Bulbulay

Bulbulay
File:Bulbulay drama serial.jpg Title screen
Genre	comedy
Created by	Dain Qayyum
Written by	Talha Nawaz
Directed by	Ayesha Omar
Starring	Nabeel Ayesha Omar Hina Dilpazeer Mehmood Aslam Faatima Nadeem Nyle Rizwan Aijaz Aslam (special appearance)
Theme music composer	Faizan Khan
Opening theme	comedy
Ending theme	comedy
Country of origin	Pakistan
Original language	Urdu
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	407
Production
Producer	Nabeel
Production location	Karachi
Editor	Rana Rizwan
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	18-22 minutes
Original release
Release	22 October 2009

Bulbulay (Urdu: بلبلے, English: "Bubbles") is a family sitcom and is aired on Sunday at 7:00 pm about an unconventional Pakistani family and the troubles they get into. The show is directed by Rana Rizwan and is written by Ali Imran. It is produced by Nabeel who is also the lead character of the show,he was given the job by his best friend Abdullah from tuppence colony. The show gained popularity after the introduction of Hina Dilpazeer, who plays Momo, It is a successful sitcom in the country with high TRP.

Bulbulay was first aired 22 October 2009 on ARY Digital and was later broadcast on ARY Digital in UK. It also holds the record for the longest running television series of Pakistan.

Plot

Most episodes are about Nabeel and friends being conned, robbed or just having bad luck. Every episode ends with the family being ripped off, or either of the men getting a beating from their wives for flirting with other women. The storyline starts off with Nabeel and Mehmood living in an apartment as bachelors and progresses to both of them getting married and having children. The show is known to break the fourth wall all the time.

Episode 1-25 (Before marriage)

Nabeel's childhood friend Ahmad moves abroad and tells Nabeel to look after his apartment. Nabeel takes advantage of this and starts living in the apartment as landlord and rents out a room to Mehmood. Khoobsoorat, who ran away from her wedding just fifteen minutes before it took place, arrives at the same apartment looking for her friend Saima who is married to Ahmed. Although Nabeel tells her she cannot move in, he changes his mind after she threatens to tell Ahmed the situation of his apartment.

When Khoobsoorat's father Siddiqui comes to take her back, she tells him that she is married to Nabeel to stop him from taking her back. Similarly, when Nabeel's mother, Mumtaaz, comes to visit him, he says that Khoobsoorat is the housemaid, as she would not accept him living together with a woman.

Later in the series, Khubsoorat's father finds out his daughter is unmarried and informs her that he is coming to take her back home. Nabeel's mother Mumtaaz comes to visit her son and tells him that Khoobsoorat is a good girl and that they should get married. When Mumtaz asks Khubsoorat, she is shocked and decides to leave. Later, Nabeel tells Khoobsoorat that he really loves her and fell in love with her when he saw her for the fourth time (chothi nazar main), and, so, he wants to marry her. Elsewhere Mehmood and Mumtaz also start to like each other and want to get married. At Nabeel and Khubsoorat's marriage after their Nikkah has finished, he announces he will marry Mumtaz and tells the "Qari" to wait and read their nikkah as well. Nabeel is shocked by this and feels very uncomfortable about his mother close to Mehmood. At this moment, Siddiqi arrives to cancel his daughter's wedding. When Nabeel tells him that the nikkah is already read, he gets really angry.

Episode 26-82 (Post marriage)

(Nabeel's mother becomes a regular cast member after episode 25.) Soon after the couples get married, Ahmad calls Nabeel to tell him he has found someone who will move in the apartment, which meant that they had to move out. Luckily, Khubsoorat's father arranges a new place for them to live in and pays in advance so that they do not struggle. Her father regularly sorts out a job for Nabeel, but Nabeel quits because he says he is made for much bigger things and will not work for anyone who does not see his true potential.

