Yaqeen Ka Safar

Yaqeen Ka Safar () is a Pakistani television drama series produced by Momina Duraid through MD Productions for Hum TV. It aired from 19 April 2017 to 1 November 2017, with a total of 29 episodes. It was written by Farhat Ishtiaq, based on Ishtiaq's novel Woh Yakeen Ka Naya Safar and was directed by Shahzad Kashmiri.

Yaqeen Ka Safar chronicles the journey of two protagonists, Asfand and Zubiya, who grow after facing hardships and struggles. It was written and produced by the creators of Humsafar, Mata-e-Jaan Hai Tu, Diyar-e-Dil, Udaari and Bin Roye. Its ensemble cast consists of Ahad Raza Mir as Dr Asfandyar, Sajal Aly as Dr Zubia, Shaz Khan as Daniyal and Hira Mani as Gaiti in leading roles. It premiered in Pakistan, the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and UAE on the same date and time.

Yaqeen Ka Safar was one of the highest-ranked dramas in Pakistan the year it was released.

Plot
Yaqeen Ka Safar starts with three stories.

Zubia Khalil is a young girl mourning her mother's sudden death at the hands of her physically violent father. Zubia needed to visit a friend's house to borrow important lecture notes and insisted her mother accompany her, despite her father forbidding her mother to leave the house alone. When Khalil discovered Zubia's mother disobeyed him, he slapped her so hard she fell and ended up hitting the corner of her bed, dying instantly. Zubia's aunt Mahjabeen Khala consoles the devastated Zubia and tells her the truth. But Khalil threatens her and the whole family to stay silent regarding the cause of the mother's death.

The second story involves a family in Islamabad celebrating their son Daniyal's wedding to his cousin Gaiti Ara. Daniyal is a young lawyer who has recently graduated from London and is extremely fearless, confident, brave and honest. Asfandyar is Daniyal's younger brother, who will soon leave for Karachi to complete his medical studies after his brother's wedding. He is a lively person and quite ambitious as well. The family maintains a significant reputation in the community as Usman, Daniyal and Asfandyar's father, is a successful lawyer, too. Asfandyar is engaged to his other cousin Faryal, the only daughter of Usman's brother, Rizwan.

The third storyline involves Noori, a young girl living in a rural village of Sindh (Rab Nawaz.) who is gang-raped by a minister's son, Jahangir Shah, along with two of his friends. The police ask Noori about the incident and ask her quite inappropriate questions. Noori's younger brother stands up for her, but her parents remain silent because of their poverty. The police threaten Noori's father. Their family is insulted in the village, so Noori leaves her home. She is then found by and taken to Karachi by Rumana, an NGO lady in Karachi. Rumana informs Daniyal about the Noori gang rape incident.

On the other hand, a lonely Zubia starts dating her stalker named Rameez. Her sister-in-law Sheema overhears Zubia talking to Rameez and starts plotting against her so that she can take her revenge on her father-in-law Khalil, as he insulted her parents, who support love marriage. Rameez convinces Zubia to marry him secretly so their families will accept their love. When Zubia goes to his house, she discovers his true intentions as he tries to abuse her. She instantly runs out of his flat and crashes into Asfandyar, who saves her. Sheema shows Zubia's conversation with Rameez to Rehan and Khalil, thus succeeding. Rehan starts hating Zubia for ruining the family's reputation. Khalil realises that because of his sins, Allah has punished his daughter and regrets everything. When Zubia asks for forgiveness, he forgives her.

Daniyal travels to Karachi, meets Noori, and decides to file a case against Jahangir Shah and his friends. Daniyal starts receiving threats and is jailed based on the false accusations that he raped his secretary, Urooj Nisar, who was secretly working for Jahangir Shah. He gets bail the next day, and his family tries to force him to close the case, but to no avail. Some days later, while Daniyal is in his office, he is shot by Jahangir Shah's people, who had also killed one of his loyal friends, who had been helping him throughout the case. These people also destroyed all the proof Daniyal had collected to present in court and typed up a note, supposedly from Daniyal himself, stating that Daniyal was too scared to deal with this case anymore and was leaving everyone forever. It leaves people thinking that he gave up and committed suicide. The family receives this news the next morning and is in extreme pain. Noori's agony intensifies, and she secretly takes a gun from the security guard. She then attends Jahangir Shah's conference and kills her rapists.

