One of the best things about Kashf, as I’ve been continuously saying, is that it’s a balanced show with enough kitchen politics to keep that ‘housewife’ demographic engaged and enough ‘male’ storylines to engage men as well. Hira Mani, Junaid Khan, Sabeena Farooq, Lubna Aslam, Waseem Abbas star in a strong show written by Imran Nazir and directed by Danish Nawaz.
In episode 11 of Kashf, Waseem Abbas, who plays Kashf’s greedy father, continues to mint money off of Kashf’s ‘gift’.
Kashf and Wajdaan’s romance continues to be ill-fated with some reprieve. Wajdaan pretends to be a woman, wearing a shuttle cock burqa, who enters Kashf’s astaana and pretends that he’s working there to clean the astaana. Everyone has found his secret out, except Imtiaz (Waseem Abbas) – but he will eventually find this out too.
Kashf’s dreams aren’t really ‘on-demand’ as her father insists that they should be. This part of the dialog aggravated me a little because Imtiaz is being deliberately dense and obtuse about this. However, one can understand that greedy people are also often stupid and delusional. Kashf tries her best to make her father understand but he just – doesn’t.
Read the episode 10 review here.
Another aggravating yet real angle is the selfish sister, Zoya, played beautifully by Sabeena Farooq. She wants to marry Wajdaan, resents Kashf. She’s juvenile in many ways and doesn’t mind exploiting people for her own benefit. In this episode, she threatens to expose Wajdaan and Kashf’s secret to her father but at the end of the episode also happily takes money from Kashf to go on a college trip. Sabeen has really done a fantastic job as Zoya and deserves all the kudos for pulling this entertainingly evil character off!
Watch the episode here.
You also gotta love the whole angle of Wajdaan pretending to be a woman to be near the woman he loves. He’s learning how to make tea, defying everything around him, just to be near Kashf. Now that’s a hero you cannot help but like! Hajra Khan, who plays Kashf’s phupo, teaches Wajdaan how to make tea and the whole scene is just adorable.
Imtiaz, in the meantime, is the opposite of what men should be, continues to exploit women. He asks for money from the people who come to see Kashf in the name of ‘food for the poor’. When one woman can’t pay, he takes her bangles! This man is evil beyond measure.
Overall, Kashf is a strong show with balanced plotlines and plenty of ‘logic’ as Danish Nawaz often says that he’s always looking for in the script. You can see his attention to detail in the small elements at Kashf’s astaana or even the sign Imtiaz got hung at the wall for Kashf. It is very representative of the phenomenon of faith-healers and soothsayers many in our society tend to believe in. It is also great that Kashf’s character behaves very responsibly with the power she’s entrusted with. The show thus continues to engage!