Hum TV’s much-loved rom-com Pyar Ke Sadkay came to close Thursday night with a happy ending that left viewers satisfied.
Starring Bilal Abbas Khan, Yumna Zaidi, Atiqa Odho and Omair Rana among others, Pyar Ke Sadkay is a love story of two bawlas (simpletons) Abdullah (Bilal) and Mahjabeen (Zaidi) who end up getting married after fate throws them together. Over the course of the drama, they fall in love and overcome several obstacles along the way including an ex-crush Shanzay (Yashma), a manipulative father-in-law Sarwar (Omair Rana) and a weak mother-in-law Mansoora Begum (Atiqa Odho) before finally ending up together in the last episode.
Though the last episode paid attention to all the subplots in the drama and ensured that there is no loose end left, I do wish it was not as rushed as it was. Throughout its run, the drama has been well-paced except in the last couple of episodes which were a bit of a drag. But that doesn’t mean the finale did not have its moments. In fact, there were plenty of them starting with Abdullah telling Shanzay to shut up, Mahjabeen’s mother refusing to take a settlement from Abdullah, Abdullah’s run-in with Sarwar and finally the confrontation between Mansoora Begum and Sarwar. The finale was packed with drama and had viewers hooked. Abdullah’s evolution in the last episode was brilliant and every time he stood up to his bullies, you couldn’t help but cheer.
On the flip, I do wish that Pho and Washma were given more attention in the finale. Mahjabeen’s pregnancy was also forgotten and Sarwar’s moment with his mother just seemed forced and out of place. I really didn’t understand why Sarwar is upset with his mother and blames her for all his actions.
Meanwhile, the performances were absolutely brilliant – whether it was Yumna, Bilal, Atiqa, Omair, Shra Asghar (Washma) or Salman Hassan – each one of them did complete justice to their characters. Credit for the amazing acting also goes to the director Farooq Rind who brought out the best from his actors.
Zanjabeel Asim Shah’s script was solid and the characters very likeable. Some of the dialogues, especially those by Mahajabeen’s mother were powerful and thought-provoking.
Pyar Ke Sadkay was one of those rare, well-written and well-produced drama which you enjoyed watching. Will definitely miss watching Abdullah and Mahjabeen’s shenanigans every Thursday but onto the next now.
Step aside folks, Pakistan has truly arrived at the web series front with Churails. Though this is not the first original web series to come out of Pakistan, it is indeed the one that has put us on the map and from this point onwards, there is no looking back.
Created and directed by Cake director, Asim Abbasi, Churails features Sarwat Gilani, Yasra Rizvi, Nimra Bucha and Meharbano as the four churails (witches) who are here to shake things up. Bakhtawar Mazhar, Sameena Nazir, Zara Khan, Mareeha Safdar, Amtul Baweja, Meher Jaffri and Shabana Hassan play the chosen seven while the male leads include Omair Rana, Kashif Hussain, Fawad Khan and Sarmed Aftab. There are plenty of cameos in the series, some of which are bound to surprise you and keep you hooked even more.
The series is about four women from completely different backgrounds come together one rainy night and decide that they have suffered enough at the hands of the men in their life. They come up with the idea of setting up a detective agency under the guise of a hijab and burqa store with the aim to get justice their way. They then set up an army of baby churails – the Chosen Seven – and train them to carry out their spying and sleuthing missions. The interesting bit is that their team is not all women – their army also consists of two men, one of whom is a hacker. All is going well for the Churails until of their own goes missing and the women come face to face with the powerful men of the city.
Churails has been wonderfully directed and presented. I like how the director made sure to strike a balance. Contrary to popular belief, the series is not anti-men or ‘fahash (vulgar)’ from any angle – it aims to challenge the system of patriarchy and break stereotypes surrounding outspoken and confident women. While the series shows plenty of ‘bad’ men, on the other end it shows decent men also, who support the women around them. Similarly, while they show mazloom and oppressed women, they also show women who support the system and enable the men around them. At the same time, I also liked how Asim cleverly combined fiction with reality. While the concept of Churails and all-women superhero team is something we all wish for, it is unrealistic at the end of the day. However, the situations the Churails find themselves in are very much real and oftentimes uncomfortable.
