Written by: Hurmat Majid
Posted on: June 29, 2022 | 
| 中文
Zahid Ahmed as Gardezi and Sonya Hussyn as Rohi in Mor Moharan
Mor Moharan promised viewers a mystical tale of the desert, but will they be able to deliver? The first seven episodes of the show have left the viewers a little bit confused about what the actual plotline is.
On one hand, we see Rohi (Sonya Hussyn), a mystical “daughter of the land”, who wants to ease the life of her people by combining modern methods with ancient traditions and wants to preserve the natural ecosystem. She seeks to bring water to her people and to keep her land from being polluted. On the other hand, there’s Ahmed Khan Gardezi (Zahid Ahmed), who is an elected MNA from the area, he has sugar mills and lumber contracts, but after a couple of meetings with Rohi, his perspective changes. There’s also Sikandar (Mustafa Changazi), who has returned to the area to take over his mother’s business, but his troubled past is haunting him. Sikandar is deeply in love with Rohi, without even knowing her fully.
Sonya Hussyn in Mor Moharan
Other side stories include the mysterious past of Sikandar’s mom, Almas Rani (Samiya Mumtaz), Nawab Feroz (Adnan Jaffer) and Sher Alam (Babar Ali). One wonders what has been the relationship of the three in the past, why is Sher Alam more than a driver to Almas Rani, and by what right does Feroz think he can come back and live in his ex-wife’s house. There’s also Rohi’s father, Malook Shah (Firdos Jamal), who owns the land in the area, and is planning a business venture with Almas and Sikander for a coal factory.
Firdous Jamal as Malook Shah
The drama, directed by Owais Khan and written by Ali Moeen, is being aired on TV One and PTV simultaneously. Ali Moeen is a seasoned writer and has had success with many of his television serials like Rangbaaz, Jo Bichar Gaye, Noor Mahal, Khawab Nagar ki Shehzadi and others. However, he has failed so far to show his mastery in the script of Mor Moharan, and even the addition of songs and dance sequels have not done much for the show.
The cast of Mor Moharan. (L to R) Zahid Ahmed, Sonya Hussyn, director Owais Khan, Babar Ali and Samiya Mumtaz
One thing is for sure, seven episodes down, viewers should not be this clueless about the story, but the many confusing plotlines have only made it difficult to hold the interest of the viewers. The audience are not holding their breath for Sikandar and Rohi’s romance to find fulfilment, nor do we want to see the outcome of Gardezi and Rohi’s relationship, even though Zahid and Sonya have great on-screen chemistry. At this point, I’m not even interested in what the backstory between Almas and Shah Alam is. I wouldn’t miss much if I never find out what their cloak and dagger relationship was.
Lastly, while it’s nice to see that mainstream media is trying to create awareness about climate change and the plight that people of the desert face, the drama sometimes turns more into a documentary than an actual television play. Rohi (Sonya) has essayed the role of an environmentalist in the show, whose life goal is to mitigate the ill effects of climate change by deforestation, and her aim is to provide clean drinking water and other facilities to the residents of the doomed Cholistan region. She confronts Gardezi (Zahid), who is a local influential and a member of the timber mafia, for his involvement in cutting trees. This particular plotline in the serial is intriguing and an eye-opener, but people watch dramas for entertainment. The lack of public interest in the drama, despite a positive theme, can be deduced from the fact that the first episode of the serial has only 784k views on Youtube over one month, while Sang-e-Mah’s latest episode garnered 4.5 million views in one day on YouTube. One other letdown for the team is the way the drama has been marketed. In this day and age, no matter how good a product is, if it is not marketed properly, people will never gravitate towards it. Both TV One and PTV need to understand this and hire good marketing experts.
Samiya Mumtaz as Almas Rani in Mor Moharan
Another reason for the drama’s failure to have an impact on the viewer is the way it has been edited, most scenes start and end abruptly and that leaves the audience confused. The production quality of the show is also quite average, while it does look like the team went all the way to the Cholistan desert to shoot it, the camera work looks very obsolete and even the color grading of the show makes it look more like a Vital Signs music video than a TV show.
To its credit, Mor Moharan is not a story based on the regular Sas Bahu saga that most intelligent viewers now despise. The drama is addressing issues that are important and relevant today, but unfortunately the show is too tedious to hold the attention of the audience.
Another big win for the show is that its star cast is giving us stellar performances and cannot be faulted. Sonya and Zahid are still giving off sparks, Samiya Mumtaz and Babar Ali are doing just the right kind of work to keep a viewer questioning their relationship, and even Firdous Jamal’s cheeky role is bringing some humor to the screen. But acting alone is not enough when other necessary elements of the show are lacking.
Zahid Ahmed as Gardezi in Mor Moharan
While it's good to see that TV One is slowly starting to grab viewers’ attention back, they need to work on their editing and production quality. They need to understand that no matter how big a writer’s name or how grand the scale of the script, it will be of little use if the show has basic flaws. My opinion is that stories portrayed on a much smaller scale with fewer plotlines but executed well, are better at getting audiences hooked. I hope that in the coming episodes, the various sub-plots merge, to make this unique serial a success.
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