Suno Chanda


Suno Chanda is a 2018 Pakistani Ramadan special romantic comedy series directed by Ahson Talish and written by Saima Akram Chudhery. The series celebrates the Pakistani wedding traditions by relating the story of a couple who are in Nikaah, living separately as the Rukhsati is yet to happen, and the relationship between their families. It aired everyday on Hum TV.
It features Iqra Aziz and Farhan Saeed as Jiya and Arsal respectively in the leading roles while Samina Ahmad, Syed Mohammed Ahmed, Sami Khan, Nadia Afgan, Farah Shah, Sohail Sameer, Farhan Ali Agha, Mizna Waqas, Ali Safina, Tara Mahmood, Adnan Shah Tipu Mashal Khan and Nabeel Zuberi in recurring roles. The series is produced by Momina Duraid under their production banner MD Productions.
The series received five major nominations at the 18th Lux Style Awards, including Best Television Play for Momina Duraid, Best Writer for Choudhary, Best Actress for Aziz and Best Emerging Talent for Zuberi. It won three Lux Style Awards, including Best Series and Best Actress for Aziz.
Series received highest ratings and positive reviews on its premiere, and was the slot leader for the whole time it was on air. It has also been dubbed in Arabic and aired on MBC Bollywood under titled "زفاف بلا زوجين". Its sequel Suno Chanda 2 is released on 7 May 2019 and ended 5 June 2019 after airing 30 episodes on Hum TV. The show was followed by two sequels Suno Chanda 2 and an upcoming Suno Chanda 3.

Series overview

Plot

The series revolves around two cousins, living in a joint family, Arsalan Jamshed Ali and Ajiya Nazakat Ali who have taken their vows 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 the wishes of their dying grandfather without taking their consent. Jiya dreams of joining London School of Economics for higher studies after her BBA. Bi Jaan, the head of family is Arsal and Jiya's grandmother. She has two sons Jamshed Ali and Nazakat Ali and a daughter Masooma who is married to Jalal Khan. They live in Peshawar.
Jamshed Ali is married to Shahana and Nazakat Ali to Naeema.
Jiya has a younger brother Daniyal Nazakat Ali who has his reporting system. He is always on sting operations making videos of family members and breaking news.
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 family Masooma with her husband Jalal and their daughter Kinza arrives to fix the date of marriage. 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. Jiya, Arsal and their cousin 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 and his grandson Shehryar 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, 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, Arbela arrives to attend the wedding. Billo was supposed to marry 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 Naema 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. As their parents are against each other Jiya and Arsal are forbidden to talk to each other. They are even having separate Iftari on the 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 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 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 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. Bi Jaan gets to know about this, she hatches a plan and asks Nazakat and Jamshed if they want the divorce of their children 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 Shahanas cousin and ex-fiance Joji 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 the hand of Kinza for Sherry. Kinza's parents agree. 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 handle 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 meet 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 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 and both accept each other.
On their wedding night Jia and Arsal 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.

Cast

Soundtrack

Music is composed by Naveed Nashad, lyrics were by Ahson Talish.

Reception

The series break previous records of Hum TV and 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. 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". Actress Mahira Khan also confess her love for the show.

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryRecipientResult
2019Lux Style AwardsBest TV PlaySuno Chanda
2019Lux Style AwardsBest DirectorAhsan Talish
2019Lux Style AwardsBest Emerging TalentNabeel Zuberi
2019Lux Style AwardsBest Actress Viewers ChoiceIqra Aziz
2019Lux Style AwardsBest Actress CriticsIqra Aziz
2019Hum AwardsBest ActressIqra Aziz
2019Hum AwardsBest WriterSaima Akram Chaudhary
2019Hum AwardsBest Television PlaySuno Chanda
2019Hum AwardsBest on-screen coupleIqra Aziz & Farhan Saeed
2019Hum AwardsBest Supporting ActorAdnan Shah Tipu
2019Hum AwardsBest Supporting ActressNadia Afgan
2019Hum AwardsMost Impactful CharacterNadia Afgan
2019Hum AwardsBest Male ActorFarhan Saeed
2019Hum AwardsBest Child ActorSami Khan
2019IPPA AwardsBest Television seriesSuno Chanda
2019IPPA AwardsBest DirectorAhson Talish
2019IPPA AwardsBest ActorFarhan Saeed
2019IPPA AwardsBest ActressIqra Aziz
2019IPPA AwardsBest Supporting ActressNadia Afgan
2019IPPA AwardsBest On-screen coupleIqra Aziz & Farhan Saeed
2019Pakistan International Screen AwardsBest ActorFarhan Saeed
2019Pakistan International Screen AwardsBest Original SoundtrackSuno Chanda
2019Pakistan International Screen AwardsBest Actor in a comic RoleAli Safina
2019Pakistan International Screen AwardsBest Actor in a comic RoleAdnan Shah Tipu
2019Pakistan International Screen AwardsBest Actress in a comic roleNadia Afgan
2019Pakistan International Screen AwardsBest Actress in a comic roleFarah Shah
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Sequel


Due to its immense popularity and ratings, the makers announced Season 2. Iqra Aziz confirmed being part of the Season. On 2 October 2018, it was reported that Farhan Saeed had signed up for the project opposite Aziz. On 10 October, it was reported that Nabeel Zuberi had also signed up. The series episodes were aired from first day of Ramadan, 7 May 2019 and the last episode was aired on 6 June 2019. In October 2019, the third season of Suno Chanda was announced. In an interview with Fuchsia Magazine, Aehsun Talish confirmed that the new season would be coming in Ramadan 2021.