“Prem Gali” continues to tell Joya and Hamza’s story, a newly married couple suffering under the pressure of their obsessive families. What sets this show apart from the rest is its realistic story that imparts a lot of wisdom while maintaining a light-hearted feel with a comedic touch. Starring Farhan Saeed, Sohai Ali Abro, Saba Hameed, Uzma Hassan, Shamim Hilaly, Qavi Khan Waseem Abbas and others, “Prem Gali” has been written by Faiza Iftikhar and directed by Qasim Ali Mureed.
Joya (Sohai Ali Abro) has begun to doubt her mother, which is both great for Hamza and Joya’s relationship, but also terrible for Shireen (Saba Hameed). This is a tragedy in the sense that Shireen has raised Joya as a single parent, with the help of Mussarat (Uzma Hassan) and Rahat (Shamim Hilaly), over the years and any negative word said by Joya will obviously hurt her. At the same time, Shireen holds all her fears, resentments and ideas of self failure close and is unwilling to allow Joya to come face to face with Manzoor (Javed Sheikh). However, it’s positive, because Joya is no longer fighting with Hamza over her mother’s actions and now realizes that their marriage is suffering at the hands of their families – especially her mother’s interference.
Luqman is perplexed by the situation between Hamza and Joya – rather, the situation he believes to exist, which doesn’t really exist. Luqman is a special character in the sense that he’s well-intentioned and sweet, but he has been so deeply hurt by his marriage experience that his judgement of every situation is clouded by it. But when he turns up at Hamza’s workplace to discuss Joya, this sets off a sequence of events that leads to Joya and Hamza making a serious decision.
Hamza arrives home and argues with his family, explaining that Joya is a human being, not an object to be moved around and controlled. This leads to a fight, but Hamza apologizes to Joya for dragging her into his family and says that they will have to move out. Joya agrees, not because of Hamza’s family, but because of her own’s family’s interference and controlling behavior. When Hamza goes to talk to his family, he realizes they will never stop treating him like a child and the two plot to run away together without informing their families.
Prem Gali Episode 22: Joya and Hamza’s Marriage Spirals Due to Lack of Privacy
It must be noted that no one in either of these families is a character that is bad or means to be interfering. Each character comes with their own set of problems and insecurities, so they react accordingly. However, the stress has simply become too much for this young couple and they want to remove themselves from the madness. Farhan Saeed and Sohai Ali Abro’s acting is great in this episode, along with Abdullah Farhatullah’s as Luqman. However, the show needs to speed up the proceedings and allow viewers to see important arcs rather than this repetitive storyline. More sequences including Manzoor are necessary, along with a track with Luqman and Mussarat. While the young lovebirds are the center of the story, they aren’t the entire story. It’s been clear for 5-6 episodes that the family is creating issues for them, so why not create a story that distracts the family from their obsession (the “kids”)? Instead, we’ve seen the same thing episode after episode – which is OK on a level, because it shows just how the stress has been building up for Joya and Hamza in a realistic way. But as far as audience experience goes, this is getting to be a bit of a drag.