Episode 83-87 (Bulbulay in Dubai)

The Bulbulay family goes on a trip to Dubai but without telling each other. Nabeel and Khoobsurat go for a trip to Dubai from a lucky draw. Mehmood and Mumtaz also go to Dubai for their honeymoon with their own money. Incidentally, their hotels were the same in Dubai. There they meet each other but didn't believe it. Then both families planned to get to Dubai Mall. Mehmood and Nabeel were taking showers in their respective bathrooms. Khoobsurat and Momo went to the lobby to wait for them. They saw each other clearly and believed what they saw. In this tension, Momo accidentally goes out of the hotel to avoid Khoobsurat although she didn't know any route. She rushed towards the nearest taxi and off to the "Dubai Mall". Khoobsurat, Nabeel and Mehmood go for a search to find Momo. After they meet, they go for shopping again in Dubai Mall the next day. There, they met an F.M team which offered them for a job in their F.M Studios, But it doesn't go right.

Episode 88-100 (Pre-Parenthood)

After returning home from Dubai, Momo loses the bag at the airport. Khoobsoorat becomes ill and the others start avoiding her in the fear of catching her disease. Later, Khoobsorat is found out to be pregnant shortly after which Momo also becomes pregnant. Most of the episodes involve the family making preparations for the arrival of their children. Nabeel, however, is unhappy that his mother is having a baby at this age. These episodes also include their pre-parenthood lifestyle in the Holy month of Ramadan.On the 100th Eid-Special episode Momo and Khoobsoorat give birth to a baby son and daughter, respectively.

Episode 101-139 (Parenthood)

Both the couples become parents. Mehmood Sahab and Momo name their son "Sona", which means gold, and Khoobsoorat and Nabeel name their daughter Chaandi, which means silver. These episodes involve events taking place after Sona and Chaandi's birth. Nabeel and Mehmood Saab, being pressurized by their wives to take up jobs and support their children, admit their children into school. The couples compete on who can provide better for their children.

Episode 140-143 (Bulbulay in Lahore)

The family races to Lahore to visit Khoobsoorat's father Siddiqui, who they cannot contact and are worried about.

Episode 205-209 (Bulbulay again in Lahore)

Once again, the family have returned to Lahore. In episode 205, Siddiqui takes Khoobsurat and Baytab to his new house in Karachi, but before leaving, Baytab leaves the address of the new house; then in episode 206, the fun starts. They all go to papa Siddiqui's new house.

Episode 210-217

Once again they return to Karachi.

Episode 218-260

Once again they are normal with brilliant performances by Momo and Nabeel.

Episode 260-297 (The Rich and The Poor)

They meet a ghost, a ghost who likes Momo and wants to take her to Kohe kaaf (place where ghosts live). He is ready to complete all the wishes of Momo. Momo asks him for everlasting wealth which he gives but continues taunting Mahmood Sahab. Nabeel calls a magician to get rid of ghost. The magician encloses the ghost in bottle. Some kidnappers accidentally open the bottle and the ghost comes out. He takes all the wealth from them and leaves.

Siddiqui and Baytab go for honeymoon.

They become poor and continue making attempts to get rid of the poorness. They are waiting for Siddiqui and Baytab so they come and help them.

Javed Sahab, the owner of their old house, returns to the show. He calls them multiple times, but the family doesn't answer his calls, because they know he will ask for the year rent they owe him. Momo shows up and tells them that she answered his call and told him their address. While getting to the address, Javed Sahab stumbles upon Jaggu Dada, the neighborhood's local gangster, and Javed Sahab is robbed. When Javed Sahab arrives at the Bulbulay house, the family doesn't recognize him, because he got a plastic surgery and his appearance is different. Javed Sahab tells them who he is; after knowing that, Nabeel and Mehmood run and hide, but Javed Sahab convinces them that he is going to take them back to their old house. He says that a Baba told him that if he brings the Bulbulay family back to the house without asking for rent, his situations will get better. Nabeel and Mehmood take advantage of that and demand more stuff. While leaving, the family stumbles upon Jaggu Dada and say their goodbyes, since they might never see each other again. The family is really excited when they return to their old house, and is surprised by the return of Butt Sahab, the show's local cop. Butt Sahab tells them he is going to arrest them for not paying Javed Sahab's rent. The family runs to the gate and are once again surprised by the return of Siddiqui.

