusing creature known as Adeel

What is UP with this guy? He's a jerk or he's a jerk being a bigger jerk? He does unacceptable harkatein (Mona pe zabardasti) and then is all concerned nazrain for his wife. He slaps his wife and then goes all horrified while she gives a soliloquy about what he will do when someone does it to his daughter. (I don't know about you, but as soon as Rana said, "Tumhari Beti," I totally lost all train of thought except that baby girls don't fall from the sky...#CantHelpIt)

Reason 12: Taya Abu 

He's a wolf in a sheep disguise. Taya Abu sure did extract a heavy price from Rana for harboring her and her family after her father's death. Seriously, Adeel doesn't make me as angry as Taya Abu. And when Adeel is doing all kinds of bakwas, instead of putting him in his place, Taya Abu is busy telling Rana she needs to be a doormat to make her marriage work. I guess we all know why Rana's father left and never looked back. 

Reason 13: Money

It's disgusting how amongst everything else, we now also have to put up with Adeel making ugly remarks about how much money he has and Rana doesn't have. #Crass

It's been 13 (LONG) episodes and for like the past 5 all we've done is watch Adeel and Rana go back and forth. To add to this bakwas we have the cousin that is expected to arrive at any minute. Honestly, I don't think I can take much more of this. Not even Sajjal Ali can make me tune into this. And that's saying A LOT. I think I'm just going to stop watching and ask for an episode summary from N. 

You mean I have to continue watching this rubbish?