Meanwhile, Asfandyar and Faryal's engagement ends as Faryal and her parents refuse to believe that Daniyal is innocent and did not commit suicide. After all this, Asfandyar leaves for America to complete his education, while Faryal marries someone else and settles abroad. Gaiti gives birth to her and Daniyal's son, Saim. This event finally brings some smiles to the family members' faces. They move to a different city, and Asfyandar leaves for the U.S.

Despite Rehan and Sheema's opposition, Khalil gets Zubia admitted to a medical college as Zubia and her mother wished. Zubia still is not accepted in society for her past. As soon as she was about to complete her MBBS, Khalil died. After a few months, Sheema's cousin from abroad visited her and developed an interest in Zubia. In the middle of the night, without Zubia's consent, he enters her room and tries to get closer. Zubia yells, and after Rehan and Sheema find them in the room together, the man falsely accuses Zubia of calling him to repair her laptop and asking him for sexual favours. Zubia stands up for herself and tells her brother that when it was her fault, she did not argue one bit, but now, she will not bear these lies and the unjust treatment. Zubia's sister-in-law throws her out of the house at night. Zubia goes to Mahjabin Khala's home in Peshawar. Zubia stayed there for a few weeks, but her cousin's wife's behaviour was not good with her, and their marital life was disturbed. She gives a job interview with Asfandyar's newly established hospital and leaves for the hostel. She instantly feels as if she has already seen him somewhere.

Asfandyar is now strict and arrogant. He was unsure of appointing Zubia because of her lack of experience. From day one, she is scolded a lot by Dr Asfandyar, so she also calls him Hitler and Changez Khan. Zubia and Gaiti (wife of Daniyal) become friends after meeting in a nearby sitting area. Zubia talks to Gaiti about her boss not knowing that Asfandyar is her brother-in-law. When Zubiya learns the truth, she becomes angry with Gaiti as she believes Asfandyar will think she was trying to impress his family to gain benefits in her job. But Gaiti resolves her worries. Zubia gets close to a domestic violence victim, Khajista, and keeps trying to improve her life. She gets to know from Gaiti that Asfandyar had studied in Karachi. Zubia remembers that he was the person who had saved her from Rameez. She feels scared that her scandalous past will ruin her present. Zubia gets Gaiti to socialize again and joins the hospital as a nutritionist. Everyone in their family becomes close to Zubia because of her positive nature. They start considering Zubia for Asfandyar's marriage. As Zubia improves her performance as a doctor, she and Asfandyar establish good terms with one another. They both start falling in love.

In the meantime, Faryal is back and wishes to marry Asfandyar, as her husband divorced her. She regrets her ill treatment with Asfandyar during that difficult phase. But Asfandyar refuses, and she leaves heartbroken. Zubia realizes that Gaiti and Dr Haroon (Zubia's colleague) can marry as Dr Haroon also lost his dearest wife in an accident, just like Gaiti lost Daniyal. On another side, Zubia's brother Rehan has lost peace in his life of guilt for throwing Zubia out that night. Khajista's mother-in-law starts liking Zubia after she treats her. Zubia makes her understand she should take care of her daughter-in-law. Urooj Nisar, Daniyal's secretary who had accused him of rape, comes to the hospital after her son met with a car accident. Asfandyar identifies who she is, and so does she. He locks himself in his office and cries while remembering his brother. But he still performs surgery on Urooj's son without taking a penny from her. In extreme guilt, Urooj calls upon a press conference, confesses all her crimes and asks for forgiveness. Everyone saw it in the media, and Daniyal's family finally feels relief that their son lost his life in trying to protect humanity. Asfandyar and his father travel and visit Daniyal's grave and attend a seminar held to honour Daniyal.

