This Eid witnessed two local releases; Wajahat Rauf’s Chhalawa and Yasir Nawaz’s Wrong Number 2, and to the pleasant surprise of many, both of them have been doing rather well on the box office window so far. They crossed the 10 crore mark on their extended Eid weekend and we are hoping for them to sustain, in the coming days too.

However, it’s not just the similar box office figures that the two films have in common. There are more than a few resemblances between them when seen closely. For those of you who have seen both the films keenly, you will understand what we are talking about.

Disclaimer: Spoilers ahead 

Here is a list of all the similarities that we found between these two otherwise different films.

The leading ladies

The first coincidence is both the leading ladies – for WN2 and Chhalawa – essentially sharing the same name; Zoya. Neelam and Mehwish are both called Zoya in their respective films. Both are headstrong, feisty and rather rebellious in their nature, women would not hesitate to go to any length in order to achieve their love.

Both the Zoyas are ready to run away from their homes in order to marry the men of their choice. Although the extent of their preparedness and hesitation levels varies considerably, the fundamental idea is the same. 

The male love interests

Both the love interests belong to rather lower socioeconomic backgrounds when compared with the ladies. Sami plays the simple but upright son of Wazir, who is Gul Nawaz’s confidante while Azfar plays a city boy who hasn’t achieved much in his personal life either.

The mothers of our heroines

Both the mothers of our respective heroines have passed away and the girls are subsequently raised by their fathers. We only see pictures of their mothers and few mentions here and there yet their mothers influence them in significant ways the extent of which, again, varies.

While Chhalawa‘s Zoya is deeply attached to her mother and writes letters to her despite her being deceased, WN2‘s Zoya inherits her mother’s outspoken traits as well the conspicuous mole on her lips.

Strong patriarchs who ultimately have to compromise

Both the films have strong patriarchs who vehemently try to maintain control over their families and deal with their matters their way yet both have to eventually soften down their stances and succumb to the wishes of their daughters.

The Molvi Sahab 

Being romcoms, both the films obviously end with a shadi sequence. Moreover, both of them have a Molvi Sahab in their end sequences that add comic value to the climax.

The genre

Needless to point out, both the films are romantic comedies that take their respective detour from the rom-com genre in order to serve their respective narratives. Where Chhalawa remains more of a family romcom, WN2 transitions from a romcom to a comedy of errors.

The directors, too

Both the directors, Wajahat and Yasir, released their third films this Eid. Interestingly both had their second films released, two years ago, which were not well received by the critics as well as the audience.

Where they differed, however, is the fact that Wajahat divorced his much loved KSL franchise to make Chhalawa, while Yasir converted Wrong Number to a franchise instead.

What do you think of the similarities? Let us know in the comments.