Nooran Makhdoom, it’s more than apparent, wrote Tere Bin as the usual family drama revolving around a cousin marriage, a malicious third wheel, intrigue, betrayal and romance. There would have been nothing extraordinary about this drama had the winds of favour not blown in Wahaj Ali and Yumna Zaidi’s direction, making them and their onscreen chemistry the reason for Tere Bin’s astounding success. The popularity of the characters stemmed, not from how they were written, but how they were tweaked and ultimately performed.
Murtasim Khan especially, one has learnt from credible sources, was more or less reconstructed by Wahaj Ali. Perhaps he was originally written as every other male lead – problematic – and even after modification, one did see toxicity fall through the gaps every now and then. A slap here, an angry glare there, a dangerous rooftop scene etc. But by giving Murtasim a charm and soft side, a romantic edge, wit and a sense of style, he became the dream man.
This dream man could not have committed marital rape, as had evidently been written into the story, and one can’t help but wish that when Wahaj was crossing out the multiple slaps Murtasim gives Meerub, he had crossed out marital rape too. How that slipped through both Wahaj and Yumna’s better judgement is mind boggling but it did. And by removing it now, without reshooting the scene, the story has become one big unfortunate mess.
Ideally, Meerub should have returned to Hyderabad for Mariam’s wedding to happily unite with Murtasim. We should have witnessed some love and flirtation over the tearing up of that wretched contract. We should have seen some romance, some passion, something, anything but violence and tragedy.
Episode 47, of course, made no sense at all.
In rewriting the scenes, episode 47 should have – I feel – progressed as follows:
Murtasim closes the door, in anger and fury, leading us to believe he will assault Meerub, but he turns around and breaks down. He weeps, while declaring his love for her…at their lack of trust in each other, in their ability to constantly hurt each other. Meerub, for once gives in to the moment and falls in sync, pulling out that contract and tearing it up.
Cut to the next morning, we see Murtasim and Meerub in bed, as Meerub’s phone rings and she picks up Saba’s call to learn that Rohail has been killed on Murtasim’s orders. Unable to process and digest this information, and behaving as Meerub would, she picks up and leaves, vowing to never return to a man who can stoop so low.
From here the story would (albeit frustratingly) continue with Meerub’s pregnancy, time lapse and eventual reconciliation and happy ending.
As of now, we have two people killing themselves over the inexplicable guilt of consummating their marriage, which makes no sense at all. How this story is going to progress and end, is now anyone’s guess.
