a good guy?
Ho hum, humdrum
Elam’s father is an honest employee and kind-hearted chacha to his
nephew. Ramish too respects and
loves him dearly. His sudden illness
leads Ramish to his home (again,
been there done that) where he falls
in love at first sight with Elma. For a
change though Elma too holds his
gaze so she is not some sharmili
larki who can’t deal with budding
feelings of love and she says just
as much in some very cringe-inducing dialogue. That Ayeza Khan was
saying these lines is the only thing
that saves them from being a total
disaster. All this dovetails very well
to what is becoming something of
a rule in dramas these days: ‘Thou
may only be romantically inclined
to persons who are near relations.’
This has practically become a commandment for dramas these days.
Hence, the romance between Elma and Ramish who
are distant relations as well as flirting cousins. The story
has all the ingredients of a Bollywood flick on an overdose of glycerin (told you it’s a 70s throwback): zulm,
ziyati, shak. While word of the drama sent girls on Twitter in a hashtag frenzy claiming they didn’t want to watch
a depressing play, the team came back to say that they
have changed a lot of the screenplay. Would that then
explain the cringe-inducing dialogue? I present Exhibit
A: “Aysa kon sa scale hai jis pe mohabbat ko measure
kiya ja sakte hai? Iska matlab hai ki appne kabhi mohabbat nahin ki. Varna aap jante ke jo dil hai na, ye khud ek
scale hota hai jis pe khud ba khud sare readings aa jati
hai. Appni bhi aur dosron ki bhi. (Translation: What kind
of scale do you use to measure love? That means you
have never been in love. Or you would know that the
heart has its own scale – one that can measure one's
REPORT
own reading and others' too.) While Ramish seems to be
impressed conceding, “I am speechless.” I am too, but
not for the right reasons.
Other players
Nothing new is on offer here. The only hope lies in the
fact that director Yasir Nawaz has the ability to extract
stellar performances and hopefully create visual texture with Naeem Mustafa, the director of photography.
That he has a solid cast of actors to work with ups the
ante. Ayeza Khan is beautiful and easily fits into the dutiful daughter role. It is a good role reversal for from her
magroor hasina Farah in Pyare Afzal to bholi beti here.
She might just be the saving grace. Imran Abbas is an
actor who completely molds himself into the character
he plays. He injected soulfulness in his last romantic
outing and can probably play this character with his eyes closed. An actor his
stature deserves better than just dapper
suits and it might benefit him to choose
roles that challenge him. As for the story, the stage is being set for the starcrossed lovers. Ramish’s parents with
their firm ideas of class boundaries are
less than impressed with son’s socialist
tendencies. Khala too, is cross with her
niece’s attempts to behkao her simpleton son. All this spells doom and gloom
to follow. Lets just hope that there are
some romantic moments and good acting to rise about the sub-par script. If
the first episode is any indication, I am
hoping that the loud background score
can drown out the terrible writing. Though honestly, I am
not holding my breath.
9 | BOOM