Last night saw the end of the much-hyped drama on Geo Entertainment, ‘Mannat Murad‘. The drama serial is directed by ace Pakistani director Wajahat Hussain of ‘Khuda Aur Mohabbat 3‘ fame. Hussain’s direction is currently being praised for ‘Khaie‘ on the same channel. 7th Sky Entertainment‘s ‘Mannat Murad‘ is penned by Nadia Akhtar and features Iqra Aziz, Talha Chahour and Irsa Ghazal in the lead roles.
The Story
‘Mannat Murad‘ revolved around the story of a young couple fighting to stay afloat amid familial pressure, a dysfunctional one on Murad’s side.
Murad’s mother, Razia Sultana, has brought up her children all alone. 4 daughters and a son. Razia Sultana braved all odds in life to raise her children but this has made her very protective, especially about her son. The thought of sharing her son with his wife scares Razia Sultana to death and she goes to all lengths to keep Murad away from Mannat.
Murad who loves Mannat often resorts to lies and dramas to get married to her and then belittles her in front of his family on every occasion his mother calls out for it.
All hell breaks loose when Murad slaps Mannat when she refuses to apologize to his mother. Mannat leaves home and files a case of Khula against Muraad who refuses to divorce her.
The Treatment
‘Mannat Murad‘ came across as a hotpotch of various storylines all merged into one. As shared by the writer on her social media, a number of scenes from the drama were cut for reasons unknown and what was left of the drama was a series of disconnected events that did not make much sense. Even in the last episode, Fazilat’s wedding with Mannat’s elder brother came as a surprise to the viewers because the narrative hadn’t been built upon in the earlier episodes. The same was the case of Mannat’s attachment with Hammad and Murad’s consent to marry Sitara because everything seemed to have happened out of the blue for most of the major events of the story.
Because a lot of scenes had been cut from the narrative, the ending came across as rushed. Not all loopholes were tied correctly and it did seem that a lot of subplots needed a closure that wasn’t really delivered.
The Reactions
The initial episodes of ‘Mannat Murad’ met with a lot of appreciation for Irsa Ghazal’s portrayal of Razia Sultana. However, over the course of episodes, one realized that she was the only entertaining factor in the entire drama with her spot-on acting as a Punjabi mother hiding the toxicity of the narrative.
Moving on, the audience started questioning Murad’s stance as Mannat’s husband because he came across as a spineless individual who wouldn’t take a stand for his wife and would look up to his friends and resort to lies to get out of difficult situations or avoid them altogether.
The Ending
Despite all the glitches and things going wrong, one can truly say that all is well that ends well. ‘Mannat Murad‘ ended on a happy note with Murad finally showing some backbone and speaking up to his mother to clear Mannat’s name from the allegations that she hurled at her.
The audience praised Muraad for speaking up at last and offering closure to at least one of the loose ends of the story.
