Mr. Khan’s Review on Meray Paas Tum Ho (2019 – 20)

A review on Pakistani Rom-Drama TV series, Meray Paas Tum Ho aka I Have You (2019 – 20). Its Production House is Six Sigma Plus while Distribution is done by ARY Television Network.

 

 

 

+ Crew

• Directed by Nadeem Baig
• Written by Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar
• Music by Naveed Nashad
• Edited by Khawaja Arif
• Produced by Humayun Saeed and Shahzad Nasib

 

 

 

 

+ Note

Meray Paas Tum Ho aired on ARY Digital from 17^th Aug 2019 to 25^th Jan 2020. In total, it consists of 23 episodes. The writer, Khalil sb has written Pyarey Afzal (2013 – 14) which has also starred Ayeza Khan in one of the lead roles. Nadeem Baig has previously worked with Humayun Saeed in a number of blockbusters films, such as Punjab Nahi Jaungi (2017), Jawani Phir Nahi Ani 1 (2015) and its sequel with the same name in (2018). Some people find this TV series plot somewhat similar to a Hollywood film, Indecent Proposal (1993), starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore.

Kamal Hussain and Arshad Malik are theater artists and have minor roles in this TV series. The opening theme song, ‘Mera Yeh Bharam Tha Meray Paas Tum Ho’ is sang by fame Qawal singer, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

Meray Paas Tum Ho became one of the most popular TV serial in 2019. This drama series has also received one of the best ever Pakistani TV ratings in our TV history. Its last episode was viewed by almost more than 80 million people in Pakistan only. It has won seven awards at Pakistan International Screen Awards in 2019, including Best TV Director, Best TV Writer and Best TV Play.

 

 

Warning: There are SPOILERS ahead!

 

 

+ Main Cast

1. Humayun Saeed as Danish Akhtar
2. Ayeza Khan as Mehwish Akhtar
3. Adnan Siddiqui as Shehwar Ahmed
4. Shees Sajjad Gul as Roomi
5. Hira Mani as Hania

 

 

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+ Supportive Cast

1. Mohammad Ahmed as Mateen
2. Mehar Bano as Anushey
3. Musaddiq Malik as Monty
4. Furqan Qureshi as Salman
5. Rehmat Ajmal as Aisha
6. Hina Javed as Wateera

 

 

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+ Minor Cast

1. Savera Nadeem as Maham Syed
2. Shamim Hilaly as Roomi’s School Principal
3. Anoushay Abbasi as Ifrah
4. Waseem Lashari as Anti-Corruption Officer
5. Kamal Hussain as Govt. Office Attendant
6. Arshad Malik as Stock Buyer

 

 

+ Plot

Danish working at a govt. job, he is happily married to his wife, Mehwish while having son, Roomi. However, Mehwish dreams to have richness and flourish lifestyle quickly in life. Their marriage forever shatters when Shehwar steps into their lives.

 

 

+ High Points

i – Controversial it may be for some but, Khalil-ur-Rehman has done excellent job with the script writing. The main ingredient to this TV series success is the script, its dialogues. They were so good, so intriguing that I had to raise my TV volume to listen to its every dialogue carefully.

One of the best dialogues is: When Danish is forced to reconsider to forgive and forget the mistake his former wife has made. In return, he says, ‘Shirk Ko to Khuda Bhi Maaf Nahi Kartha’ (‘Even God doesn’t forgives any Associates Equal to him’).

ii – As far as the characters are concerned, there are few examples to show, how well the writer define them. Such as:

1. Mehwish is the main antagonist of this TV series. She has a sugar-coated personality with a combination of great beauty but a cold heart. She loves to chat with the rich man, Shehwar. There is a numerous times where he flirts with her to which she doesn’t shares this with her husband. She is strongly attracted towards Shehwar, mainly because of his vast wealth. However, when a similar thing is done by her medium class neighbor, she doesn’t accept and ignores him completely. This shows that Mehwish’s nature to be attracted towards people who are wealthy to fulfill her dreams.
2. Maham Syed is shown as a powerful character. She doesn’t really need to say or do anything really. Her wealthy status and dominant position can be seen in her strong glare which she makes while confronting Mehwish for the first time.
3. Roomi is given utter importance as the primary supporting character. He is given with one of the most interesting dialogues. He is shown to help his father in giving some good suggestions in rebuilding relationships, helping him to remarry and make him realize that his father is his true strength. This is very rare to see such importance given to a child character in a Pakistani TV series.
4. Danish intentionally ignores his wife’s all misdoings for the sake of their marriage to survive and good upbringing of their only son. He is even willing to do corruption for her, so that she could live a better lifestyle and fulfill her expensive demands. His character is shown who truly believes that by having his beautiful wife by his side, his life is complete. Upon her insisting, Danish allows her to do job at Shehwar’s, as he loves and trusts her.

iii – Humayun Saeed portrays as Danish, the main lead character of this TV series. Humayun gave a strong performance as a faithful lover to his wife, good father to his son and an honest employee to the govt. workplace where corruption is common there. His loyal, good heart nature had instantly won many viewers’ hearts all over the world. With his devotion to play his heroic role, Humayun would always be remembered as Danish, an iconic and memorable character.

iv – The main plot of MPTH is not about the women degradation. This is one of the allegations that the writer was accused of. This is a situation where the wife is the cheater (rather than the husband), who leaves her family behind for a high social class status and richness. Most of TV series of our industry is about a cheater boyfriend or husband. But here, the tables have turned.