Perhaps the strongest part of the whole series were the performances, cinematography and music. The performances were absolutely phenomenal – it was like each role was written with the actor in mind – whether it was Sarwat as Sara ‘the perfect wife’ or Yasra as the hippie wedding planner Jugnu or Meharbano as Zubaida the young girl aspiring to be a boxer, each actor put forward their best foot. As for Nimra Bucha, she was on another level as Batool. She spoke little and had limited dialogues but the way she communicated with her eyes and expressions was just brilliant. The male actors also deserve a round of applause, especially Hussain as Shams and Aftab as Dilbar. Not only were they great in their roles, but their characters were also likeable. Omair Rana was fantastic as the manipulative politician and Sara’s husband Jamil as were the Chosen Seven.
Mo Azmi is a master of his craft and with Churails, he did his thing with finesse. He shot each frame meticulously, paying attention to detail, because of which the entire show was so aesthetically pleasing. The way he shot the frames in which the faces weren’t showing was simply mind-blowing. I particularly liked how Azmi played with lights to create an impact. The music of the series was also well-thought-out and each track and sound perfectly complemented the mood of the scene and added depth and character. Kudos to the music director for using music so deftly.
Production value of the series was also high with beautiful sets and chic costumes. I particularly loved Sara’s wardrobe – so glamourous.
Churails HQ
While everything seems to be going right with the series otherwise, the one department which was I felt was a little weak was the editing, which would have been crisper. Each episode is approximately one hour long. Most web series have 45-minute episodes. Keeping that in mind, I do wish the episodes were a tad bit shorter. However, given how much I enjoyed the series, I’m willing to overlook this.
Shams
Overall the show is fun, fierce and full of sass. Asim attempted to shake things up with his series and I think he definitely did because these feisty and badass ‘Churails’ are here to stay. I would highly recommend everyone, especially all women to watch the series because I’m pretty sure you all will thoroughly enjoy it.
Churails is currently streaming on Zee5, which is accessible in Pakistan. The service operates similarly to Netflix and Amazon Prime and requires a subscription. While the subscription is usually Rs 2500/year, they are currently offering a deal through which you can get the subscription for Rs 1500 for the whole year. Payment can be done via a credit card.
Sarwat Gilani has revealed that she took inspiration from Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada for her character in Churails. Sarwat plays a lawyer turned trophy wife Sara in the series.
In a recent interview with an Indian media outlet, Gilani shared: “In TV and films, you have to emote a lot for the audience to feel the pain or happiness but for the web it had to be altered to zero. I had to unlearn and start new. In The Devil Wears Prada, Streep doesn’t say much but her aura is so powerful. I even got inspired by Angelina’s [Jolie] film Mr and Mrs Smith, I wanted to take that subtleness.”
She added, “Basically, I adapted the subtleness of these strong personalities in my character.”
Talking further about the show, Gilani said that director Asim Abbasi’s aim was to break the stereotype that a woman who steps out of the house is bad and the one who stays home and takes care of the house in good. She said Pakistani dramas are often unable to portray women like they are and end up sugarcoating them and presenting an unrealistic character.
“The stories are fictional. There is not much reality attached to it, although we see some stories in the news every day. Like a guy throwing acid on a woman because she refused to marry him. But we don’t want to talk about it in the entertainment sector, we want to sugarcoat the story. Asim wanted to break this,” said the actor.
“In Churails we didn’t need a man to rescue a woman, we wanted to show that a woman can stand for herself and uplift other women going through problems.”
Meanwhile, Gilani is thrilled about the response they are getting for Churails.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD3gppMD2bn/
Created and directed by Cake director Asim Abbasi, Churails is now streaming on ZEE5. The series also features Yasra Rizvi, Nimra Bucha, Omair Rana and Meharbano in the lead roles.
We just found out that there exists a desi version of FRIENDS made by ZeeTv. Episodes of the desi version titled ‘HELLO FRIENDS‘ are on YouTube and it is not only unfunny but also unoriginal because the makers copied each and every scene and the exact dialogues from the original. Needless to Friends fans were outraged with this and some even called it a bigger pandemic than COVID-19.
