“Meherposh” stars Danish Taimoor, Ayeza Khan, Sania Saeed and Zainab Shabir, airing on Har Pal Geo on Friday nights. What started off as a great show that was made even more exciting by the Danish-Ayeza pairing, “Meherposh,” unfortunately, has turned into a stagnant tale (to say the least). As a once-regular viewer, I personally tuned in after three weeks and found myself astounded that the narrative has not changed at all in three episodes. If an episode runs at 38 minutes each week and is unchanging for multiple episodes, why is the viewer expected to continue tuning in – and for what purpose? What is the story of this show? It’s clear what the story was meant to be, but is that what the story is today? “Meherposh” has gotten so far off track, it’s difficult to even connect the pieces at this point.
In episode 32, Aayat’s (Zainab Shabir) insecurities towards Mehru (Ayeza Khan) and Shahjahan’s (Danish Taimoor) relationship continue, her thoughts being plagued further by Kaneez’s (Humaira Bano), her mother-in-law, incessant verbal poison. Kaneez is kind-hearted towards Aayat and supportive in her relationship with Shahjahan, but this woman is vile inside and has pure hatred for Mehru and will do anything to remove Mehru from her life – even if that means turning one sister against the other. And while one feels sorry for Shahjahan and Mehru, it’s difficult not to get angry that Shahjahan could have fixed the entire situation by letting Kaneez in on his hand in Mehru’s divorce. This obviously isn’t the fault of the character, rather a loophole in the writing. And delving futher into the loopholes in the writing, “Meherposh” started off very strong, focusing on Mehru’s divorce and the reasons that led to it, namely Shahjahan’s innocent antics and then his intense guilt. But that storyline has now been wiped out, replaced by a sister vs. sister situation with two sisters fighting as one man is caught in the middle, a story that was entirely unnecessary. This is a real problem with the writing and it’s difficult to overlook it, turning a very promising show into one that can be skipped for weeks at a time.
Things come to a head in this episode when Aayat and Shahjahan have a discussion and Shahjahan finally makes it clear to Aayat that he is indifferent to her existence and loves someone else. Aayat is shocked, but Kaneez continues to feed it in to her head that Mehru is poisoning Shahjahan against her. Later, Aayat is shocked when she discovers Shahjahan and Mehru together and angrily confronts the two. These two characters deal with their innocence very poorly, making it seem as though they are having an affair behind her back and it’s, again, very frustrating to watch Mehru trying to explain herself when, really, not trying at all. Thankfully, Nusrat (Sania Saeed) finally steps in to give Aayat a dose and gives Mehru the shut up call that she should have given her many episodes earlier. Nusrat is a character that is well-meaning, but as a mother, she has failed by agreeing to a situation that ultimately pitted her two daughters against each other. Still, Sania Saeed manages to stand out in every scene she is present in. For the record, the entire cast does a brilliant job in their roles, but their characters have simply been written in a way that has been growing increasingly illogical.
Meherposh Episode 26: Shahjahan Refuses to Accept His Marriage to Aayat
It’s unclear why there are 32 episodes of this show – and counting. It can easily be said that 25% of the episodes to date have been filler episodes with little to nothing of substance taking place. And yet, the show is only now slowly nearing some semblance of a return to the original storyline. But is it too late? At the end of the day, Shahjahan is now Aayat’s husband and, in turn, Mehru’s brother-in-law. The story never should have come this far, not only writing the Shahjahan-Mehru relationship into a corner, but also turning two loving, supportive sisters against each other in a scenario that is nothing short of infuriating. Has the story simply gotten too far out of hand to be put to a logical conclusion? With Nusrat revealing the truth to Aayat next week and Shahjahan revealing his truth about Mehru’s marriage, is there any way for Mehru and Shahjahan to have a happy ending without it feeling inappropriate? That remains to be seen…..if the audience manages to hang on for that long.