Episode 298-present (Back to The Classic Bulbulay)

Siddiqui pays Javed Sahab the family's rent. The family realizes that Ramadan moon has appeared. Episode 298 is all about the family making Siddiqui do all their work because he isn't fasting. It's back to the original episodes in which Nabeel and his family end up with bad luck.

Bubbles Show Special

This was a special two-hour episode (live show) in which the Bulbulay characters were live on ARY digital where they met their fans who were present there and received the calls of those who were absent. The Bulbulay characters were highly appreciated by the fans. On 20th May 2016 Cast and writer Ali Imran was invited on ary digital morning show Good morning Pakistan celebrating 400 episodes of Bulbulay.

Main characters

Name	Role	Starring episodes
Nabeel	Nabeel	1 – present
A lazy, greedy and selfish man who does not find a job and is always in search for a way to make quick money, often making investments using his wife's money just to find out they were frauds. He is Momo and Quddusi's son, Mehmood's step-son, Khoobsoorat's husband, Sona's half-brother and Chaandi's father. He depends on the money his father-in-law Siddiqui sends to Khoobsoorat. Although he is married to Khoobsoorat, he is often seen flirting with other women albeit without success. His wife never gets insecure, given his inability to pick girls up.
Ayesha Omar	Khoobsurat	1 – present
Ayesha Omar Nabeel's wife. She is the only sensible character, but can get greedy at times. She often tells Nabeel to get a job. She is Siddiqui's daughter. Her mother died when she was very young. Whenever Nabeel says something stupid, she says "Shut Up, Nabeel!" to which Nabeel replies "Okay, Jaanu!" (meaning Okay darling!) She hates the fact that her father pays the rent for the house and wants Nabeel to pay the rent instead. She often reminds Nabeel and his family that they are living on her father's money. She sometimes fights with Momo but actually Momo and Khoobsoorat love each other very much.
Mehmood Aslam	Mehmood Sahab	1 – present
Nabeel's step-father, Sona's father and Momo's second husband. Despite his old age, he tells his wife that this is his first marriage. He retired from his old job many years ago, and also receives some pension. He tries to makes him and his wife's life as comfortable as possible.
Hina Dilpazeer	Momo/Mumtaz	1 – present
Nabeel's mother Mumtaz or Momo as her husband calls her, is a clueless old lady who often forgets names. She even forgets the names of her husband, son and daughter-in-law and always calls them by random names much to their annoyance in which they say "oof" and then always face palming themselves. She also forgets words and names of objects, and refers to the word with woh (that) and leaves everyone around her guessing what word she was looking for. She was first married to Nabeel's father. Fifteen years after his death, she married Mehmood Sahab. She has two sons, Nabeel and Sona. Mehmood is her husband and Khoobsoorat is her daughter-in-law. Chaandi is her granddaughter. She is the most-loved character on the show and has slowly gained a cult following.
Faatima Nadeem	Chaandi	114 – present
Nabeel and Khoobsoorat's daughter, Mehmood and Momo's granddaughter and Sona's niece. "Chaandi" means Silver in English. Whenever something is held wrong, she asks her mother "What happened mama?". She is the same age as her uncle Sonna.
Nyle Rizwan	Sona	114 – present
Mehmood and Momo's son, Nabeel's half-brother, Khoobsoorat's brother-in-law and Chaandi's uncle (although he is the same age as Chaandi). His name, "Sona" means gold in English. He is very fond of Nabeel and wants to be like him in very manner, such as talking style, etc.

