Neem Episode-1 Review: Beginning of an intense yet beautiful tale

Neem the newly started drama serial at Hum TV is shot in the scenic valley of Azad Kashmir. The Drama is penned by Kashif Anwar and is directed by Shahzad Kashmiri. The same duo is famed for the drama serial Sabaat. The play is under the banner of MD Productions. Neem features Mawra Hocane, Ameer Gillani, and Arsalan Naseer in the main cast whereas Jibran Syed is playing the negative character. Neem is a treat to watch other than the story, it shows Kashmiri’s scenic beauty.

The other cast of Neem includes Manzar Sehbai, Hani Taha, Maryam Nafees, Shamyl Khan, Adeel Khan, Ismat Zaidi, Alamdar Khan, Areeba Tirmizi, Tahira Shahzad, Yousuf Bashir Qureshi, and others.

The first episode opens with a scene showing a University class in session where Manzar Sehbai is a Professor, who is giving a lecture. He reflects on his own life journey, his aspirations to become a CSS officer, and how he landed a teaching job honestly confessing that he did that for money. Zimmal (Mawra Hocane) is shown keenly listening to her professor’s lecture. Zimmal is shown as a kind heart and generous girl.

Zimmal gives all the money to the laborers sitting on a road who failed to get their daily work by sacrificing the money she has saved to buy the dress for her bhabi. Later we get to know that she is also engaged to a guy Shazil played by Arsalan Naseer. Arsalan Naseer always adds humor to the play so we can hope to see light heart vibes coming from that character. It is so refreshing to see Ameer Gillani in a different avatar.

The stammering yet endearing lad Ashhad (Ameer Gillani) is brilliantly done by Ameer. He has a secret crush on Zimmal. It seems that he is passionately in love with Zimmal but there is a caste difference shown. Zimmal hails from a prestigious family. It is so good to see Kashmiri culture on our TV screens, the beauty of its language plus the scenic beauty is the cherry on the top.

As the episode progresses, the horrifying character of Karamat Khan emerges. He is shown breaking a TV. The is scene so terrifying. He is shown as someone unhinged. It seems that he too in some way likes Zimmal. Zimmal despite getting higher education has a dream to teach primary students as according to her it is a choice either to make money or to build a nation. We are very much interested to see how Zimmal’s character comes across with Ashhad.

Overall a refreshing start of something intense yet beautiful I have high expectations with the team of Sabaat.