Dar-e-Nijaat Episode 25 review: a long road trip, Zaryab's jealousy and a door left closed

Spoilers ahead for Dar-e-Nijaat Episode 25.

Dar-e-Nijaat Episode 25 aired on ARY Digital on Saturday, 24 October, and spent most of its time on the road. Zaryab (Dur-e-Fishan Saleem) and Abu Bakar (Sheheryar Munawar) travel between places, she pokes around, gets jealous and picks a fight, and the episode ends on one small, telling gesture: he doesn’t come down to open the door for her.

It comes a day after Episode 24’s hand-kiss scene sent fans into a frenzy, so expectations were high. This one is quieter.

Dar-e-Nijaat Episode 25 recap

The episode picks up from the medicine-distribution scene. Zaryab remarks that these are “such ordinary medicines”, and Khushbakht answers that problems feel huge to the person living them and small to everyone else. Blogger Shabana Mukhtar of The Other Me Unfolded points out that the show already made this exact point in the previous episode.

Zaryab then heads to Abu Bakar’s house meaning to go back to her family for good. He is waiting and opens the door for her himself, which matters, because the drama has turned that door into a running symbol of how he treats her.

Most of what follows happens on the road. Zaryab gets the chance to snoop, feels jealous and argues with Abu Bakar, as she usually does. When they finally get home, he stays upstairs and lets her open the door alone. After a week of soft gestures, that small coldness lands hard.

Is Dar-e-Nijaat being dragged?

This is the question fans are arguing about. Mukhtar called most of Episode 25 “meh”, and drama critic Nadia Khan said earlier this week that, for the first time, she found the show “boring, slow, and on repeat”, Reviewit reported. Her theory: the village scenes are meant for winter and haven’t been shot yet, so the story is being padded until then.

We think the repeated dialogue is the clearest sign of strain. Umera Ahmed’s scripts usually earn their slow pace with sharp lines; repeating a whole exchange two episodes running is not that. Still, the road trip does one useful job: it plants the jealousy that will matter once Zaryab learns the truth about Hamna (Romaisa Khan), the secret the show has been holding back.

Performances

Sheheryar Munawar has found a good register for Abu Bakar: patient, slightly awkward, warm without being sugary. Dur-e-Fishan Saleem plays Zaryab’s suspicion with restless eyes and quick, sharp replies, which keeps a thin episode watchable.

How fans are reacting

The Episode 24 apology is still everywhere. Fans wrote lines like “Men, this is how you apologise to your women”, 24 News reported. Comedian Ovais Riaz posted a parody reel of a panicked censor-board official over the scene, and Sheheryar Munawar reshared it with a “Lol” and tagged his wife Maheen Siddiqui, ARY News reported.

ARY Digital also says the drama has crossed 1.7 billion views across social media in 23 episodes. That figure comes from the channel itself and has not been checked independently, but the Episode 26 teaser alone passed 2.1 million YouTube views within hours, more than three times the 618,000 views on Episode 25’s own YouTube upload at the time of writing.

When does Dar-e-Nijaat Episode 26 air?

Dar-e-Nijaat airs every Friday and Saturday at 8pm on ARY Digital, so Episode 26 is due on Friday, 30 October. YouTube carries only part of each episode; the full episode is on the ARY Plus app.