From my archive (30/7/2012): Kya yahe zindagi hai?

All the star plus viewers are familiar with the term “ek ghantay ka maha episode” which is use to be on aired on Saturdays’ in order to reveal a new character, or to break suspense or to crack a story. Recently, this ek ghantay ka maha episode technique was used in a Pakistani drama, “Yeh Zindagi hai”

This do ghantay ka maha episode revealed the death of Jamila (Javeria Saud the heroin of drama), in a bus blast. The bomb blast approach was also used before in the killing of Bhula (Fahad Mustafa) and Nargis (Beenish Chohan), the most initial characters, the only difference between the deaths were, Jamila died in a bus blast, however, Bhulay and Nargis died in a maternity hospital so the twist wasn’t new in the story. Along with Bhula and Nargis, the character of laraka khala Bano (Parveen Akbar) and shrill voice Hajra (Hina Dilpazir) was also soon eliminated from the serial or you can say they just vanished from the story, Bano Khala ran away and Hajra also ran away with her husband. ‘Applause’. There is another point to appreciate; now Bhula has lost his senses and doctors have suggested if his mother come in front of him he will be normal.

The story of YZH is also much not different from any typical star plus drama. It is all about the marriage, divorce, extra maternal affair and recently illegitimate child concept has also been introduced. The white streaked hair and kids turn young within a week, everything has taken from Star plus. Jamila, who first married to Shirazi (Saud) and became step-mother of Jannat, she soon got divorce from Shirazi and re-married to Jamal (her cousin) she gave birth to Jamal’s twin kids, Jabbo and Bhulay and again got divorce. However, Jamal re-married to rich girl Pinky, Jamal did’t accept Jabbo and Bhulay but his real son from Pinky, Kamal (Adeel Chaudary) who is acting as a bigra hua burger munda but God! From nowhere he looks like a burger. I wonder why they made Pinky and Kam, burger when they don’t even look rich from any angle. Moving forward, the kids grow up and give a beginning to love stories. Bhulay fall in love with Jannat (Jenny, foreign return) but twist in love story is necessary so for a twist, families fix Kam and Jannat marriage. But later on Jenny fall into Bhulay’s sack. However, Jabbo fall in love with a rich man who gave her a in reward without marriage.

With the killing of Jamila, I thought the drama is about to end or the story will take a new dhasu turn but all my expectations were left in tears of regret, when I come to know that Javeria is coming back in the serial as a young, dark, lively, chubby and bubbly girl, ‘Chameli’. Yes, hold on your breaths Jamila hasn’t gone anywhere from the serial. She is back in her words “Chameli aye hai seher ma Chameli”. This time Jamila is playing role of young 24 year old village girl, who came to Karachi and adapt beggary as her occupation.

In addition, Jamal and Jamila’s love story is also highlighting on social media and facebook is full of their comics, featuring two monkeys one Jamal and other Jamila. Some of the comics are:

·         “Doodh mangay ka kheer dunga, Jameela mangayga cheer dunga”

·         “Jamal sharab pena chorday, ab wo kabhie nahi ayege laut ker”

·         “Meri jan jameela ke kasam jo bhe humaray bech aye…,

       I will make him remember milk number 6”

From the perspective of a sane person, the drama has no reality or entertainment left. The way, they through shoes at each other or fight in abusive language, sorry people from middle class don’t do such immoral activities. Furthermore, in the serial, they are residing in Paposh Nagar, so people live in paposh nagar are not that ill-mannered as they show in the drama which is actually reflecting a negative image of a particular area. But the story is still on, let's what they have planned next.