Review: Meem is to Mohabbat as L is to Love
- mh-musings
- Apr 4
- 14 min read
SPOILER ALERT
The latest, highest trending Pakistani drama is Ahad Raza Mir and Dananeer Mobeen starrer Meem Se Mohabbat (“MSM”). This romantic dramedy explores an age gap trope within the backdrop of conflicting family dynamics rooted in trauma, or lack thereof, while we witness a nuanced character growth for both the leads. It has core themes of how opposites attract, how love defies logic, what it means to love and how the darkness eventually gives way to the light when one embraces love.
In this meticulous Farhat Ishtiaq script, it is easy to find pieces of ourselves in the characters and their layered narratives. Set aside the slapstick and filler comedic arcs with some of the supporting characters, the main plot is captivatingly told with an aesthetic eye by director Ali Hassan.
With only a handful of episodes left, the story has become extraordinarily popular across South Asia and its diaspora in international markets, reaching more than a billion views on YouTube in just 30 half an hour-long episodes. Social media is rife with discussion and fan edits, with many begging the production house to extend the series. When a show reaches this level of frenzy, especially one with a cliched and unsurprising plot, I get intrigued to study why. Once again, I posit my intuitive theories behind the immense success of MSM.
Plot
Ayat Suleman (Roshi; played by Dananeer Mobeen) is a bright, happy-go-lucky 19 year old girl who rebels against her over-achieving family by failing all her entrance exams into multiple engineering universities. She is the mischievous rabble rouser in the family and decides that she would much rather get married at the first given opportunity just so she can permanently shut down her mother’s nagging about higher studies. Her father decides to find her an internship at a firm owned by an industry colleague, hoping to channel her bursting energies in a more positive direction.
Talha Ahmed (by Ahad Raza Mir) is the strict CEO at his civil engineering firm, taking up the mantle from his semi-retired father (a brilliant performance by Ahad’s real life father Asif Raza Mir). Talha is clearly burdened with a lot on his shoulders as he is also responsible for his deceased brother’s young child, Mohid (an endearing turn by child actor Abu Hurairah), who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder with limited speech since his parents’ accident. There is deep family trauma that limits the colors and joy in the Ahmed household, the context for which unfolds slowly as the story progresses. Furthermore, Talha gets abandoned by his fiancé, Sabeeka, in a public event Roshi randomly witnesses at a restaurant, where she was celebrating one of her many purposefully failed exams. Roshi is brought to Talha’s office for the internship.
Under Talha’s stern glare, Roshi gets into one hilarious escapade after another. Her bubbly personality endears her to Abid Uncle, Talha’s father, and the two begin to form a beautiful bond. Despite his exasperation with her chaotic personality, Talha is protective of Roshi (whom he calls Ms. Ayat). He helps her in a particularly dangerous situation involving sexual harassment from a colleague and he keeps it very private to protect her honor. His kindness throughout the situation breaks Roshi’s initial prejudices against Talha, whom she had gleefully likened to the villainous antagonist Noyan made popular by Turkish historical drama Diriliş: Ertuğrul. And, thus, begins Roshi’s journey of falling in love with a layered man like Talha, who is really a gentleman with a heart of gold underneath his prickly exterior.
Mohid struggles with social relationships, hesitates to take any risks and has become reclusive. Outside of his work responsibilities, Talha has also become reclusive and dedicates all his available time to Mohid. He is guilt-ridden from his role in Mohid’s predicament and considers himself incapable of making anyone happy. During a chance meeting at the office, Mohid and Roshi become fast friends. Talha is very taken with this dynamic and we begin to see his growing resonance with Roshi, who has stirred his heart strings, and his sarcastic humor, back to life.
When he comprehends the ways the two of them are gravitating towards each other, Talha intentionally wedges a hurtful distance between them, wanting to protect her innocence from the murkiness of his life.
And this starts the major dramatic conflict in their relationship. It pushes both individuals to morph in unexpected ways. As Roshi becomes reckless in her life choices, Talha has to confront his own choices about pushing her away. The story has taken some interesting twists and turns, and we are almost upon the much anticipated climax for the show.
