Originally posted by: Gundamwing
TB IS FANTASY ROMANCE
TB is fantasy romance, I stress the word fantasy. Fantasy has it own rules, in this world for the one you love you can go to any lengths, break any laws, become self absorbed, become a monster, everything is justified in the name of love and no one represents this idea more than the character Haya herself. NM wrote a show where all is fair in love and war and there are no rules. Writers represents themselves in the story they are creating via a character, in TB Nooran is Haya. The writer will not take herself out of her own story till the very end.
We live in the real world where we are bound by rights and wrongs, so we want to bind her character to real world values but TB operates outside the bounds of reality. In the realm of TB Haya is operating within the rules of the show. NM's audacity to use fake MR as mystery box element shows how much detached from reality she tried to make TB. Only the audience realized too late that in this show nothing is off limits. TB is not bound by the morality code of real life.
Characters actions are not meant to be over analyzed, only what they feel is what really matters. In reality our emotions and our actions are connected that is how we judge people, when watching TB you have to detach the two things if we want to understand the characters in this show. If you are questioning why Meerab walked away from Murtasim after consensual sex you are asking the wrong question, what she did doesn't matter what she feels is what matters. If you understand her feelings you will find your answers.
This is new for Pakistani dramas which are generally grounded in reality. We have to ignore continuity in timelines and scenes, do we have continuity in emotions that is the key to decoding TB. When you watch a show like game of thrones or lord or the rings you brain automatically registers it as fantasy, you detach from real world values and watch the show based on its in world established guidelines. The same principle applies for TB.
Love is the most illogical emotion, even in real life that is true and in the realm of fantasy it demands imagination and belief not questions on real life ethics. Murtasim loves Meerab he will get her back at any cost that is the only emotion feeling that matters. What actions or mistakes he will commit to achieve this goal is yet to be seen, but whatever he does will ultimately become irrelevant as long as he loves Meerab the end will justify the means.
Brilliantly said Gunn! 👍🏼
TB neither was a realistic drama nor was logical. This was evident from the beginning. If you detach yourself from all the gloss, right camera angles and the magic of the cast, you will realize everything, from the very beginning, make very little sense.
Start from Meerab’s adoption – was she legally adopted by Waqas Ahmed? If not, how did she go through her life, with all the legal documentation without her noticing the parentage? If she was legally adopted, why did Waqas’ was at Salma Begum’s beck and call? Meerab is his daughter – biological or not. Why didn’t he protect her like he did in later episodes? You can ask thousand questions, but all answers you come up with will defy logic as we know in real. And I don’t even want to start with the irrationality of the ‘Kidnap track’ – even if you disregard the fact that Meerab getting kidnapped while chasing two baby goats (How many kms did she run behind them to disappear from the sight of her husband’s convoy, that was some fast running, you know!), how would you justify a feudal lord who is so well-versed with guns would not understand and sense the weight difference between a fully-loaded gun and a completely empty one?
The answers to all these questions are the same – everything is justified in the story as long as it drives the plot to its destination.
So, the bottom line is this story never guaranteed a logical plot, never promised you to give reasons as we know them in the real. As you rightly put, in the TB world everyone happily unsaw all these, because all is fair in love and war. All these ended up bringing the leads together and that was all that mattered in the TBverse. The contemporary fantasy romance is meant to be that way – they provide momentary escape from the reality, they let us believe the best of everything. For example, I have never liked Stephenie Meyer’s writing style (it has no style!), but when I read her ‘Twilight’ series, I believed the world she created. And once I closed the book, I was like ‘Seriously! What are you? A 15-year-old?’ Once I dragged my non-Twilight friend to cinema to watch one instalment of the series. And my friend looked at me in the middle of the movie and asked me ‘Wait, you are telling me that guy fell in love with a newborn baby girl, that is disgusting!’ - of course, I know that! Note that both me and my friend are in science in our real life, which intensifies the absurdity! But it is a fantasy and as you say it operates out of the realms of real life. You believe what you have been shown; they are supposed to be feel good mostly. And I agree with you, with the fantasy universes like GoT, your brain easily registers the ‘fantasy’ element. But with contemporary fantasy, I think the lines are a bit blurry. Hence, this could leads to lot of confusion in the audience.
When you are in that fantasy world, it is difficult to relate with certain things. But as you correctly put, when you understand the emotion of the character, half of the battle is won. If you try to torment your head over thinking why a sensible, modern-day girl will walk out of her abode with nothing but the clothes on her back, you will never find an answer for that (of course, it is stupid! Nowadays, people carry their phone even to the washroom!). There is no logic to that action! But in the TB world, that is what Meerab represents – a person who is impulsive, abruptly reacts to situations (not responding). As shown in many instances, she rarely thinks through. So, if you understand her emotion, you’d not question her action.
All their actions stem from the emotions played on the screen. It will all boil up to the culmination of their love. Rohail or no Rohail, Murtasim Khan cannot let his wife go – that is the emotion that drives his actions. She, on the other hand is more stubborn, so she will deny her need of him, hold on to her prejudice and fight her emotions tooth and nail, till she no longer can hold it within her.
Mostly, fantasy romance is supposed to have happy endings. So, we are in this ride till their love conquers. Thank you very much for putting this together Gunn! As always, only you could have worded this perfectly.
Anupamaa
Cricket
