It’s the cast and crew of a new drama serial that initially draws us to it. In this case, there is absolutely no doubt that Imran Ashraf fans were looking forward to Kahin Deep Jalay to see their favourite actor in a romantic role for the very first time. Ashraf has been playing extraordinary characters for quite some time – the most recent being Bhola from drama serial Ranjha Ranjha Kardi – but he has never been cast as the typical romantic hero. This is where KDJ came in with a promise to deliver the goods. The problem is, it didn’t deliver much more than Imran Ashraf in the first episode.
Read: Everything you need to know about Imran Ashraf’s next drama serial
The drama begins with an introduction to three households. The first is Rida’s; Rida (Neelam Muneer) is shown as a loving, sweet and selfless sister to three equally loving brothers. Theirs is a close family unit with lots of bonding and biryani love. Faham, one of Rida’s brothers is engaged to his maternal aunt, i.e khala’s daughter Shameela, and she’s the obvious trouble maker in the story. My first problem would be with YET another first-cousin marriage and then the stereotypical evil daughter-in-law, which we know Shameela is going to turn out to be. The official synopsis of the story reveals that Rida’s sister-in-law will make her life hell. Will KDJ manage to deliver anything fresh?
Rida & Zeeshan in ‘Kahin Deep Jalay’
The third household is that of Zeeshan, (Imran Ashraf), a boy from a well-to-do background who has just, thanks to his father, lost everything to bankruptcy. His father has died, leaving Zeeshan and his mother (Saba Hamid) homeless and penniless. While bankruptcy is totally believable in this day and age, the way it happens – at the crack of a whip – is almost absurd. Seniors at Zeeshan’s office have him (literally) thrown out, not even allowing him to pick up his father’s certificates. Electricity in his home is cut off and the police come to throw him and his mother out at no notice at all. Ridiculous as it sounds, they have no where to go – no family, friends, acquaintances – and they end up on the footpath right away. As in pronto. Zeeshan’s mother passes out and Zeeshan doesn’t even have fifty rupees to register her at the hospital. To see a well-suited man, which he is, pushed around and actually baton beaten at the hospital is yet another example of the writer’s absurdity. It seems the writer and director want to make him look as pathetic as possible, without sensing how unreal it all appears to be by any stretch of imagination.
Watch the first episode here:
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