This plot summary does little to explain MSM’s wild popularity, which racks up millions of views within hours. Among many reasons, the least of it is the celebrity status of an international actor such as Ahad coming back to PTV after 2.5 years. Such a comeback can draw an audience but cannot retain them as proven by Turkish superstar Çağatay Ulusoy, who returned to public TV with Gaddar after 6 years only to receive lukewarm response to an avant-garde script. As well, while Ahad’s on-screen chemistry with rising star Dananeer Mobeen is visually very pleasing, without a strong script to stand on, neither his popularity nor their chemistry would have stood the tests of an increasingly perceptive and judgmental audience.
In the next sections, I delve deeper into the top notes that make MSM an immersive experience for me. They will contain spoilers and, as such, if you haven’t watched the show you may wish to catch up before reading on.
Original Soundtrack & Titular Significance
Pakistani dramas are famous for their original soundtracks (OST), and the first teaser for the show will feature a music video for the song, taking snippets of important scenes from upcoming episodes. Since most of the series is shot by the time it starts to air, the teaser is able to capture key moments that somewhat give the plot away but mostly build intrigue and anticipation for how the characters get to certain points in their story. The teaser for MSM is a masterpiece. In addition to the soulful, fitting lyrics and tune for “Baat” (by Shuja Haider), the melodious rendition by Asim Azhar and Qirat Haider beautifully captures the essence of silent longing, the hesitation that comes with heartbreak, the childlike joy of Mohid’s innocence, interspersed with the chaotic and yet poetic love story between Talha and Ayat. Paired with cinematic takes, the placement of the song throughout the series is very well done, further accentuating the connection between the OST and the story.
I also see many questions regarding the meaning of the title Meem se Mohabbat. For those who may not know, meem (م) is an Arabic character. Urdu uses a Perso-Arabic script, written right to left, and the letter ‘meem’ is the first letter in the word “Mohabbat”, which means love. Thus, the title captures a sense of journey to realizing what is love. It is an excellent selection for this story because it shows the individual journeys of Talha and Ayat towards their love.
More Than Meets The Eye
Once drawn into the story, it appears as a quintessential romance, where the dark brooding man is eventually won over by the gregarious, larger-than-life girl. But, watched with the discerning eye, it goes deep into themes of what makes for a good partnership and marriage, differences in family systems and how it impacts the emotional growth of the people within them, prejudices and stereotypes rooted in dated social norms, how one recovers from emotional, spiritual or physical trauma, and how love is the fulcrum for old wounds to heal.
Without going into some of the more obvious examples, let me tackle the one with Saleeqa phuppo (Faiza Gillani). She’s shown to be in an abusive relationship and, perversely, she’s the abuser. She takes her loving husband for granted and, through comical predicaments, she illustrates her utter disrespect for his person by treating him more like a possession and slave rather than her equal partner in a marital relationship. Towards the beginning, we are told many times as to how similar Roshi is to Saleeqa and we also see Roshi taking relationship tips from her Aunt. She is enamored with Saleeqa’s marriage and similarly wants a husband who will be subservient to her childish whims. And then she meets and falls for Talha.
Her notion of a man who will fall madly in love with her as Jamal (Tehseen Wajahat Chishty) did with Saleeqa is not her reality. Talha is mature, has agency, and he is articulate about his boundaries. Without awareness of his low self-worth and guilt from his past trauma, Roshi is deeply affected by all the ways his words and actions push her away despite her expression of love. It forces her to grow out of her childlike mannerisms and connect with a stronger sense of herself.
Even though the experience puts a dent in her bubbly personality and pushes her towards rash decisions, it also brings an inner maturity where she can hold her own against Talha. The physical age gap seems a lot less stark when the interactions now seem to be between two equals versus between a mentor and a disciple, or an idol and his groupie. This shows a positive resolution to the age gap trope, which always skirts the danger of normalizing exploitative relationships.
As illustrated by both Saleeqa and Roshi in contrasting ways, a marriage/partnership cannot last on unequal dynamics where the depth of respect is not reciprocal. The character growth we witness through these dramatic plot mechanisms is relatable. We all grow from our wounds and it is a disservice to us if we keep looking to someone else to keep us bubble wrapped from facing the world. Roshi should not be in love with Talha because of his heroism in saving her but because she understands the flawed man he is and loves him any way.
Layered Character Growth
Dananeer’s portrayal of Roshi through her various stages, and in her various relationships, is very well done. Her initial irresponsible and callous behavior is misinterpreted as over the top immaturity. On the contrary, she’s a highly intelligent rebel who refuses to fit into boxes her mother insists fitting her into. She has yet to be in a situation that inspires her to make the most of her talents and thus she channels her energies into all sorts of mischief. When she begins to find interest in the work at the firm, initially she steps up to the challenge to prove that she could and eventually she also had an element of wanting validation from Talha.
