Suno Chanda

***Suno Chanda*** (lit. Listen Chanda) is a 2018, Pakistani Ramadan special romantic comedy serial directed by Ahson Talish and written by Saima Akram Chaudhry Under the banner of MD Productions. Penned by Saima Akram Chaudhry, a popular novelist turned playwright, *Suno Chanda* follows an uncomplicated storyline: Arsal and Ajiya, who are cousins, have taken their vows (nikah) but haven’t started living together because the wedding reception is yet to happen. Their folks and an army of relatives are eager to plan the big day, but no one knows that the girl and boy are secretly conspiring to call it off.

When Suno Chanda first premiered on Hum Tv, it attracted a very large audience. Iqra Aziz potrays the character of Jiya,  Her belligerent and mercurial Ajiya in *Suno Chanda*is a perfect foil to the mild-spoken yet firm Arsal, played with utmost ease by former Jal vocalist turned actor Farhan Saeed. Incidentally, Saeed has also sung the play’s title track, which has lyrics by Talish and music by Naveed Nashad.

*Suno Chanda* also has a competent supporting lineup that includes Nadia Afghan, Farhan Ali Agha, Sohail Sameer, Samina Ahmed, Mohammad Ahmad, and Adnan Shah Tipu. Child actor Sami Khan makes a confident debut.

## Reception

The series is one of the most successful and watched drama during Ramadan. It is praised for its tune of reality and culture mixed-up with humor and was applauded with positive reviews.The last Episode of the drama aired on 1st day of Eid-ul-Fitr. Aziz and Saeed are praised for their on-screen chemistry, speaking to *The Express Tribune*, Aziz said that she is overwhelming and was not expect the series to be the massive hit. She further said about the character she played, “Jiya made me feel happy and I was really intrigued by the fact that these two people, married to each other, know each other inside and out, but still don’t want to live their lives together. Then, when I found out about their Tom & Jerry dynamic and absolutely loved it!” Farhan Saeed told in an interview "It makes me really happy, audience are really appreciating me for my work, the best part about this is I feel more confident now about choosing my scripts"

## Plot

The series revolves around two cousins, living in joint family, Arsalan Jamshed Ali (Arsal) (Farhan Saeed) and Ajiya Nazakat Ali (Jiya) (Iqra Aziz) who have taken their vows (Nikaah) but are not yet living together because the wedding and Rukhsati are not held yet. Both Jiya and Arsal are against the marriage as the nikaah was done as per wishes of their dying grandfather without taking their consent. Jiya has dream of joining London School of Economics for higher studies after her BBA. Bi Jaan (Mumtaz Begum) (Samina Ahmad), the head of family is Arsal and Jiya's grandmother. She has two sons Jamshed Ali (Farhan Ali Agha) and Nazakat Ali (Sohail Sameer) and a daughter Masooma (Tara Mahmood) who is married to Jalal Khan (Adnan Shah Tipu).They live in Peshawar. Jamshed Ali is married to Shahana (Nadia Afgan) and Nazakat Ali to Naeema (Farah Shah). Jiya has a younger brother Daniyal Nazakat Ali (DJ) who has his reporting system. He is always on sting operations making videos of family members and breaking news.

The drama is happening in Karachi, Pakistan.

Arsal and Jiya being cousins are childhood companions. They play pranks on each other. The undesired nikah has put them in a war like situation.

The only daughter of Mumtaz, Masooma, her husband Jalal and their daughter Kinza arrive to fix the date of the wedding. Arsal and Jiya do not want to marry as they have personality clash, but are forced by their family to honour the wishes of dying grandfather. Jiya and Arsal are constantly scheming as they plan to stop the wedding. Kinza, Arsal and Jiya's cousin (Masooma and Jalal's daughter) has a secret crush on Arsal and wants to stop the wedding too thus she helps Arsal and Jiya in cancelling the wedding by creating problems and rifts among the family members. Shah Jahan (brother-in-law of Bi Jaan) and his grandson Sherry who are settled in London visit Pakistan for Arsal and Jiya's marriage function which is planned to happen after Eid. They were invited by Jiya unknowingly to Bi Jaan against her will. Bi Jaan dislikes Shah Jahan (Agha Jaan), her late husband's brother as he made her to marry his brother in extenuating circumstances, while she liked him. Sherry is close to his cousins and a co-conspirator in their plots to stop marriage. Sherry asks both Arsal and Jiya to sort out their problem amicably. Sherry also helps Jiya to fulfill her dream of joining the London School of Economics and they plan to study together. Sherry eventually develops feelings for Jiya which makes Arsal jealous.Meanwhile Bi Jaan's niece (sister's daughter), Arbela (Mizna Waqas) (Billo) arrives to attend the wedding. Billo was supposed to get married to Jamshed, Arsal's father but Jamshed chose to marry Shahana instead. Shahana gets jealous with Jamshed and Billo's growing closeness and angrily leaves the house. Kinza and Arsal too come to live with her. Jiya's parents Naeema and Nazakat cancel the wedding due to misunderstanding and rift caused by the actions of Arsal and Jiya. Jamshed Ali stages a false heart attack drama to bring her wife back. Later in the show Shahana also cancels the wedding and wants Arsal to marry Kinza. Plots and sub-plots are executed by Masooma and Shahana. Kinza is happy about these turn of events. Jiya and Arsal are finally happy that they are no longer getting married. But, seeing their parents at loggerheads, they bond together as crime masters. Meanwhile, Jiya finally gets a scholarship to LSE (London School of Economics). As their parents are against each other Jiya and Arsal are forbidden to talk to each other. They are even having separate iftari on same dining table by partitioning the table. As Jiya and Arsal get closer to each other for making schemes, Arsal while talking to Kinza and Sherry realises he loves Jiya. He starts talking about Jiya around Sherry (Shehryar) and Kinza. Both Sherry and Kinza get jealous, so Kinza gets tired of hearing Jiya's name whenever Arsal and Kinza are talking and wants to drop their wedding proposal as well. Jiya's and Arsal's parents want Arsal to give divorce to Jiya but he is not happy about it. He has started developing strong feelings towards Jiya. Jiya's father however sends her to a lawyer to file for khula. Seeing this, Arsal confesses his love for Jiya but she rejects him and tells him that he is only jealous of the fact that Jiya wants to go abroad for higher studies. Arsal denies this and says that he will not divorce her and help her to continue her studies. Meanwhile, Arsal receives a notice from the court which infuriates him and he tells Jiya that he would not lose hope even if she has filed a case in court. Sherry says that Arsal and Jiya should resolve this matter by mutual discussions and so he convinces Jiya to meet Arsal at Iftar. The three go to an eatery for Iftar and there Arsal asks Jiya to try and understand his feelings but she says that she is more than sure that Arsal has not fallen in love with her. She asks him to give it a second thought, but he replies that he has thought it over many times and he knows that he has actually fallen in love with her. Jiya says that even if he has she can do nothing about it and she is sorry for that.On their way back to home, thieves attack them causing Sherry to run away abandoning the two. They try to kidnap Jiya but Arsal fights with them and protects her and as a consequence they shoot Arsal in the arm.Sherry gets back to the house and tells everyone what has happened. Meanwhile Jiya takes Arsal to the hospital and the doctor tells them everything is okay and that the bullet only brushed his arm.Later Jiya realizes her mistake says sorry to Arsal and he accepts it. Meanwhile Kinza is noticing Jiya and Arsal are getting close again, after their fight has stopped. She accepts Sherry's offer to help teach her everything about life. It starts mutual liking between them.

