Pyarey Afzal

Pyarey Afzal or Pyaare Afzal (Urdu: پیارے افضل) ( English: Dear Afzal) is a Pakistani romantic drama television serial that aired on ARY Digital, directed by Nadeem Baig, written by Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar and production of Six Sigma Entertainment. The drama starred Hamza Ali Abbasi and Ayeza Khan in lead roles.

Pyarey Afzal
Title screen
GenreRomance, drama
Written byKhalil-Ur-Rehman Qamar
Directed byNadeem Baig
Starring
Opening theme"Pyar Ko Pyar Mila"
Sung by Waqar Ali
Country of originPakistan
Original languageUrdu
No. of episodes37
Production
ProducerSix Sigma Entertainment
Production locationsKarachi, Hyderabad
Running time40 minutes
Release
Original networkARY Digital Network
Original release26 November 2013 (2013-11-26) –
12 August 2014 (2014-08-12)

Pyaray Afzal won many people's choice awards from Dawn readers in 2014. At the annual Lux Style Awards, Pyarey Afzal won five awards from seven nominations, including Best Television Play, Best Director for Baig, Best Actor for Abbasi and Best Actress for Khan.[1] Pyaray Afzal also aired in India on Zindagi Channel with the same name. The Express Tribune stated Indian viewers liked "The script, dialogue delivery, background score and overall finesse" and there was much social media response.[2]

Plot

The story starts in the city of Hyderabad where the protagonist Afzal Subhan (Hamza Ali Abbasi) son of Maulvi Subhanallah (Firdous Jamal) is playing Cricket. Afzal spends his time playing sports, cards and betting which his father despises. He has a crush on Farah Ibrahim (Ayeza Khan), the mill owner's daughter, and claims to receive letters from Farah which he reads in front of his friends, although he refuses to disclose the name of the girl. Farah on the other hand is to marry Mahtab (Umer Naru), a family friend, but she does not want to marry him. Farah along with her sister Lubna (Sana Javed) hire Afzal to be Farah's love interest so that Farah can convince her parents that she loves another person, which they succeed in doing so. Meanwhile, Afzal falls in love with Farah and his sister (Anoushay Abbasi) convinces his parents to take marriage proposal to Farah's parents. In the family meeting Farah humiliates and insults Afzal. Heartbroken Afzal leaves Hyderabad for Karachi vowing to never return.

Afzal arrives in Karachi and lives with Babu Hameed (Alie Sheikh) in a rented room. The house is owned by a landlady and her daughter Yasmeen (Sohai Ali Abro). Afzal witnesses an incident in which Wali, Yasmeen's gangster cousin harasses her to marry him. Afzal fights Wali who vows to take revenge and returns after a few days with his men comes and shoots Afzal. Yasmeen is moved by what Afzal has done for her and falls in love with him. Wali taking advantage of Afzal's absence comes to Yasmeen's house again. Babu Hameed attempts to shoot Wali but gets shot instead. Afzal receives the news of Babu Hameed's death and decides to take revenge. Afzal's parents came to Karachi in order to meet him but he runs away before they met him. Undercover Police gets interested in Afzal and decided hire him as a vigilante and pays him to create a gang for targeted killing the criminals. Their first target was Wali and he was assassinated.

Afzal becomes infamous gangster and nobody knows that he actually works for the undercover police. Meanwhile, Farah's psychologist Sibtain proposes to Farah who agrees reluctantly. When Afzal is informed he also decides to get engaged with Yasmeen on the same day as Farah's engagement. Farah's engagement is cancelled when Maulvi Subhanullah has a heart attack. When Afzal hears about his father's heart attack he returns to Hyderabad with Yasmeen. Afzal's parents are initially reluctant to accept him but Yasmeen successfully resolves his issues with his parents. Afzal receives a call from the undercover Police to resume his target killing but he informs them that he no longer wants to be their target killer. Yasmeen is curious about the Farah who writes letters to Afzal. Afzal, unable to express his feelings to Farah had written letters from Farah to himself. Yasmeen goes to Farah and confronts her. She realizes that Farah is also in love with Afzal. She breaks her engagement with Afzal and decides to go back. Farah calls Afzal and admits to loving him. The police shoots Afzal while they are having this conversation because he had left the undercover police and they had warned him a long time ago that he can not leave his post. As Farah confesses to loving him, Afzal succumbs to his bullet wounds as the drama ends.

Cast

Main

Recurring

Soundtrack
"Pyar Ko Pyar Mila"
Song by Waqar Ali
LanguageUrdu
GenreTheme song
Length3:16
Producer(s)Six Sigma Entertainment

The title song of the series "Pyar Ko Pyar Mila" is a remix of a song of the same name of the 1967 Bollywood film Pyaasa.[3]

Track list
No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Pyar Ko Pyar Mila"Waqar Ali3:16

Reception

Critical reception

While reviewing the series, Dawn heavily praised the female portrayal and dialogues, but mentioned some very minor writing faux.[4] The drama was a mega hit in all aspects and was one of the first Pakistani dramas to air its finale in theatres.[5] The performances of Abbasi, Jamal and Khan were especially praised, while the screenplay was regarded as poetry in motion by critics.[4] Khan was especially revered for the outstanding portrayal of a confused yet innocent young woman, while also portraying a character that was headstrong and knew what she wanted in life.[4] Jamal was praised his perfect portrayal of Maulvi SubhanAllah, who is often regarded as one of the best religious characters ever seen on Pakistani television.[4] However, this drama really put Hamza Ali Abbasi on the map. His subtle and nuanced performance of an extremely confused, yet die hard romantic is still praised today.[4]

Regarded as one of the best dramas of all time, Pyarey Afzal was listed among the 10 iconic Pakistani TV dramas by DAWN Images.[6] This drama was the onset of Khan and Abbasi's popularity and skyrocketed their careers to where they are today. Qamar's beautiful and poetic writing, and Baig's subtle yet dramatic direction along with splendid work from all the actors made this drama an all time success.

Accolades

The drama serial grabbed all the awards under television category at 14th Lux Style Awards.

Award Category Recipient(s) and nominee(s) Result Ref(s)
Lux Style Awards Best Television Play Won [7]
Best Television Director Nadeem Baig Won
Best Television Actor Hamza Ali Abbasi Won
Firdous Jamal Nominated
Best Television Actress Ayeza Khan Won
Saba Hameed Nominated
Best Television Writer Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar Won

References
  1. "2014 Drama Poll results: 'Pyaray Afzal' dominates Pakistani television". Dawn.com. Sadaf Haider & Sadaf Siddiqui. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  2. India is in love with Pyaare Afzal
  3. "Last episode of 'Pyare Afzal' in cinema tonight". Business Recorder. 12 August 2014. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022.
  4. Ali Abdurab (25 August 2014). "What 'Pyaray Afzal' did right".
  5. Kazmi, Zohaib (12 August 2014). "Last episode of 'Pyare Afzal' hits theatre". ARY NEWS. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  6. Sadfa Haider (28 March 2020). "10 iconic Pakistani TV dramas you should binge-watch this weekend". Dawn Images. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  7. "Winners of the 14th Lux Style Awards 2015". DesiBlitz. Aisha Farooq. October 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
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