A review on Pakistani drama TV series, Meri Shehzadi Episode 2 & 3 (2022). The new TV series is directed by Qasim Ali Mureed and written by Zanjbeel Asim Shah. Meri Shehzadi is a story of a girl with a tragic past but is destined to become Royalty. Can she handle the responsibilities that come with it? Meri Shehzadi is an MD Productions and HUM TV Production.
+ Crew
- Directed by Qasim Ali Mureed
- Written by Zanjbeel Asim Shah
- Produced by Momina Duraid
- Production by MD Productions
+ Note
The story of Meri Shehzadi is inspired by the real life story of the late Princess Diana from the United Kingdom. The show explores the expectations that corrupts the innocent and discourages empathy towards the common man.
+ Main Cast
- Urwa Hocane as Dania
- Ali Rehman as Shehroz
- Sabeen Farooq as Bisma
- Muazzam Ali Khan
- Sonia Mishal
- Najiba Faiz
- Atiqa Odho
- Shabbir Jan
- Nauman Maqsood
- Qavi Khan as Dania’s Nana
- Shamim Hilaly as Dania’s Nani
+ Plot
Raised by her loving Grandparents, Dania is born in a royal family who is destined for greatness in life. After meeting her future husband and entering the political monarchy of Pakistan, Dania must face the trials and tribulations that come along with the life of royalty.
+ High Points
i – Episodes 2 and 3 brought a new era in Dania’s life and with that, comes misery. Dania is now forcefully thrusted upon the life of Politics and backstabbing. Her ‘wide-eyed’ vision of the world and humanity does not work with Sheroz’s family and their household. Meri Shehzadi is a study of a young woman who has to now live a ‘fish out of water’ life which means for her to shed all of her empathetic attitude and mold into whatever Sheroz’s family wants her to become. It’s a simple story but so far, has been effective to say the least. And both episodes have had an incredibly natural progression with the plot of the show.
ii – Urwa Hocane as Dania might have been the perfect role for her as her physical appearance certainly conveys the naive, tenderheartedness just from her visage. For Dania to be trapped inside the palace of lies and mistrust is a great visual representation of the show. Accompanied by the cool yet dastardly performance from Ali Rehman as Shehroz brings a lot of possible opportunities for friction and melodrama between the two opposite sides of the coin.
iii – I do have to admit, the role of Grandparents play a vital supporting role for Dania in the show. Where there is dark, there shall also be a contrast of light on the other end of the crossroad. Qavi Khan and Shamim Hilaly provide quite possibly the best performances of the show. It may not seem much but they play a pivotal role for our main protagonist, making valuable sense as to why Dania is such a kind hearted person in the first place. Nobody was born this way, it is her upbringing that makes all the difference in the world.
+ Low Points
i – Meri Shehzadi needs subtlety to elevate the show’s quality of writing and unfortunately, that has not been the case. The show is strictly divided into ‘Good guys’ and ‘Bad Guys’; Dania’s grandparents: Good, Sheroz’s family: Evil. And that is just not good writing. Admittedly, the first episode seemed somewhat promising in providing complexity in these characters. For example, Dania’s father still has kindness hidden behind that political exterior of his which creates great intrigue for the viewer to keep watching the show, hoping that one day, he will redeem himself for the sake of his daughter. Episodes 2 and 3 unfortunately went into the opposite route; Shehroz’s family provides no subtlety in their performances as we are supposed to hate them because they are very mean to our protagonist. Let’s make the antagonists a bit more grounded and realistic and I hope the show can rectify this problem in the next coming weeks.
ii – There is obviously a fine line between empathetic, kindhearted and naive. And judging from the two episodes, Dania comes more off as delusional than anything. Her ‘pure heart’ makes her spend thousands of rupees on the poor, the troubled. Her Grandpa did not have change so she decided to give the big rupee bill instead. It’s crystal clear what the show is going for but it makes Dania look too naive instead as she does not understand how the real world works. Dania should visit the slums, look out for the unfortunate ones but should not come off as naive towards the ills of humanity. The viewer needs to feel proud and sympathetic towards Dania, not pity her that she is getting ripped off by someone’s ‘needy’ act.
iii – But there is another problem with Dania’s story. It is her background. So the story goes that Dania is all of a sudden, being forced to live a life of a royalty and a celebrity which is great but the problem is that Dania comes from a very wealthy family herself. Look at her Grandparent’s house, the clothes she wears and so on; there is no massive contrast between the environment she was in before to where she is now. Yes, being a wife of a politician goes a long way but visually for us, her previous background plays a spoil sport in this scenario. But I guess that cannot be changed now but a genuine problem I feel with the show’s premise.
+ Overall
Not a bad outing but the cliches of Good versus Evil need to be avoided in order to make the show standout from the rest.
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