It took 33 weeks for Mannu and Salahuddin to find their happy ending. 33 weeks of tears and pain, heartbreaks, humiliation, marriage, engagements, children, divorce, iddat…. Ironic that despite their individual journeys, neither Mannu nor Salahuddin experienced any character progression whatsoever and didn’t mature in the least. The epic ” Chal jhootey” was a sad, sad note to end what was promoted as an epic love story.
Salahuddin and Mannu were two individuals who were poles apart yet both of them had pea sized brains which refused to accept the change and challenges life threw their way and they remained obsessed with one another. I’m all for love and second chances but seriously, this was just plain stupid. Mannu’s houseful of relatives who appeared and disappeared every now and then- remember when Sara Baji had a role? Remember when Ifty and Cuckoo were given ample screen time? At one point it seemed these characters would somehow, in some subtle way impact our lead couple. Remember Mikael? Jeena? Let’s recap: Five Deaths (Ifty’s Dad, Mikael and both his parents and Jeena), Two Heart surgeries (Javaid Sahab and Salahuddin), One Wedding (M & M), two babies ( Tipu and Tania), one instant divorce followed by a very peculiar iddat spent at her ex boyfriend’s, one unstable girlfriend/ fiancée/ live-in partner and a sidekick who was obsessed with her… An attempted murder and suicide… Samira Fazal threw everything in the mix yet failed to have the audience connect with the characters. The various memes circulating on the internet wasn’t a measure of the shows success but rather the collective frustration of the audience who felt cheated after having spent their time hoping for some redemption.
Hamza Ali Abbassi seemed uninterested for the most part, his pairing with Maya Ali was a big disappointment. On the recently aired Lux Style Awards, he coyly admitted that his thing happens to be getting banned- If only he was banned from signing up for Mann Mayal! Maya Ali gave a controlled performance in the first few episodes but soon fell to her whimpering ways which takes me back to believing that the only role she did well was in Aunn Zara… And then there was Gohar Rasheed- the director gave him the green signal to do whatever he pleased in the name of acting! If grunting and snarling count, he did his bit. Half way through the serial we had Ayesha Khan- for the longest time she’s been taking up mediocre roles and sadly, most of them have her playing the role of a desperate man-eater. Why can’t this woman catch a break? The three main set of parents- Mannu’s, Salahuddin’s and Mikael’s were as useless as Jeena’s- who weren’t even there! Jameel’s changing personality was yet another confusing aspect- you just didn’t know his game.
Good bye Mann Mayal- Manhoos Mannu, Super bored Salahuddin, Jalaibee Ki terhaan seedhi Jeena, Jazbaati Jameel, Mardood Mikael… After this ridiculous excuse for a serial, I’m determined to steer clear of any more plays written by Samira Fazal in the near future.
Kanwal Murtaza
