Audiences are tired of watching the same stories all the time. The damsel in distress in each story with triggering themes and plots in every serial, they yearn for something more lighthearted to watch. Sitcoms like ‘Bulbulay’ used to be just that but they all faded away eventually.
‘Suno Chanda’ was one such attempt at giving the audience something new and it went on to be a phenomenon, blowing audiences away back in 2018 which made many a star. The writer Saima Akram Chaudry went on to write several comedy serials such as ‘Chupke Chupke’ and ‘Hum Tum’, both of which were a collaboration between her and renowned director Danish Nawaz who is also known for serials such as ‘Sun Yaara’ and ‘Ishq Tamasha’.
The writer-director duo is back with yet another comedy serial ‘Kaala Doriya’’ which aired its first episode last night. Shot in the same house as ‘Suno Chanda’ with several familiar faces returning, was it able to be its own thing or is it just another attempt at replicating ‘Suno Chanda’’s success? Let’s discuss.
Story & Cast
This is a story of a once joint family that broke up into two over the fight between the two sons. Everything that happens in the show so far revolves around that fight and highlights the perspective of both sides and how each character feels about it.
Farhan Ali Agha and Sohail Sameer play the two brothers, who end up separating their old parents, played by Samina Ahmed and Khalid Anum, who still long for each other. The two daughters-in-law, played by Nadia Afghan and Zainab Qayyum, were once friends. The disgruntled Phupo, played by Tamkenat Mansoor, lives with her mother who wants to get married. And at the centre of this, we have Osman Khalid Butt and Sana Javed as Asfand and Mahnoor. Asfand’s sister-in-law and brother are played by Adla Khan and Shahzad Noor.
Samina Ahmed, Farhan Ali Agha, Nadia Afghan, and Sohail Sameer all return after playing renowned characters in ‘Suno Chanda’. Meanwhile, Osman Khalid Butt collaborates with the writer-director duo again, the last time being in ‘Chupke Chupke’, where he was also the lead. Sana Javed is the co-lead and a new face in this mix.
The phupo Bitto is a very fresh addition and feels like the most original character and is played very well by Tamkenat Mansoor, hoping to see more of her in the later episodes.
A Messy Start
The first episode is meant to be an introduction to all the characters and set up major story beats for later. This episode however feels like a convoluted mess. The entire episode is spent with characters busy in exposition dumping on the audience trying to get us up to speed with what conflict occurred five years ago and it’s rather hard to follow at times.
The majority of the episode is spent trying to figure out who is related to who and in what way, a family tree animation done in the style of ‘Game of Thrones’ would have been rather helpful in that regard. The choice to add not three but four generations does not help.
A Promising Start
While the show’s start is a messy one it’s also a promising one nonetheless. Once you get to know who is who and are able to follow the story the show offers some fun, lighthearted and wholesome moments, something that it has promised us. The character dynamics are set up well, some of them being extremely wholesome such as Asfand and his bhabi Nida or the two grandparents.
Saima Akram Chaudry can write comedy in her sleep and she proves that yet again here. The episode is filled with witty humour and characters quibbling left and right and all the jokes land which at the end of the day is all that matters.
Conclusion
To conclude this review, while ‘Kaala Doriya‘ has a lot of pacing and story issues off the gate and is far from the best shows of its kind, it’s amusing enough and the characters are wholesome and relatable enough to be a fun Friday night show for the whole family.
