Tag: Farhan Saeed

A review on Pakistani drama TV series, Meri Shehzadi Episode 23 (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

1. Urwa Hocane as Dania
2. Ali Rehman as Shehroz
3. Sabeen Farooq as Bisma
4. Muazzam Ali Khan
5. Sonia Mishal
6. Najiba Faiz
7. Atiqa Odho
8. Shabbir Jan
9. Nauman Maqsood
10. Qavi Khan as Dania’s Nana
11. 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 –  The story progressed to a minimal degree (and I am being extremely generous here).

+ Low Points

i – Episode 23 was just ridiculous. Meri Shehzadi has now entered the “trashy” section of Pakistani television (or as I would like to call it, Geo TV programs). Slaps galore! It has now become a staple that whenever a husband physically abuses his wife, the wife returns the favor. Our main protagonist is being constantly drugged and her pseudo doctor boyfriend also can’t figure this mystery out. Scheming maids, evil Mother in Laws and more! 

Last week, I was being overly optimistic for the show’s future but this episode proved me wrong. This might be the lowest point of this show’s lifespan.

ii – The show runners clearly have no idea how drugs work since Urwa Hocane’s performance is unnecessarily exaggerated. All of a sudden, her entire character has changed as she is snapping at people who supported her left and right, smashing kebab plates (off screen) and whatnot. One could understand if such behavior came in phases but not as a constant entity. Comical writing accompanied by outlandish performance. Terrible!

iii – Look at this screenshot from the episode. The video on the phone apparently leaped out of its screen and overlapped the spoon. Is this the standard of Hum TV productions now??

iv – This show has currently no sense of direction. The character growth that we thought we witnessed has evaporated into thin air so the script can make room for some nonsense, trashy back and forth between the characters.This has to be one of the worst episodes that this show has put out. And we, as an audience, deserve better quality writing from Hum TV productions.

+ Overall

Unapologetic, trashy television that should have no place on national television.

Rate: out of 5 stars 

A review on Pakistani drama TV series, Meri Shehzadi Episode 22 (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

1. Urwa Hocane as Dania
2. Ali Rehman as Shehroz
3. Sabeen Farooq as Bisma
4. Muazzam Ali Khan
5. Sonia Mishal
6. Najiba Faiz
7. Atiqa Odho
8. Shabbir Jan
9. Nauman Maqsood
10. Qavi Khan as Dania’s Nana
11. 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 –  Episode 22 starts off with Shahana Bajhi a.k.a Dania’s Mother in Law as she wants to retaliate and take everything away from Dania. With each passing meal, Dania is being secretly drugged to deteriorate her health and present her as a mother who is incapable of taking care of her children. With each scene, we can see Dania growing irritable and incapacitated. On the other hand, the Mother in Law is also trying to manipulate her other daughter in law, Cam. Brought up in her “western culture”, Cam has a hard time adjusting to the requirements presented by her Mother in Law. Episode 22 was good because it presented storyprogression from both ends and each character played its role with significance to the overall plot of the show.

ii – It’s fairly interesting that even though Cam craves for her husband’s approval, she is still unwilling to sacrifice her character in the process. She likes to wear western clothing, hug her male friends and dance into the night. Even with immense pressure from Shahana Baji, she is unwilling to conform to the “norms” of a Pakistani housewife. It is also intriguing to notice that the show does not really take sides but rather, let the viewers decide who is right in this situation; the overbearing mother in law or the stubborn daughter in law?

+ Low Points

i – The “party” scene was so utterly ridiculous. For some reason, the footage was sped up to make the scene “chaotic”, the camera was entirely focused on hors d’oeuvres and not the guests mingling with one another. The scene felt flat for what the show was trying to accomplish.

ii – Dr. Hasan has been a very disappointing character for me. Even though he has mellowed out since the last few episodes, his romance with Dania feels non-existent at this point. Aren’t we supposed to root for them to be together? And speaking of ignored characters, Shehroz has become non-existent at this point which is such a shame.

iii – Drugged or not, I cannot imagine that a character like Dania would throw the kebabs plate onto the wall because they were “too spicy”. From what we have been accustomed to, it is not in Dania’s character.

+ Overall

With devious plans and the clash of polar opposite characters, Episode 22 was an entertaining one.

Rate: out of 5 stars 

A review on Pakistani drama TV series, Meri Shehzadi Episode 21 (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

1. Urwa Hocane as Dania
2. Ali Rehman as Shehroz
3. Sabeen Farooq as Bisma
4. Muazzam Ali Khan
5. Sonia Mishal
6. Najiba Faiz
7. Atiqa Odho
8. Shabbir Jan
9. Nauman Maqsood
10. Qavi Khan as Dania’s Nana
11. 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 –  Unlike the previous episode, this week had better plot development. Dr. Hasan is now trying to convince Dania to reconsider a second marriage with him in order to maintain her public image. The mother in law of course wants to destroy everything around Dania and take her place once again as the head of the table. Meri Shehzadi suffers from plot structure and bad writing but the events of each scene are communicated with clarity to the viewers which makes it easy to follow and revisit each and every week for the next plot development.

+ Low Points

i – Meri Shehzadi has just drizzled down to mediocrity. All characters have just become cartoonish caricatures of themselves, plot development from previous episodes are ignored or incomplete, the individual personas of the main cast do not matter anymore as the plot has finally gone into auto pilot. Events need to happen not because they had been carefully developed throughout the show but rather to the requirement of the script. Case in point; Dania’s marriage to Dr. Hasan. In the last episode, the doctor indirectly insulted Dania and let out his frustration towards his mother for not agreeing to his previous love interest. And now, he just wants to “save” Dania. Not only is this plot point so far removed from the real Princess Diana’s affair with the Pakistani doctor but it also makes no sense to the plot of this show. If Dania ends up marrying the doctor, would that not make the rumors true that she did indeed have an affair with him behind her husband’s back? 

ii – The chemistry and romance between Dania and Dr. Hasan is surprisingly one of the weaker parts of the show. And the fault not only lies in the performances but the script itself. The written dialogues try so hard to sound deep and meaningful but end up being cliche and uninteresting. The scenes shared between the two could have made or break the show but unfortunately for Meri Shehzadi, the romance feels forced and unmotivated. 

iii – There were a couple of times in episode 21 where I openly groaned while watching the show. The writing has drastically become incredibly lame and the scenes like the mother in law using the chess board to hammer down the game of politics. Yes, politics is like a game of chess. Thank you for that visual reminder! And later on, the doctor and the grandpa also find some time to play a game of chess. Just a word of advice from the viewer; Symbolism only works if it’s subtle. Otherwise, it just comes off as contrived.

iv – It’s a pity that Shehroz has been almost entirely removed from the plot. He was always one of the few interesting characters of the show and Dr. Hasan unfortunately does not possess the complexity that Shehroz had.

+ Overall

The chemistry and romance between Dania and Dr. Hasan is surprisingly one of the weaker parts of the show.

Rate: out of 5 stars