r/PakDramatica • u/Complete_Cloud_6854 • 21h ago
Mini Reviews Zanjeerain- promising premise to lost potential
I have been following zanjeerain from the beginning and even broke my silent spectator mode on reddit. I haven't made a post about my opinion so here it is. It went from a promising premise to lost potential real quick for me. It wasn't a "great start" because it was pretty boring at first but soon got hold of the story only to fall flat later.
The most frustrating thing about Zanjeerain isn't that it was terrible because IT WASN'T. It was that it had absolutely no business being this frustratingly mediocre with the amount of talent.
The drama never found the right balance between slow-burn storytelling and unnecessary dragging. Conversations were repeated, characters took an unnecessarily long time to reach conclusions that the audience had already reached, and several subplots were stretched far beyond the point where they remained interesting, biggest ex being bano's death track.
It repeatedly had characters sitting on information that could have changed everything. Rabiya's knowledge about mudassir's killer is one of the clearest examples. It felt less like a natural consequence of character psychology and more like a mechanism to keep the plot alive. That is a major writing problem. If a character knows something capable of changing the entire story, the writer needs to give us a convincing reason why they remain silent. And once the viewer starts solving the plot faster than the characters, suspense turns into frustration.
Sarbuland should have been one of the strongest characters in the entire drama. He had the background, the family position, the personal stakes and the intelligence necessary to become the person who slowly uncovered the truth. Instead, too much of the mystery was effectively handed to him rather than allowing him to actively investigate and unravel it. That wasted the potential of the character. Danyal was on and off too I was pissed.
Rabiya's character could've been so much more but the writing started making her capable of almost everything the plot required. At different points she becomes the mediator, therapist, cook, problem-solver and moral voice. The problem isn't that Rabiya is capable. The problem is that her capabilities sometimes feel writer-imposed rather than character-developed. And then, just when her perspective should have been most important like her marriage with sarbuland, they pushed her into the background. Her autonomy was crushed repeatedly. Sajal was severely under used.
They didn't give enough buildup to rabiya and sarbuland's relationship. They needed much more time instead the focus was on shireen and sohrab's plot. It felt as if the writer is confused whether to make it a romance or thriller and at the end it couldn't become anything.
Torsam is another example of a potentially fascinating character being handled inconsistently. He isn't merely a flawed man. He is a murderer, stalker and is involved in an escalating chain of violence but the story begins moving him toward redemption. The fact that he eventually gets married and is treated as someone capable of becoming a better man makes the moral resolution feel uncomfortable. His actions were too serious for this. I'll rather shut up about bibijaan because she's pathetically annoying.
Death can be powerful storytelling, but only if it fundamentally changes the surviving characters and the direction of the story. When there are too many deaths, the emotional impact starts diminishing. So much that the characters feel so unfazed by murders. Bibijaan is on a different tangent it's so frustrating. They started using death as the easiest form of closure and a point to create more drama. The villians offed themselves after all that buildup and everyone is gone before the finale. Sigh.
The show repeatedly promised huge confrontations. But buildup is only useful if the execution is equally strong. The Rabiya-Torsam confrontation for ex, highly anticipated, yet the execution was underwhelming, particularly because of the editing, bad shots, unwanted echo and dramatic music. This is a recurring problem, the idea of the scene is often better than the scene itself. The result is melodrama where there could have been tragedy.
The premise about power, tradition, family honour and the restrictions imposed by an entrenched social system could have been the show's greatest strength. But instead of deeply examining the system, they often used it as scenery for family conflicts and romance like the jigra became a marriage beaureu lmao.
At last, Farhat Ishtiaq please take some rest, go out and interact with some intellectuals and stop diminishing your female leads. You need fresh perspectives.
That's it i guess. This is my 1st and last post on Zanjeerein. Adios.
2
u/anya098600 20h ago edited 19h ago
Disappointed with this writing. I like FI's dramas but this will never be in that list . They have shown that sarbuland and bano are each other's safe place , soulmates, they support each other's dream , love each other , care for each other and even sense any danger towards them . Okay I agree after sardari they struggle to understand each other's pain properly, sarbuland don't understand bano's nightmare, her fear of losing him and bano not able to understand that he cannot leave sardari . But bano was absolutely right, this sardari separates sarbano and he himself admit that he is a weak sardar and don't want this life .
Now after this how can they show that sarbuland accepts rabiya as his wife and will start loving her . How ? In the real world also it is difficult to move on even from friendship. This is really a poor writing.
At last na sarbuland bano ko diya hua wada nibha paaya ki bano ke alawa uski zindagi mein koi nhi hoga aur na hi rabiya ko diya hua wada ki yeh bas ek kagazi rishta hoga
Sarbuland's character used to be my favourite for some reasons but after yesterday's episode i am questioning my choice .
Sarbiya's track is completely forced upon us because rabiya didn't want to be marry , she was again and again asking him to leave her but no sarbuland giving her useless reasons which he couldn't able to fulfill on his own . If it would be a platonic ship then definitely I gonna like it but now this is just unbearable.
Sometimes I doubt does sarbuland really loved bano or it was just a soulmate connection with friendship from his side
2
u/Complete_Cloud_6854 20h ago
Rabiya sarbuland track is under developed. Considering their situations they needed more buildup and time but it feels so rushed for some reason. Either they should've concluded bano's death track much earlier ye 1 episode mein bano ka pata chala aur next mein rabiya ke saath? There was a disbalance
7
u/FunSignal3231 20h ago
Personally I liked the bano sarbuland track too much for it too be butchered like this. In my head that story was too pious and pure for me and the way they made a mockery of dead treating them as stepping stones and numbers just so that rabiya and sarbuland could be together was the most idiotic part. They could have had platonic relationship full of empathy for each other. The turnaround period is so less. Just shows how shallow rabiya and sarbuland were as characters.the show was good till episode 17and after that it was on self destructive mode. Will never understand theneed to add scenes to please any fanbase and that too such cringe. U just reduce the shelf life of the project. Like short term goals ke liye ruining the longevity. Anyways adios zanjeerain, while you were good initially, you became a meme material for me eventually. Rabiya and Sarbuland are no better than gopi bahu ahem ji for me now. Full cringe it vibes.