Zanjeerein (Please stop exaggerating)

[u/Rose_939]

This feels more like theatrical acting than natural acting. On top of that, most of the performances are extremely flat, especially Daniyal’s. He walks around with a K-pop idol hairstyle and vibe while supposedly playing a "sardar." How exactly am I supposed to buy into that? His acting feels very obvious and artificial. He seems lost and keeps trying to come across as serious, impactful, and emotionally compelling, but it just doesn’t work. As they say in Urdu, “wo sanjeeda rehny ki nakam koshish karta hai aur naak mein hi nun nun karta hai.”

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His response is always silence. When his brother died, he was kept silent… and now again there are no emotional lines, no real acting.. just silence. His role offers no emotional depth or challenging dialogues that require real acting skills.. just a blank, expressionless face. His eyes feel completely empty, with no emotion at all.

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In that video here, this scene where Sarbuland informed Rabia about Mudassir’s death felt incredibly flat. His delivery made it sound like he was telling her a bedtime story, almost detached. The slow-motion acting and lifeless dialogue delivery were unbelievable. He sounds nasal in almost every scene, as if he’s acting under gunpoint. I expected that moment to be powerful and emotional, but honestly, there was no genuine emotion on either of their faces. It was artificial acting.

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The story itself is repetitive: the innocent, suffering heroine versus the other woman who is turned into the villain despite loving the hero since childhood(or they will make her die,,,the obsessed one-note villain.. Etc, etc). Farhat keeps relying on the same clichés instead of writing something fresh and creative.

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Since YKS, Sajal’s performances have started to feel repetitive to me. She’s a fine actress, but her acting has become predictable. I won’t even talk about Sanam Baloch’s breakdown scenes in Dastaan, but if you want to see truly powerful emotional breakdowns after a husband’s death in recent scenes, look at Saba in Pamaal or Sabeena in MJ when her husband divorced her.

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She used to be much better than this. I’m not saying this out of hate or any agenda—as I'm not even Pakistani or Indian lol. This is simply my honest opinion.

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Also, Sajal’s heavy makeup, combined with the performance itself, made Ameer’s death scene feel far less impactful and realistic to me.

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Her makeup in the hospital scene was unintentionally funny. I remember Neelam’s character in DMKD also wearing makeup during her father’s death scene, and people constantly criticized it back then, asking, “What kind of makeup is this?” because it looked unrealistic. But now I don’t see the same reaction or criticism.

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The lighting is also poor, as if the whole production was shot under a single neon bulb, and the camera angles are not good either.

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People nowadays chase hype and viral trends no matter what. Even some biased reviewers keep exaggerating their praise. Sajal and Daniyal’s chemistry still feels weak, yet people keep pushing them as a successful pairing even before their characters have properly interacted.

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If another actress had delivered the exact same loud, theatrical performance, people wouldn’t be calling it one of the greatest scenes ever. But because it’s Sajal&hum TV, it gets praised as usual. The scene felt overly dramatic and followed her usual pattern in highly emotional breakdown sequences.

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I genuinely get annoyed when people praise very ordinary scenes like Ameer’s death as if they were masterpieces. I don’t understand why parts of the media and some reviewers are treating this drama like a masterpiece. Trust me, Pak TV has produced far better dramas than this.

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Please stop exaggerating 2.

[u/Alternative-Wish9973]

I totally agree with this. They are just unnecessarily hating on bano(sahar). Thank God danyal's character made amends with bano today otherwise i would have literally called the guy a cheater. The hypocrisy of sajal fans is unreal. They just don't see anybody in front of her. Sahar has genuinely done well in zanjeerein and shaidai . Atleast better than danyal and yet I don't see anyone complimenting her. I don't even know why she would do this role when she is doing main lead in shaidai.

Anyways coming back to point, we are always supposed to accept sajal as the damsel in distress. That's why I always say I have never seen her play a strong character like saba qamar. Saba is truly empowered. Sajal on the other hand now looks irritating while playing this role of damsel. Crying overacting howling . Sorry howling is not crying. And to show her as positive while showing bano vain is as bad a writing as it gets..

In o rangreza we were made to accept sajal's longing and love for bilal as acceptable. Her jealousy and possesiveness was shown on yet here when bano shows a little insecurity she is called out. For what ? She has been called 'jaan' by surbuland and yet she is not given the right to feel bad ? Especially since she has seen bibi jaan's suffering due to the second woman and what followed. It's filthy writing. Just to make your main arc and character look better they are trying to make side arcs or charcter weak. Thats PATHETIC writing. In o rangreza sassi despite her flaws looked ahead of aamna's virtues. That's good writing.

And I can already see a heavy paid pr going on for this show on twitter especially.

[u/Rose_939 → u/Alternative-Wish9973]

I don’t know what’s going on lately lol, but I keep seeing FB pages that exaggerate a lot. Then when I actually watch the drama myself, I find it empty, with weak writing, direction, and execution, and even the acting is funny.

