Up until now, “Rang Mahal” has been refreshingly different for a Geo soap. Starring Sehar Khan, Ali Ansari, Arooba Mirza, Humayun Ashraf, Asim Mehmood, Salma Hassan and others, the story has been written by Shafia Khan and directed by Zahid Mehmood. With an interesting storyline, an educated, determined heroine and some very likable characters, “Rang Mahal” carried an air of intelligence with it despite its melodramatic feel. Unfortunately, the past couple of weeks have seen a change of pace…and content.
Like it predecessor like “Fitrat” and “Mohlat,” “Rang Mahal” has now fallen into the repetitive-episode category with 15 minute episode recaps, lengthy flashback sequences and only 5-10 minutes of new content. Adding to that, the behavior of the once-intelligent characters has now been reduced to nonsensical thinking. Mahapara (Sehar Khan), our confident, headstrong heroine has become fairly dim with her choices. Being stalked not only by Rayed (Ali Ansari), Sohail (Humayun Ashraf) and their father, Mahapara never once says anything of value, telling them to leave her alone “or else.” Or else what? Mahapara isn’t, unfortunately, as powerful as she thinks she is and she comes across as a little girl playing dress-up and acting like a career woman. She needs help, but when our true hero, Salaar (Asim Mehmood), asks her to confide in him, she brushes him off, saying she doesn’t need anyone’s help. That’s not true. Mahapara needs a lot of help and trouble will soon be coming at her from every corner, but she’s walking into that trap herself.
Also, can we just discuss for a moment the ridiculous “sentimental” scene where Rayed’s father remembers how he taught a 20-something year old Mahapara to sign her name? This is a skill we learn in elementary school. Also, this father-figure is off his rocker when he threatens Mahapara with his “ehsaan” in teaching her how to sign her name. Sorry, but this entire family proves themselves to be even more disgusting with each confrontation. This father believes Mahapara should be indebted for life to him after the way they treated her. Sohail thinks he can threaten and harass her into submissiveness and Rayed thinks she has slept her way to the top. This entire family deserves to be thrown into the trash and honestly, if Mahapara ends up with anyone other than Salaar, this show will be a joke. That being said, Mahapara doesn’t actually deserve Salaar with how badly she has treated him all along.
It’s unfortunate to see a once-strong show falling down a hole by stretching it out. We do not need 15 minute recaps. We do not need flashback sequences. We do not need 100 episodes. It would be much better to have 35 strong, solid episodes with intelligence maintained rather than the mess of a direction in which “Rang Mahal” is currently headed. This is disappointing.