After weeks of waiting, anticipating and booking tickets to the cinema, the fine morning of  Saturday, 25th of January finally rolled around. Audiences across Pakistan held its breath, counting down the hours to a finale that had everyone almost as excited as an India versus Pakistan cricket world-cup match.

As the hours turned to minutes and minutes to moments, cinema-goers settled into their seats, popcorn at the sides ready, while many families huddled in front of TVs, children hushed, husbands fed and distracted as Rahat Fateh Ali Khan started crooning: ‘Meray paas tum ho, to kya aur mangun, meri zindagi men, meri aas tum ho.’

The Finale Episode

Now let’s look beyond the hype and talk about what went actually down once the finale aired.

The first 20 minutes or so were spent recapping everything that had happened in the drama so far. It began from Danish’s happy family, showed how Shahwar wooed Mehwish, her gargantuan betrayal, the famous ‘do takkay ki aurat‘ branding and the fitting anjaam for her ‘shirk‘. Roomi was a little darling throughout and Hania too accepted the proposal he’d brought her — but we knew all of this that already, two weeks ago, to be sure.

The actual show started about 20 minutes in as we witness that on Monty’s persuasion, Danish has agreed to go and meet Mehwish, telling Roomi that he might not be able to return and that Hania would be okay, for men are famed to be bewafa.

On the other hand, Shahwar is all ready, with packed bags, to leave but Maham stops him. She gives an emphatic speech, telling him that she’ll give him a car, and an office, but not his former position back though, if he stays. She further tells him that even though he has betrayed her, she is asking him to stay but if he leaves, the divorce papers will reach him the next morning.

Undertones of dark comedy?

Cutting to Mehwish, she’s overjoyed at the news of his arrival and when he does come, Danish spends most of the time reminiscing over old memories. All of a sudden, things go wrong, Danish falls down, clutching his chest in pain. He urges Mehwish to not touch him and passes out, to be taken to the hospital.

In the hospital, Hania arrives with her sister and sends Roomi to comfort Mehwish. After some time, a doctor comes to fetch Roomi and he is taken to Danish, who we learn has suffered a heart attack.

Despite the doctor’s warning, Danish takes off his oxygen mask (we wondered whether this was dark humor but Khalil sahib would know better)  and starts talking to Roomi. He tells Roomi that his mother had gone away for some work but that’s she’s back now and everything will be okay. He tells Roomi that he’ll visit him in his dreams every day. Danish then passes away, as our collective seratonin levels plunge. The drama shortly thereafter ends.

Deaths, disappearances and crushed hopes

As the finale ended, one thing was a given. All the viewers cried. Some cried because of Danish’s untimely demise while others out of sheer frustration after what was largely viewed as an unsatisfactory ending. People went into cinemas expecting fireworks but came out with fizzled spirits.

Funnily enough, mock endings Twitteratis had come up with were way meatier. Some people had guessed that Danish would pick Hania, forcing Mehwish to commit suicide. Some had thought he would pick Mehwish, leading Hania onto a path of vengeance. A lot of viewers had speculated whether Roomi would play a bigger role than that of a bystander after hearing his father’s last speech — however, subsequent scenes eliminated that hope. Also, Salman and Ayesha’s disappearance was strikingly odd, considering how they were all the family Danish and Mehwish had left. Yet, they were nowhere to be found.

Dushman zinda rahay

One of the biggest flaws we see in the ending is how none of the supposed bad guys were actually punished. Shahwar, who played a key role in the destruction of Danish’s family, got a second chance with his wife. Mehwish, though she ended up a widow got her flat back and would probably win Roomi’s custody. Well, honestly, some on-screen suffering would have been nice to see for these two!

Doing away with Danish, that too with a heart attack didn’t really take the plot anywhere rather came off as too convenient and oddly reminiscent of Khalil-ur-Rehman’s previous sob-sagas. More screen space needed to be given to settle the final fates of other important characters, and we thought we had done away with those long, death-bed monologues at least 30 years back.

The biggest question, whether Danish would finally go back to Mehwish or settle down with Hania remained crucially unaddressed.  We mean, was the choice really so difficult that Danish had to be killed off to avoid the confrontation? Do we really have to wait for a rumored sequel to get a sense of what actually happened?

And the original quibble…like, a hale and hearty guy is done away with a measly heart attack, with no indications of an ailment in the previous episodes. Oh well…

Final Word

The finale of Meray Pass Tum Ho was one of the most anticipated concluding shows in recent times but in some ways, it really did struggle to live up to the hype, leaving us with some shattered expectations.

Let us know if you agree or disagree in the comments section.