Mera Pehla Pyar koon tha? I don’t know because I have never been in love or fallen in love (ok Gul sher from ABC was the exception, maybe Ashar, maybe Siddharth- Akshaye Khanna from Dil Chahata hai…ok I need to stop!) BUT I do know what is like to try to juggle between an unorthodox career, family, friends and many of other life’s infinite commitments. At the end of the day, this struggle only meets with fulfillment when one knows how to balance time and prioritize what is most important to us and whose needs are greater than our desires. Mera Pehla Pyar beautifully presents such struggles of one family and for me opened on a very strong note. It is a production of A&B, written by Zain Raza and Jaweria Hafeez, & directed by Sohail Javed, Mera Pehla Pyar includes Nousheen Shah (As Aisha), Faisal Qureshi (as Taha), Sana Javed (As Zara), Sheharyar Zaidi (Hamid/Dada), Seemi Pasha (As Aisha’s Mom), Laila Zuberi (as Amna/ Dadi), Shazia Naz and Aijaz Aslam.
Usually my biggest concerns with new dramas are that in the beginning, they lose their audience because of slow narrative or story progression. Usually the problem come much later and by the drama has lost its viewership. I was very glad to note here however, that there wasn’t too much dwelling in the past. The grandparents (Hamid/Sheharyar Zaidi and Amna/Laila Zuberi) have arrived from Islamabad to visit their son Taha (Faisal Qureshi) , his wife Aisha (Nousheen Shah) and their nine year old daughter Hira. Amna notices the consistent absence of Aisha from the house and it is obvious to her that Hira is being neglected. Instead of going in flashbacks, the crisp and humorously put bantering between the grandparents (Amna and Hamid) as they struggle to understand the sorry state of their son’s marriage reveals much insight and information for the audience. Taha has been married upon his strict, no-non sense yet loving mother’s wishes to her niece, Aisha (Nousheen Shah) who is struggling to balance her career as a model and is over wrought by her work commitments. Taha is a compassionate and compromising husband who understands his wife’s commitment to her career and he tries his best to fulfill a balance between his job and the house and ends up playing the role of both the mother and father to their daughter. Taha’s charm also extends to his workplace as his co-worker Zara (Sana Javed) is enthralled by his ability to manage his work and married life, however Taha makes it very clear to Sana that even if she shares his personal problems with Zara, she is nothing more than his colleague and a good friend at work and his commitment to his wife will always be 100%. However, for Taha things are not going well in their marriage as Hira begins to feel insecure about her mother’s love and neglect causing some full on confrontations between Taha and Aisha as they struggle to maintain a balance in their married life.
We have hundreds of dramas discussing the topic of career oriented women and their work related impacts on marital life and families that struggle during this period. So the question I asked myself was what made this drama click for me?
1) Showing not telling– the first three scenes- clearly mark each and every character, their behavior and their nature. Thankyou to the wonderful script writers for using this technique.
2) No heavy monologues : Thank god for that! The conversations are written and delivered in a manner that make you feel like you are listing to real people talk instead of long drawn out monologues.
3) A relatable story: I use to come home a few months ago at 1:00 am in the morning from shoots (please don’t judge, I shoot very different things: P) and believe me last thing I wanted was a full on confrontation with anyone who was awake and having a verbal wrestling match about my unnatural career choice. relatable enough for me? Yes it is :) Anyway moving on to the review.
4) Characters
The characters are beautifully etched on the paper and even more beautifully potryed on the screen. Taha is a husband any girl would dream of and a father any child would want. He understanding, compassionate compromising and loyal. No wonder Zara is so smitten by him. One scene that particularly struck me was when Taha and Aisha have confrontation in the bedroom and he tries to keep his cool and demeanor. It doesn’t take long for viewers to understand that the only person who has kept the marriage intact throughout all these years has been Taha. The snippets of conversation between grandparents also reveal that this marriage was more arrange then love and because Taha has been brought up well and as a responsible child or as Hamid joked “a heera,” he has not complained much and has struggled to maintain a balance in his married life. Hira is also another character that I find very interesting. Even though she is a little upset with her mother, she cannot think and dwell about her grandmother’s distaste for Aisha which is then diluted beautifully by Taha. Aisha on the other hand is tired of daily confrontations and jibber jabber and finds her escape in her modeling shoots. Aisha fails to understand how her career ambitions and goals are impacting her family life even after insistence from her MIL to give priority to her family. Zara Zara Zara- girl seriously the guy in hushed words is telling you- “go find someone else I am married for goodness sake!” What is up with these girls?
My only criticism is that I wished Aisha had not been shown as completely heartless to her family’s request to try to balance her career life more. It demeans and portrays her as a cruel and selfish person. Hopefully next week’s episode is going to give a more balanced insight into her struggles and thoughts.
Overall, this was a great first episode. Zain Raza and Jaweria Hafeez duo have penned down an excellently written script, well shaped and defined characters and dialogues which we the audience can ponder upon. Sohail Javed has kept a tight grip on the narrative and Kaleem Hussain (the DOP) has done a commendable job in framing all the scenes and I love the lighting. No over the loud OST running in the background and editing was crisp and sharp. All actors have already made their mark well and I am glad that not one of the actor or actress was overshadowing everyone else. Excellent work A&B productions for putting out a great show on Sundays!
Written by Maria —
P.S. Hina will be reviewing this show from next week
My ratings for this episode:
My ratings
Overall: 9/10
Script: 9/10
Direction: 9/10
Dialogues: 9.5/10
Acting: 8/10 (could have been a bit better)
