It’s been a while since I’ve been writing for MangoBaaz and ShowSha, and there’s one drama that always gets a lot of attention and love, and no it’s not ‘Humsafar’. ‘Sadqay Tumharay’ starred Mahira Khan and Adnan Malik; a show that focused on the dynamic of village and city life, as well as how family and love operates within the urban-rural spectrum.
‘Sadqay Tumharay’ revolves around Shano and Khalil, cousins who have been engaged since their childhood.
What I LOVED about the show were the dialogues and the character building. From the get-go, the show hits you with some really intense dialogues about love and life. Shano, in particular, is a very pensive character. She is often lost in her thoughts, and at the beginning of the show, she has a simple way of looking at the world, everything is on one plane and her life has been about Khalil and her marriage to him. Shano has moments of maturity and clarity. She has an understanding of the fact that her mangni was just verbal and that it is very possible that Khalil does not know, or is not interested in marrying her.
However, all that changes when Khalil and Shano finally met at a family wedding.
Initially, it’s a clash of personalities, Khalil and stubborn and angry, while Shano is demure and quiet, for a moment it seems inconceivable that they would be together, but a few makai ki rotis and an intense staring competition later, it seems like love is in the air. Their dialogues first start poles apart, but soon they begin to sound like each other; poetic, angry and in love.
The characters go through massive transformations within the first few episodes.
Shano becomes bolder, while Khalil starts to get more intense with his anger; they both are in love and they both are fighting for their right to be together but family politics and feuds make the fight harder. The story molds in to a fight against egos and forces much larges than just Khalil and Shano. The drama encompasses within it a story about family politics and the power games that are played in our gaon dihaat. Khalil may belong to the city, but he must embroil himself in the village dynamics to truly to able to marry Shano.
The characters are simple, yet the situations they find themselves in are complex; they fight to be with each other, with everyone in their lives pulling them in different directions.
Going into the show, I thought it would be a very ‘typical’ village drama, but it surpassed my expectations. The show is about so much more. While the show did play on a lot of stereotypes, it also breaks some while also expanding on the dihaat culture, developing it further, and making it more complex.