When “Pyari Mona” first began, Mona was a bright, confident young woman with dreams of a career ahead of her. This was a refreshing, light-hearted, fun show touching upon serious topics in a realistic way. However, over time, it has become much of the same that we are used to seeing. Starring Sanam Jung, Adeel Hussain, Mashal Khan, Muhammad Hunbal, Naureen Mumtaz, Uzma Beg and Adnan Jaffar, the story is written by Haseeb Ahmed and directed by Ali Hassan.
In episode 17, Mona (Sanam Jung) struggles with her thoughts internally after Babar (Adeel Hussain) leaves her for Zee (Mashal Khan). Not only has his abandonment hurt her, but also his sharp, insulting words. While Mona may be happy with who she is, she is aware of how society sees her and it’s painful to hear such words coming from your spouse. On the bright side, a parent like Khalid (Adnan Jaffar) is the sort every young woman deserves. Khalid is not only staunchly on Mona’s side, but he praises her and forces her to see her own worth and value. If only he’d take steps for Mona and remove Babar from her life.
Babar is an odd character and it’s hard to connect with him in any way. He married Mona to make Ayaan happy and offer her a stable home. And yet he ignores Mona and Ayaan completely. He has left Mona essentially at this point and informed Mona that he will come to visit Ayaan. If he wanted to go around with another woman and cheat on Mona, why did he marry her in the first place? What was the point? He could’ve easily left Ayaan at her grandparents house and Mona could have cared for her there. Was marriage even necessary? It’s hard to empathize with Babar at all, despite him being a man who lost his wife and is now married to a woman he doesn’t care for. Should we feel something for him emotionally other than dislike?
Meanwhile, Zee (Mashal Khan) is manipulating the entire situation to her benefit. She is deleting Ayaan’s calls, hoarding Babar’s time and coming off as being supportive while simply trying to distance him from his family. The fights between Zee and Babar have intensified now that Babar realizes Zee has a certain lifestyle that she’s potentially not willing to give up – and it includes spending time with other men.
Now this is where the “same old” storyline comes in. From a fresh, youth-oriented show, we are now chasing forced marriage scenarios. We are dealing with cheating husbands. And now, the icing on the cake, we are about to deal with a miscarriage and, knowing writers, potential death. Irfan (Muhammad Hunbal) and Kinza (Naureen Mumtaz) share the sweetest relationship on the show and it would be just like a Pakistani drama to kill off Kinza over a simple fall in order to open Irfan back up for Mona again. Why can’t we just see a platonic relationship? Irfan loves Mona, sure, but he very clearly loves Kinza. Can we just see them happy? “Pyari Mona” has honestly become a tragic show at present and it remains to be seen when it picks up its light again – if that does happen.