A Twitter user posted a video of its opening scene on the microblogging site and people think it was not a good idea to make a desi version of the super hit show.
experts are saying coronavirus is the worst pandemic of our time? thats cute. i think ur forgetting about summer of 1999 when the entire executive board of https://t.co/bq6CuYEvK4 did acid and decided to make desi Friends pic.twitter.com/KgY50doG87
experts are saying coronavirus is the worst pandemic of our time? thats cute. i think ur forgetting about summer of 1999 when the entire executive board of https://t.co/bq6CuYEvK4 did acid and decided to make desi Friends pic.twitter.com/KgY50doG87
I don’t know what’s more cringe. That central perk is a shady bar, Ross is played by Nikhil Chinappa, Rachel came in wearing god knows what or that Chandler is played by Cyrus I need to bathe to get this cringe off me
Momina Mustehsan and Muneeb Butt lashed out at Kangana Ranaut for “dragging” Pakistan into all her arguments.
“Why does Pakistan get dragged into all your arguments?” questioned Momina. “It serves no purpose but takes away from your mission to rightly get justice for SSR (Sushant Singh Rajput), fight nepotism, your own internal state politics and curb religious hatred and prejudice.”
“Justice can’t be achieved by propagating regional hatred,” she added.
Why does Pakistan get dragged into all ur arguments?🤦🏻♀️ It serves no purpose, but takes away frm ur mission to rightly get justice for SSR, fight nepotism, ur own internal state politics & curb religious hatred & prejudice. Justice cant be achieved by propagating regional hatred🙏🏼 https://t.co/vI4VkvalgW
Butt voiced a similar opinion, saying: “Why are they so obsessed with Pakistan?”
Why are they so obsessed with Pakistan their stupid media reflects the true image of their mentality, Zyada masla h Pakistan se tu bheju koi pilot Tea is ready. https://t.co/MXn9X6IWtH
Ranaut, who has been actively campaigning against the Bhatts including Alia and Mahesh and accusing them of driving Sushant Singh Rajput to suicide, in a recent tweet passed an anti-Pakistan statement in order to make her point against them. Kangana was objecting to Alia’s dialogue in her upcoming film Sadak 2 which is: “In guruo ki wajah se mainay kisi apne ko khoya hai.”
Nice observation, can they replace Guru with Maulavi and Kailash scandal with Macca scandal?Does Sadhus lynchings have something to do with these prejudices? Why Pankistani Pimps are allowed to spread religious hate and prejudices in Bharat? -KR #Sadak2#sadak2trailerhttps://t.co/cZUvqXftzu
Labelling someone as a “Pakistani tout” is nothing new and Indians often use this label to bring down someone whose point of view they don’t agree with.
Things do not appear to be going well for Sadak 2. After becoming the most disliked trailer on YouTube with more than 8 million dislikes, the makers of the film have come under fire for stealing a Pakistani song and not giving the artist his due credit.
The matter came to light when Pakistani artist Shezan Saleem a.k.a JO-G, who is also the son of veteran musician and singer Saleem Javaid, uploaded a video in which he compares a song of the film Ishq Kamaal with a composition of his Rabba Ho released in 2011.
“A trailer for a Bollywood movie called Sadak 2 has just been released, and there is a song in it called Ishq Kamaal,” says Saleem in the video. “After listening to it, I realised that it sounds like a composition I had produced for a friend around 11 years ago. The friend’s name is Zaid Khan. I think they’ve copied it because not only the melody but the music is also very similar.”
Saleem then played both the songs and asked his followers to share their opinion on the matter. He later added that he will not stay quiet on the matter.
I won't stay quiet on this.. Sadak 2 Song Ishq Kamaal Copied from Our Pakistani song Rabba Ho from 2011 I produced the music of that song https://t.co/HfdNHqXcan
— Shezan Saleem a.k.a JO-G (@ssaleemofficial) August 13, 2020
Social media users hit out at the makers of the film, and the Bhatts in particular, for stealing the song.
This is absolutely shameless behavior of Bollywood music directors. How can u copy and then don't even acknowledge it..this is not China that u will start copying everything. As Bollywood want piracy to be stopped , they also need to stop lifting songs from everywhere illegally..
