The promos for ‘Parizaad’ definitely had the audience hooked. A cast with numerous fan favourites, a new controversial look for Ahmed to say the least and a script penned by the writer from ‘Ishq Zahe Naseeb‘, the expectations were quite high, however, it failed to impress the viewers.
After a slow and rather underwhelming start, the second episode was definitely an improvement from its debut episode last week albeit still a bit tedious. More on that below:
Story
Parizaad is a Hum TV drama by Hashim Nadeem and director Shehzad Kashmiri. It revolves around the titular Parizaad, played by Ahmed Ali Akbar, who has been overlooked and shunned his whole life by society and his family due to his dark complexion.
The first episode which aired last week gave us an introduction to his world. But one mistake of writing a love letter for a friend comes back to bite him as the letter got caught and the handwriting is immediately identified as his.
The First Episode
Ahmed Ali Akbar gives a very subtle performance as Parizaad, truly capturing the essence of his character. Ushna Shah, who plays Naheed, also does a fine job as Parizaad’s new student who struggles with her Urdu. The episode mostly serves as an introduction to a few of the characters but does an adequate job at setting up the plot.
What became the centre of discussion was the problematic storyline of colourism. The show seems to be spreading awareness on the issue and yet it’s quite ironic for the creators to cast a light-skinned actor and apply brownface makeup instead of giving a dark-skinned actor a chance. Viewers have already begun criticizing them for it.
The Second Episode
The major bulk of the episode was spent on the ramifications of what went down in the first episode. Naheed’s father, played by Syed Muhammad Ahmed, takes the letter to Parizaad to confront him. What followed was some pretty standard and cliché Pakistani show melodrama with a slap from the girl’s father and a beating from his own brothers.
While the rest of the episode is really slow-paced and standard, the real meat of the episode comes in the second half, right before the end. Shoki, the town rascal played by Raza Ali Abid, while apologizing to Parizaad tells him that he was not alone with Naheed when he dropped the letter.
This compels Parizaad to follow Naheed from college where it is revealed that she has been in an affair herself and stayed quiet only to protect her image. This leaves Parizaad feeling shocked and betrayed who stayed silent to protect Naheed’s image whereas she acted selfishly.
Naheed also drops a rather insensitive comment about no one ever suspecting her to be in a relationship with someone like him which hurts Parizaad. The episode ends with Parizaad standing at a train station making it seem like he is about to commit suicide.
The viewers get more insight into Ushna Shah’s character. Though, Ahmed Ali Akbar’s acting overpowers others. He perfectly conveyed the sense of betrayal merely through his eyes.
The directing and editing have improved from last week. There were interesting shots in the confrontation at the start of the episode. However, there were a few scenes ending abruptly which were distracting the viewers from the story but this episode flowed better overall.
While most of the episode was very slow-paced, an issue with a majority of our dramas, the new developments in the end with Naheed definitely made us want more. We are definitely hooked for the next episode to see how all of this unfolds. Hopefully, the following episodes have more story to offer.
