First of all I am extremely sorry for the late review but I have been fighting a hard battle with load shedding and cold so consider me a survivor at this point! The last two episodes of Meri Behan Maya were very happening indeed. Maya went back to her father only after he almost died trying to prove his love to her. Just when I thought that the Shahzib household was going to filled with happiness, Rashid decided to make a comeback and I could not help but wonder how Shahzib’s weak heart was going to deal with the situation. Shahzib gave Attiya divorce and she vowed to take revenge from him. Rashid managed to escape from prison and kidnapped Maya once again. But you know what they say; all is well that ends well! The play had a very happy ending except that I still felt for Shahzib, he deserved someone much better than Attiya.

Overall, Meri Behan Maya lacked the depth that I was expecting from a Haseena Moin play. Some of the dialogues left me completely clueless and many times things that could have been said in one line were stretched unnecessarily. The mystery surrounding the play was quite filmi too. For me Maya and Shahzib’s character stood out and both the actors shared an amazing chemistry. Annie Jaffrey was brilliant as Maya, sweet and sensitive and Javed Sheikh did a commendable job too. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for Neelam Munir who in my opinion should have concentrated more on her acting (both dialogue delivery and expressions) than her looks. The layers of make up and not a hair out of place seemed very unreal especially when Maya was missing. Zarmina was devastated when Maya went missing but her make up was not toned down at all. I must say that I really like Bindiya as an actress but her make up and heavy jewelry was equally distracting and unbelievable! How many women in real life go around wearing so much jewelry and accessories in their hair on regular basis?

I would have liked to see more of Maya than Zarmina and Faiser in the play but equal amount of screen time was given to both the stories. Meri Behan Maya is a good play to watch if you do not try to rationalize the story and characters on every step of the way, it had enough twists and turns to keep the viewer engaged. Personally, I would have liked the comedy bit to be more convincing too. I do not know who came up with Faiser’s look because it did not look cute at all. Some of the scenes with Rashid and Maya and Zarmina and Faiser were downright obnoxious and I would not want to watch them again. I remember when I started watching this play I really liked it particularly because of Maya and I hoped that the story would be more about her so I looked forward to it but the side tracks failed to impress. If the play had been directed and acted out better it could have proven to be a very nice story and the flaws in the dialogues could have been covered but unfortunately the direction was not up to the mark. For me Annie Jaffrey was the star of the show and I am hoping to see more of her in future too

Fatima Awan.