“Burns Road Kay Romeo Juliet” is reminiscent of “Muhabbat Gumshuda Meri” on Hum TV in late 2023. A modern day adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet,” “Muhabbat Gumshuda Meri” offered a lot in terms of a strong romance, but faltered with the execution towards the very end. “Burns Road Kay Romeo Juliet” feels similar in the conflict and yet, it has an equally fresh feel with its own style of presentation and setting. Starring Hamza Sohail and Iqra Aziz in lead roles, the show also stars Shabbir Jan, Khalid Anum, Raza Samo, Zainab Qayyum, Shaheera Jalil Albasit and others in a story written by Parisa Siddiqui and directed by Fajr Raza.
In episode 13, Farhad (Hamza Sohail) returns home with Friha (Iqra Aziz) on his Chacha’s insistence. The entire family welcomes him with open arms, including his mother, his Chacha, his Chachi and Jojo (Raza Samo). However, as soon as his father (Shabbir Jan) arrives back home, things take a turn for the ugly. Farhad’s father has always been shown as a difficult personality and here, that shows. Farhad and Friha leave and, in an emotional moment, they decide to give Friha’s family a try and see if they will forgive them. This ends terribly with Saqib attempting to shoot Friha and her father asking her to leave his home forever. Farhad drags Friha out there to protect her – but can one ever really return back to a family like this?
There has been a heavy discussion on social media over the past few days in regards to the words spoken by Shabbir Jan – can a girl who is disloyal to her parents be loyal to anyone else? While many think no, let’s visit a real life story. There was a girl who came from a seemingly happy family and lived a spoiled life in the lap of luxury. Then she fell in love and the rose colored glasses came off. She began to see her family for who they are as their terrible, controlling, toxic traits came out. The “love” did not work out – but she could not unsee her family’s reaction. She cut off for years, moved away, became a doctor and, when she was successful, she and her family slowly began fostering a relationship once again on her terms. They are now a happy family unit once again – because those behaviors changed.
This is a true story. Unfortunately, our Pakistani dramas have a hard time portraying this reality on-screen. Anyone watching this show should be able to recognize that Friha’s “happy” family has been a façade all along. Her Phupo has been mistreated all these years, Saqib is a human bomb waiting to be set off and Friha’s father is conceited, arrogant and downright rude to those outside of his home (as we saw in his treatment of Farhad’s father). This is not a “good” family, they only seemed to be that way because Friha had never encountered their anger. In contrast, while Farhad’s father is overbearing and illogical at times, the rest of his family is loving and supportive. What we genuinely want from this drama is for Friha’s family to be depicted as they should be – wrong. If that’s not depicted, the narrative will be yet another missed opportunity, just like “Muhabbat Gumshuda Meri” where toxic parents were suddenly whitewashed at the end. We do not want the whitewashing – we want reality.
Hamza Sohail and Iqra Aziz share great chemistry as the leads, a natural sort of interaction which makes us feel they are a real couple. Both actors are doing an excellent job and Shabbir Jan also deserves a shout-out for his performance in this episode. This does, of course, lead us to a thought: Will “Burns Road Kay Romeo Juliet” end as a tragedy like the original story and the many on-screen adaptations of it? Or will this Romeo and Juliet find their happy ending?