Meesam Naqvi, director of drama ‘Maye Ri‘ recently appeared in an interview where he defended the drama against criticism of glorifying underage marriages. “Aini & Fakhar’s underage marriage is not being glorified, instead they are shown as victims of it coming to console each other”, said Naqvi.
The drama which has recently taken over audiences by touching on the issue of child marriage, received backlash over the internet as some netizens complained it glorified underage marriage. However, in his interview Naqvi explained how in fact the plot aims to depict the trauma of both Aini and Fakhar who have been forced into this arrangement and are now coming together to console each other.
The director said that this criticism is mostly coming from people who have not seen the full drama and are themselves saying that they are only watching it for Aini and Fakhar’s scenes. “They are not understanding that the drama is showing a household where all the characters have been married off at a very young age, and where all characters are dysfunctional”, Naqvi emphasized. Therefore, far from glorifying the subject of underage marriage, the drama depicts the conflicts and turbulence of the characters caught up in this situation.
‘Maye Ri’ depicts the story of Ainee and Fakhar, a young girl and boy, who are cousins and are forcefully made to marry each other at a young age which disturbs their life. Both are shown as ambitious school-going children who did not want to marry, wanted a free life, they wanted to complete their studies to have a great bright future. However, their marriage is shown in a negative context where the two individuals were not ready to marry and they don’t want to accept each other as husband and wife.
