The opening shot is of a Burqa clad beauty praying by her mother’s side in what appear to be very modest surroundings. The mother and daughter sway gently in prayer while nearby in a swank sprawling neo-villa sluttish Rozina awakens to light up her morning fag and prattle about “society” events with Mummy in “modren” English. Worse still we discover that they are recent converts to Islam and not born of blue blood as it were – two bit upstarts whom Lady Luck seems to have favoured.

In college the burqa clad goodie-two-shoes beauty of modest yet pious and upright background wins the debating contest and lifts the trophy for her college while tarty infatuated rich brat Rozina fumes in miserable envy. Even that slick dude with the stylish hairdo and the trendy goggles (Waheed Murad) seems to be more interested in goodie two shoes Nahid (Deeba) than the vixenish rival Ghazala (Rozina).

Earnest, luckless Deeba slaves day and night peddling home stitched dolls to make ends meet she also finds the time to give English lessons to the local children at home. She is a regular little angel even if the gods have thus far frowned upon her, poor lass. Meanwhile scheming nympho arch rival Naheed arranges debauched “Saturday Nights” at her palatial residence where she plans to snag the object of her desire; Naser (Waheed Murad) on the forthcoming such night. Alas her hot, tantalizing number oozing with burning desire fails to work the magic on Naser and he leaves the party in a huff, pining for the angelic Nahid and despising the smouldering Ghazala.

Later when evil, spurned Ghazala learns that wedding bells are about to ring for Nahid and Naser her diabolical hormones go into overdrive as she feverishly plans murderous revenge. Days later on a trip to a mountain resort the newly wed Naser and Nahid’s car is met with a ghastly accident and sent plunging from a rickety bridge to the river lying far below. Poor Nahid is left paralyzed waist down while Naser is apparently killed though it seems nobody talks about him.

One fine day in the bustling market Rozina is prowling for some action when she spots a man who looks strikingly similar to Naser. Overwhelmed by a wave of excitement she grabs her opportunity and cooks up another malicious, deadly scheme sending her discovery to Nahid’s house posing as Naser’s cousin. Rozina’s eyes are now on the millions that she has inherited from her father in law who knew her for all of ten minutes before bequeathing his entire estate to her before popping off.

The impostor starts to put his plan into motion by trying to charm the pants off both doddering elderly mother and angelic, disillusioned and crippled but hugely wealthy daughter Nahid. Slowly the charm begins to take effect and the man gets her to go on an outdoor trip with him. Further picnic’s follow as “love” blossoms but surely it being only a matter of time before the hapless widow is sent flying off the mountainside in her wheelchair?

But all is not quite as simple as it appears – it is a Lollywood film after all. The plot thickens considerably before reaching its “all revealing” climax. Will Ghazala get her revenge through the fake cousin or will Deeba’s angelic charm overcome all? Though the end is fairly easy to predict, there is plenty of fun along the way with Rozina easily stealing the show with a great performance as Superbitch. Even though she managed to crossover to making a small dent as a leading lady in Lollywood she will surely best be remembered for a series of roles she performed as the typical evil, scheming, lusting vamp – and she made her mark as Lollywood’s answer to Bollywood’s Shashikala and Bindu. The film is a fun melodrama throughout with the first third or so being dominated by fun and frolic before settling down to the real dramatics.

Once again western values are targeted as evil and debauched while the simple home-grown virtues rule the roost. Its a simple fairly tale like fable but given a fairly interesting twist in that the audience is having to deal with the prospect of having their leading lady get married for a second time in the film – something almost unheard of in local popular cinema. Afsana is by no means a groundbreaking, brilliant or exceptional film yet it entertains for the most part and is an accurate reflection of the values that were commonly popular at the time the film was produced (late 60’s). Deeba looks pretty and acts more than competently in a juicy role for her. Waheed Murad also does well, especially in the role of the less than saintly fake cousin.

Rozina’s all to brief dance on her Saturday Night party is a showstopper and her debauched, scheming vamp steals the show. Afsana is vintage 60’s Lollywood – full of intrigue and melodrama with a sprinkling of fun and frolic – pretty much a winning combination and really rather enjoyable.