DRAMA REVIEW
Mann Mayal: An absolute
waste of TV space
O
f all the useless things to have been unleashed
over Pakistanis as a nation, the drama serial
Mann Mayal is by far the worst. A classic sobfest with glaring story problems, Mann Mayal decidedly
became the most mocked show in broadcast history.
Though the cast was star-studded with seasoned actors
like Saba Hameed, Naeem Tahir, Mehmood Aslam etc.
the obvious shortcomings of the plot held them back.
Mannu and Salahuddin, did manage to become household names but for mocking purposes rather than being inspirational characters. As the country remained
glued to their television sets on September 5th, the air
was thick with anticipation. The last episode was about
to air and people couldn’t wait for more instances from
the show to make fun of. The level of exasperation after
watching the drama was only matched by the number
of ‘memes’ that each dialogue provided. For those who
followed all episodes (and my condolences for that) will
understand the following ‘meme’ perfectly. It sums up
nine months of overly dramatised story telling.
“Jithoun di khoti…uthay aan khalot.” (What could have
happened in the first two episodes, just happened nine
months later, with lots of unnecessary characters that
just added to the futility of the entire venture.) In terms
of containing any real substance, Mann Mayal contains
such little matter to be worthwhile that all 33 episodes
could be reviewed right here. But putting an end to your
misery, let us review only the last episode. It started with
Mannu’s mother trying to talk to Salahuddin to besiege
Mannu to abandon plans of pursuing her studies and
marry him instead. While Salahuddin was scratching his
thick head to recall why Mannu could be refusing his
proposal, Mannu overheard the conversation but decided to turn a blind eye. Salahuddin kept pondering. After
all, he was asking her to marry him after three kids from
a hellish marriage to a good-for-nothing gambler who
she married in the first place because Sallu (Salahuddin) refused to do so. Mannu convinced her father to
let her stay at a hostel and continue her studies. The
entire episode was all about Salahuddin trying to locate
her while the directors of the drama apparently thought
that viewers would ignore the fact that Sallu could have
simply asked her parents for her whereabouts. All of
Mannu’s family members wanted these two to get married; he could have coaxed information
about her, out of them in no time. Yet,
he chose to take to the streets, trying to
find her so that the audience could sympathise with a love-struck man turning
over every brick and stone to get to his
girl. He found her after two scenes and
then they went on to reminisce about
how they parted ways when Sallu didn’t
open the door for Mannu. The obvious
purpose behind this recreation was to
bring back the bittersweet memories in
the background of their ultimate union.
And that was all.
The only thing interesting in mann mayal was it's OST
The only part that was good in the
last ep of #MannMayal
Like this was what we waited 33 weeks for
I watched every single episode of #MannMayal.
Will the society accept me?
— Ayesha (@ayesha_fatyma) September 7, 2016
Mann Mayal should be a lesson to all these production
houses who believe that an OST sung by Quratulain
Balouch combined with the on-screen couple of Maya
Ali and Hamza Ali Abbasi does not guarantee quality or
success. It is high time that our channels try to screen
stories and plots that are not wasting the prime time TV
hour for thousands of viewers. It is not only wasteful, it
is frankly insulting that people running these channels
believe that the Pakistani society is so dim-witted and
intellectually inferior that they’ll enjoy such a ridiculous
story portraying women as sacrificial lambs. It is time
for our media houses to either step up or roll over for
someone who will.
10 | BOOM