Udaari (To Fly)

Udaari is the story of 10 year old Zebo and how her life changes forever after a tragic incident involving herself and her step-father.

Zebo (Areesha Ahsan), who lives with her widowed mother, Sajida (Samiya Mumtaz) in a tiny village, is shown to be a happy-go-lucky and bubbly girl who loves her mother dearly. However, she feels that it would be a good idea for her to remarry after she comes across a man, Imtiaz (Ahsan Khan), who is extremely caring and helpful towards them both. She feels that he will be a loving husband to Sajida as well as a great father to herself. Zebo ends up asking him to marry her mother, to which he ends up agreeing to, despite him being quite younger in age and having never married before (which is quite a big deal in Pakistan for a young single guy to marry an older woman who is a widow), however, little did she know that Imtiaz is not as sweet as he seems.

Imtiaz ends up raping Zebo eventually, which is when the actual story starts. What was the outcome of this incident? What actions did Sajida take? Did Zebo get justice? You will need to watch the drama to find out.

Child rape has been addressed by a few dramas previously, however, I feel like this drama became more popular than the other ones due to its ensemble cast and especially the fact that the villain was played by such a famous actor, Ahsan Khan, who I never thought would ever play such a gruesome character like Imtiaz. He really amazed me with his performance and I was proud of him for taking the risk to portray this role. This character really shattered his positive character image, which he always plays, but in a good way as he showed us that he can play any character if he is given an opportunity.

Udaari also has a few other storylines which involves a clash between modern and rural society which is also nicely portrayed and shows that anyone can fulfill their dreams if given a chance 'to fly' and how everything can change tremendously due to one decision.

This drama went on to win many awards and was the highest rated TV series of 2016 in Pakistan.

Rating: 10/10

#Udaari #pakistanidrama #tvreview #tvshow