Yunhi

External videos
External videos
	Video on YouTube

"Yunhi"
"Yunhi"
Song by Shae Gill and Sami Khan
Language	Urdu
Released	24 January 2023
Length	4:11
Label	Hum
Producer(s)	MD Production
External videos
	Video on YouTube

*Yunhi*
Yunhi
	Title Card
Urdu	یونہی
Genre	Drama; Romance
Written by	Sarwat Nazir
Directed by	Mohammed Ehteshamuddin
Starring	Bilal Ashraf; Maya Ali;
Opening theme	"Yunhi"; by Sami Khan & Shae Gill
Country of origin	Pakistan
Original language	Urdu
No. of episodes	34
Production
Executive producer	Momina Duraid
Producer	Momina Duraid
Cinematography	Khizer Gul
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	approx. 40 min
Production company	MD Productions
Original release
Network	Hum TV
Release	5 February –; 1 October 2023

Yunhi (Urdu: یونہی, lit. 'Just so') is a Pakistani family drama television series, directed by Mohammed Ehteshamuddin, written by Sarwat Nazir, and produced by Momina Duraid under the banner MD Productions.^[1] It features Maya Ali and Bilal Ashraf in leading roles. The first episode of the series originally aired on Hum TV on 5 February 2023.^[2] The story of Yunhi revolves around a typical urban Pakistani family whose norms and outdated traditions are questioned by a USA returnee relative.^[3]

Plot

Haji Karamat is the patriarch of the house where he lives with the family of his son Basharat and a divorced daughter Iqbal. His other child, Firdous lives with her family near the house. Khursheed, another daughter, died years ago due to tuberculosis as her cousin Naveed had denied marrying her. Naveed, who has now become a surgeon in the USA, returns to Pakistan to marry his daughter Kim who wanted to marry there with a non-Muslim boy.

He returns to his uncle and asks for forgiveness. Her daughter Kaneez Fatima a.k.a. Kim experiences unfamiliar situations there such as Daniyal's concern for Suraiya's purdah and not for hers and certain other hypocritical actions. However, she gets intrigued by Basharat's elder son Dawood's getup who is a pious man and a doctor by profession. His introduction to Kim creates a rift between them. On Naveed's wish, Dawood's grandfather decides on his marriage with Kim. But he conditions that after his return he will marry Iqbal. Naveed agrees to it and Kim also agrees to marry him, taking it as an experiment. Daniyal gets sad about his brother's marriage as he wants to marry her to get American nationality. But, not only his this wish remain incomplete but his ex-beloved Husna, Fridous's daughter also starts to ignore him completely.

After marriage, Kim is attracted to Dawood who keeps trying to fulfill this relationship with his heart. But, she constantly keeps going to meet with his father's friend Zulfi, who later becomes her friend as well, knowing that the Grandfather doesn't like him. She comes to know that her father has taken all of her documents including the passport with him in the USA so that she couldn't return. In the USA, he gets cardiac arrest.

Kim deals with Dawood that she will not leave him if she is influenced by him. Dawood agrees with it and comes to know about her horrific past and how her teacher had abused her in her childhood. After days, she takes a stand for Suraiya when her elders decide to marry her with Firdous and Mudassir's son, Hamid without her consent. Kim comes to know about the Suraiya's fellow Owais with whom she wants to marry, and fully supports her. She denies marrying Hamid and everyone in the house blames Kim for it. On a dark night before the day of her forced nikkah, Suraiya tries to elope from the house but Daniyal catches her.

Suraiya accuses Kim of advising her to elope, in front of everyone. Everyone blames Kim but Dawood supports her. He confirms it by unintentionally hearing Suraiya's discussion with Iqbal. She complains that marriage by choice is the basic right of every girl. After offering his Fajr prayer, Dawood is astonished to see Kim who starts offering her prayer. Suraiya realises her mistake and apologizes to her. Kim appreciates and morally supports her and makes it realize to Dawood that it is not justified at all to marry her without her consent. She and Dawood go to Owais' house where they realise that he is not a good match for her as his family members don't respect them at all. Suraiya also decides to not marry him. Dawood and Kim convince the grandfather to call off her nikkah with Hamid.

Cast

Manzoor Qureshi^[2]^[4] as Haji Karamat
Behroze Sabzwari as Basharat Ali
Tahira Imam as Razia
Bilal Ashraf^[5] as Dr. Dawood Basharat a.k.a. 'David'
Maya Ali as Kaneez Fatima a.k.a. 'Kim'
Maha Hasan as Suraiya Basharat
Khaqan Shahnawaz as Daniyal Basharat a.k.a. 'Dani'
Deepak Parwani as Dr. Naveed Ali
Tazeen Hussain as Iqbal Karamat a.k.a. 'Bali'
Uzma Beg as Firdous
Saad Zameer Fareedi^[4] as Mudassir
Laiba Khurram^[4] as Husna
Kulsoom Aftab as Azra
Ali Rizvi as Sajjad
Majida Hameed as Naseema
Kausar Siddiqui as Uzma
Shazia Qaiser as Uzma's mother

Soundtrack

The original soundtrack was composed by Sami Khan, and sung by Sami Khan and Shae Gill (of Pasoori fame).

Production

On 28 August 2022, Hum TV announced that the network's upcoming series Yunhi will star Bilal Ashraf in his television series debut, opposite Maya Ali who will return to the channel after six years, since Sanam (2016).^[6]^[7]^[8] The principal photography wrapped on 10 June 2022.^[9]

Reception

Television rating

Ep#	Date	TRP(s)	Rank#	Ref.
1	5 February 2023	8	1	^[10]
2	12 February 2023	6.6	1
3	19 February 2023	6.0	1
4	26 February 2023	4.2	1
5	5 March 2023	5	1
6	12 March 2023	5.5	1
12	30 April 2023	5.9	1
13	7 May 2023	6.6	1
15	21 May 2023	8.6	1
20	25 June 2023	7.2	1
21	2 July 2023	7.2	1
22	9 July 2023	7.6	1

Critical reception

A reviewer from The News International stated that the series started off on a promising note but found the climax as "little too unbelievable".^[11]