When “Pyari Mona” was launched, all eyes were on this fresh story of a young woman judged for her physical appearance. Starring Sanam Jung and Adeel Hussain in lead roles, there were many expectations that this story would be handled sensitively. But in hindsight, what was the story? What is the moral of this show? What should we, as viewers, take away from it? The show stars Sanam Jung in the title role along with Adeel Hussain, Mashal Khan, Muhammad Hunbal, Naureen Mumtaz, Uzma Beg and Adnan Jaffar. The story is written by Haseeb Ahmed and directed by Ali Hassan.
In the finale, many things are left incomplete. Mona (Sanam Jung) wants a divorce from Babar (Adeel Hussain) and proceeds on the encouragement of her lawyer – who has a past association with Babar and her own ulterior motives. However, while she requests a meeting with Babar and he agrees, we never actually see the meeting nor is it discussed. Mona files for divorce on the encouragement of her parents, but the divorce is never finalized and even in the final moments of the episode, Mona looks thoroughly confused. When did Babar ever realize he misses Mona? We see many sequences of him missing Ayaan and regretting his actions towards his daughter, but considering his disgust towards Mona all along, has anything really changed? Likewise, when Shaista (Uzma Beg) apologizes to Mona, we are left wondering where this conversation came from. There is no indication that Shaista has had any kind of epiphany regarding her behavior towards her daughters – not only Mona, but also Samia.
If we discuss the positives, the best scenes revolve around Kinza (Naureen Mumtaz) and Irfan (Muhammad Hunbal). These two characters are not only a good match and incredibly cute, but the actors also share really sweet chemistry. That being said, their scenes are just randomly inserted as tension-breakers and do not really serve any purpose. In the finale, these characters are utilized as comic relief when they’ve actually been the best characters all along. The entire discussion around Jibran is yet another incomplete angle, as Irfan’s insecurities are still not put to rest with this invisible cousin of Kinza’s. Credit to Naureen Mumtaz and Muhammad Hunbal for their sweet performances as Kinza and Irfan.
Unfortunately, there are so many directions in which “Pyari Mona” could have gone and the cast did a wonderful job – all of them. From Sanam Jung to Adnan Jaffar, Uzma Beg, Adeel Hussain, Muhammad Hunbal, Naureen Mumtaz, the entire cast has been great. However, the direction and writing left much to be desired. It felt as though the show promised to be one thing and wound up being something else entirely. A sensitive, progressive show fell into the trap of the same cliched topics, though with fresh presentation. “Pyari Mona” could have been great, but it did not meet the mark.