Aangan ~ Episode 1 Review

By SZ on November 15, 2017 • ( 21 Comments )

Written by Faiza Iftikhar, directed by Qasim Ali Mureed and produced by Six Sigma Plus, the first episode of Aangan aired this past Saturday on ARY. The first episode was sharp and sassy and brought to mind some of Faiza’s earlier writings and her particular brand of incisive humor.

Aangan is the story of a  joint tabbar, which is typical to a Tee. All of us who have grown up surrounded by chachis, mamis, phuphos, cousins, and naanis and daadis will so relate to going-ons in this dysfunctional family. Oopar se sab perfect and everybody smiling just so, but the minute the guests leave everybody’s smiles disappear as if by magic and out come their real personas. Petty jealousies, small catfights, eccentricities, personality clashes, sab kuch yahan dekhney ko milta hai. But what makes this crazy family work is that despite the differences there is that intrinsic something that makes them stay together.

The story kicks off with the question of Zoya’s shaadi. It is not as if she is not good rishta material – she is! – but the fact that Zoya is the youngest daughter of an elderly couple, and the only unmarried sister of four brothers and one older sister, means that any prospective groom has the difficult task of meeting everybody’s standards. Hence the pichley 120 rejected rishtey and the tension surrounding this latest proposal.

As these guys make plans to check out the prospective groom’s family we get an insight into everybody’s personality – har koi ek alag hi sample. The patriarch of the family knows his children all too well and would rather spend his time on the dramas playing out in the political arena, leaving the gharelu dramas to his wife.

Among the children, Zahid (so aptly named!), the third son, stands out for his convenient pseudo religiosity. Sajjad is the oldest one who is in charge of the family finances. The three bhabhis have their own fundas. Hajra is the one in charge, Laila feels othered because she is not from the family, and the youngest Rubina feels victimized. Anila is the married daughter of the house and her husband Alauddin is universally disliked by all. Standing out amongst all these very loud, in your face characters is the very introverted and withdrawn Zoya. Though she is everyone’s go-to person nobody ever stops to ask her what she wants.

Of the actors, Mansha Pasha is endearing as the beleagured Zoya. Samina Ahmed is as usual on point and her scenes with Qavi were fun to watch. I enjoyed all the three bhabhis‘ quirks, essayed well by Irsa Ghazal, Iffat Umar and Uzma Hassan. It is a pleasure to watch these lovely ladies taking a break from the routine and doing something kooky for a change. Of the three brothers played by Noor ulHasan, Hasan Ahmed and Paras Masroor, Paras was particularly good as the ultra religious Zahid. He shares great chemistry with Uzma and it is great to watch them together again after Sang-e Mar Mar. Hasan is thankfully a lot more animated here as compared to his outing in Dhund.

From the first episode it seems that even if the story is not terribly original the writing is engaging enough to keep viewers interested; I enjoyed the deft blending of humor and social critique. In terms of direction this was a smooth episode and served as a good introduction to the story waiting to unfold.

The episode ended with the news of Alauddin’s accident so it’ll be interesting to see if they all end up going to meet Zoya’s prospective in-laws. For her sake I hope they do warna tau woh bechari nashtey banate banate aur doosron ke bachon ko taiyar karte karte hi khatam ho jaye gi!

So yeah a promising beginning. How many of you all watched? Your take?

Written by SZ~

Categories: Aangan, Ary Digital, Entertainment, Pakistani Drama Blogs, Pakistani Drama Reviews, Pakistani Dramas, Popular Culture

Tagged as: Dysfunctional Families, Faiza Iftikhar, Family drama, Iffat Omar, Irsa Ghazal, Mansha Pasha, Paras Masroor, Romcom, Samina Ahmed, Six Sigma Plus, Uzma Hassan