Every few years a drama comes along that changes Pakistani television. In 2011, that drama was Humsafar. Fifteen years after it first aired on HUM TV, we’re going back for a classic Humsafar drama review, to see whether the Ashar and Khirad story still holds up, or whether it only lives on in nostalgia and that unforgettable title song.
Short answer: it holds up. Mostly.
Humsafar Drama Review: The Basics
- Channel: HUM TV
- Aired: 24 September 2011 to 3 March 2012
- Episodes: 23
- Writer: Farhat Ishtiaq, adapted from her own novel
- Director: Sarmad Sultan Khoosat
- Producers: Momina Duraid and Nina Kashif
- Cast: Fawad Khan (Ashar), Mahira Khan (Khirad), Naveen Waqar (Sara), Atiqa Odho (Farida), Behroze Sabzwari (Baseerat), Saba Faisal (Maimoona), Noor Hassan Rizvi (Khizar)
- Where to watch: HUM TV’s official YouTube channel
The Story (Mild Spoilers)
Khirad is a bright maths graduate from Hyderabad living with her widowed mother, Maimoona. When Maimoona falls seriously ill, she moves in with her wealthy brother Baseerat in Karachi and asks him for one thing: a secure future for her daughter. Baseerat promises that his son Ashar will marry Khirad.
Ashar’s mother Farida hates the idea. She had always wanted her niece Sara, Ashar’s childhood friend, as her daughter-in-law. The marriage goes ahead anyway with a simple nikkah. Against all odds, Ashar and Khirad actually fall in love.
Then Baseerat dies, and Farida gets her chance. With Sara’s mother Zarina and Sara’s cousin Khizar, she frames Khirad for an affair and throws her out of the house in the middle of the night. Ashar believes his mother. Khirad, pregnant and alone, rebuilds her life in Hyderabad as a teacher and raises their daughter Hareem on her own.
Four years later, Hareem needs heart surgery, and Khirad has no choice but to go back to the man who abandoned her. The second half of the drama is about the truth slowly coming out, and whether “sorry” is ever enough.
Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan: The Pair That Made It a Phenomenon
There’s no Humsafar without these two. Fawad Khan plays Ashar as a man who loves fiercely and doubts just as fiercely. In the first half he’s the dream husband. In the second half he’s cold, proud and painfully stubborn, and Fawad makes you hate him and still root for him. It’s a hard balance, and he nails it.
Mahira Khan’s Khirad is the soul of the show. She starts shy and quiet, almost apologetic for existing in that big Karachi house. By the end she’s a woman who knows her worth. That growth is the reason the drama still works. Mahira has called Khirad her “most special character”, and it shows.
Their chemistry turned both of them into superstars, in Pakistan and across the border. When Humsafar aired in India on Zindagi in 2014, it made them household names there too.
Atiqa Odho’s Farida: One of Pakistan’s Greatest TV Villains
Every great drama needs a great villain, and Atiqa Odho delivers. Farida isn’t a screaming saas-bahu cliché. She’s elegant, controlled and terrifyingly calm. She smiles while she destroys a young woman’s life. Even 15 years later, the scene where she throws Khirad out into the night is hard to watch.
Naveen Waqar also deserves credit. Sara could easily have been a flat “other woman”, but Naveen gives her real pain, and her storyline ends in tragedy.
That Title Song
You can’t write a Humsafar drama review without the OST. “Woh Humsafar Tha”, sung by Qurat-ul-Ain Balouch and composed by Waqar Ali, is built on a ghazal by Naseer Turabi. It won Best Original Soundtrack and Best Song at the 2012 Lux Style Awards, and it still plays at weddings, on road trips and in every “best Pakistani OST” list. Fifteen years on, it might be the most famous drama song this country has produced.
Where This Humsafar Drama Review Gets Critical
Here’s where any honest Humsafar drama review has to admit some flaws. Re-watched in 2026, the show has problems:
- Ashar gets off too easy. He refuses to listen to his wife, ignores her calls for four years and misses his daughter’s early life. One emotional apology later, everything is fine. Critics like Bee Gul have called the drama regressive for exactly this reason, and it’s a fair point.
- Khirad’s patience is treated as her greatest virtue. The show rewards her for suffering quietly. Today’s viewers, rightly, want heroines who push back harder.
- Farida faces little real accountability. A breakdown at the end isn’t the same as justice.
- The pace sags in the middle stretch of the second half.
To be fair, other critics see Humsafar as both a product of patriarchy and a critique of it. Farida’s cruelty and Ashar’s pride are shown as the villains of the story, not as things to admire. And Khirad does make her own choice at the end.
Why Humsafar Still Matters
Before Humsafar, many Pakistani homes were watching Indian soaps. Humsafar pulled viewers back to local TV. According to Wikipedia, it was claimed as the highest-rated serial of its time, with ratings peaking around 13.9. It swept the major awards, including Best Television Serial, Best Actor and Best Actress at the Lux Style Awards. Humsafar kicked off what many critics call a golden age of Pakistani drama, with Zindagi Gulzar Hai and others following its path.
Above all, Humsafar proved something the industry still forgets: a simple story, told well, with great actors and a great song, beats a hundred episodes of filler.
Our Humsafar Drama Review Verdict
Rating: 9.5/10. Humsafar is a true classic. Fawad and Mahira are at their best, Atiqa Odho is unforgettable, and that OST is timeless. Some of its gender politics feel dated in 2026, and Ashar deserved a much tougher road to forgiveness. But as a piece of Pakistani TV history, it’s essential viewing.
If you’ve only heard the song, watch the drama. If you watched it in 2011, watch it again. You’ll notice things you missed the first time.
Looking for something less obvious? Check out our list of the 5 most underrated Pakistani dramas of all time. And for this season’s HUM TV offerings, read our Gulbahar initial review.
Do you think Humsafar still holds up, or does Ashar deserve more blame than the drama gives him? Tell us in the comments.
Sources: Wikipedia: Humsafar