It has been quite some time since Pakistan’s drama industry was blessed with a spooky, horror thriller of a story. Apparently, it has been an overdose of sibling rivalry, saas-bahu battles, and third triangles on our screen these days.
Consequently, when Najaf Bilgrami and Shamoon Abbasi’s ‘Chalawa’ rolled out the suspenseful teasers of Chalawa on Hum TV, a wave of curiosity was bound to spread amongst critics and drama aficionados. It is not often that we get to see a creepy, mystery on our television. What’s more, this genre of entertainment is rarely worked upon in our country.
View this post on Instagram
However, the feedback of Chalawa has been positive on social media since its broadcast of two episodes, prompting us to review the tale and see what all the hype is about.
The drama stars Ali Ansari, Noor Zafar Khan, Navin Waqar, Usama Khan, Sameena Ahmed, Adnan Jaffar, and Naveed Raza in pivotal roles. Let’s study the story of the drama and see how it has progressed so far since its release.
Of mystery man, evil spirit, and a late-night graveyard stroll
Chalawa’s tale revolves around a young, pregnant widow Mahnoor (Navin Waqar). Living with her mother-in-law and aunt (Sameena Ahmed), she moves to Karachi to escape the depression and emptiness in her life.
The trouble begins when she visits a graveyard to pay a visit to her late husband in the dead of the night. There Mahnoor encounters a strange, uncanny man with a heavy built, deeply kohl-ed eyes, and haunting persona. He warns her not to stroll at the graveyard so late after dark and keeps observing her with his daunting gaze as she pays her final respects to her husband.
Shockingly, Mahnoor sees him again while leaving her home in Lahore and moving to Karachi. But he vanishes in the blink of an eye. From here begins our heroine’s tryst with the supernatural forces.
Moving on with her life, she applies for a job in a school where she gets harassed by the principal, Sarfaraz. What we see in the next scene gave us major goosebumps. As Mahnoor leaves the school premises after slapping the principal, an unseen force tries to strangle him. In defense, he tries to commit suicide by jumping from the roof.
Here again, the mystery man from the graveyard returns to haunt Mahnoor and departs with a cryptic warning.
Amidst all the drama, Mahnoor goes into labor and gives birth to a beautiful baby, Sawera. The drama gets more interesting with its second episode. The mystery man keeps visiting Mahnoor and now even her infant child gets enveloped in the paranormal drama that has plagued her life.
Various members of the family observe another mysterious child lying with Sawera. Her grandmother takes the young baby to a religious healer who bestows her with a black thread to keep the child safe from the evil eye and spirits.
We also meet the dandy, spiritual Professor (Adnan Jaffar) who has the gift of reading people’s minds and thoughts. Handling Sarfaraz’s case who has now lost his sanity, the Professor aims to get to the bottom of this. He visits Mahnoor to know what happened with his patient and after a detailed interaction, he deduces that there is a strange force attached to Mahnoor but is unable to find the root of all the supernatural activity.
The second episode ends with the drama fast-forwarding to twelve years in the future after all these bizarre incidents. Shockingly, we see a grown-up Sawera playing hide and seek with her mother. But as she tries to surprise her mother while hiding in the cupboard, her protective trinket given by the healer loosens. Behind her hiding in the same cupboard is a young boy, who is the spirit that has now attached himself with Sawera.
Powerful Cinematography
Like we established earlier, horror dramas are quite a rarity in our industry. But successfully, Chalawa has us hooked. Its spooky cinematography and haunting soundtrack add to the mystery in its plot, making it an enthralling watching experience altogether. Fans who are into unnerving fright-mares will enjoy it and will keep returning to Chalawa to follow up on the story.
Naveen Waqar’s Scary Home-Coming
So far, Naveen Waqar being the main lead has taken the limelight in the story. There is no doubt that she can gracefully carry any avatar that she signs up to portray. Accordingly, she is portraying the character of Mahnoor with all the enthusiasm her role demands. The bone-chilling scene where she is transformed into a witch-like figure with terrifying eyes was a disturbing sight to behold. We are delighted to see her back on Hum TV after a short hiatus, that too in a role that is extremely novel for her.
The Stylish and Scary Adnan Jaffar
Equally, performing his best is Adnan Jaffar as the Professor. Dressed sharply and modestly, he too exudes major appalling vibes. There is an aura of suspense in her role and the actor has aced it with ease. In fact, he scared us so much in all the scenes where he is entering the thoughts of his target mind. We are excited to see what more value his character will be bringing to Chalawa’s story.
We are hoping that there is a veritable buffet of scary surprises in the drama. So far, we have given it a thumbs up. Let’s see what is next to come.
from HUM TV – Watch Dramas Online https://ift.tt/36MvZft
0 comments:
Post a Comment