“Zindagi Gulzar Hai” is a series far better than any I have seen in a long time. The drama is based on Umera Ahmed’s novel “Zindagi Gulzar Hai?” – a story about the daily diaries of two polar opposites, Kashaf and Zaroon, who are first tied in the bond of hate, then love and finally matrimony.

At first, the meeting of Kashaf and Zaroon seems like a Pakistani adaptation of Elizabeth Bennet’s and Mr Darcy’s first encounter from Pride and Prejudice. This, to any female, portrays irresistible on-screen chemistry, and one is smitten by the love story right away.

However, the drama touches upon many serious social issues – from male chauvinism to a hierarchical class structure – that lead one to think pragmatically.

Kashaf is an average looking, lower middle class girl, and the eldest daughter of an educated woman who serves as a principal in a government school in an attempt to raise her three daughters.

Her mother is an extremely patient woman who shows her appreciation to God throughout the drama. She also maintains an optimistic attitude towards life despite having faced many hardships after her husband abandons her for an uneducated woman simply because she is unable to have a son.