Written by: Hurmat Majid
Posted on: October 06, 2022 | 
| 中文
Talha Chahour as Faraz and Sarah Khan as Anum
Wabaal (bane) explores a storyline that is somewhat familiar. It isn’t the first time that we are watching an elitist girl with high aspirations fall for a self-made guy, but who is not able to abandon her dreams of having a luxurious lifestyle. What sets Wabaal apart from the rest is that the storyline explores the themes of interest-based loans, and the effects of these loans. The other big difference between Wabaal and other dramas is that these themes have been made the central storyline, while the love story is a subplot. The question remains, has this switch made the show more interesting?
Produced by MD Productions for Hum TV, the drama has been directed by Amin Iqbal and written by Qaisera Hayat, and is telecast in the 8 PM slot every Saturday. The show boasts of a powerful cast with Sarah Khan and Talha Chahour as the couple around whom the story revolves, while Shagufta Ijaz is in the centre of the main theme. All these stories are interconnected by all of these people living in the same neighbourhood.
Raza Ali Abdi as Gul Khan, Shagufta Ejaz as Shagufta and Hunbal Khan as Naveed
The story unfolds with Anum (Sarah) being shown as a middle-class girl with aspirations to climb up the social ladder. She has wealthy friends whom she has lied to about what her father does and the kind of family she belongs to. In contrast, her family is barely getting by with her mother being a seamstress and her father a lower-level employee at a firm. She lives in a lower middle-class neighbourhood and her little sister Maham (Merub Ali) is studying at a university, but the younger sister is sensible and grounded. However, Merub is now being typecast as the sensible younger sister in every show, although she has potential as an actor, and she should be pickier about her roles and experiment a lot more. The sisters’ mother is played by Tara, and showrunners really need to rethink casting Tara as the mother of grown kids, for she is young and can be cast in a variety of roles, not as literally everyone’s mother on television. The father, Shakir, is played by Salim Sheikh, who has made a welcome return to the television screen.
Tara Mehmood, Merub Ali and Sarah Khan as Rahat, Mahum and Anum
On the other hand, there’s Shagufta (Shagufta Ijaz) who is Shakir’s sister-in-law and runs a business of loaning money to people for interest. Shagufta’s husband was a public servant and is now dead, and it is insinuated that Shagufta killed a friend to took over her business. Shagufta and Shakir’s family are not on speaking terms because of Shagufta’s business, but Shakir’s mother somehow still lives with Shagufta and her son in their lavish home rather than with Shakir.
The third household is of the neighbourhood general storekeeper, who seems to live alone and has rented the upper portion of his house to Faraz (Talha Chahour), the male lead.
Sarah Khan as Anum and Talha Chahour as Faraz
Sarah is depicted as the bratty girl, and the last show we saw her in was on Hum Tum, where she played the role of goody-two-shoes. Before that, her character in Raqs-i-Bismil was also completely different, so Kudos to her for pushing her boundaries. Talha was first seen in Jo Bicharh Gaye, and he left quite an impact on the audience. It’s a treat to see him in this play, but while his acting is great, his role is not big enough. A big shout out to Shagufta Ijaz for really pushing her boundaries and carving out a niche for herself, as she does meatier impactful roles that are age appropriate. Her depiction of her namesake is on point.
The story is not interesting enough to keep the audience engaged. The best way to describe what’s wrong with the show is to say that there’s a fairytale-like quality to the way the show has been treated. From the slow-motion scenes to the exaggerated expressions to the general tomfoolery that’s occurring in the show. It seems like the producers wanted to achieve something different with the drama but failed, making it difficult for viewers to take Wabaal seriously.
Sarah's (Anum) birthday scene with her family
That said, we see Hum TV putting effort into exploring a variety of genres, Wabaal, for example, is leaning towards a semi-religious theme while Kala Doriya is exploring humour, but they are still treating these shows as formula plays, and thus not getting it right. Nonetheless, the experimentation is welcome and has not gone unnoticed.
The final verdict for Wabaal is that we are mildly interested in the storyline, and how Shagufta’s character will get what’s coming for it, also Talha Chahour’s presence keeps us slightly interested in the love story even if there aren’t sparks flying on the screen between him and Sarah. So overall, will Wabaal be a drama we watch or will we be just be content with the teasers. However, the bottom line is that television channels should continue to explore more genres.
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