The first episode of the drama serial ‘Raaz-e-Ulfat’ has finally aired, and it was as gripping as we were expecting it to be.

Written by Maha Malik and directed by Siraj ul Haq, the direction seemed flawless and up to the mark from the very first episode.

The play stars Yumna Zaidi, Shehzad Sheikh, Komal Aziz, Hina Bayat, Arisha Razi, Gohar Rasheed, Kiran Haq, and Kiran Haq among others.

From the promos, we already knew that it was a story of a girl Mushk, who desires to live her life to the fullest, but her conservative father governs every aspect of her life, the episode further gave us more insight into the girl’s life.

Mushk is a very innocent and obedient girl, always trying to please her father and never go against his set rules, though deep inside, she isn’t happy with the kind of life she is living. The episode began with Mushk talking to her younger sister about how much she admired birds and their freedom and wished she was a bird too.

This reflected her inner desire to live a life free of all rules set by her father.

As soon as their father comes home, their mother essayed by Hina Bayat and the two daughters all get to work and start making preps for dinner, because he is very strict with time management and functions by the needles of the clock.

On the other side of the story, there is Sahiba, who is a fashionista, modern and outgoing girl, the stark opposite of Mushk’s personality.

Sahiba meets Mushk outside the university admission office, where Mushk comes with her father to take admission in MSc. The director established their first meet up with great precision, sowing the initial seed of their attraction towards each other, which will eventually lead to friendship and take the story forward.

There is one more angle to the story, and that is of Gaiti and Ismail. Ismail’s wife Gaiti is suspected of having cancer, and that has Ismail extremely worried about her health. Ismail is a colleague of Mushk’s father.

The first episode, hence, set the stage for the beginning of the story and introduced all the characters convincingly.

The interweaving storylines make the plot more interesting.  However, the male lead Shehzad Sheikh was nowhere to be seen in the first episode, and we missed his presence.

All in all, the drama looks like a brilliant new addition with an ensemble cast, on-point direction and good scripting.

The pairing between Shehzad Sheikh and Yumna Zaidi is fresh and it will be interesting to watch what the duo has to offer. Raaz-e-Ulfat would air every Tuesday at 8 PM.