Recurring characters

Although there are a lot of minor and recurring characters, the most notable include:

• Tariq Butt as Butt Sahb, First seen in the first episode sharing a bench with Khubsoorat at the train station where he is reading an English newspaper, the narrator says that he enjoys reading English newspapers and comes to the station often to read the newspaper for free. The narrator then says, he stares at every woman as if she were his wife, following this comments he starts staring at Khubsoorat and starts flirting with her, as a result she gets up and walks out of the station. Later it turns out he is a police officer and occurs regularly in the series. He is a good friend of the family. He does not know how to do his duty, when he is called to help he usually does nothing useful and mostly ends up worsening the situation.
• Khwaja Aslam as Siddiqui, Nabeel's father in-law and Khubsoorat's father. He does not like Nabeel due to his incompetence and laziness and despises Nabeel for marrying his daughter. When Khubsoorat first meets her dad after running away from the marriage, she tells him she got married to Nabeel so that he does not take her back home with him. Later he finds out she is not married and says he is coming to take her back home, but unfortunately for Siddiqui, by the time he arrives, Khubsoorat is already married to Nabeel. When Nabeel's friend Ahmar finds tenants for his apartment, and the family has to evacuate the apartment, it is Siddiqui who arranges and pays for the new home for his daughter and as a result for the family to live in.He married to another girl in episode 140.
• Binita David as Baytab, Siddiqui married her in episode 140. Although she is married to the much older Siddiqui, she often talks to her ex-boyfriend Omer on phone. Siddiqui is however, aware of this. It seems as if she has only married Siddiqui for money. She calls Siddiqui "Babloo".`
• Shahid Khawaja as Dr. Shahid 612, Bulbulay's family doctor. He was a mental patient before and after treatment he became an animal's doctor. He often mentions that he's still ill and his mental illness can't be cured and previously had many diseases like T.B, cancer, Hepatitis etc.

Special appearances

• Reema Khan on eid special
• Aijaz Aslam as Nabeel's deceased father: Although he had died fifteen years ago, his ghost has appeared in three episodes of Bulbulay when he wanted to kill Mehmood Sahab because he is Momo's second husband. However, when Nabeel told him that he loves Mehmood Sahab more than him, his ghost left.
• Irfan Motiwala as a thief in Ramadan Episode 160 and another Episode they are kidnaper of Mehmood.
• Ashraf Khan as Father of Momo who came in many episodes of Bulbulay. He also came as a magician in an episode.
• Nayyar Ejaz as Nayyar Bhai the brother-in-law of Mahmood Sahab who has appeared twice.
• Zuhab Khan as Zeeshan a child who lost in a market and Momo took him with her.
• Maqsood Hassan as ghost
• Sofia Ahmed as Pari
• Sadia Gaffar as Jana Khubsoorat's friend whose husband is looks exactly like Nabeel

Cast

Main article: List of Bulbulay characters

• Nabeel as Nabeel
• Ayesha Omar as Khoobsurat
• Mehmood Aslam as Mehmood Sahab
• Hina Dilpazeer as Mumtaz (Momo)
• Faatima Nadeem as Chandi
• Nyle Rizwan as Sona
• Khawaja Akmal as Siddiqui
• Sheeraz Hassan as Moti (Kidnapper)
• Shahid Khawaja as Dr. Shahid612
• Binita David as Betab

Reception

Bulbulay achieved highest ever rating of a comedy series. Bulbulay has achieved rating of 8.0 TRPs (Television Rating Points) which is far more than other Pakistani comedy dramas. Bulbulay also won the Best Sitcom Award for three consecutive years in 2010 to 2012 on Pakistan Media Award.

On 2011 the series was In tough competition against another TV series Nadaaniyaan and later it broke its record because of which that series went off-air; the character of Momo, Nabeel, Mehmood and Khoobsorat are different in nature, and, because of their funny nature the series is still on top. Due to its immense popularity, the series is loved in other countries (including UK), and soon it will be aired in India on Channel Zee Zindagi.

See also

• List of programs broadcast by ARY Digital

External links

• Watch All Episodes of Bulbulay
• Bulbulay on Facebook