There is a famous saying,
“Don’t judge a book by its cover”
Yet that’s exactly what we did, when Baandi came out! We took a look at the story line which at first glance, looked quite unconventional! We saw Aimen Khan and Muneeb Butt, two fairly good actors and thought “Voila! the acting would be on par!”. We heard the writer was Asma Nabeel, “Oh isn’t she the same women who wrote the story line of “Khaani”? It would definitely fold out rather nicely!”. To add fuel to fire, we saw the platform was Hum TV, the internationally recognized one, and thought “Nah! Hum TV wouldn’t disappoint!”.
However, here we are after watching 7 episodes, fairly disappointed and extremely sad to call Baandi an “epic failure”!
Since when did Hum TV start making serials in a very PTV- like setting, we are not sure, however what we can definitely say is Hum TV has disappointed us with not only the drama setting, but also its production, casting, writing and wardrobe. Lets look at them in more detail!
“Waaris”, the drama serial which was aired on PTV in 1979, written by Amjad Islam Amjad, featured a similar story but one that was so amazingly executed that you found yourself immediately transported into the setting they had created.
And in the 21st century, we now have drama serials like Baandi, portraying the same story line in such a pathetic way! Sindhi is such an old civilization, one that must not be toyed with if you don’t have a command over it! And we have the production head Sharjeel Chaudhryto blame for it.
Casting– nothing can be more disappointing than this. Casting director Anila Mushtaq’s bias in appointing roles is very evident. You see, every actor cannot do every role. Feroze Khan in Khaani was successful since he does serious characters well, however his attempt at comedy was an absolute flop as we have seen in “Romeo weds Heer”.
Similarly, Yasir Hussain is a comedian, and simply by opening the shirt’s buttons, speaking loudly and “moocho ko tao denay se” the character wouldn’t suit him!
How we wish they could have shown this enthusiasm in acting as well! We believe, the new trend of casting as per the number of followers of the actors needs to stop, since it is preventing deserving people to come forward.
Also we are sick and tired of seeing Aimen khan in the same old role of a protagonist who is always crying, just like in her previous drama serials Ghar Titli ka par and Ishq tamasha!
By no means should the director Ahmed Kamran be spared, now that we are critically viewing the drama. It is his department to make the most of the actors he had, however a good direction is lacking too.
Asma Nabeel, we had great expectations from you in terms of writing especially after your big hit “Khaani”, but your performance in Baandi has been somewhat disappointing too since its been seven episodes and the story has yet not unfolded. We have no clue in what direction is it headed and by that we don’t mean suspense, rather that the story is all over the place.
Lastly, wardrobe! We’d be a little rude but it is customary to say that it feels like a bunch of people having purchased clothes from Karachi’s “Zainab market” went to have a picnic in Hyderabad and decided to shoot the serial in the same clothes! No, honestly what were you guys even thinking!?
