“Pyari Mona” is a show that started off with a lot of promise, a show about the South Asian attitude towards women who do not fit the standard expectation of body image. The show stars Sanam Jung in the title role along with 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. While the initial premise of the story was good, the show has long since gotten off-track and turned into an uninteresting mess.
In episode 23, Mona (Sanam Jung) seriously considers divorce while Babar (Adeel Hussain) does his best to win Mona over with this half-hearted apologies. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how the situation is viewed, Babar’s best is simply not enough. Mona knows her self-worth and recognizes that Babar’s methods in the past have caused her a lot of pain (as well as Samiya) and she is not going to forget that easily. This entire scenario has been shot in a haphazard fashion with the irrelevant arc involving the betrayed lawyer and Babar’s attitude towards Mona doing an entire 180 without a journey – or even a few moments of self-reflection.
Meanwhile, Irfan (Muhammad Hunbal) continues to pine for Kinza (Naureen Mumtaz), but in a bizarre moment, Irfan begins dreaming of Mona and his past desire to marry her. What exactly is the team trying to pull in this case? Irfan is a married man with a wife. A big lesson to be learned is that regardless of loving a person and losing them, once one commits to a marriage….that’s it. That’s the commitment. Why has Irfan been written this way? It’s unpalatable. In the meantime, Kinza is hanging out with her cousin Jibran, a man who once proposed to her. Why would Kinza do this?
To be honest, at this point of “Pyari Mona” with only one episode left, this is a drama that feels as though it lost its way. There was so much to be done from teaching the importance of self-love, the beauty of platonic friendships and the way attitudes can impact mental health. Unfortunately, the story took a turn a few weeks ago and the show has been dragging since. While Adnan Jaffar’s Khurram is a wonderful character and Adnan’s performance keeps us entertained, the fact remains that he is sick of his daughter’s misery as well. This is a man who has lost one daughter at the hands of Babar and is unwilling to lose Mona. This is the beauty of this character who wants to protect his daughters – but is that enough to carry a show? A progressive father character is simply not enough when the entire vibe of the show has turned into melodrama. What could have been an incredible story of self-love ad resilience is now itching towards its finale with little thought to the script.