Humsafar

Khirad Ahsaan (Mahira Khan) belongs to a small middle-class community in Hyderabad and lives with her widowed mother, Maimoona (Saba Faisal). As the series opens, she is completing her Bachelor of Science degree, and (as the daughter of a math teacher) is very strong in mathematics.

Maimoona's brother, Baseerat Hussain (Behroze Sabzwari), is a self-made millionaire who lives in Karachi. He is married to Farida (Atiqa Odho), a social worker who runs a human rights NGO. They have one son, Ashar (Fawad Khan), who received his MBA from Yale University, and runs a high powered firm.

After receiving a cancer diagnosis, Maimoona turns to Baseerat for help. Baseerat then brings Maimoona and Khirad to his home for treatment. When she realizes that there is no cure, Maimoona asks Baseerat to arrange a marriage for Khirad. Feeling guilty for not taking better care of Maimoona, Baseerat compensates by promising that Ashar will marry Khirad, unbeknownst to both Ashar & Farida.

As she always wanted Ashar to marry Sara (Naveen Waqar), the daughter of Farida's sister Zarina Ajmal (Hina Khawaja Bayat), Farida is upset and violently opposed to the marriage. Sara, who is also secretly in love with Ashar as he has been her best friends since childhood, is devastated by this new development. In addition, neither Ashar, nor Khirad are about happy about the proposed marriage. However, Baseerat forces his will on the entire family and the marriage takes place shortly before Maimoona dies. Despite being against the idea, Ashar and Khirad marry each other out of obedience to their parents. Farida appears to have had a change in heart, taking Khirad under her wing, and treating her like a daughter.

After an initial period of complications, Ashar and Khirad fall in love. Ashar admires Khirad's innocence, simplicity and purity of heart; his admiration is reciprocated by Khirad, who is in awe of his caring personality. While he develops a strong and loving relationship with his wife, Ashar remains friends with Sara. Noticing Ashar's bond with Khirad is getting stronger, Sara attempts to interfere in their relationship. When Sara humiliates Khirad at a party, Ashar reprimands her for her callousness. Ultimately, Baseerat falls ill and shortly before his death, he reminds his son that it is important for him to always protect and love Khirad. The family must now survive without Baseerat's support for the marraige.

Encouraged by Ashar, Khirad enrolls in university for graduate studies in mathematics. She also discovers that she is pregnant, a fact known by Farida but not Ashar. One of her classmates is Khizar, Sara's paternal cousin. In order to win Sara's affection, Khizar agrees to a conspiracy initially concocted by Farida, and aided by Sara and Zarina (she developed the idea while Baseerat was still alive, but could only go through with it after his death). Feigning love for Khirad, Farida earned her trust and compliance. She then paid Khizar a large sum of money to help frame Khirad. Khizar then framed Khirad, making Ashar believe that he was having and affair with Khirad.

Distraught, Ashar vanishes, leaving Khirad alone with his mother. During this time period, Farida reveals her true self to Khirad and drives her out of the house, in the middle of the night with no where to go. Khirad quickly writes a letter to Ashar which explains what really happened, and leaves it with one of the house staff. She then meets a good samaritan who takes her to stay with her former neighbor in Hyderabad, Batool Bano. Her attempts to contact Ashar by phone fail, however, as his mother told him that Khirad ran away with Khizar, a lie which he believed. In addition, Khizar is nowhere to be seen because Farida arranged for him to study in the United States. Ashar also refused to read the letter Khirad wrote to him and left it in a box.

Four years later, Khirad (now a mother and math teacher in Hyderabad) reluctantly returns to Karachi, where she visits Ashar to seek financial assistance for their daughter Hareem, who needs open heart surgery. It is also the first time that Ashar learns of Hareem's existence. While he initially refuses to help, he finally relents after meeting Hareem. He moves Khirad and Hareem back to his house, and arranges for medical treatment. Years of misunderstandings, has left Ashar filled with anger. Khirad, furious that Ashar is so blinded by his mother's lies that he cannot see her true character, refuses to engage in conversations about the past with him.

