Ever since the second season of Suno Chanda was announced, fans, including myself, had been waiting with bated breaths for the return of their favourite characters. Expectations were naturally high but unfortunately, the show fell a little short of them and left us wanting a lot more.
The season started the day after Arsal and Jiya’s wedding and ended with the season’s new characters Mithu and Maina getting married. As a result, the new season saw the focus shift from Arsal, Jiya and the rest of the family to the new characters of Mithu, Maina and Bebe. But that is not what the fans had been anticipating. They were more interested in seeing how Arjiya’s married life progressed and how they, and their family members, dealt with the changes.
Unfortunately, Arsal and Jiya pretty much spent the entire season fighting with one another only to reconcile in a rushed final episode. Shahana’s scenes were limited and scattered. We barely saw Sherry and Kinza who were reduced to just advertising the sponsors of the show. Bi Jaan, Agha Jee, Nazakat, DJ, Naeema, Masooma and Jamshed were also seen more in the first half of the season. The punch lines which became so popular in the first season were limited in this one and the season jumped from being a light-hearted comedy to more of a family drama.
I simply failed to understand why Jalal Phuppa was given so much screentime considering his character was hardly likable. Throughout the season, he was either throwing his weight around because he’s the “ghar ka aklota damaad” or he’s out hitting on various women in the family. I was also not a big fan of Pino, Mithu and Maina but considering a lot of people liked their characters, I will reserve my thoughts on them.
My biggest disappointment from this season was Arsal and Jiya’s characters. Arsal’s character was nothing more than a man-child who sulked every time things did not go this way, while Jiya was like dynamite, ready to blow up any minute. Instead of showing them bickering and ignoring one another, the writers could have shown their struggle as a young, married couple learning to live with one another.
On the contrary, one of the highlights of the season was Shahana as the mother-in-law. She was supportive of her daughter-in-law and did not hesitate to call out her son every time she felt he was getting out of line. She was without a doubt the one person who pulled together the show and I can confidently say that she was the one who brought in the viewers each night. That along with the chemistry of the cast with one another.
Despite all the shortcomings, the serial pulled in viewers each night because there is a dearth of such shows on our television screens. Most TV serials either focus on unrequited love or saas-bahu tensions which have now been done to death. Apart from that, a lot of drama nowadays focus on society’s ills and while those are amazing for spreading awareness, they also dampen our already depressed moods.
Suno Chanda provided a light-hearted, mindless watch even though it became boring to some extent. Aehsun Talish is a brilliant director who really knows how to bring out the best in his actors while Saima Akram Chaudhry deserves a round of applause for her writing. The cast’s performances were also brilliant apart from a few opening episodes in which Iqra Aziz and Farhan Saeed went overboard with their acting.
If Hum TV is planning on bringing back a third season, I hope they will focus more on Arsal and Jiya instead of bringing in other characters. Oh and the OST was lovely. Kudos to Farhan for writing such beautiful lyrics.
At the end of the day, the numbers were not because of content, but because of a lack of other content.
