I confess I have been enjoying Meray Paas Tum Ho tremendously and Something Haute has diligently covered every episode and interviewed Humayun Saeed, Adnan Siddiqui and Nadeem Baig, with only Ayeza Khan pending. I have been viewing and reviewing it objectively, going with the flow of the story and the performances of Humayun Saeed, Ayeza Khan, Adnan Siddiqui as well as Nadeem Baig’s direction. It has been quite addictive.
Yesterday evening’s episode was slow, but the pace had to be slowed down after Mehwish’s trip to Islamabad, admission of guilt and final acknowledgement that she was “fed up of this relationship†with her husband and wanted to move out with another man. I must point out that there has been no mention of marriage or love. Or even of the legal need for a period of iddat after she is divorced – and Danish does divorce her in this episode – before she can live with or marry another man. What we are shown is a heartless woman, maybe a gold-digger, who has no remorse; she doesn’t even see her child before she leaves. The only time she is crest-fallen is when Danish utters those final words: the ultimate blow: “Mein samajhta tha aap barey aqalmand businessman hain lekin yahan aap ne ghatey ka sauda kar diya. Ek do takkay ki larki kay liye aap ne 50 million offer kar diye.â€
Watched from Danish’s perspective, with my loyalties completely with the man for having to put up with a woman like Mehwish, my first reaction was one of absolute joy when I heard this dialogue. The cold and heartless bitch deserved every bit of downsizing she got.
Then I finally found the time to watch Mr Khalil ur Rehman Qamar’s podcast on Entertainment PK and his extremely disturbing views on feminism, women and how little he thought of them disturbed me. He was coming from a very vile and sick place and I couldn’t ignore the fact that he had written these lines with the same hatred and despise and in his sick little mind. I could now no longer feel the same joy for Danish having spoken them to Mehwish. It now seemed that KRQ had written this drama with the sole purpose of demeaning and belittling the woman and had deliberately portrayed Mehwish in as harsh a light as possible.
Women like Mehwish do exist. But when characters like Mehwish are written into fiction, it’s impossible to miss the agenda with which they have been scripted with. The audience, at large, may not be affected by Mr KRQ’s views; most people watching TV do not watch everything on the internet and may possibly have not watched his interview. But as critics it is our responsibility to educate the masses and write/review with a constructive purpose and a sense of responsibility.
I have to confess that I will no longer be able to view MPTH in isolation and will now unfortunately see it as a KRQ agenda to belittle women in whichever way he can. I may continue watching MPTH, as half-way through I feel it already belongs to the people, but I will save myself the discomfort and displeasure of watching any KRQ drama or film in the future.