When Sara discovers that Khirad has returned, she confronts Ashar and informs Farida, who returns early from a trip to America and threatens to exile Khirad once again. In retaliation, Khirad threatens to tell Ashar the truth about her being framed. After Sara confesses her love, Ashar informs Sara that he has never loved her and suggests that she should stop pursuing him. Khizar arrives from America and blackmails Farida by threatening to reveal Khirad's innocence if Sara does not marry him. Farida urges Sara to marry Khizar, but Sara and her mother Zarina refuse and blames Farida for ruining Sara's life. Meanwhile, Hareem's operation is successful and Ashar finds that his feelings for Khirad have rekindled.

Zarina is disturbed by Sara's everlasting depression, which stems from Ashar's rejection and Fareeda's betrayal. Ashar attempts to reconcile with Khirad, citing love of their daughter, but she rejects him and decides to leave Hareem in his care. Having realized that Sara will never marry him, Khizar visits Ashar to reveal the truth, but an angered Ashar has him escorted out by security.

The incident sparks the memories of Ashar's past with Khirad and, in his sorrow, he turns to a box of photo albums which he accidentally knocks over. While putting the albums back in the box, he accidentally re-discovers the letter that Khirad left for him and reads it for the first time. Given the events of the past four years, Ashar finally believes the words in the letter. In addition, at that moment, Ashar overhears a telephone conversation his mother is having with Khizar, who is still trying to blackmail her. This conversation confirms that Khirad was completely innocent and framed by his mother. Ashar is devestated and tortured by the truth. Meanwhile, Sara has finally realized that she will never have Ashar, and unable to cope with the truth, commits suicide.

Ashar goes to Hyderabad to get Khirad, coming under the pretense that Hareem is missing her and not eating anything. Ashar then asks Khirad to return to Khrachi. Now jobless (due to the time off she spent taking care of Hareem's illness) and herself missing Hareem, Khirad reluctantly consents to return with Asher.

Upon entering the house, the meet Farida, who slanders Khirad in front of both of them. Ashar, however, fights back against his mother for the first time in his life. He pronounces Khirad's innocence, dismisses Farida's narrative as lies, and states that her abuse of Khirad is over. When Farida realizes that she has lost the battle with Khirad, she has a nervous breakdown, and loses all touch with reality.

The series ends with Ashar begging Khirad to forgive him and asks her to return to his life. Khirad is confused, stating that too much time has past to find the love that was lost when he abandoned her. Ashar agrees with her stating that she has no reason to ever forgive him for his crimes, but that they have a child to raise together. Khirad tentatively consents to stay as he acknowledges that she is indeed innocent. Three months later, the two are shown to be living a happy life with their daughter.

• Fawad Khan as Ashar Hussainn
• Mahira Khan as Khirad Ashar Hussain
• Naveen Waqar as Sara Ajmal
• Atiqa Odho as Farida Hussain
• Behroze Sabzwari as Baseerat Hussain
• Sara Kashif as Hareem Hussain (child)
• Hina Khawaja Bayat as Zarina Ajmal
• Noor Hassan Rizvi as Khizar
• Saba Faisal as Maimoona Ahsaan
• Shahbaz Rajput as Ali
• Qaiser Naqvi as Batool Bano

The show's theme song Woh Humsafar Tha was composed by Waqar Ali and sung by Qurat-ul-Ain Balouch. It was written by Naseer Turabi in 1971 after the fall of Dhaka. The song is frequently played throughout the episodes.[2]

Humsafar was dubbed into Arabic and broadcast by MBC in the Middle East, under the name Rafeeq-Al-Rouh (رفيق الروح). The show immediately gained immense popularity and after airing its first few episodes, became the most watched drama on the channel. Because of its popularity the show was telecast again after few months. Before this Pakistani dramas were not as popular in the Middle East due to language barriers and also due to the popularity of Latin dramas.

Country	Local title	Network	Premiere date
United Kingdom	Hamsafar	Hum Europe	August 17, 2014
India	हमसफर	Zee Zindagi	October 14, 2014[5]
United Arab Emirates	رفيق الروح	MBC Bollywood	April 2, 2016
Saudi Arabia	رفيق الروح	MBC Bollywood	April 2, 2016

• List of original programs distributed by Netflix

• Humsafar on IMDb
• Humsafar @ Netflix