Dil Ruba Wanders in the Good, the Bad and the Weird Territory
It seems like going from bad to weird is the new thing when it comes to dramas, and Dil Ruba wanders into that territory in its fifteenth episode. Some of the things that happened onscreen can only happen in a TV drama, and the writer Qaisera Hayat and director Ali Hassan could have avoided them. However due to the powerful performances, fast-paced storyline and intriguing plot that keeps on giving, Dil Ruba maintains its speed and entertains the audience.
The Plot
Sanam (Hania Aamir) serves Khurram (Syed Jibran) with a legal notice after he had partied hard in ‘her’ home; after getting another lecture from Natasha (Ghana Ali), he decides to make a return to his home and fake his way into Sanam's heart, when in fact he is doing all that to get back into his father’s will. He decides to transform Sanam from a middle-class girl to a high-class one and even takes her to one of his parties where some of his friends welcomed her with open arms, making Natasha jealous.
Sanam’s sister (Durr e Fishan) and mother (Marina Khan) make a surprise visit to her home only to find her in what they believed were objectionable clothes. Junaid (Shahroz Sabzwari) still seems in love with Sanam and tries his best to break up with his fiancée only to enrage his father (Khalid Anam) and surprise his mother (Huma Nawab).
The Good
This episode once again belonged to Syed Jibran and Hania Aamir and had a new entrant to this category – Ghana Ali. While Jibran’s Khurram was expected to be devious from the moment he introduced his new wife to his father, and Hania Aamir’s Sanam was relegated to the bechari slot temporarily, Ghana Ali comes out as a breath of fresh air. Her character Natasha walks on thin ice as she is not Khurram’s mistress, but girlfriend; she doesn’t care for him but herself because if Khurram gets back into his father’s will, that will mean lifelong happiness for her too. In fact, since she gives advice to Khurram, she sort of acts as a mentor to him, which is surprising for, in our dramas, vamps are usually depicted as beauties without an inch of the brain.
And then there was the transformation – Sanam’s transformation from a girl with a middle-class background into a diva is breathtaking. Khurram didn’t know her when she wanted to be a TikTok star and for one moment it seemed that she was going back into that mode. Both Hania Aamir and Syed Jibran’s expressions in the transformation scenes and those that came after were enough to forget the stupidity that followed after.
The Bad
Aah, the stupidity. First of all, after destroying the life of their daughter/sister twice through hasty marriages, Marina Khan and Durre Fishan’s characters had no right to lecture Sanam about how to live her life. As a mother and a sister, they should have left her alone but in our dramas, there has to be an angle that comes out as impulsive. In the first few episodes, nobody left the house because of the ailing father (Sajeeruddin Khalifa) but suddenly he was well enough to be left unattended! Also, Sanam was using the treadmill in her house when they arrived and nobody in their right mind would use the machine in kurta shalwar no matter how backward they might be!
And then there was the strange case of the Know-it-all Butler (played by Akbar). If he knew that you can order a maid online, that his master is interested in rich boys and girls, if he is so trusted to receive a phone call from his master’s father, can give advice to his new malikan and control a toddler then why is he working at that place! Shouldn’t he be doing something else because his body of work is more than most of the people we all know, especially those who have become stars in their own right? Yes, we all missed Mohib Mirza’s Sabeeh but when Junaid's parents act as if he is an idiot with no luck in life, the viewers feel that it was good that Sabeeh didn’t make an appearance.
Shahroz’s character went on a scholarship abroad and is constantly disturbed by his forced fiancée, and when he tries to complain to his parents, they refuse to listen to him because of one suicide attempt in his past. Seems they don’t know that siding with your children goes a long way, especially when he is away, studying for a better future. Instead of pressurizing him to get married, shouldn’t they be letting him study first and think about marriage later?
The Verdict: Despite its dull moments, Dil Ruba surges ahead
Dil Ruba has its good, bad, and weird moments but the good outweigh the bad, and the bad outbalance the weird. Even then, the drama surges ahead making the audience wonder what will happen next, and how it will affect the lives of the characters. Director Ali Hassan must be commended for not dragging the episode and making the audience relate to the characters, instead of the performers. If that’s how the drama continues, then I can’t wait for the drama to end and find out what happens to Khurram, Sanam, and the rest of the characters who make our lives interesting every Saturday.
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