ARY’s on-going drama, Gul o Gulzaar, which has a few episodes left, drags a bit but hits a realistic note.
Two besties, Gul, played by Saboor Aly and Gulzar played by Kinza Hashmi are inseparable. Gulzar’s father is a teacher while Gul’s father is a fruit seller. Gulzar is the prettier, richer, sweeter and the beychari one of the two.
One day a creepy guy Adil, played my Omer Shahzad, sees Gulzar outside her school and gives her his number (and also a declaration of love). Gulzar is so shocked kay haw hai, dekho kaise number dia and Gul agrees – except Gul has ulterior motives and a plan to get with this loaded, “gari wala” guy herself. So she calls Adil and tells him how Gulzar is a terrible person, doesn’t like him, and is also getting engaged.
Of course, Adil and Gul then get together and Gul decides to run away with him – the twist is that she doesn’t tell Gulzar about her plans. Not only that, she also steals Gulzar’s brother’s honay wali biwi’s wedding jewellery from Gulzar’s closet, the night before Gulzar’s brother’s wedding). So all hell breaks loose, with Gul’s father accusing Gulzar of making her daughter run away with some guy.
So Gulzar’s reputation is also being ruined because she is best friends with a runaway woman, so her father and brother decide to get her married to a guy she hasn’t seen. The guy is the only child, good, sharif (obviously). She agrees and sees the guy’s picture the day of her mehndi and the guy, Jamal played by Paras Masroor, isn’t the best looking. It’s also really really uncomfortable HOW they portray this darker-skinned, not so bad looking guy as soo ugly that Gulzar cannot fathom marrying him.
Gul has called Gulzar and told her how happy she is living her huge house with a hot husband who will take her to London. So Gulzar calls up Gul after she sees Jamal’s picture and asks her to help her run away. Gul jumps at the chance and says she’ll pick Gulzar up at dawn and when Gulzar is running away from her house, she hears the Azaan. So she goes back in and does the right thing and marries Jamal.
Gulzar soon realizes that money is not everything and sharif log and amazing saas are so much more important. Meanwhile, we find out that Gul’s life is not as rosy as she made it sound. Her husband has given her a lot of money and a huge house but hidden her from his family. In this time, Gul finds out that Adil is getting married to someone else and she’s the secret wife. So she goes over to his parent’s house and exposes the truth – and finds out that Adil was married to another girl before her and his parents had to pay off the first wife. Before they could do the same with Gul, Gul finds out she’s pregnant and there’s no way she will let Adil go (Adil is also a physically abusive husband, but that’s not as important as money right?)
Adil gets married to another girl with Gul still living as the secret wife and Gulzar is still super conflicted about living a happy life on a motorbike or wanting the rich life.
The drama is pretty dramatic at points and slightly cringe-worthy too but it does reflect key elements in our society – and any society; people will live in crappy marriages for money, best friends can betray each other and family values change from family to family. The episodes drag a lot and one is tempted (and does) forward a lot but the highlight of the whole drama is Gul. Saboor Aly’s acting in the drama is excellent (a little over at times) but overall, excellently done.
There’s bound to be a twist – most likely between Adil and Gulzar since they were the original couple – and it’ll be interesting to see how the dynamics change when it comes to love or money.
