“Azmaish” is another new entrant on ARY, airing on Wednesday nights (with “Dunk” moving to Saturday nights). The show stars Kinza Hashmi, Fahad Sheikh, Yashma Gill, Minsa Malik, Shahood Alvi, Laila Wasti, Furqan Qureshi, Gul E Rana and others in prominent roles. The story has been written by Sameena Aijaz and directed by Fajr Raza. Some stories have become so common that it’s tediously repetitive for viewers, the sister versus sister storyline topping the list. The story of “Azmaish” is, thankfully, slightly different, enough to still hold viewer interest.
Instead of pitting sister against sister, “Azmaish” focuses on an antagonizing relationship between stepsiblings – and stepparents. Laila Wasti plays a woman who has married Shahood Alvi’s character. While they appear to have been married for a long time, since the girls were young, Shaza (Yashma Gill) and Samreen (Minsa Malik) have not accepted their stepmother and see her as the villain – along with her daughter Nimra (Kinza Hashmi). When discussions arise of Shaza’s marriage, Shaza is angered as she has a boyfriend and does not appreciate her stepmother’s intrusion in her life. The two girls declare open war. While Samreen routinely harasses Nimra, not only at home, but also at school, Shaza’s target tends to be her stepmother. Both girls do not make any attempts to hide their manipulative side or anger, but their father is blind in their love and refuses to hear a bad word against the girls.
Basit (Fahad Sheikh) is a young man who works in Shahood Alvi’s company and is shown as being hard-working. He falls for Nimra at first sight and comes to her aid when his cousin, Nimra’s friend, recruits him to rescue Nimra. The Kinza Hashmi and Fahad Sheikh pairing is easy on the eyes and one hopes the two actually have a proper love story – at least before her sisters jump in and create trouble, which they will.
Chupke Chupke – The Finale: A Perfect Ending To a Near-Perfect Show
Yashma Gill’s performance is what stands out the most in the first episode. She does a good job as a psychologically unstable character. The weakest link here is the father character. Parents do know their children to some extent and after being with a woman for a while, this man should know who is capable of lying and who isn’t. This man doesn’t blink before slapping Nimra for being late from school, not even giving her a moment to explain herself – but won’t listen to Rabia defend Nimra, because she doesn’t get along with his daughters. This entire sequence is ridiculous and this character is ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is Nimra’s mother who is unable to defend her daughter or herself to her chosen life partner. If a woman like this cannot defend her daughter, she shouldn’t even bother getting remarried. What is the point? Did she remarry to provide a good future for her daughter? That’s not what’s happening here. Overall, “Azmaish” is an over-the-top watch, but still comes across as interesting enough to continue watching.