When Talha harshly rejects her and asks her to leave the office and their lives, we begin to see the depth of her emotions. She wasn’t a gangly teenager caught in her first crush. She knew her heart well enough to know how deeply she felt for Talha. The shock of rejection, as a result of Talha’s apparent preference for Sabeeka (his ex-fiancé), propels her into a self-destructive mode. This is not much different than the self-sabotaging mode Talha has been in since he understood his own feelings for Roshi.
In a twist of fate, when Talha marries Roshi, we become witness to a reversal in their personalities. Unburdened by needing to deny himself any longer, Talha is playful, flirtatious and loving. However, Roshi’s wounded ego blinds her to Talha’s struggles and she cannot hear or see his words and actions of love when he expresses them.
It has been a journey for them both to reach this stage in their relationship and I have to give full credit to both Ahad and Dananeer for interpreting their characters with full abandon. Their love for their craft translates onto the screens into characters we could grow with.
Where the Generations Meet
I have read articles and heard from a lot of middle aged reviewers, many of whom could not relate to the bustling energy of Roshi or understand the dichotomy of a young woman who is both childish but mature at the same time. For full disclosure, I am also a middle aged reiviewer (!) but to remain in step with my Gen Z daughter growing up in a Western society, I have spent a lot of time trying to understand her world. In this age of content creation and ever-expanding online communities through which these youngsters connect, trying to hold young girls accountable to old-fashioned standards is futile. It exposes our own inflexibility and lays bare the reasons for generational conflicts.
Today’s young women in economically solvent and loving families are articulate about their individualism and are willing to voice their boundaries. Media and social expectations condition us to seeing long-suffering girls and women shoulder all the burdens of the family troubles, while being subservient to a patriarchal narrative. So much so that seeing a free-spirited, self-driven young woman of agency seems to be an aberration. Especially if the girl does not automatically rely upon a male figure to get her out of odd predicaments. It leads to all sorts of judgements about propriety, smart television, intelligent characters, good writing and a host of other things that skirt the real issue. Which is, we are not always willing to confront our own social conditioning and accept unconventional characters as being valid. Female characters are judged far more harshly than their male counterparts, by a predominantly female audience. By extension, by not stretching ourselves to understand our ever-evolving norms, we quickly invalidate choices made by the younger generation and label them immature, dumb, self-centered or worse.
Within this intellectual framework, Roshi by Dananeer is a very believable Gen Z character and I see how/why many young viewers resonate strongly with what has come to be known as #RoshiCore. Embracing one’s flaws is part of a growth mindset and I like that female TV characters in South Asia are beginning to reflect the realities of our younger generation.
The additional aspect I love in MSM is in how the households and characters symbolize different ways families form within a generational rift. I enjoy the Dada/ Roshi bond and the empathic women in way of Dadi, Mahi, Sadaf, and even Chaman Bua, who cut across generations but are thoughtful and articulate. The ways the female narrative is woven in the Suleman household is heart-warming to watch and reminiscent of my childhood where my Dadi, and then my mother was the presumptive matriarch. The home is full of colors, bonding moments and a lively energy, further nurtured by the women. In contrast, we see the Ahmeds’ sprawling mansion, a home which also cuts across generations, but without a female presence it is stark, quiet and overshadowed by the family’s past trauma.
Hats off to writer Farhat Ishtiaq for her deep character studies that produced a complementary cast of personalities who embody the realities of different generations in intellectually liberated households. It also makes MSM a watch the whole family can enjoy together because there is a tale for everyone – from the quirky to the over-serious.
Healing Power Of Love
I started watching MSM during one of the most difficult periods in my life. My beloved mother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in early November, and I had to temporarily move to Asia as her primary caregiver because neither my handicapped father with limited speech, nor his helper, could support her treatment needs in a foreign land. We were in the throes of her rigorous treatment in December and January, with some days more difficult than others. Watching Pakistani dramas became a way for my parents and I to bond after long, hard days. While I had them watch many of the completed shows like Humsafar, Dil Lagi, Kabhi Main Kabhi Tum, I reserved watching MSM on my own as the social media banter that comes with live shows became my only social outlet. I had shut myself off otherwise.
