Enaaya Review: 5 Things that are Wrong with Pakistan’s First Web Series

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Enaaya Review: Web Series on Eros Now

Enaaya is the first Pakistani web series featuring Mehwish Hayat and Azfar Rehman. The veteran actors play the roles of college kids. No kidding. Mehwish Hayat and Azfar Rehman. As college kids. Let that sink in.

Enaaya is a musical love story written and directed by Wajahat Rauf. The show has 12 episodes. Episode 1 is free to watch, and is available on YouTube. To watch other 11 episodes, you will need a Rs. 800/month subscription as they are behind a paywall. But you will have to work hard to convince yourself to watch beyond the first episode.

So what’s wrong with Enaaya

Well, everything. From story, to cast, the dialogues. Even the misplaced swear words suck. Big time. But let’s start with the cast. The web series is directed and produced by Wajahat Rauf – who brought us movies like Karachi se Lahore, and Lahore se Aagey.

Enaaya Web Series

1. What’s up with the cast?

  • Mehwish Hayat – as Enaaya
  • Azfar Rehman – as Jimmy
  • Asad Siddiqui – as Rasiq
  • Faryal Mehmood – as Faryal
  • Rabab Hashim – as Mariyam
  • Waqar Godhra – as Mikoo

Are there no younger actors to play as college kids? It’s very, very hard to accept Mehwish Hayat and Azfar Rehman as college kids. And other actors don’t look too promising either.

Kollege Jeans did it right about 20 years ago. They were the college kids. Each one of them was perfect in their roles.

Sadly, there are no more young actors left in Pakistan. So we have to rely on tried and tested veterans. Won’t be surprised if we see Javed Sheikh and Bushra Ansari playing young adults in Wajahat Rauf’s next.

2. Is there a story?

The story is, “let’s create some drama”. It’s so full of contradictions and the makers didn’t even make an attempt to fix it. Here are a few of them from 20 minutes long first episode:

Enaaya wakes up dreaming that she’s singing in some concert. Apparently, it’s her dream to become a singer. But then the college band have to convince her hard to join their band as lead vocalist. If it’s your dream, won’t you just grab the opportunity?

Enaaya’s best friend wants to take her to the auditorium. But, in response, she gets yelled at in the middle of the campus, because Enaaya doesn’t feel like going there. So she yells at her and then disappears. In the very next scene, Enaaya is in the auditorium. Same f**king auditorium that her best buddy wanted to take her to. And she didn’t want to go. Now she’s there. Alone. What a b***h.

At the breakfast, Enaaya’s mum starts talking about her husband (Enaaya’s dad). Then of course Enaaya adds her two cents about the topic. And in her very next dialogue, her mum goes like, “Enaaya, you know I don’t like to talk about this topic”. Well, clearly you don’t.

My head’s spinning.

Even before watching Enaaya playing a guitar in the last scene.

3. Not being harassed can be boring for some

5 minutes into the first episode, Enaaya is telling her mum how people were so afraid to even talk to one another. Because of feminism. It’s so boring. Wow! Feminism is so bad. And people are so afraid because of it. God! Who are these people? O’ kaun loug o tussi?

Aww, how boring!

4. Let’s add some gaalis, cuz why not?

Gaalis are to a web series, what the item songs are to a Bollywood flick.

While you are making a ‘formula’ web series, you throw in all the ingredients. And guess what, swear words and abuses are perfect ingredients. So just because Sacred Games – a successful web series – had swear words, we’re gonna have it too.

Let’s throw in some gaalis then. Whether or not they fit in the script, that’s not an issue.

5. Just because no on will sensor it, we have to try hard to play ‘cool’

The director, Wajahat Rauf, said when talking to Instep. “There was freedom to write. College students do swear and say f*** (which we are not allowed to use in print) and we just tried to keep it as organic as possible.

Not sure if it’s an excuse. We won’t question the use of words since college kids do use swear words. Well, everybody does – not just the college kids. But here they look so misplaced and enforced, and not original that it’s actually laughable.

You won’t see a ‘bhen***d’ so fake, misplaced, and out of depth as the one said by Asad Siddiqui’s character in the first episode. That too during a ridiculously fake fight, that erupts for no apparent reason.

We’re totally cool with gaalis being thrown around. Because you have the liberty to do that in a web series. You have the liberty. It’s not mandatory.

It’s a lame, formula web series that tries too hard to appear cool. The actors try too hard and still look out of depth.

The only positive thing about Enaaya is that it’s the first Pakistani web series. And the first episode was only 20 minutes. Even those 20 minutes feel like forever. Why did I watch it, dear God.

Here’s the first episode:


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Jutt

Jutt is the master of analyzing and criticizing anything that displeases his nerdy aura. He isn't afraid to voice his opinions as long as they are from behind a screen. Fun fact: all his gadgets have names and identities.

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