‘Noor Ul Ain’ is the most recent addition to Pakistan’s collection of drama serials. The cast is headed by Sajal Aly,  Imran Abbas, and veteran actress Iffat Umar. We decided to give the show a shot, you know to see what all the fuss is about, but it sort of left us very confused.

The show is premised on Sajal’s character, ‘Noor Ul Ain’, having a car accident with Khizer Hayat (yup, Imran Abbas), and well he sort of falls for her like foran se.  Khizer uses the car accident to court her and thus begins the love story. Now let’s get into the nitty-gritty.

The thing I personally liked the most was how the most powerful characters are Noor and her Chachi, Ghazala. Noor Ul Ain’s character is pretty strong. She’s an educated young girl from a lower-middle-class family. She aims to please her father, but she’s also very willing to challenge the societal pressures placed on her.

Apart from Noor’s immediate family, her Chacha and Chachi live in the same neighborhood. Because of their close proximity, Noor and her Chachi, Ghazala, share a very intimate relationship. It’s interesting to see two of this drama’s very powerful characters so friendly.

They are both vulnerable with one another and share the most private of thoughts.

Ghazala is very complex in her own right. Her husband is paralyzed and she is his sole caretaker.  Her dialogues are a bit hypocritical, she’s all about empowering Noor and making her realize that she’s an educated young lady, while at the same time she’s spiteful of Noor’s father celebrating the fact that his daughters earn money. On multiple occasion, she said ‘dekho zara Bhai ko, betiyon ki paison par jee rahay hai’. 

Now let’s take a look at Khizer! He’s your typical rich boy from a rich family. He and his mom are constantly at locker heads about him ‘growing up’ and taking responsibility. What I particularly did not like about Khizer is how ‘typical’ he is. He’s from a wealthy family, and he has lived in London, but couldn’t ‘settle’ so he moved back.

Show of hands, how many times have we heard THAT before?.

Now lets come to Khizer and Noor. Khizer falls head over heels for Noor at the time of the car accident. He uses ‘car repairs’ to meet her again and about the second time they meet, he proposes to her! Noor shoots him down perfectly when her immediate reaction is ‘Mujhe pata tha tum ISS tarah ke larkay ho!’. 

Khizer is hopelessly in love with her, and it’s rather disturbing. He makes up lies to meet her and is always using stereotypical pickup lines to win her over. This obviously doesn’t sit well with Noor who catches up and tells him off for his behavior. Khizer’s character, therefore, is perfectly balanced with Noor’s.

Also, this whole love story is stereotypical as it is, but the writers of this drama just HAD to add the dynamic surrounding social class and wealth. Although the drama has just started, it can be pretty easy to predict that its about to become a very large point of contention. We’ve seen it all before, and sadly it seems like ‘Noor Ul Ain’ will also follow that path.

For me, the only potential I see in the show are from the characters of Ghazala and Noor. Their relationship is very interesting. Ghazala keeps pushing Noor to re-think the proposal from Khizer, and hints are a ghost from the past, which, if the show pursues, can lead to an interesting plot point. Ghazala warns her about turning into a person named ‘Shumaila’ whom we can only assume to have been her daughter. Apparently, Shumaila was in love but never told her parents. Ghazala isn’t liberal with the details but it seems like Shumaila took her own life, as a result of which her husband’s health deteriorated.

The show is still is in its young phase, so we can keep our eyes on it and see how it progresses. After all this is a Sarmad Khoosat serial, so one can only hope it’s going to pick up at some point.

Have you seen the first two episodes of the show?

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