The many faces of Feroze Khan

Mehreen Jabbar’s emotional drama Dil Kya Karey is at a heartbreaking junction. A happy ending for Ayman and Saadi will mean a life of heartbreak and yearning for Armaan. But if Armaan does end up with Ayman, it will be just as tragic as it’ll be an outcome of Saadi’s death, which one doesn’t see Ayman recovering from. Ayman, who’s pregnant, went into shock and denial when Saadi was kidnapped a couple of episodes ago. She refused to acknowledge that he may not return alive. It’s only when Armaan returned from China – in this week’s episode – that he managed to shake her out of her mental state. Kudos to both Yumna Zaidi and Feroze Khan for delivering a performance spot on the money.

One feels for Ayman and the misery she will have to go through but then one feels equally emotional for Armaan, who has loved her all his life and has given her up for his best friend, who he’s been as close to as a brother. In this week’s episode Armaan put his own life at risk to go and bring Saadi back from his kidnappers; that couldn’t have been easy. A large part of our association and empathy for Armaan, one has to admit, comes from Feroze Khan’s poignant performance. That scene when he tells his mother off for harboring ill will for Ayman, that heartbreaking scene when he’s sent to bring Ayman to her senses and finally, when he’s leaving the house – amidst prayers and tears – to bring his best friend back.

A word on Feroze Khan’s performance.

It’s almost impossible to think that Armaan is being played by the same actor who is playing Romeo in Romeo Weds Heer and who played the cold-hearted Mir Hadi in Khaani several months ago. Therefore, it’s no surprise that Feroze Khan has a Lux Style Award nomination for Best Actor 2018 and there’s a very good chance that he will walk away with the trophy. For good reason too; he was the breakthrough actor of 2018. To be fair, Nauman Ejaz is a cinch to win the Critic’s Choice Award for Best Actor 2018 for his effortlessly creepy performance as a sexual predator in Dar Si Jati Hai Sila but when it comes to artistic credibility plus massive popularity, one feels Feroze has just as good a chance to win the Viewer’s Choice Award for Best Actor 2018 for Khaani.

Feroze made his acting debut in 2014 but it was in 2015-16 that the young actor rose to prominence with hit TV series Gul e Rana. It put him on the map but Gul e Rana was Sajal Aly’s breakthrough project, for which she won several awards. Feroze worked through 2016 and 2017 with a couple of notable serials like Woh Aik Pal, but it wasn’t until last year in 2018 that he made a breakthrough of his own with Khaani. Despite playing the negative role of a cold blooded murderer, Feroze’s popularity sky rocketed, leaving critics worried about the way women were romanticizing a criminal. It was indeed an award winning performance. But his efforts didn’t end there.

Instead of agreeing to be stereotyped in negative characters, which he undoubtedly played so well (even Adeel in Gul e Rana was grey), Feroze took the plunge and signed up for a completely difference avatar as Romeo, a comic character, in Anjum Shahzad and Muhammad Younis Butt’s Romeo Weds Heer. This was Feroze’s third play with Sana Javed (the second being telefilm Dino Ki Dulhaniya, directed by Mehreen Jabbar, also in 2018) and while the slapstick Romeo Weds Heer isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it has reinforced the fact that Feroze can handle a comic character just as effortlessly as he played a negative role.

And then came the quintessential, romantic hero Armaan, in Dil Kya Karey. This time Feroze Khan plays a character that is easy to fall in love with and that’s why fans are rooting for his happy ending, if such a thing is even possible, given the circumstances. But whether or not Armaan gets his happy ending, we can be sure that Feroze Khan – with his Best Actor LSA nomination and upcoming feature film, Tich Button – will happily rise as an actor to reckon with.