REVIEW OF 'MERE HUMSAFAR'

Mere Humsafar  is a Pakistani drama television series produced by Humayun Saeed and Shehzad Naseeb under banner Six Sigma Plus, directed by Qasim Ali Mureed and first aired on 30 December 2021 to 29 September 2022 on ARY Digital. It starring Farhan Saeed and Hania Aamir in leads along with Saba Hameed, Waseem Abbas, Samina Ahmad, Zoya Nasir, Hira Umer and Tara Mahmood in supporting roles.

Mere Humsafar revolves around a girl Hala who is left by her father at her paternal house where she is treated badly. Later, her cousin returns from foreign and marries her and gives her the respect she always needed. Hala was mistreated by her Tai Jan (paternal aunt/uncle's wife) her whole life. Her cousin (and now husband) Hamza gave her respect and love.

PLOT

Hala is left alone in Pakistan at a young age by her father, Nafees, because his new European wife does not want to raise his daughter from his previous marriage. Loved by her father and then abandoned, Hala is mistreated by her father's elder brother, Raees, his wife, Shah Jahan and other brother's wife, Sofia. She grows up to be an innocent teenager who is always abused and the slightest ease she had in the family was her grandmother and younger uncle, Jalees. Raees narrates her father false stories about her and never lets her talk to her father. She is in love with her best friend, Shafaq's cousin, Khurram. Raees plans on getting Hala married to his employee Naveed, who is mentally unstable. Later, Hala's cousin Hamza breaks off her marriage saying how would she live with such a man. After the scene, for some mistake committed against Sameen by Hamza's younger sibling Rumi, Hamza's mother, in order to save her daughter, says everything has been done by Hala and throws her out of the house. When later Hamza finds Hala on roads, he brings her home to which Raees opposes and keeps a condition to Hala, to live at their home she needs to be a relative of the family and denies her entry as they say her own father has ended the relationship with her. While Hala is left with no choice Hamza does the unthinkable. Hamza takes Hala to the mosque and marries her! The others are upset from the marriage since it was decided at a young age that Hamza will be marrying Sameen when they grow up. Sameen is now heartbroken about Hamza marrying Hala. This is when Shahjahan (Taijaan's) hatred toward Hala grows even more. Accusing Hala that she brainwashed her son (Hamza) into falling in love.

Hala's life become significantly harder living there as no one accepts her as Hamza's wife except grandmother. While overcoming the hatred and hardships there, Hamza helps her find confidence in herself. They begin to fall for each other. While Khurram saves Sameen's life and both bump into each other multiple times, they grow a friendship with each other. One day Sameen takes Khurram to her house, where he realises that it is Hala's house as he had gone there before and sees her and Hamza together from behind the bushes and vows to take a revenge on her. It is soon revealed that Hala is pregnant and will not be able to travel to London. After knowing of Hala's pregnancy, grandmother and Hamza are over the moon and the others are less than happy. Shah Jahan, seeing Hala's importance grow because of her unborn child, decides to make Hala miscarry her child. In order to do that, she gives her a pain medicine and Hala, thinking Shah Jahan has changed, eats the medicine. Afterwards when the truth is revealed to Hala, she confronts Shah Jahan about it with Hamza and Shah Jahan denies it shows it as if Hala takes it herself to abort her pregnancy. After this, Hala and Hamza fight a lot and are upset with each other. Now Sameen's parents are thinking to marry Khurram and Sameen, and in that purpose call Khurram to their house to finalize the proposal. Shah Jahan sees Khurram and recognizes him blurting out about Khurram and Hala's past to which everyone is shocked. She calls Hala and drags her in front of everyone and then Khurram ironically refuses to recognise Hala, and even Hala under pressure lied that she also doesn't know him framing Shah Jahan as the liar and mental one. Everyone says that she has gone insane. Hala is deeply traumatized by this and as she always speaks the truth, and she told a lie she cries a lot. Hamza comforts her but still she doesn't get okay. For few days Khurram and Shahjahan traumatize Hala. Hala decides to tell Hamza about the past, but Shahjahan doesn't let that happen. A day before Khurram's engagement, he recalls his mother's words and decides to give up on revenge. The next day it's Khurram's engagement with Sameen. Shahjahan is disturbed by this and asks Khurram to back off from engagement, but he does not. And he also says Shahjahan that he does not want to take any revenge. On this Shahjahan gets angry and comes up with an evil plan. She manipulates Hala and takes her to Khurram's house and asks her to request him to go away from Sameen's life. While Hala is talking to Khurram, Shahjahan calls Hamza and asks him to come to Khurram's house and asks him to listen their conversation in a sneaky way. Hamza misunderstands the situation and Hala's words. He feels broken. Everyone in the family comes to know that Hala knew Khurram way before. Meanwhile, Nafees (Hala's dad) comes back with his other daughter Maryam. Grandmother dies while narrating Hala's painful experiences in life. The engagement of Sameen and Khurram is broken off after knowing the truth. Nafees and Maryam support Hala and make her regain her self cofidence. Hamza despite Hala leaving the house comes treats her nicely. One day Khurram goes to Sameen and apologises for his mistake and Sameen says he should first take forgiveness from Hala so Khurram came to Hala for apology and Hamza saw them together and feel suspicious. Meanwhile Roomi also got married to her boyfriend. Later Taijaan came to Hala and told her that Hamza will kick her out after taking child from her which upsets her and makes her doubt Hamza. Hala and Hamza have a fight and feel betrayed by each other and do not want to live together and Hamza goes to Khurram's house to tell him about their split. Khurram makes Hamza realize his love for Hala. Hamza seeks forgiveness with Hala and wants her back in his life. On the other hand, Roomi confesses her mistakes towards her family that how her mother manipulated about Hala and brainwashed her mind. When Hamza knows about the truth, he wants to leave the home with Hala and his daughter but Hala convinces him to stay with the family. His mother realizes her mistakes and seek the forgiveness.

CONCLUSION

The story concept is upto the point but there are few things that I didn’t like about the drama. One is that in the beginning the drama was strong but later it went slow and was dragged. Secondly, reaching out at one point, I stopped liking the acting and character of Hala. She had shown weak character who doesn’t take a stand. She cries all the time which bored me. At one point I felt that when will she take her stand. But the chemistry between Hamza and Hala is the best part. Farhan Saeed as Hamza Raees Ahmed has played excellent role and is open minded. Hania Amir acting is also nice but the worst part is that she has shown as crying baby all the time. In conclusion, despite flaws and loopholes in the writing and unnecessary dragging of the story, the performances, and the main lead chemistry carried the show quite well. And the ending has the perfect ending on a positive forgiving note.