The Romeo Weds Heer Fever Is Higher Than Ever
After giving a super hit serial this year Khaani, 7th Sky Entertainment geared up to bring something to our television screens that was much needed – a romantic comedy. Written by a comic genius (Muhammad Younis Butt) and directed by a veteran (Anjum Shehzad), Romeo Weds Heer (RWH) is a breath of fresh air for the audience who are exhausted by watching dramas that only trigger depression. Thus, whether you love the serial itself or hate it, you have to appreciate it for what it is attempting.
“There are dramas which are full of oppression and depression, and people are now tired of watching miseries. They wanted something out of the box, strong and compelling so, we have brought comic relief [to their screens]. These characters were not chosen randomly, but the writer, producers and I did thorough research because serious acting is easier than comedy.” Shehzad said.
The show has brought back one of the most loved on-screen couples (who also starred in Khaani), Sana Javed and Feroze Khan, and they are now showing a totally different sides of their acting skills that are a complete 180-degree turn for them from the previous melodramatic work they have done.
“It was very difficult to do this character as it requires more physical energy and effort to bring out the best out of myself,” Khan said. “Romeo is a clown in the serial who is hopping around all the time, so this transition was difficult to adopt. But I wanted to do it for myself because I have proved myself in negative roles, so it was about time. I thought I should take the risk and I am looking forward to playing these type of challenging roles in future too.”
The hype created by the promotion song of the drama sky-rocketed the curiosity and the expectations of the audiences. “This is not just a song – if you focus on the lyrics, Romeo and Heer are singing out their characters.” Shehzad explained the team’s decision to shoot a choreographed song for the drama.
The first episode did much to curb the curiosity and the much-awaited serial aired on October 21, 2018. We got to know that the plot revolves around Romeo, a devil-may-care burger, pampered boy. He is the son of doctors Shehnaz (Saman Ansari) and Raja (Zia Gurchani) who are super sensitive about him. Whereas Heer, who is a high-spirited, mischievous and strong-headed young girl, belongs to a middle-class family whose father, Hakeem Luqman (Firdous Jamal) is a herbalist and mother (Tara Mehmood) is a housewife. Her elder sister is married to Nazar (Shafaat Ali), a complaining son-in-law who irritates everyone by repeating ‘after all mein damaad hoon’, at least a 100 times a day to make everyone realise his importance in the family.
Belonging to completely different backgrounds and having different personalities, Romeo and Heer study in the same university where they get into a fight right from the first episode that further leads to everyday leg-pulling, pranks, and even more fights, which obviously add more fun to the drama.
Like every eastern family, Heer’s family is also trying to get her married off, while she is always coming up with creative ideas to sabotage their plans. She decides to introduce Chashmatu (Farhan Alam) to everyone as her boyfriend. But this is where the drama takes a twist because her annoying younger brother Aflatoon (Ali Rizvi) misunderstands Romeo as her boyfriend and shows his picture to his family.
To further this confusion, Heer’s family takes the proposal to Romeo’s house where, due to class differences, both the families get into an argument and reject each other. This is the time when another hilariously strange character Jedi (Ali Safina) enters. Jedi is a young tall Arab guy who has an ambition to marry a Pakistani girl. Safina is known to do a few comic characters before and is always enjoyable to watch. He brings to the table, his flawless acting and a terrific Arabic accent, adding ‘Ya’ and ‘Al’ in every word that make his scenes hilarious.
Jedi falls in love with the beautiful Heer at first sight and desperately wants to marry her, but she does not want to get married yet. Though after the rejection from Romeo’s family, her family pressurises her into getting engaged with the Arab suitor. As a last resort, she runs away from her home. While her family tries to trace her by calling her friends and lodges a report with the police, they find out that Heer has met with an accident and is in a hospital.
The serial is full of funny twists and turns. Another deciding moment in the story is when Romeo finds out that Heer needs surgery and uses his contacts to get a credible doctor to operate on her despite his busy schedule. And of course, our leading lady’s heart softens up upon finding this out.
Heer returns home and tells Jedi that she wants to end the engagement. But there is yet another twist here – Romeo’s mother has sent a proposal to one of Romeo’s university friends, Shanzay. The girl’s family happily agrees which worries Romeo and he talks to his father about not wanting to get married.
The more recent episodes have been a mix of different situations, leaving the audiences clueless and anxious about what is going to happen next. No matter what happens, I can confidently speak for everyone when I say that we are looking forward to Romeo and Heer falling in love with each other.
