Introduction

Zindagi Gulzar Hai is one of the finest and most entertaining dramas I’ve ever watched. It is loosely based on Umera Ahmed’s first novel of same title. Sultana Siddiqui has directed the drama. It is an MD production and aired on HUM TV.

I have been meaning to post about this drama since ages. Something or the other always comes up; or I end up watching the drama again, completely forgetting about the review itself.

Let’s meet the characters first.

You can read book review here: Book Review: Zindagi Gulzar Hai

Difference from Novel

The drama was sanitised and romanticised for screen adaptation. I don’t think we can see Kashaf on screen. Kashaf’s on screen persona isn’t happy. She writes diaries, she complains a lot but it’s her suppressed anger. She is resilient and works extremely hard to give a better life to her mother and sisters.

Her reasons for bitterness

Her reasons for bitterness was poverty alone, and how her father abandoned them, and how her step-brother visits so often, and how Rafiya prioritized her daughters’ needs over her own, like broken chappal vs something for Kashf. She’s bitter AF. At times, you relate with her, but most of the time, she comes across as too bitter. 

Zaroon, on the other hand

Their time in college

The debates etc are cut down from drama version, and more romance has been introduced. I’ve watched interviews where Sultana Siddiqui admits of chasing Umera Ahmed for “more romance”. I think it was a smart decision because both Kashf and Zaroon in book version were quite nasty.

Her reasons for agreeing to the proposal

It wasn’t the chai Ka cup. No. I was a well prepared argument by Zaroon. She didn’t want to marry him because he was a flirt. He argued that

How they met after university

The Osama proposal angle was never there in the book. Zaroon accuses her of being a loose character as she loved Azhar, her now brother in law. Kashaf leaves his house and stays in a hostel for a day but Zaroon comes to pick her up. He wants to give their marriag another chance. That would have been so real and so unromantic, right? So, obviously cut down from screen adaptation.

Verdict

Both are good, drama is AMAZING.