Meri Zaat Zarra e Benishan

Plot

A saga that spans over two generations, Meri Zaat Zarra-E-Benishan begins with the arrival of a girl named Sara (Sarwat Gillani) at the doorstep of a man named Arfeen Abbas (Faisal Qureshi). She hands him a letter, and he seems shaken after reading it. He asks her where "Saba" is, and she replies that she died four days prior. Arfeen falls to the ground in shock, but then regains his composure and asks Sara to give him her address, so that they can go there and gather her belongings. When they arrive at Sara's home, which is quite small compared to Arfeen's mansion, she leaves Arfeen in the main room and heads to her bedroom to gather her belongings. Arfeen finds a pair of Saba's old sandals, and breaks down in tears as he grips them. Sara sees him as he cries and wonders why he is so sorrowful at her death. They head back to Arfeen's estate, where he introduces Sara to his son, Haider (Imran Abbas). Haider knew about Saba by name and thus not much concerned about Sara's coming to their home.He is not individually much interested in her,but treats her nicely as a guest curiously and concerenedly taking her presence and activities in the house.

It is revealed in a series of flashbacks that Saba (Samiya Mumtaz) was Sara's mother and Arfeen's first cousin. Saba and Arfeen were madly in love, but Saba was treated with ire by most of the family, especially Arfeen's mother (Samina Peerzada), because of her liberal views and ways. When Arfeen expresses his wish to marry Saba, his mother and father (Khayam Sarhadi), are very outspoken against the marriage. But when Arfeen states that if he cannot marry Saba then he will not marry at all, his parents finally agree.

Back in present time, Sara and Haider become good friends, and she becomes accustomed to living at Arfeen's home, though she still speculates about what happened between him and her mother. She visits the rest of her family, including her aunts and uncles, and each person she asks refuses to give her any details about what happened. Arfeen, meanwhile, is worried that Sara will eventually leave his house. The only solution he can come up with is to have Haider married to Sara. Haider not being mentally ready for marriage,argues with his father but out of his loving father's earnest wish as also because he definitely had developed a fond feeling for Sara by now,,he agrees. Sara agrees to the marriage as well. But on the day of the wedding, Sara goes missing. Arfeen panics and asks Sara's aunt Aqsa (Nausheen Shah) whether she told Sara what happened with her mother, and she says she did not. This prompts Haider to ask what happened, and Arfeen launches into the story.

Saba and Arfeen had gotten married just like they had wanted but his parents as well as his sisters were never happy about it in heart.Arfin's mother puts a plan into action.She sends Arfin outstation to fetch his younger married sister from her sasural a day before Saba's rukhsati. Arfeen's mother asks Saba to go in a spare bedroom and set the bed for Arfeen's sister. When Saba arrives in the bedroom, she finds that Arfeen's mother had also asked a cousin of theirs who had also expressed interest in Saba in past, Aadil, to fix a curtain rod in the same room. While carrying on the assigned work,suddenly the door of the room gets closed. She and Aadil both bang on the door, but nobody comes to their aid. After some time, Arfeen's mother, along with most of the rest of their family, shows up outside the door. Arfeen's mother starts yelling and creating a ruckus, saying that Saba and Aadil had been involved in illicit behavior in the locked room the whole time. Saba and Aadil refuse to having done anything, but nobody believes them. Arfin's father is so agitated that he says he will kill both of them.Being horrified by this,Adil's mother asks Adil to runaway to save his life.So now only Saba remains to be penalised,physically beaten mercilessly and humiliated to the extreme. Arfeen's father beats Saba, and nobody comes to her aid as she is beaten. Nobody believes Saba, not even her mother (Ismat Zaidi) and sister (Fatima Effendi). When Arfeen hears about the incident, he is skeptical about what really happened, and questions Saba about it. She says she is innocent, but that she has no proof of it. Arfeen then asks her to take an oath with her hand on the Qur'an that she is innocent, and she agrees, on the term that his mother would take an oath as well. Saba has faith that her aunt is too religious and worshipful to lie on the Quran. Her assumption turns out to be wrong, however, and her aunt does lie on the Quran, prompting Arfeen to have proof that Saba lied, and he divorces her with a sorrowful heart never taking it hard what she did!

Arfeen gets remarried to a girl in America, but he is still in love with Saba.Arfeen's father marry her off to a 50-year-old man (Rashid Farooqi) father of 4 children and merely a watchman who doubts her character due to wrong briefing of Arfeen's father,humiliates her,turns out to be abusive and beats her regularly. Nobody from her family visits her during this painful period of her second marriage. When Saba becomes pregnant, her husband refuses to believe that the child is his, and divorces her and kicks her out of the house. Saba gets a job as a maid at a rich woman's home, and soon gives birth to a girl.All throughout, Saba tolerates all the agony in her heart making her like a feelingless statue.She blames no one but her own kismat thanks to her pious and pure personality.

Arfeen's wife (Mehreen Raheel), meanwhile, has already had a son with him. But the two do not get along. Back in Pakistan, nothing is going right for Arfeen's family. One of his sisters has lost her husband, while the younger sister has been divorced and his mother is diagnosed with cancer.Out of feeling of guilt,on her deathbed his mother finally tells him the truth about the incident which was fabricated by her and her taking an oath of a lie just feeling jealous of his feelings for Saba. Arfeen divorces his wife and tries to convince Saba to marry him. However, Saba tells him that while she still loves him, she cannot trust him again. Her parents also try to persuade her to come back to them. Saba, who is not ready to trust anyone again, leaves without letting anyone know of her whereabouts.

A few years later, she starts working at a garments factory owned by Arfeen. She is friendly with Haider (Arfeen's son). But she covers her face to hide her identity. She works there until the day she dies. Back in present time, it is revealed that Sara had overheard how her mother had been treated by Arfeen's family. She is angry and runs away. Haider tracks her down a couple of days later and explains the whole story. Sara agrees to forgive the family and the two start a new life.

First generation

Second generation

Third generation

Guest appearance

Deviations from the novel

Although closely following the plot of the novel, it also houses many noticeable differences from the original plot.

The character of Arfeen's wife played a major supporting positive role in the novel. And the relationship among them was much better than was shown on screen. At one point in novel she even nurses Arfeen when he experiences a nervous breakdown after knowing the truth about his mother. She is a French woman in the novel.

Song

The title song, Meri Zaat Zarra-e-Benishan, has been written by Sabir Zafar and sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

Reception

The serial became widely popular and highly praised by the public. It also generated the highest ratings for any program shown in prime time. It was claimed to be the most successful serial of the present times. It is the 2nd most popular program of Pakistan after Humsafar having a TRP of 10.0.

Legacy

To acknowledge the popularity of the serial among the public, the producers of the serial had included a letter referring to audience thanking them for making the show so successful. Entire serial was also released on DVD in mid-2010.

Broadcast

The Drama was broadcast every Saturday at 8:00 pm on GEO Entertainment. The entire drama has a total of 20 episodes. The drama was telecasted on the channel Zindagi in India under the title "Kaisi Ye Qayamat" from 15 December 2014 to 6 January 2015, every Monday to Saturday at 8:00 pm. It is currently being broadcast on Geo in the UK every Saturday at 10:00