Zindagi Gulzar Hai (زندگی گلزار ہے‎) – First Impressions

This is yet another Pakistani drama on my quest to watching all of Fawad Khan’s shows. I have already established Fawad as my favorite Pakistani actor because of his endless charm and incredible talent in acting, and it makes sense that I’d be searching high and low for the shows he has appeared in.

Zindage Gulzar Hai was written by the celebrated scriptwriter and author Umaira Ahmed who has many successful series under her belt such as Meri Zaat Zarra-e-Benishan and Shehr-e-Zaat.

The main characters are Kashaf Murtaza (Sanam Saeed) and Zaroon Junaid (Fawad Khan), who are polar opposites in status, attitudes, and way of living. Kashaf is a pessimistic girl, embittered by her father’s desertion and neglect and the harsh conditions under which her family -which consists of her mother and her two sisters- live. Zaroon, on the other hand, is carefree and bored with his smoothly-going life to the point where he wishes for some obstacles that would make life more exciting. You can’t have two people more opposite than that.

Kashaf is a wet-blanket type, always there to dampen your mood, but for all her attitude, she only speaks out because of hurt and pain for the sordid fate of her family. It shows when she can’t bear to eat the meat her family only has the luxury to have twice a month because she sees in it all of the things her mother, Rafia (Samina Peerzada), had suffered through to earn it.

Her love for her mother and resulting bitterness for her mishaps shine the moment when Rafia’s slipper’s strap breaks and is forced to walk barefoot to school where she teaches, forcing a smile on her face, as Kashaf thinks in her heart, “Sometimes I hate life so much…that there is no limit to it. All our lives Mom has done this–led life with a broken slipper.” 

Indeed, the symbolism here is striking; that broken slipper Kashaf is talking about calls to mind the father who has abandoned his wife and children for another woman and left his wife all alone to raise three daughters to maturity.

There is so much to dig at and analyze in Kashaf’s portion of the story but not much yet on Zaroon’s end. Life is truly going well for him that it is hard to try to look beneath the surface. The sharp contrast between Kashaf and Zaroon’s lives is underlined majorly in the drama, those two people might as well belong to different species. Zaroon is ignorant to the complaints and worries of the lower class, who work many jobs to make ends meet and worry about their next meal and Kashaf has never felt the relief of knowing you have enough to cover the month’s expenses and more.

I only managed to comment on the two main characters but there’s also Zaroon’s sister Sara (Ayesha Omar) who is spoiled and has liberal views. I’m not interested much beyond that from such a shallow character but she might surprise me (especially since she’s played by the experienced Ayesha).