“Badzaat” stars Imran Ashraf, Urwa Hocane, Ali Abbas, Mehmood Aslam, Saba Faisal, Nida Mumtaz, Zainab Qayyum, Sidra Niazi, Zoya Nasir, Sajida Syed, Danial Afzal Khan and Zohreh Amir in prominent roles. The story has been written by Misbah Nosheen and directed by Siraj Ul Haq. For months, “Badzaat” has dragged on, moving in insane directions to keep its lead pair unnecessarily apart. From the moment the show began, one could never understand why Wali (Imran Ashraf) and Biya (Urwa Hocane) were not together. Daniyal (Ali Abbas) makes Biya his object of desire, attempts to rape her and then….winds up married to her and attempts to murder her on their wedding night. At this point, any sane mother would remove her daughter from this more-than-abusive marriage, but Biya remains in that household, is abused daily, threatened, insulted, physically assaulted…..and this is all while she loves Wali. She gets divorced, she winds up living like a nomad, hiding from Daniyal and his family, almost ends up married to a criminal thanks to Wali’s mother (and her own dim behavior) and, finally, finds her happy ending with Wali when the two get married. But were any of these problems really “problems” or hurdles at all? It’s very easy to think back to Biya’s attempted assault and wonder…..why didn’t Wali just stand up and marry Biya right then? Why did she have to marry Daniyal at all. She didn’t, but then where would the (bizarre) story come from?
In the finale, everyone is told to overact. Ainy (Zoya Nasir) extracts her revenge on Daniyal by shooting him on his wedding day. Ainy spends the rest of her life in jail. Why was this ever the solution or punishment? This man deserved a punishment worse than death, not an easy death by shooting. Why did Daniyal get off so easily? Meanwhile, Huda is left mourning her beloved Daniyal and never realizes the truth about him. Wali also “saves the family’s honor” by keeping all of Daniyal’s secrets and bad behavior concealed from the world – while those who worked with him are punished. What kind of hypocrisy and abuse of power is this? This leaves a bad aftertaste in the mouth.
Saba Faisal is one of the industry’s best senior actresses, but was “Act like a Star Plus actress” the memo given to her? She is so over-the-top in her final “crazy” scene, it’s difficult to digest and is downright comedic. These cliches are what make “Badzaat” so typical and unlikable. A woman shoots the man who wrongs her and winds up in jail for life while he gets an “easy” punishment while her mother, who is oh-so-Badzaat, loses her children and her sanity. What was the point of this show exactly?
At the end, there are only four good things about “Badzaat.” First, Ali Abbas’ acting as Daniyal is solid. He has done a great job in this evil role, which is honestly the highlight of the show. Second is Imran Ashraf’s sincerity as Wali. Wali isn’t the greatest character and he’s barely likable half the time, but Imran’s performance makes the audience soften towards him. Third, the OST is beautiful and memorable. And last, Imran Ashraf and Urwa Hocane’s chemistry is, once again, top notch. It’s unfortunate that it is wasted on a show like “Badzaat.” They deserve better as a lead pair with so much promise. Other than these four aspects, “Badzaat” can easily be erased from memory. It’s not memorable.