TV shows: Time for a recap!

Catch up with some of your favourite TV shows.

ISLAMABAD:

‘Shehr e Zaat’

Fridays on Hum TV

Episode 9 (August 24)

Last week, the haze of Falak’s infatuation seemed to lift a bit as she questioned her decision to be with Salman. After the way he treated her when she told him that her father wanted him to join their family business raised some apprehensions in Falak’s mind. However, just when it seems that she might come to her senses, the episode ends with her getting married to him after all. One month later, Falak is extremely happy and Salman surprises us by being uncharacteristically good to her. We see them in a store with Salman seemingly buying her the entire perfume section, almost like he’s trying to make up for something. Moreover, Falak’s grandmother keeps trying to tell her she doesn’t have her priorities straight, but she really thinks she does — she’s happily married to a man she’s madly in love with, she’s working with her father and she’s about to have a baby. But as the crazy man at the beach says to her, it takes getting knocked down and losing something to realise one’s place in the grand scheme of things. Right now, Falak doesn’t see beyond her own little world and nobody can make her. Nani also comes to stay with Falak for a few days and it will be amusing to hear what she has to say about how Falak keeps her house, as some of the best scenes in the serial are between Falak and her grandmother.

‘Emaan’

Wednesdays on Express Entertainment

Episode 14 (August 15)

There were a lot of big moments in this episode. Aazi’s entire life plan backfires when Kathy, who has become a Muslim and adopted the name Emaan, tells him after their wedding that she’s decided to stay in Pakistan with him and his family instead of returning to America. Additionally, Aazi’s sister Sakina learns that her husband has married another woman and Sumbal finally finds out that her father has passed away. Since Aazi is only nice to people when he needs something from them, let’s see how long his undying love for Emaan lasts now that she’s no longer his ticket to America. Emaan keeps insisting that life in US is really lonely. She says there is technology and corporate culture in America but no humanity, making it sound like people there are heartless robots. Her character’s view seems quite skewed about the United States and its people, so if we complain that the portrayal of Pakistanis in foreign media is narrow, we should try not to make the same mistake ourselves.

‘Thakan’

Thursdays on ARY Digital

Episode 16 (August 23)

In this episode Kashan is slowly warming up to Sadaf, though not enough to accompany her to Mehak’s wedding to Khursheed. With Sadaf’s super-human patience, kindness and fortitude, this had to happen eventually. Mehak had to learn her lesson the hard way, after being stupid enough to show up alone at Haseeb’s house to ‘meet his parents’. But the lesson seems lost on her and instead of taking responsibility and accepting her mistake, she believes everything that happened to her is all Sadaf’s fault. Also, Kashan seems to hate everyone and everything and initially it’s easy to assume that it’s because he thinks he is above everybody else. However, it is learnt that his attitude comes not from a sense of superiority but from a deep-seated sense of insecurity and inadequacy. Sadaf learns this after a minor car accident when she hears him talking in his drugged state. She finds out that he thinks he’s not good enough and is afraid Sadaf may leave him too, just like his first wife Nargis. In his drug-induced sleep, he somehow made Sadaf promise to never leave him.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2012.