However, Saleem defended Mahesh and called him a “fine man”. He lamented that the music producers should be asked about this plagiarism.
Can't say that about Bhatt Saab. He is a fine man. He came to our house in Karachi in 2005. Also picked up a few songs that I produced for my dad back in the day for his upcoming movies. Then due to India-Pak tension never got released. Bt the music producers should be asked this
— Shezan Saleem a.k.a JO-G (@ssaleemofficial) August 12, 2020
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, Pooja Bhatt, who is one of the leads in the film, had previously said that Sadak 2 will introduce fresh music talent.
She had credited the song to a ‘music teacher from Chandigarh’, who had come to their office with “no prior appointment, a dream, a harmonium and a brilliant song called Ishq Kamaal.
Even #Sadak2 gives birth to a brand new talent in the form of @Suniljeet72 A music teacher from Chandigarh who came to our office with no prior appointment,a dream,a harmonium & a brilliant song called ‘Ishq Kamaal’ that was absorbed into the film on first hearing by my father.
Meanwhile, the composer of the song Suniljeet has denied the accusations and said that the song is his original composition.
“Ishq Kamaal is my original composition and doesn’t share a resemblance to any other song,” said Suniljeet. “Everybody involved in making this song including singer Javed Ali has added his magic to the music. This is my debut as a music director and all I hope for is that people like the song when it comes out. Shalu Vaish and I have worked with all our heart to live up to the expectation of Sadak 2 music.”
However, Saleem did not buy his arguments.
Ask any musician who is genuine and honest, they will listen to it and will say that how much both the compositions are similar. 10s of 1000s are listening to both knows it now as well. Original composition after 9 years of our original release? WOWhttps://t.co/gd4AGQYEF1https://t.co/7IxE2kjUWi
— Shezan Saleem a.k.a JO-G (@ssaleemofficial) August 13, 2020
Sadak 2 is a sequel of Mahesh Bhatt’s 1991 film Sadak and marks his return to direction after almost two decades. It was scheduled to release in theatres this summer, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will release digitally on Disney+ Hotstar on August 28.
Alia Bhatt, Sanjay Dutt, Aditya Roy Kapur and Pooja Bhatt’s upcoming film Sadak 2‘s trailer dropped yesterday and the film is already trending for the wrong reasons. While the trailer is trending at number 3 on YouTube Pakistan it has garnered more than 6 million dislikes becoming the most disliked trailer on YouTube. The film is being ‘disliked’ for being a “product of ‘nepotism”.
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, a campaign to make it the most disliked trailer on YouTube was initiated in the days leading up to its unveiling, by fans of Sushant Singh Rajput, who died by suicide on June 14. Sushant’s fans have been propagating the conspiracy theory that the actor was shunned by the film industry and the ‘insiders’, which drove him to suicide. At the time of Sushant’s death, fans and social media users had attacked Karan Johar and Alia for having previously spoken dismissively about Rajput on the show Koffee With Karan.
The film is a sequel of Mahesh Bhatt’s 1991 film Sadak and marks his return to direction after almost two decades. It was scheduled to release in theatres this summer, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will release digitally on Disney+ Hotstar on 28 August.
Meanwhile, Pooja Bhatt responded to the hate by thanking the haters for making them trend.
😄Am absolutely not! Lovers/Haters two sides of the same coin. Gotta hand it to both for giving us their valuable time and making sure we are trending. Thank you for your wishes! 🙏
Netflix’s latest release Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, starring Janhvi Kapoor has also been trolled for similar reasons, with its IMDb rating being attacked.
The Sindh Government has come under fire after they shared pictures of restoration work done on Tando Fazal Monument (Masjid) Hyderabad. Their efforts did not sit well with the public who accused them of destroying heritage sites and whitewashing them. Following the criticism and backlash, the culture department deleted the tweets from social media.
Incompetence bordering on vulgarity, does @Ministerculture Sindh have anyone who has studied beyond 5th grade, such morons don't deserve to be allowed near any heritage site, 4 them motto seems let's make money, give a contract & take commission, another wonder of 18th amendment
The culture, antiquities and archaeology department of Sindh's twitter account has deleted their nonsensical "restoration and preservation" work photos on a three centuries old building. That doesn't eliminate the fact that they destroyed built heritage. Here's a refresher: pic.twitter.com/yhZEvTixZC
Unfortunately it’s origin has been demolished, it’s looking a new building, I have seen many pairings on walls of Jain temples in #Nagarparkar where contractors have pasted white cement on it, it’s not rehabilitations but destroying heritages.