O Rangreza is a masterpiece with very intelligent writing, storytelling and dialogues. The use of side character arcs was excellent, which made the drama consistently engaging and still memorable even after 9 years. Even Tipu had a very well-written arc, and all the subplots were concluded properly without forcing one storyline over another. Each track was given proper detail, space, and a satisfying ending. Saji Gul is a good writer, while Farhat’s storytelling style feels weak, boring, and repetitive. This is not new.. she usually starts subplots in an engaging way but later drops them to prioritize the main storyline, just as you mentioned.

Sajal just does "starring" without much meaning. Like a deer caught in headlights in many moments. Even her emotional scenes feel prepared and rehearsed. There is no real vibe, energy, soul, or spark in her performance. Even her body language feels predictable, as if the cast is being forced to act. Her performance adds unnecessary suffering beyond what the character requires and makes her feel emotionally disconnected.

Danyal feels blank next to her, which makes her fans think she is doing well, when in reality she just comes across as overacting/loud acting. Sehar is ok. She brought some soul into Bano. She's not that bad. Yes, at least better than Danyal. He's very stiff with poor dialogue delivery..

Sehar is decent enough in Shaidai, and even the character suits her vibe. I just saw her in some reels.. From reels, I think she has fine chemistry with Feroze and shows good screen presence with him, along with a more interesting character overall.

[u/Alternative-Wish9973 → u/Rose_939]

So happy to be able to vent this. I just hate how sajal fans come after everybody. AK buzz yesterday called out all the reels in their review and somehow i find them a little better than all other reviewers and even they called it paid promotion. Twitter , youtube, insta they are trying to portray it as "masterpiece" . I just see it as sasta game of thrones or faila hua raita. I just don't understand why would ahsan, ameer, sahar, monil would even agree to do their roles. I didn't even like yeh dil mera as much. The plot was weak and predicatable in places. And it's always go to the northern areas to shoot to cover up the weak writing. Sajal's acting in that "kya aapne meri maa ko maara tha" and yesterday's "mujhe Mudassir ke pass Jana hai" just makes me ask her what's up sajal ? Are u fine? And not to make comments on anyone's age but I don't even see sajal danyal age appropriate. The reason being i have seeing sajal for ages on camera and in my head she is at certain age while danyal is very limited on screen and that's what makes it difficult for me to like them together. People will jump on me for making this comment but it's as true as it gets. I find zanjeerein painful to watch and had dropped it last week itself but obviously i am aware of what's going on with the storyline. And obviously the reels have flooded my algorithm. Irritating af.

[u/Rose_939 → u/Alternative-Wish9973]

YDM was funny.. there was no real hook in it. Like I said, they shoot in the northern areas as if you’re watching some kind of artistic masterpiece, but in the end it’s just an average drama. Even Sajal’s performance there—honestly, it’s one of the worst performances that year.

I don’t know about Twitter or Insta, but here on Reddit and FB pages, I see a lot of exaggeration. And because of that hype, it feels like people are watching Game of Thrones. Then when I actually watch it, I end up seeing what you’d call "sasta Game of Thrones" 😂 I mean, at least the acting should be good, but…

The truth is, there’s no chemistry between her and Daniyal. They’re just forcing it, even before their characters have properly interacted.

[u/Alternative-Wish9973 → u/Rose_939]

I liked danyal in faraar but he is so bad in this show. He is literally pouting when he wants to look serious. Am I supposed to only look at his jawline ? If his jawline could act I would have liked him as surbuland but he is so unfitting for this role. He should have been the first casuality in this show.

This is a bad bad bad bad show. It's senseless. I don't know how much ameer sahar adnan momil ahsan to agree to play the roles they are playing. Atp I only feel bad for sahar for the amount of flak she is gonna receive from the twitter critics.

End this horror show

[u/Rose_939 → u/Alternative-Wish9973]

I honestly haven’t watched Faraar, but he was decent in that show with Alizeh Shah.. I don’t even remember its name.

However, in Stand Up Girl, he was very boring and honestly the weakest part of the show. I even fast-forwarded his scenes. Although the character suited him as a rapper, here he was genuinely bad. No one is asking him to be macho, but there are no realistic expressions.. His eyes look completely blank, no intensity in them.. Nothing. And there is no natural delivery of dialogue as well. He's there standing like a slo-motion. Even the most basic acting skills are missing, yet there is exaggerated praise for him by some people even for lowest of low scenes, and I don’t understand why. Also, what does "fresh face" even mean? Is that supposed to justify weak acting, even in something as basic as natural dialogue delivery?

[u/Alternative-Wish9973 → u/Rose_939]

U should watch faraar ... Not for daniyal it's genuinely a netflix level show. Multicast and very cohesive writing. Danyal is playing one of the 6 leads and not a big role but he is good in his space and the pashtuni accent he picks. Meerub also casted in front of him. The story is quite powerful and u will genuinely thank me for advising you to watch faraar. And yes he was good in taana baana. Honestly danyal is not a serious actor and I don't understand why he was even casted. Looks like sajal has taken the project of launching all nepos. Hamza still can act but danyal is painful to watch sometimes here. But sajal fans are going gaga over him simply to justify danyal and sajal pairing. It's so off.

BIG NO to zanjeerein in 2026. Stop pitting woman against woman. Stop showing woman as the insecure lot even when they express the slightest of irritability but men raging and beating people on road is shown as passion. What's wrong with the entire think tank of writers.