Ishq-e-Laa, a project by HUM TV is introducing Azaan Sami Khan as the male lead. This is a mega project with a hand-picked cast. The teasers promised the drama to be a high-value production with the storyline being commercial and yet touching the spirituality. The drama opened with an engrossing start with the first episode.
There are 3 main characters introduced in the drama. Sajal Ahad, a fearless, brave and kind-hearted journalist who is rich and emancipated. She lives with a single parent, her mother, played by Laila Wasti. Azaan Sami Khan playing the role of Azlaan, who is a rich guy and friend of Shanaya (Sajal Ahad). He is very passionate towards his work but also very proud and has a bratty side. What was felt during the initial episodes was that, there is a presence of Azlaan prominently but the performance is not mind-blowing. He is coming from an artists family background so there are high expectations from him.
Yumna Zaidi aka Azka is a young naïve girl who has dreams to study and become successful in life. She wants to come out of her poverty because she hates being coward that comes out as a result of being a poor person who fears everyone around in order to survive. Her elder brother, Sultan works at Azlaan’s house as cook for 8 years. And the first time she’s introduced to him was when she went to work there with her mother in replacement of her brother Sultan for few days.
Sajal Ahad and Yumna Zaidi are two powerhouse of acting. And they are completely doing justice to their respective roles. A shout out to Seemi Raheal, playing the role of Khadija, Azka’s mother for being a powerful and protective mother. She has a voice and she uses it where necessary. Her Daughter-in-law, Kanwal wants Azka to marry Abid, her cousin brother who runs a general store but has a past of using and selling drugs and has spent some time in jail.
Ishq-e-Laa is a fast paced that has many characters and all are engaging. You don’t feel bored in the presence of any character’s scenes. Over all, the drama took a good start but there were some flaws in the scenes. When Shanaya, a responsible and famous journalist went for field work with open hair. I mean who does that? This is so impractical. But then again it could be justified by saying that she has to look beautiful on-screen.
There was another stupidity in the scene where Shanaya directly tells cameraman to roll the camera without taking consent of the lady she was going to ask questions. Infact, what she did actually led to that girl getting beaten up by her MIL. As a journalist, it is her duty to first ask the person if she’s willing to answer and also to get recorded. A journalist/ reporter can’t just knock and start recording people without their consent.
Anyhow, with little miss here and there, overall Ishq-e-Laa is a good watch and seems to be getting interesting with each passing episode.