It’s time to wake up from the good dreams of dramas like DNUTN and embrace the generic and ultra-popular saas bahu joint family sagas. Laapata starring Ayeza Khan, Sarah Khan, Ali Rehman Khan and Gohar Rasheed seems to be another one in the long list of dramas that air every week and leave us with little to look forward to.
Laapata started airing this week, two episodes on Wednesday and Thursday, and I sincerely hope it is only for a short time. The story is about a household of two brothers who are living in a joint family system with their children. The elder one is financially stable and has two daughters, Faryal (Amna Malik) who is married and Falak (Sarah Khan). The younger brother is living from hand to mouth, and has a son, Shams (Ali Rehman Khan) who is not good at anything, except day dreaming about becoming rich and marrying the love of his life, Falak.
Interestingly, the feelings are mutual as Falak also loves Shams. If the cousin marriage trope was not enough to make this drama typical, the writer added insult to the injury. Geeti (Ayeza Khan) is also their cousin who lives in the same neighborhood or probably next door. She is a TikToker with almost a lac followers; not just that she and her best friend also love Shams. My guess: Ali Rehman’s distinct eye color was leading on every woman in this drama, because otherwise Shams is uneducated, unemployed, unruly, immature, liar and a gambler. A million dollar question is why is every woman falling for him?
There were many speculations that Ayeza Khan’s character here is looking like Meenu that she played in Chupke Chupke. And while Meenu was clumsy, dumb and outright foolish, Geeti is bold, scheming and problematic. In reality, I am unable to understand why a girl living a life of luxury, with a caring and doting mother played by Asma Abbas, wants to run away with a random guy? Perhaps, she is too filmi for her own good.
Read: Laapata introduces new on-screen couples
She also blackmailed a shopkeeper, who asked to settle the debt, that she will make a video of falsely accusing him of “harassment”. It is 2021, the least we could do is be a more sensitive in our stories and portrayals. Writer and director, Khizer Idrees, is this humorous?
Sarah Khan as Falak is calm and composed. She is studious and wants to become a civil servant like her father. She is also a badminton player and her family supports her love for the sport. I was pleasantly surprised that a TV drama is showing good family dynamics where a nand, devrani and jethani [all sisters-in-law] are living happily with no fights. The two families were even open-minded when Shams and Falak disclose that they like each other. However, all good things come to an end and here it happened too soon. By the end of the second episode, Shams’ proposal was rejected because of his non-serious lifestyle and this will prove to be the first crack in this household.
Overall, Laapata doesn’t seem to impress; neither with its storyline, nor the characters. However, Gohar Rasheed hasn’t made an entry so far. Laapata is promoted as “an incomplete love story” which makes us wonder who’s love story won’t be a happy ending and who will end up with whom.
You can watch the drama here:
