Ranking The Nazirs

It's been just over a year since Kal Nazir made his first appearance on the Street, and with their purchase of number six they've finally established themselves as residents.  It's perhaps time to give them a report card on their progress over that time.

Alya Nazir

Alya's emerged as the star of the family, for a few reasons.  Firstly, actress Sair Khan is talented at both drama and comedy, a valuable skill set in the often farcical world of Corrie.  She's also brought an intelligence and compassion to her scenes and storylines, and her background in fashion has made her a natural for working at Underworld.  She's certainly a better fit for the role of deputy manager than Michelle, Peter or (saints preserve us) Maria ever were - at least she's got a passion for the product.  I thought they'd use her staying at the factory to help with Beth's basque as a way to engineer a friendship with Sinead (they're both young characters who don't have much in the way of friends) but it doesn't seem to have worked out that way.  Her relationship with Gary is problematic; one minute she's presented as a strident, independent woman, the next she kowtows to her family's pressure, but there's definite chemistry between them.

Grade: A-

Yasmeen Nazir

A lot of people hate Yasmeen.  She's interfering, bossy and sharp tongued.  For me, that's why she's great.  Since the departure of Sylvia we've been missing a matriarch who speaks her mind, and Yasmeen has all these characteristics.  It's also tempered by a forcefulness and a passion for projects that I find appealing.  I'm not sold on the idea of a community centre in the butcher's shop (try doing a fitness class in there without banging your head on the ceiling) but I totally believe that this is the kind of thing Yasmeen would do with her time.  I loved the little (completely uncalled for) pep talk she gave to Sean before his date with Billy, and her dislike of Sharif's chickens was heartfelt.  Best of all, the prospect of her and Sally Webster engaging in an ever-escalating war of snobbishness over the garden fence makes me giddy; a kind of Mapp and Lucia with Manchester accents.

Grade: B

Zeedan Nazir

The biggest problem with Zeedan so far is: what is he for?  I don't know anything about him other than he's a bit sulky, he loved his mum, and he hates Leanne.  I don't know about his education, his aspirations, his dreams.  I don't even know how old he is - sometimes he acts like Alya's older brother, other times he's like a petulant teenager.  At the moment he just seems to be eye candy.  Giving him a job as a builder means he's got even less opportunity to be a distinct presence - what is he offering us that we haven't already got from Jason/Gary/Tony/Owen?  He gets a passing grade because I don't actively dislike him, but he can't get any more than that because all he's doing right now is existing.

Grade: C

Kal Nazir

While Zeedan hasn't established himself, Kal has taken his potential and thrown it down the drain.  A former Army colleague of Gary's who is now a fitness guru could be an excellent character.  Jimi Mistry is a charming, personable actor, who's got a history of good performances.  However, Kal has sunk over the past year into nothing.  He's not established himself as friends with anyone (in Friday's show, he was shown drinking with Kevin and Luke, and he stuck out like a sore thumb).  Early suggestions of friendships with Dev and Nick have fallen by the wayside.  His relationship with Leanne is tepid - they have no chemistry at all.  He seems too young to be a parent to Alya and Zeedan, and too old to be the child of Yasmeen and Sharif.  He's become a beige character, enough to raise a sigh of disinterest when he appears onscreen, but not enough to actually care about.

Grade: D+

Sharif Nazir

Ugh.  Sharif manages to be nothing to anyone.  At first he seemed like a hard taskmaster with a canny financial sense.  That disappeared.  He seemed to be a domineering father to Kal, until Yasmeen turned up and showed herself to be the power behind the throne.  He wanders into scenes, gets told to do something, looks unhappy about it, then does it anyway.  Where did he get his money from?  What is his background?  Why doesn't he have a job?  Where did this passion for raising livestock suddenly come from?  Is he from Manchester, even - his accent seems to come and go depending on how hard he's required to act?  I don't believe in him and I don't like him.

Grade: E

Impact on the Street:  Right now the Nazir family owns two businesses (the community centre and the gym) and have bought a house.  The latter point, of course, is ridiculous: they were shown to have a perfectly lovely home earlier in the year, and they've sold it to buy a house they can't all fit into.  At least I don't think they can all fit in there - are Kal, Zeedan and Alya all living there as well?  Haven't they got their own house?  The show's been annoyingly vague in that respect, bringing back nasty memories of when the Family of Sinbad had to put a shed in the back garden for the son to live in instead of, you know, buying a house that was big enough for them.

The gym hasn't been visited lately, and seems to have become a place for the Nazirs to talk rather than a part of Weatherfield.  I'm not against the gym as an idea - it's 2015 after all - but the set is far too small to be convincing.  The idea that Kal would only just have got round to putting in a sauna is also pretty daft.  The same criticisms can be made of the Community Centre: it's far too small.  Also, can you just set up a private Community Centre like that?  Who's paying for all of it?  Given that Weatherfield Council closed a library only a few months earlier I can't believe they're swimming in cash.

In personal relationships, again, Alya is the winner, slotting effortlessly in with the factory girls, and I believed Yasmeen when she went to the cafe to talk to Roy about his conviction (and the less said about that storyline the better, by the way).  I believe that Zeedan would be friends with Gary far more than I believe Kal would be, while Sharif doesn't seem to want to talk to anyone he's not related to.

Overall: The Nazirs get a "could do better" from me.  As the Street's first Muslim family, they've got baggage that other families haven't had, with a weight of expectations that have been effectively managed.  The producers have done their best to slowly feed them in unlike, say, the explosive blast of the Mortons, and it's given us time to get used to them.  It's still difficult to completely say who they are though, and furthermore, how they'll fit in as the show goes on.  I'm not keen to see them all go - Alya and Yasmeen are definite assets - but if they don't improve over the next year I may be calling for a fire at number six.


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