The other criticism was showing women in bad light. In this TV series, only Mehwish’s character is shown that way as it is related with the main plot. Some viewers alleged that this TV series shows a cheater wife as unforgiving but not for a husband?

For clarification, there was a scene in earlier episodes where Mateen sb reveals that his late wife never truly forgave him for his betrayal to leave her for another woman. And, due to that, he suffered to this day for his grave mistake. It clearly shows that the writer wanted to viewers know that the forgiveness for both the genders is unacceptable. That’s exactly what happens with the main characters.

There’s another reason, provided by Hania is that the women should not be forgiven since she is the one who bears the child and not the husband. So, leaving family behind by a female is worse than done by a husband. It is a POV of the writer that is debatable. Personally, I agree with the writer and how he has put up in the story.

v – There are two best scenes in terms that I considered them intriguing to watch. Such as:

1. Danish gains confidence to face Shehwar at his office and warns him to be step aside or face his wrath. This scene was quickly become viral on the internet.
2. Mehwish is caught red-handed at the airport with Shehwar by her husband. The disappointing look on Danish’s face says it all. His pain can be seen in his eyes where saying it a loud wouldn’t have made such an impact.

vi – Adnan Siddiqui as Shehwar, who can’t stop himself from being drawn towards a married woman. His desire to have her, he impresses her with his vast wealth and higher social status. Adnan is a great actor, who is often seen as an artist who gives his all to play his characters as authentic and believable. It was a good choice to choose him to play as the secondary antagonist.

vii – A small, yet a vital supporting role as Mateen sb played by Mohammed Ahmed, gave a solid performance as the only co-worker with whom, Danish shares his pain with. Ahmed sb’s performance is often comes to lime light because of playing his characters on a realistic note. Other Honorable Mentions: Ayeza Khan.

viii – The makeup & hair styling department has done a great job in making the stars very glamorous on-screen. Adnan Siddiqui and Ayeza Khan looked very mod and stylish in their respected roles.

ix – Great work in its costume designing and wardrobe selection. It works well with the makeup & hair styling team.

x – Nice job in its production design. It helped in making the scenes visually authentic. Such as: Danish’s govt. workplace, Shehwar’s residence etc.

xi – MPTH surprisingly consists of total, 23 episodes. By having less than average total number of episodes nowadays, this TV series avoids in dragging the story to its unnatural length.

 

 

 

 

 

+ Low Points

i – This got to be the worst finale I have ever watched in Pakistani TV series till date. It seems that the writer wanted his main lead character to die in any way possible. Danish’s untimely and illogical death only raised more questions.

After watching the last episode, I still cannot believe that this was the end the writer preferred to write to this TV series. It doesn’t connect to how the story was progressing or the main character’s story arc. Even if the writer wanted to give a tragic end to this TV series, there were multiple ways to do this. But he chooses the worse way possible to kill his character. The last conversation Danish has with his son, had made me literally to doze off.

MPTH kept comparing themselves on viewing ratings with international critically acclaim TV series, Games of Thrones (2011 – 19). Though, in the end, it raises one true question.

Similarity to these two TV series is, ‘Which TV series has a worst ending‘?

1. Meray Paas Tum Ho
2. Games of Thrones

ii – There are some questions that troubled me. Such as:

1. Why Danish went to meet his ex-wife at the former house where he has the bad memories attached to it? He could have told her to change the location of their meeting.
2. Why Danish removes his ‘Oxygen Mask’ (in actual, it was a nebulizer mask) to talk to his son, when knowingly that he is admitted in ICU? How the doctors allowed this to happen? Danish talks to his son for 10 – 15 minutes at least.
3. Why Mehwish doesn’t call her close friend to stay the night? Instead, she visits her former husband’s apartment to stay the night.
4. Maham is willing to forgive her husband and promote him at her workplace. But then she says that she would fire him too. What does she really wants?
5. I’m sorry. How does this stock ratio, really works?

 

 

 

 

+ Overall
Similar to Achilles, Meray Paas Tum Ho is almost invincible with its spectacular dialogues and well-written characters until its ankle gets fatally wounded with one of the most disappointing finishing to a TV series.

 

 

 

Rate: 4.0 out of 5 stars