“Shiddat” is Har Pal Geo’s latest production starring Muneeb Butt and Anmol Baloch in lead roles. The story isn’t necessarily new, another tale along the lines of Hum TV’s “Khaas” and ARY Digital’s “Jaisay Aapki Marzi,” highlighting concealed mental instability within the male leads and how allowing these behaviors and conditions to go untreated can have damaging effects on others. This is an important story and, when handled well, can serve as an important educating message as well to girls who go into relationships blind. Will “Shiddat” join the ranks of “Khaas” and “Jaisay Aapki Marzi” with the appreciation they received from the audience? Along with Muneeb Butt and Anmol Baloch, “Shiddat” also stars Noor Ul Hassan, Shamyl Khan, Minsa Malik, Erum Akhtar, Hiba Ali Khan, Ismat Zaidi and others in prominent roles in a story written by Zanjabeel Asim and directed by Zeeshan Ahmed.
In the first two episodes, we are introduced to Asra (Anmol Baloch), a young girl from a high-class family with a mother, brother and sister-in-law who dote on her. She lives a luxurious life, but is humble and generous, growing up surrounded by love. In contrast, Sultan (Muneeb Butt) is from a middle class family with warring parents who use Sultan as a trophy and even as a tool against one another. He is an ambitious man, using his intelligence to overcome his past challenges – but the remnants of hardship and struggle have left a negative impact on his psyche. The two meet and Asra falls hopelessly in love with Sultan, seeing her “ideal man” in him. And while Sultan seems immediately attracted to her, it’s clear that his way of professing appreciation and love is much different from Asra’s – and potentially harmful.
“Shiddat,” in theory, is an interesting concept and the story is, in fact, one that should be told. However, the first two episodes leave a lot to be desired in terms of execution. Everything seems almost too convenient. In a city like Karachi, Asra sees Sultan at a random track and falls for his words. In a random downpour, Sultan falls for Asra’s lively spirit. In a random college encounter, Asra and Hala (Sultan’s sister) meet in an incredibly forced manner and not only wind up having attended the same school, but also have similar acquaintances/friends. Asra winds up in Hala’s home and Asra and Sultan meet “officially” for the first time when Asra randomly (and inappropriately) decides to walk directly into Sultan’s room to examine his certificates. In an attempt to show Asra as generous, she let’s Hala borrow an expensive set believing it to be artificial – please, who does this? The treatment of the entire story is haphazard, honestly. The initial episodes of a show generally take time to progress into the story and so this is not a write-off yet. The show boats of some good performers and a gripping storyline, particularly with the introduction of Minsa Malik’s character at the end of episode 2. The jury is still out on this one, but it does have promise!
