“Chalawa” is the gift that keeps on giving. Each week, I find myself perplexed enough with the show to consider dropping it entirely – and yet, week after week, I write about it. “Chalawa” is a show of the supernatural genre, which puts it in a league of its own with little outside competition. To add to that, honestly, what works in favor of “Chalawa” is that it’s essentially the only noteworthy show to air on Sundays on Hum TV. Starring Naveen Waqar, Samina Ahmed, Naveed Raza, Ali Ansari and Noor Khan, “Chalawa” has been written by Shahid Nizami and directed by Najaf Bilgrami.
The episode begins with Harib (Ali Ansari) unconscious as his mother wonders what has happened to him – of course, Hamdani (Adnan Jaffar) arrives with Sarosh (Usama Khan) to fill Harib’s mother’s head with lies against Savera (Noor Khan). Stating that Savera is marrying Harib only because Sarnaash has possessed Harib, the two make it out to seem as though Savera is a villain. If we’re honest for a few moments, that’s exactly what Savera was doing at one time. She only changed her mind later when she fell for the actual Harib. There’s an insane moment here where Savera tries to leave her home to save Harib and Mahnoor (Naveen Waqar) essentially kicks her out of the house – but for what? Mahnoor’s anger is almost nonsensical and her threat is empty, because Savera is back home a few sequences later. Anyway, Savera arrives to save the day and stops Sarosh from harming Harib, but this results in Harib’s mother breaking off the engagement and asking Savera to stay away from them. Harib is genuinely in love with Savera and knows her “truth,” so he defends her and fights with his mother.
The most exciting part of the episode is when Sarosh’s mother tells Sarosh’s father that Sarosh is the one who murdered his Nani (Samina Ahmed). While the two are discussing this, Sarosh comes downstairs and threatens to kill his mother. Of course, we know this isn’t really Sarosh, but it takes his mother a bit longer to catch on. While he attempts to kill her, she’s wearing a taveez that spares her – but he does attack his father, who falls unconscious. While Sarosh snaps out of it, it seems he has done serious harm to his father and they take him to the hospital. Will he survive?
Chalawa Episode 16: This Story Has Taken a Turn For The Nonsensical
Honestly, this show is at the point where it’s become almost comical. It’s difficult to take it seriously, mostly because there’s more talk of weddings and marriage than the supernatural. The editing is also a huge problem. There’s a scene in this episode where Sarosh’s mother and Mahnoor are talking about Samina Ahmed’s character’s death and Sarosh’s mother says that she is still willing to marry Sarosh and Savera…….except she repeats this exact same dialogue word for word twice. It’s a fairly lengthy, 6 line speech that she decides to repeat in the exact same delivery two times. Considering the story is headed absolutely nowhere, it’s these small things that have become note-worthy. Ultimately, “Chalawa” has veered so far off-track that it’s not really possible for it to make a comeback at this point. And yet, we’ll continue watching it.