The shooting incident and Arsal risking his life for her develops soft corner for Arsal in Jiya's heart. At first she is confused about her feelings for Arsal but soon expresses her love towards Arsal to her close friend and confidante Huma.At the same time Arsal who is desperate to know what is in Jiya's mind asks DJ to make a video of conversation of Jiya and Huma.Jiya is unable to convey her feelings to her parents, however accepts the same in front of Bi Jaan and seeks her guidance. Bi Jaan asks Arsal to take her to the lawyer and withdraw the divorce proceeding, which Jiya does without informing her parents. Meanwhile, Arsal gets his hands on the video and gets to know about Jiya's feelings. He is elated to know that and thanks God. Jiya also starts acting a little strange in front of Arsal and he being aware of her feelings, tries to extract a confession out of her. In the meanwhile Naeema's friend Aaliyyh visits Jiya's house with regard to the marriage of Jiya to her son, which Arsal stops by showing them the invitation card of their wedding.

Later the family comes to know about the fact that Arsal and Jiya have fallen in love. But their parents are still against this and Nazakat asks Jiya that she has to chose between her parents and her husband (Arsal). Bi Jaan gets to know about this, she hatches a plan and asks Nazakat and Jamshed if they want their home or their mother. She gives them ultimatum to leave the house of their father if they can't honour his last wish. Bi Jaan calls an estate agent to see the house, Meanwhile Shahana's cousin and ex-fiance Joji (Jawad) (Ali Safina) visits the family where he meets Billo and start flirting with her,at this Jalal becomes jealous who was also flirting with her. Shahana has a private talk with Joji about their engagement that she thought was false as it happened in childhood. At same moment DJ makes their video and shows to Jamshed. Nazakat asks Jiya in presence of whole family to sign on the divorce papers and instead she writes "I love my husband" on stamp papers. Nazakat gets shocked while Arsal is very happy.

So family decides to go forward with the marriage of Arsal and Jiya as planned, by reconciling their differences. Preparations for Jiya and Arsal's wedding are going on meanwhile Agha Jaan asks Jalal to give Kinza for Sherry. Kinza's parents agrees. Arsal and Jiya are meeting privately which is disliked by Bi Jaan, she asks Jiya to stay away from Arsal till the wedding day which is to be held after EID.

Shahana became aware through Billo, of Jamshed's fake heart attack drama and creates a scene but Jiya and Arsal handles it as they tell Shahana that it has increased her face value among female members of the family. Shahana says sorry to Jiya as she has scolded Jiya so much. Arsal also begs forgiveness from Jiya's father for getting hyper during certain times. Bi Jaan asks Joji to call his mother for Billo's marriage proposal to which he happily agrees.Arsal gifts Jiya dress for Mehndi and sangeet function and asks her to wear it.The family celebrates eid the next day. Arsal and Jiya meets secretly and exchange Eid greetings. The next day Mehndi ceremony takes place. At wedding ceremony Arsal and Jiya began to fight again but on insistence of family patch up saying sorry to each other.At the time of Doodh Pilai (Marriage in Pakistan) ceremony whole family gathers to cheer the bride and groom. In the backdrop of ceremony Sherry is teasing Kinza and she proposes to Sherry for marriage which delightfully surprises Sherry.

On first night the couple fight again but later realize their folly and say sorry to each other and promise not to repeat the same mistakes.

The drama ends with Arsal and Jiya confessing their love for each other.

## Sequel

Due to its immense popularity and ratings, the makers announced Season 2. Iqra Aziz confirmed being part of the Season. Series is in the writing process and will release in mid of 2019.