Review of the Pakistani drama Zindagi Gulzar Hai (Life is a bed of roses)!
These days I can’t stop raving about Zindagi Gulzar Hai! I recently watched this series on Netflix when someone mentioned that it’s an Asian adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice” and I must say that I was bowled over! It’s a story of an intelligent, ambitious girl named Kashaf, whose bleak circumstances have led her to think that God doesn’t love her and has made her extremely ungrateful. She struggles, strives, and breaks many academic barriers yet is delusional about happiness coming her way. Will she be able to find love and form a relationship based on trust and commitment?
The series is woven into many threads. We have the central romantic track between Kashaf and Zaroon with many ups and downs. Then there is a parallel storyline about Kashaf’s family and their struggles underlining the importance of treating girls equally to boys. The series raises various questions about gender equality, women’s emancipation, chauvinism, class differences, family values, etc. It emphasizes the role of education in girl empowerment and breaking the class hierarchy. Kashaf’s difficult journey from being a struggling nobody to becoming a PAS Officer (Pakistani equivalent of an IAS officer previously known as DMG) is every bit inspirational. The writing is superb and the dialogs and monologues add to the richness of the…