The thing that really gets to me is that they didn’t even paint it properly. The walls of the niche are just half done up. If you are going to absolutelty ruin centuries of culture and heritage at least do it properly. pic.twitter.com/xdB0gJnMs6
Saba Qamar’s directorial venture with singer Bilal Saeed Qubool has finally been released after being mired in controversy last week. Saba and Bilal had come under fire for shooting a sequence at Masjid Wazir Khan and “humiliating the sanctity” of the holy place. They later apologised for hurting public sentiment and said that they will not be including the mosque sequence in their music video.
Qubool is a love ballad, which according to the makers, “is about falling in love, saying I do and yet learning to agree to disagree for life with love”. The music and melody is along the same lines as Bilal’s earlier hit Baari.
Saba has done a great job as usual as the director and the music video is endearing and full of warmth. The chemistry between the two leads is also lit.
Qubool has been written, composed, produced and performed by Bilal.
Hania Aamir, Feroze Khan, Ramsha Khan and Gohar Rasheed’s painstaking romantic saga Ishqiya came to a close Monday night with a finale that left viewers torn. While some thought the ending was fitting, others were rooting for a happy ending for Rumi (Hania) and Hamza (Feroze). But alas that did not happen, even though Hamna (Ramsha) and Azeem (Gohar) got their happy ending. If you ask me, I’m just glad that no one died or lost their sanity.
To be honest, I really was not a big fan of Ishqiya given its ridiculous storyline and I made that pretty clear at several instances (Here and here). But given the nature of my job and the fact that the drama trended every week on YouTube (the last episode is trending at number two on YouTube Pakistan) and social media, I had no choice but to follow it and try to figure out what exactly made it a hit. After much thought and going through audience comments, I came to the conclusion that strong performances by the lead and supporting cast, Rumi (Hania) and Azeem’s (Gohar) characters and the chemistry between Hania and Feroze is what attracted audiences and made them tune in every Monday.
To sum up the plot in a few lines, Ishqiya was the story of two sisters Rumi and Hamna (Ramsha Khan) who have conservative, yet loving parents. Hamna is in a relationship with her class fellow Hamza but her father Siddiqui sahib (Shabbir Jan) gets her married to Azeem. Being an obedient daughter and a weak person, Hamna does not protest and goes ahead with her father’s wishes. This is when the problem begins. Hamza is heartbroken over Hamna’s marriage and thinks she betrayed him so he sets out to seek revenge from her by marrying her sister so he can be close to her and mentally torture her. In the process, he ends up falling for his wife but as they say, you reap what you sow. Pretty convoluted if you ask me.
While the actors did complete justice to their roles and delivered above-average performances – Hania was great as the bubbly, chirpy Rumi, while Ramsha fit perfectly as the sober and introverted Hamna; Gohar was wonderful as the soft-spoken Azeem and as for Feroze, he seems to have perfected the role of the ‘bad boy’ – they were let down by a weak script, bizarre plot and poorly written characters. The drama relied heavily on flashbacks, greatly testing our patience because while the present featured someone crying, the flashback saw the person crying even more. Basically, there is lots of crying in the drama, except a few moments of comic relief by Hania. Gohar and Hamna became monotonous in a few episodes because they maintained the same expressions. But then again that was more of the script’s fault than their own.
Similarly, Hania and Feroze’s chemistry was crackling and straight out of a Mills and Boons novel but again it was neither explored nor developed properly. The two complimented each other well and were one of the highlights of the drama.
Badar Mehmood has given us many memorable dramas including Cheekh and Balaa and I’m still trying to figure out why he opted for a project like this. But given the drama’s success, I’m scared that our directors and producers will continue to churn out such senseless and nonsensical stories. Written by Mohsin Ali Shah, Ishqiya was produced by Fahad Mustafa and Dr Ali Kazmi under their production house Big Bang Entertainment.
