Written by: Hurmat Majid
Posted on: January 11, 2023 | 
| 中文
Maham Aamir as Constable Ruqaiya and Yasir Hussain as Inspector Saad
Aik Thi Laila (There Was a Girl Called Laila) has checked off all the right boxes for a modern-day viewer. The show debuted on Express Entertainment just last month and will be ending on Thursday this week. This is the first time a mini-series this short has been attempted by any TV channel, at least in the past 10 years.
The fact that this show is ending after a number of episodes, where most TV shows start to hook audiences, is not only surprising but also refreshing. Not only with its limited number of episodes but also with the fast movement in the story, the series has really tapped into the segment of the audience that is used to watching dramas over online platforms and has a much shorter attention span.
Starring Iqra Aziz, Faysal Qureshi, Hassan Ahmed, Saad Khan, Nayyar Ejaz, Gul-e-Rana and others, the show has been written by Faiza Iftikhar and directed by Yasir Hussain, who is also the male lead in the series. As the name suggests, the show is about a girl named Laila (Iqra Aziz), who goes missing. And instead of catching the culprit responsible for her disappearance, many, including her ex-fiancé and the police, begin to character-assassinate her by accusing her of eloping. The same people then go on to become suspects in the case that Inspector Saad (Yasir Hussain) is seemingly trying to crack open.
Yasir Hussain and Faysal Qureshi in Aik Thi Laila
The show is Iqra’s comeback after her 3-year-long hiatus, in which she got married to Hussain and had her baby boy. While Khuda Aur Muhabbat did air during that time, the show was shot right before her wedding. To watch Iqra back on screen and in a role that is right up her alley, is a treat to watch. Laila is shown to be an over-the-top young thing who has engaged in the romantic interest of a number of boys and men, mostly for economic gain. While Aziz does the character complete justice, the best bit is that while the whole story revolves around Laila’s disappearance, we don’t see too much of Iqra on screen. The lack of appearance on screen adds to the mystery surrounding her character.
(L to R) Faysal Qureshi, Iqra Aziz and Inaya Khan
Both Gul-e-Rana and Nayyar Ejaz are shown to be concerned parents who seemingly want their daughter to come back home, but there’s certainly more to them than meets the eye. Hassan Ahmed and Faysal Qureshi are remarkable in their personas, and newcomers like Saad Khan have managed to match the energy of these veterans as well, which is heartening to watch and the casting team deserves a tip of the hat for it.
Nayyar Ejaz and Gul-e-Rana
Hussain is a truly gifted director; he has managed to keep us curious and engaged throughout the series. He has created a romantic mystery surrounding Laila, making us wonder what really happened to her. The camera work on the show is fresh and engaging, and there are a number of difficult-to-execute one-take scenes on the show. This shows that the director has a vision for the show, and the lengths he would go to execute it.
Hassan Ahmed as Fareed and Iqra Aziz as Laila
The production quality of the show is quite decent and the editing is extremely crisp. One can tell that a lot of work has gone into the show in the post-production stages. There’s never a dull moment in the show, and one knows that all the questions popping up in their head will be answered soon enough. Intelligent storytelling like that will always be entertaining to watch. The views on the show are a testament to the fact that people really do want to watch dramas that go beyond family politics and feuds over property. We want television to explore more real-life storylines, we even want to watch dramas that are fantastical in nature. Anything that goes beyond saas-bhau banter and endless love triangle, would be a treat to watch at this point.
Iqra as Laila and Inaya Khan as Saba
Overall, Aik Thi Laila is an entertaining watch, especially for viewers who do not normally watch television dramas. And even if you absolutely hate it in the end, you would only have spent less than 6 hours on the whole drama.
Lastly, we truly hope that with the success of Aik Thi Laila behind them, Express Entertainment will continue to create more such mini-series and provide us with a contrast to the 40-episode-long sagas that despite our best efforts, we have not managed to grow accustomed to. The year has just started and we have high hopes from production houses this year. It would be truly delightful if ARY, Geo and Hum TV too decided to give the mini-series a shot, and saw that people would much rather watch a bunch of little stories than one large series where they end up losing track of the story all together.
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