“Dobara” won viewers over before the show even began airing simply with its unique, progressive plot – an older woman finding love again with a younger man. Starring Hadiqa Kiani, Bilal Abbas Khan, Usama Khan, Maheen Siddiqui, Sakina Samo, Javed Sheikh, Nabeel Zuberi and others, the story has been written by Sarwat Nazir and directed by Danish Nawaz. While these characters, Mehru (Hadiqa Kiani) and Mahir (Bilal Abbas Khan), have seen their share of turmoil during the course of the show, betrayal has never been in the cards. Mahir and Mehru have pushed forward through every hurdle as a team….until now.
In the most recent episode, episode 30, Mahir has begun to fluctuate between being the ideal husband and being a betrayer. Mahir continues to play things just right at home, finally befriending Zamin (Nabeel Zuberi) and Minal (Maheen Siddiqui). The scenes between Minal and Mahir are downright adorable, seeing this stepfather-stepdaughter duo bond. They have come a long way from where their relationship first began and it’s refreshing to see the respect between the two. Mahir genuinely continues to be a pillar of strength for Mehru, both the ideal partners for one another.
Unfortunately, the return of Narmeen (Zoya Nasir) has turned things for a loop. Mahir is visibly perplexed by Narmeen’s presence in his office, even seeming to be hoarding power over her as her boss. But while we can understand Mahir’s desire for “revenge” or even residual feelings, it’s upsetting to see Mahir obsessing over Narmeen, calling her at late hours and thinking about her while at home. Narmeen is now a divorced woman and essentially “available,” along with being familiar to Mahir. This has set up a complicated scenario and the two are now meeting for lunches.
Narmeen has never been a bad person. Sure, she disappointed Mahir by marrying someone else, but if we put ourselves in Narmeen’s place, Mahir’s actions (stealing the bracelet) were dubious. Any girl would have reacted in the same way. But Mahir now appears to be trying to lure Narmeen in with his financial status – which is undigestible, considering his financial status is all courtesy his wife. If he were to get caught doing what he is doing, he would end up losing it all. It’s interesting to think that Mahir was preaching to Zamin about Nadia only one episode ago – and now he is doing the exact same thing to his own wife.
The entire cast is performing exceptionally and it’s great to see how these scenarios are not black or white. It’s complicated, as is life. Still, we have always seen Mahir as this mistreated young man who is good at heart. Cheating definitely muddies the waters and so, with only two episodes left, we can only hope that Mahir catches himself from falling too deep.