Asfandyar's family is excited when he doesn't refuse at the prospect of marrying Zubia. But she rejects the proposal after his mother reaches out to her family, saying that temporary infatuation can't lead to marriage. Both are heartbroken, but Zubia can't let the truth of her past come out. A pregnant Khajista was finally getting love and care from her mother-in-law. Now she is brought to the hospital after getting accidentally shot by her husband. It leads to a police case, and she has to go through an abortion to save her. Asfandyar decides to stand up for justice this time, just like Daniyal. His father, too, treats this as a redemption for Noori's case and takes Khajista's case to fight in court. The police arrest her husband. Asfandyar finds the lost id of Zubia he had collected the day they had first met, and he had saved her from Rameez. He finally remembers the day and realises her past is why she rejected his proposal. He learns more about Zubia's family by talking to her Khala. As Rehan reaches the hospital to meet her, Zubia notices him and gets tense. She realises now everyone will find out her lies and her past. She flees from the hospital. Asfandyar locates her standing high on the cliff. Asfandyar is shocked and runs to save her, but she jumps into the lake. Asfandyar rescued her and brought her to the hospital while she remained unconscious. Here he finds out about her and reprimands Zubia's brother for ill-treating Zubia. Rehan asks for an apology from Zubia. Finally, Asfandyar confesses his love and adoration to Zubia and tells her that he doesn't care about her past but only her and wants to spend the rest of his life with her. They tearfully hug.

In the end, Zubia narrates that in a few days, it would be a whole year since she and Asfandyar had been married. Dr Haroon and Gaiti are happily married too. Khajista has now resumed her studies. She says- All the hardships and challenges Allah had in store for you, he also rewards you with blessings in return. In the end, everything was worth it and happened for a reason. The show ends with the moss green SUV of Asfandyar vanishing from sight as he and his Zubia are out on their journey with "Ek Naya Aghaaz" flashing on screen before the curtain falls.

Cast

Main cast
 Ahad Raza Mir as Dr. Asfandyar Ali Khan
 Sajal Aly as Dr. Zubiya Khalil/Dr.Zubiya Asfandyar Ali Khan
 Hira Mani as Gaeti Daniyal Ali Khan
 Shaz Khan as Barrister Daniyal Ali Khan
 Farhan Ali Agha as Barrister Usman Ali Khan
 Suhaee Abro as Noori

Supporting cast
 Mohammed Ehteshamuddin as Khalil Ehteshamuddin
 Beenish Raja as Sheema Rehan
 Afraz Rasool as Rehan Khalil
 Sabeena Syed as Faryaal
 Aisha Khan Jr. as Urooj Nisar
 Shamyl Khan as Dr. Shahroze
 Shamayel Tareen as Dr. Asifa Shahroze
 Salman Saqib Sheikh as Dr. Haroon
 Nasreen Naz as Noori's mother
 Ismail Chandio as Noori's father
 Ali Gul Mallah as Rab Nawaz's assistant
 Sabiha Sumar as Lubna
 Huma Nawab as Mahjabeen, Zubia's aunt
 Annie Zaidi as Gaeti's mother
 Munazzah Arif as Rukhsana, Faryaal's mother
 Nabeel Zuberi as Ramiz, Zubia's boyfriend
 Agha Talal as Mohsin, Mahjabeen's son
 Zia Gurchani as Gaeti's father
 Javed Iqbal as Faryaal's father
 Akbar Islam as SSP Shehzad Ahmed
 Naima Khan as Jehangir's mother
 Fazila Qazi as Maah-e-Talat, Zubia's mother
 Zainab Qayyum as Rumana, Women activist
 Jahanzeb Gurchani as Rab Nawaz
 Mariyam Nafees as Khajista
 Hassan Noman as Bahadur, Khajista's husband
 Ismat Zaidi as Zubia's grandmother
 Nawal Saeed as Misbah, Zubia's friend
 Ibrahim Salman as Saim, Daniyal and Gaeti's son

Production

Development

Hum TV's senior producer Momina Duraid of MD Productions, developed Yakeen Ka Safar. The channel hired the director Shahzad Kashmiri who previously directed Bin Roye for the same channel. Along with Kashmiri, they finalised Mirza Zeeshan Baig as the art director. It was Baig's return to Hum Television after he directed Diyar-e-Dil, Mann Mayal, Sanam, Dil Banjaara and Alif Allah Aur Insaan for the same channel. Tameen Nazami and Safdar Hussain Rind were the cinematographers. The serial is based on award-winning writer Farhat Ishtiaq's novel Woh Yakeen Ka Ek Naya Safar. Ishtiaq also wrote the screenplay, while Muhammad Wasi-ul-Din composed the script, who has previously worked with her with the channel's series Diyar-e-Dil and Bin Roye. Ishtiaq has previously worked with Duraid, where she wrote mega-hit drama serials in Pakistan television history, Humsafar, Mata-e-Jaan Hai Tu, Diyar-e-Dil. Bin Roye and Udaari. Waqar Ali and Suhail Haider composed the song, while MAD Music gave the background score. Hadiqa Kiani and Richa Sharma performed the OST. Yaqeen Ka Safar is the second collaboration of writer and director after 2015's hit film Bin Roye. The show aired a weekly episode for 35–40 minutes (minus commercials) every Wednesday.

