Mawra Hocane’s ‘Qissa Meharbano Ka‘ has been a difficult journey of challenging norms. Much as we hoped for, the drama serial ended with a positive message.
After enduring all those episodes in discomfort as we confronted troubling realities about Pakistani society, we finally see the drama serial end on a high note. It all paid off in the end.
From toxic characters to graphic scenes, Qissa Meherbano Ka followed our protagonist, Meherbano (Mawra Hocane), as she faces accusations of killing her husband, Murad (Ahsan Khan).
We’ve followed her as she navigates a turbulent marriage with a bad spouse. Someone who only married Meharbano for her property and subjects her to marital rape. He then accuses Meherbano of having an affair with Mehran (Zaviyar Noman). As a ‘man’ he douses her with gasoline and tries to set her on fire because he was angry.
However, when his wife shoots him in the leg in self-defense as she tries to escape being burned alive, she ends up in court.
As her in-laws try to taint her character and paint her as having homicidal intent towards Murad, Meharbano gives Murad’s lawyer an earful. That earful took all of us back to school on the concept of marital rape. Our protagonist calls out the morally wrong idea which makes society believe that ‘a husband has authority over his wife’s body.’ The drama serial really voices the pain of women forced to endure such trauma at the hands of their intimate partner, because ‘a wife can never say no’ to her husband.
Even as Murad’s female lawyer seems to be pegged against another woman, we finally see a woman voice support for a woman. Faryal (Mashal Khan), Murad’s second wife, takes the stand and sets Meherbano free. Meanwhile, karma finally gets around to Murad.
The universe also got around to Murad’s mother, as a brain hemorrhage left her tongue paralyzed.
In the end, we finally got to see Meherbano and Noor happy. They both have plans to study further and have Mehran’s support. Meherbano uses personal trauma to help other women gain some form of independence by teaching them skills.
Though the best part of Qissa Meharbano Ka is that Mehran and Meharbano don’t become a couple. He is there as a supportive friend, not waiting on a window of opportunity to get the girl.
However, would that have been the case in reality? That’s a troubling thought to motivate us to continue challenging toxic norms.
