The greatest strength of “Prem Gali” is its ability to pull the viewer in to feel like a part of the family, building that connection with the lead characters enough to genuinely care about them. 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. Despite having 28 episodes under its belt, there’s still so many aspects of the story left to explore and give attention to and with episode 28, these stories are finally hitting the gas pedal.
In episode 28, we Joya (Sohai Ali Abro) and Hamza (Farhan Saeed) still wrestling with their guilt over abandoning their loved ones. Fari (Anoushay Abbasi) visits Joya while Hamza is at work and asks her to visit her family, telling her how miserable they are without her – while Suki tells Hamza the same on his ride to work. In hindsight, neither one wants to remain apart from their families, but are remaining silent out of courtesy for the other. A key moment occurs when Manzoor (Javed Sheikh) visits Joya at home and the two finally have a discussion as father and daughter. Joya makes it clear that while she understands that marriage is between two people and despite any regrets that they may have, she is still the one who truly suffered without a father while also seeing her mother’s misery. She is hurt and no one can blame her for her feelings, as she has never been given the opportunity to form a bond with this man who now calls himself her father. However, Manzoor simply asks Joya of one thing – to go back to her mother. He states that he knows what she’s going through as he’s had to live without his daughter his entire life. This is an emotional scene and even if one has not experienced this kind of predicament in their lives, the emotions are still raw and relatable.
Unfortunately, as Hamza arrives back home, he overhears Fari and Joya talking as Fari encourages Joya to tell Hamza the truth – to which Joya replies she will never let Hamza know this truth. Hamza asks Joya about her statement, but she comes up with a silly cover-up, one that Hamza does not buy as he angrily storms off. On the other end, Dada Ji (Qavi Khan) concocts a plan to lure Hamza and Joya back home, pretending to have a heart-attack. This serves as the more light-hearted comedy in the episode, making the audience laugh with Dada Ji and Haatim’s antics as they conspire to bring their children home. This plan does work, but also backfires as Hamza believes the news of Dada Ji’s heart-attack is what Joya has been concealing from him. This is a stretch and it simply goes to show that lack of proper communication is the only reason for these issues. What reason does Joya even have to keep the truth of her father from Hamza? He is aware of her background, so why doesn’t she trust him to support her? This is frustrating to watch, particularly because it’s known that these issues will only spiral further out of control between Joya and Hamza in upcoming episodes.
Prem Gali Episode 27: Uzma Hassan and Abdullah Farhatullah Win Hearts As Mussarat and Luqman
The best scenes in this episode are the one between Manzoor and Joya, but Faiza Iftikhar’s writing balances intense emotional scenes perfectly with comedy and romance. With this episode, Luqman (Abdullah Farhatullah) and Mussarat’s (Uzma Hassan) relationship has finally been kick-started. After Mussarat opens his eyes, Luqman finally realizes life can be beautiful again and has found a reason to come back towards happiness – Mussarat. This is the romance we’ve been waiting for and its wonderful to see these two characters in a happier frame of mind. Of course, it’s Qavi Khan and Waseem Abbas who manage to keep the audience in splits during this episode with their bickering and antics over their plan – and yet, in the next moment, Qavi Khan and Farhan Saeed reduce viewers to tears with their emotional reunion. This is what’s so wonderful about “Prem Gali.” It doesn’t have an action-packed story like other shows, but is one that touches the hearts of its viewers. Next week’s episode looks eventful with a Joya-Hamza showdown and Luqman confessing his feelings for Mussarat.