Sheher'Zaad Episode 1 (Saima Akram Choudary)- Episode Review by Shoby

Sheher'Zaad Episode 1 (Saima Akram Choudary)- Episode Review by Shoby

Shehr'Zaad- the one who belongs to the life of the glittering city. After Siyah Hashia, Saima Akram Choudary is back with her next episodic Urdu Novel and this time she acquaints us with someone who was probably like Amjad Islam Amjad's Ek Larki.

Wo jab bhi college ki seerrhion sey

SahelioN ko liey utarti

To aesa lagta ke jese dil meiN utar rahi ho...

Somewhere else, amidst of a sad gloomy winter night, someone has just embraced the death with open arms right after leaving her child at one of the railway stations that came while the couple was travelling. Seems like they have gone through something worse than tragic and that catastrophe has torn their life into various pieces.

Location: (my favourite hill station) Murree... This Result jitters has spread all over here and just to avoid any "unavoidable" circumstances, Tuba attempts to tie up the thread knot with the haunted banyan tree and like always it was the idea of none other than Dur e Shahwar but this time idea couldn't materialised the way they expected and resultantly, they were caught red-handed by Shah Meer. 

Location (F-7, Islamabad): Rumesa, the daughter of famous beauty salon's chain Tinas owner Ms. Tina has all the reasons to get enraged & cry over the ongoing situation where her mother is supposedly getting herself ready for her fourth wedding. I am sensing we are going to see a neglected-child & problems related to her in upcoming times. On her threat of committing suicide, her sister Sherry (Shehr'zaad) decides to come back Pakistan from France.

So Sheher'zaad returns to Pakistan and so does the call of that self-claimed die-hard love(r) Keep guessing who is he :p

PAUSE for a moment... Today (January 6, 2016 Friday) a winter evening... Me reading "Sheher'zaad" and Dur-e-Shehvar is all set to have a meaty view of Murree's Mall Road with its very own style of (as usual) crowd with plates full of nuggets, fries & pakoras (real moth watering... Isn't it)...???

There have been only a handful of encounters between Dur-e-Shehwar and Mohammad Hadi but believe me, all of them have been gone totally invalid. Especially the last one which has resulted in the window-smashing combat between the two. There are no points for guessing that the two will soon enter in a cupid-controlled earth shattering sort of romance and this story will surely have a great significance  in the heart of the novel.

After finding herself completely helpless of what her infuriated younger kid (Rumi) was up to, Tina goes to a dargah but on her return she witnesses what turns out to be one hell of an affair. One-Two_three, the neglected child has (probably) started showing her ugly side.

Like ever other initial episode of a series, first episode of Sheher'zaad was a grand introduction with all the focus of the author was on setting up the premise around which the whole novel will roam around. Till yet, I have found some of the characters really appealing and powerful and they are looking confident enough to take the story ahead in the right direction.

First couple of scenes of the episode were trademark Saima Akram's sort of writing. While visibly hiding tons of secrets and untold stories, they were catchy enough to go well as far as the start of the novel is concerned. 

Honestly speaking, I have not yet come across those energetic one-liners for which Ms. Saima is famous among her readers. However, overall ambience of the episode one was quite lively especially the Murree tale. 

Episode 2 of the novel will certainly throw more light on the happenings.