After a valiant fight on our behalf, Ammu’s unexpected passing in late January (Inna lillahi wa inna elaihi raji'un) plunged me into a darkness that is inexplicable. During such grief, I don’t have the emotional space for socially aware, thought-provoking shows. I just want the comfort of characters I can fall in love with, who help me hold onto the dredges of some positivity while I pick up the pieces in my life again.
When I see the increasing engagement on social media for MSM, I realize that one doesn’t need such deep personal loss to look for creature comforts in the way of good cinema or art. Living and realism are hard. All the strife in the world that is constantly bombarding our media streams, the evident discord when trying to have healthy dialogue, the societal abuse of human resilience while humanity becomes a living nightmare – are all exhausting. In such turbulent times, the beauty of simple human stories is so appealing. The predictability of character arcs in well-written tales is comforting. To have deliberate actors like Ahad and Dananeer bring to life the human struggles of managing wayward emotions seems to resonate in our myopic worlds. Of all the things we cannot control, the one thing we can is our own emotions. Watching relatable characters get closure on complex emotional journeys becomes a deeply satisfying experience.
A plot doesn’t need to have characters one loves to hate to create good drama. While I find Shariq illustrative of an important arc around sexual harassment and related coping tools for young girls, his villainy pales in comparison to the layered path to love Talha/Roshi follow and the ways they are learning to grow together. MSM is mostly comprised of positive, internally consistent, urban and non-toxic characters. Respectable heroes paired with layered and strong female leads build hope that love can heal all wounds and that we can find such personalities in our real lives as well. Fairy tales were created to nurture hope; MSM has delivered on this promise, for millions of hearts across the globe.
Fan Service
As the popularity of the show grew, so did the social media engagement from diehard fans. From creative edits to video reviews to art to wattpad stories, the canvas of possibilities is brimming with people showing love for MSM. I noted Hum TVs changed their behavior over time as the show received more love. It went from once a week to twice a week, starting from Episode 5. Then it started to provide a mid-week extended promo that had clips from both episodes in the coming week. Sometimes the teaser even featured clips reserved for the week after but this purposeful approach to whetting the audience’s appetite fed the frenzy some more. The lead actors increased their social media interaction with fans and media, leading to a cult following that is here to stay.
In addition, the fans are vocal about their desires about plot arcs and it seems Hum TV has listened. While a rain scene was part of the original teaser – a common practice to do artistic renditions in the first teaser that are not meant to be in planned episodes – it has now been worked into the latest aired episode this week. This request was repeated by many fans over time and the reactions to the scenes are delightful.
I have long respected Momina Duraid for her role in growing the Pakistani drama industry but my respect for her increased even more during MSM. Her courteous consideration of fan demand, without compromising on the quality of the story being told, is laudable. I strongly believe that production houses that focus on strong ethos and quality, while being deeply aware of the tastes in their target audience, are the gold standard in the industry. These are the ones that will stand the test of time when founding management will eventually transition to the next generation.
Final Thoughts
After exclusively watching Turkish dizis for a long time, I have had to take a break from the long, sprawling form factor. Pakistani dramas follow a similar focus on slow burn relationships, but it is a far more contained story. It also represents a culture I am far more accustomed with through our shared history and family traditions.
After watching the popularity of MSM and the ways the audience got attached to the characters, it makes me think that the industry is well placed to experiment with the multi-season sitcom form factor which found its peak before streaming platforms took over Western content consumption.
Mad About You is a highly popular sitcom that ran on NBC for 7 seasons 1992 – 1999. It shows Paul Buchman (Paul Reiser) and Jamie Buchman (Helen Hunt), navigating marriage and career in the bustling city of New York. I can see how MSM now has original characters who could grow into a similar form factor as well. To watch Talha and Ayat navigate marriage, shared office, professional egos, parenting, social work, and so much more, has so much potential. I cannot say this for every story and set of characters. I agree with Ahad’s comment in a recent interview where he says it is better to end before the audience says they have had enough. In this case, the audience is quite far from having had enough of #TalRosh.
[Note to my regular readers: Forgive my absence over the last six months and please pray for my mother's departed soul.]
If you enjoyed this piece, please go to the footer to subscribe to my blog!
@ Article Copyright by mh./ [@entrespire, twitter]. Follow me on Instagram: @soul_phoems
* All pictures and video clips belong to their original owners. No Copyright infringement intended.
