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Reviews
Suno Chanda (2018)
Non Stop Laugh Riot
I loved this romcom so much. Stellar performances by Iqra Aziz, Farhan Saeed, and Nadia Afghan, who deserve particular praise and recognition for their performances. The remaining cast also play well to their roles, and bring further light relief.
Sunno Chanda is a perfect blend of comedy, romance and drama. Whether constantly ribbing each other or delivering dramatic emotional scenes, Aziz & Saeed as Gia and Arsal set the screen ablaze. Very natural and believable performances. Just can't get enough of this duo.
The dynamic between Farhan Saeed & Nadia Afghan who plays his mother is also incomparable. The mother/son bickering and Shahana's (Afghan) comedic punjabi idioms are a delight, and provide endless scenes of rib tickling wit.
Although the play is well written, the additional improvised dialogues only add to the wit and comedy.
The story is well thought out and plausible. With 30 episodes I feared it might drag on for too long but, the ending was a perfectly rounded climax.
I could watch this over and over again. Would highly recommend this to anyone looking for quality viewing.
Chupke Chupke (2018)
High Hopes turned to High Disappointment
After the huge success of Sunno Chanda, I was looking forward to binge watching Saima Akram Chaudhry's latest Ramadan romcom. Disappointed to say that even after my best efforts I couldn't get past episode 16. Despite high praise from viewers on the subcontinent, this offering fails to ascend to the level of wit and charm of Chaudhry's previous Ramadan offerings. The character's relationships are confusing to start. Sadly they take 2-3 episodes before the baseline of the characters becomes apparent. The characters themselves showed little depth, with the majority appearing as gimmicky caricatures. Meenu (Ayeza khan) I assume was written as bubbly boisterous blundering teenager. Instead she comes across as a clumsy spoiled brat. Khan is unconvincing as a teenager in this role. Osman Khalid Butt plays opposite as her half cousin, Fazi. Depicted as the level headed responsible guy, Butt's delivery however, presents him as a grumpy, frustrated guy, with little to attract the audience to his character.
(SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW:) I was further confused by Fazi & Meenu's relationship. Throughout they bicker, he is quite intimidating to her, and she resents him. She refers to him as "Fazi bhai", yet a shot gun nikaah still takes place. Up until this point, there's no indication that they could have anything other than a sibling relationship. Somehow they start to like each other, with little attempt to get the audiences buy in. Brief reference is made to how they've only ever thought of each other as a sibling, but nothing is done to address this, or explain how the change comes about. As a viewer I feel my intelligence being insulted. Can't deal anymore with the outdated depiction of the Ghar jamai , the wooden acting (except for Asma Abbas, who's excellent as usual) or the lack of integrity of the storyline. Expected so much more. Dishearteningly disappointed.