There were several discussions regarding its time slot. It was announced that the show would premier on 12 April 2017, airing an episode on Friday's replacing Dil Banjaara. However, since Dil-e-Jaanam bought lower ratings to channel's Wednesday slot, Yakeen Ka Safar was shifted to Wednesdays and was delayed till 15 April 2017 due to promotional reasons. .

Casting

Sajal Aly, Ahad Raza Mir, Shaz Khan and Hira Salman were selected to portray the leading roles of Zubiya, Asfandyar, Daniyal and Gaeti.

Aly made her television comeback two years after her 2015 TV series Gul-e-Rana. After completing her Bollywood debut, Mom, Sajal portrayed Dr. Zubiya and signed O Rangreza for the same channel. Mir, who made his television debut in Sammi, was finalised after his success in portraying the role of Salar in Sammi. The actor received critical acclaim and appraisal for his role as Dr Asfandyar.

Film actor Shaz Khan was finalised to portray the role of Daniyal during his filming session in the channel's upcoming film Parwaaz Hay Junoon. While Salman returned to the network after her 2015 TV serial Preet Na Kariyo Koi, portraying the role of Gaeti, Salman joined filming after completing her ARY project Sun Yaara, alongside Salman her husband Mani was also cast where he portrayed the role of Dr. Haroon.

The production house also chose actors Farhan Ali Agha, Mohammed Ehteshamuddin, and Maryam Nafees to play the roles of Usman, Noori, Khalil and Khajista.

Release

Broadcast
Yakeen Ka Safar premiered on 19 April 2017 and aired weekly, with a new episode being broadcast every Wednesday at 8:00 pm.

The show aired on Hum Europe in the UK, Hum TV USA in the USA and Hum TV Mena in UAE, with the same times and premiere date. It was broadcast by Hum Network's new channel Hum World HD for the US and Canada.

It rebroadcast on Hum TV in Pakistan, premiering 8 October 2018 at 10 pm slot. In 2019, it also aired on the national channel PTV Home started in August 2019, airing two episodes  (Friday and Saturday) every week.

A dubbed version is currently airing on Hum Pashto 1 in Pashto under the title دباور سفر.

Home media and digital release
Yakeen Ka Safar was also released on Hum TV's YouTube channel alongside its airing, but later the channel deleted all its episodes. It was also released on the iflix as a part of the channel's contract. When the contract was terminated in 2019, all its episodes were removed and thus could not be streamed digitally anymore.

Later Yakeen Ka Safar was also released on OTT, the platform MX Player. In July 2019, the channel re-uploaded all episodes on YouTube. A few episodes are also available on Amazon Prime Video.

Music 

Mad Music gave the background score for the series.

The title song of Yakeen Ka Safar was composed by Waqar Ali, while Naseer Turabi penned the lyrics. Hadiqa Kiani performed the OST. The singer returned to Hum TV after singing the OST for the channel's hit drama series Udaari in 2016.

The OST "Mitti kay Parindey" was composed by Syed Suhail Haider, and its lyrics were written by Kashif Anwar. Richa Sharma performed the OST.

Track listing

Reception 
The serial received critical praise, especially for the storyline, cinematography and performances of the star cast.

While praising the refreshing storyline without much romantic angle and multiple themes of the series, Express Tribune wrote, "Yaqeen Ka Safar is honest and original, and has changed the paradigm of Pakistani dramas." While reviewing positively, Buraq Shabbir of The News said it was more realistic than other serials aired at that time stating, "It views people as professionals while tapping into their personal lives as well, making it more relatable". DAWN Images praised Mir's complex and nuanced portrayal of Dr. Asfandyar.

Awards and nominations

See also
List of programs broadcast by Hum TV
2017 in Pakistani television

References

External links 

 Official website

Pakistani drama television series
2017 Pakistani television series debuts
2017 Pakistani television series endings
Urdu-language television shows
Television series based on the novels of Farhat Ishtiaq
Pakistani medical television series
Television shows set in Islamabad