“Ishq Murshid” continues to soar across the charts and audience hearts. This is a light-hearted love story much like a fairy tale, one which isn’t weighing heavy on the heart and allows us to smile each week with Shibra and Fazal Baksh/Shahmir’s love story…..until now. Unfortunately at present, the light-hearted feel will be coming to a halt as Shahmir’s identity is exposed to all next week. Starring Bilal Abbas Khan, Dur E Fishan Saleem, Omair Rana, Noor Ul Hassan, Salma Hassan and others, “Ishq Murshid” has been written by Abdul Khaliq Khan and directed by Farooq Rind.
In episode 20, Fazal Baksh (Bilal Abbas Khan) and Shibra (Durr E Fishan Saleem) are now “together,” their feelings expressed and their relationship (emotionally) cemented. There are only two problems, the first being Shibra’s proposal and the boy’s eagerness to get married immediately and the second being….Fazal Baksh is really Shahmir. Adding further angst to an already complicated situation is Mehreen (Hira Tareen), who has taken it upon herself to expose Shahmir for his deceit, befriending Shibra in an effort to get closer to the situation. There’s a moment that makes the audience truly sit up and take notice this week with Maleeha (Srha Asghar) and Faraaz (Awais Suleman). Maleeha is Shibra’s friend and yet, this week, it almost appears as though she’s steering Faraaz’s mind and manipulating him against Shahmir and Shibra. Is this the case? And if so, it seems Maleeha may be playing a greater role than what we’ve seen so far – and would certainly answer the question as to why Srha Asghar signed this role, which has been inconsequential up until now.
Honestly, the way “Ishq Murshid” has been executed, the audience is fawning over Shahmir – and rightly so. He is a suave, kind-hearted man who is willing to go to any lengths to win over the woman he loves. However, if we look at it from the other end, is Shahmir doing right by Mehreen? Doesn’t Mehreen have the right to execute her revenge? Mehreen is a woman of today, a modern young woman who immediately expressed her interest in Shahmir and while her father has been using this relationship to keep Dawood in place, he’s doing it for his daughter’s happiness. Couldn’t Shahmir have been honest with Mehreen and told her he simply was not interested in her and was interested in someone else from the get-go? Instead, Shahmir played the game and strung Mehreen along, leaving her to jump through hoops to simply spend some time with him. Hasn’t Shahmir then been deceiving her, exactly as she stated in this episode? He has been betraying her and, while our hearts are breaking for the end of Fazal Baksh and Shibra’s relationship, that relationship too is a farce. This has created an interesting turning point for “Ishq Murshid” for the upcoming weeks, as there really isn’t any “easy” fix for the mess Shahmir has created. Regardless of what his intentions have been, he has betrayed two women, Shibra’s family and his own family. Which way the tides will turn at this point is pretty unpredictable, though we are eagerly awaiting the next episode. This is the magic of Farooq Rind’s direction and Abdul Khaliq Khan’s tale, along with Bilal Abbas Khan and Durr E Fishan Saleem’s chemistry – we are hooked!