Featuring a great ensemble cast, “Bakhtawar” stars Yumna Zaidi, Zaviyaar Nauman Ejaz, Saqib Sameer, Huma Nawab, Adnan Shah Tipu and others in prominent roles while the story has been written by Nadia Akhtar and directed by Shahid Shafaat. “Bakhtawar” has been on-air for two months now and has still failed to truly “hook” its audience. While “Bakhtawar” continues to draw in viewers due to its lead star, Yumna Zaidi, and a storyline that is interesting (but not intriguing), but is it really earning praise?
Bakhtawar (Yumna Zaidi) has found herself caught in the most bizarre situation. Her mother has now been hospitalized and, taking advantage of this situation, Sheeda break into their home to catch Bakhtawar alone. Obviously he finds the house empty, as “Bakhtu” has left for work. Throwing all logic aside, Sheeda gathers the entire neighborhood and points fingers at Bakhtawar’s character, saying she’s characterless going out at night – though Bakhtu very foolishly states he’s dropped her off somewhere. This entire plot is frustrating, because every man on earth is after Bakhtawar, whether she’s Bakhtu or not. Sheeda has never seen Bakhtawar’s face and yet he is after her, making great declarations of “Meri nahin to kisi ki bhi nahin” (if she can’t be mine, she can’t be anyone else’s). For what – a girl whose face he hasn’t even seen? What if she’s covering her face because she has a deformity? This entire concept is ridiculous. Furthermore, even as Bakhtu, Bakhtawar faces harassment from Tony in the restaurant and now, working for Dilawar (Zaviyaar Nauman Ejaz), he finds himself the target of Dilawar’s fiancée’s wrath. “Bakhtu” is a man and yet a woman is still seething over his friendship with Dilawar. Why? This does not make any sense – and moving forward, she will frame Bakhtu for stealing in order to get him away from Dilawar. These scenarios are just a little too much and feel entirely unnatural. Of course, let’s not even get on the story of Dilawar showing too much interest in his “male” employee and “Bakhtu” making eyes at Dilawar while pretending to be male…….it’s an odd scenario.
As has been said before, “Bakhtawar” has one big flaw and it’s that the storyline fails to connect with the viewer emotionally. There isn’t a “connect” with the lead character. There are some interesting moments on this show, for example the moment with Bakhtawar giving into peer pressure and smoking a cigarette. This makes a great point about how men have different rules and regulations than females and had “Bakhtu” smoked a cigarette, it would not have been a big deal – but because “Bakhtu” is Bakhtawar, that line is slowly being blurred. However, like most of the show, these small moments of good writing and potential brilliance are drowned out due to the lack of character building for Bakhtawar. Yumna Zaidi is trying her best and Bakhtawar is a driven young woman, sure, but why should I care about her? Why is the entire world so fixated on Bakhtawar? Why does she incur so many problems? This is not normal and almost comes across as lazy storytelling. Both Yumna Zaidi and Zaviyaar Nauman Ejaz are likable in their roles, but the story itself is a let-down. Will it pick up? That’s not clear, but it has been a solid eight weeks, which is more than enough time for a show to pique interest.
