Ishq Murshid

Ishq Murshid
Title Card
Urdu	عشق مرشد
Genre	Romantic Drama Social
Developed by	Momina Duraid
Written by	Abdul Khaliq Khan
Story by	Abdul Khaliq Khan
Directed by	Farooq Rind
Creative director	Momina Duraid
Starring	Bilal Abbas Khan Durefishan Saleem (entire cast)
Opening theme	"Ishq Murshid Mera" by Ahmed Jahanzeb
Ending theme	"Ishq Murshid mera" by Ahmed Jahanzeb
Composer	Ahmed Jahanzeb
Country of origin	Pakistan
Original language	Urdu
No. of seasons	1
Production
Executive producer	Moomal Shunaid
Producer	Momina Duraid
Production locations	Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Camera setup	Multiple-camera setup 1080p
Production companies	Moomal Entertainment MD Productions
Original release
Network	Hum TV
Release	8 October 2023 (2023-10-08) – 5 May 2024 (2024-05-05)

Ishq Murshid (transl. Love Guide) is a romantic, light-hearted Pakistani television series directed by Farooq Rind and produced by Moomal Entertainment and MD Productions. It aired from October 8, 2023, to May 5, 2024, on Hum TV and starred Bilal Abbas Khan and Durefishan Saleem in the lead roles. The final episode of the series released theatrically on 3 May 2024, and broadcast on 5 May.

The series received mixed reviews from critics for its plot and characters, but despite this, it achieved a high TRP rating of 22.3, the highest for the network, with Khan's performance being met with praise.

Plot

Shibrah Suleman is a headstrong, intelligent, and selfless girl, unwavering in her principles and deeply cherishing her family values. Hailing from a modest middle-class background, she remains unswayed by material wealth or social status.

Shahmeer Sikandar emerges as an enigmatic, yielding figure of affluence, having pursued his education abroad in the UK. He is from a wealthy family; however, his mother died in his childhood, leaving him with that everlasting scar, and he is in conflict with his father, Dawood. His mother, Zubaida, was supposedly sick in her last remaining moments and had a caretaker hired for her, Farah. Her husband and the caretaker had an affair, and the day Zubaida found this out, she died. The caretaker then married Shahmeer's father, and Shahmeer refused to let go of him.

When attending his best friend, Faraz's wedding, he meets Shibrah, demanding her change from a driver. Enthralled by her confidence and alluring personality, Shahmeer finds himself drawn to her in an instant. Shibrah is also there, attending her best friend Maliha's wedding.

On the wedding night of Faraz and Maliha, Shahmeer crashes into their room and, in a comedic sequence, implores them to know more about Shibrah by Maliha. This begins the ultimate plan between the three to get Shibra to marry Shahmeer, despite Maliha knowing Shibrah's loathing for opulence and corruption. She insists on only marrying whoever her father chooses.

Meanwhile, Shibrah's sister (Sukaina) is upset as she has been married to her cousin, Zohaib, for 3 years now, but because of his family's greedy demands, his mother refuses to take her in as his wife.

Shahmeer embarks on a perfect scheme to capture Shibrah's heart, which involves disguising himself as a poor man and starting anew. This means securing employment at Shibrah's father's office, transforming into the puzzled and sweet Fazal Bakhsh.

Fazal Bakhsh, in the guise of acquainting herself with Shibrah and her family members, bribes the boy who delivers lunch to Shibra's father and takes up the work of collecting lunch from Shibrah's home and delivering it to her father every day.

One day, Shibrah's mother got side pain and fells on the ground when Fazal came to their home to fetch lunch. Fazal called an ambulance and referred Shibrah's mother to the hospital, where doctors examined her and told her that she had an appendix and needed surgery. After successful operation, Shibra's father asked his both daughters to sell jewellery and pay hospital charges, but at reception and asking about payment, he got answer that the bill of eight hundred thousand rupees had been paid by an angel.

Shibrah's father gets shocked and calls to Sukaina to tell her that there is no need to bring jewelry although the hospital bill has been paid by an unknown angel.

Although Shibra is initially not interested in Fazal Baksh, for some reason she calls him Fazal Baksh and not Brother Fazal like Sukaina.

Shahmeer includes Sukaina in his plan, who gets excited on learning his identity. He secretly kidnaps Zohaib and his mother and blackmails her into immediately conducting the marriage, who takes a 360 degree turn back to Sukaina's dad's house and begs forgiveness, pressurising for marriage. Unbeknownst to the fact that Fazal is Shahmeer, she receives a hefty sum of money from him for the marriage, and she lies to her brother that this money has come from her late husband's savings.

Shahmeer keeps up the ruse of Fazal Buksh, and performs miracles for their family. He markets his "Murshid Saaien" (Spiritual Guide) to Shibra's family, claiming the miracles are done by him and his own prayers. An example is when Shibra recieved an award for her CSS distinction, with a cash prize of Rs.5 Lac, to be given to her by Dawood Ali Khan. She shames him in front of everyone at the award ceremony, and he has her arrested. The news greatly disturbs Shahmeer who immediately orders her release.

Shahmeer, lying to his family that he is in London, gets suspected by his family that something is up. Politician Haroon Baig, who had Zubaida Sikander killed many years ago, is a close confidante of Daud. His daughter Mehreen is head over heels for Shahmeer, and this is supported by both their dads. She has an unhealthy obsession.Shahmeer pretends to be superstitious and says he awaits his spiritual guides's instructions before taking a step, who is out of country. This worries Mehreen, but her father comforts her by believing that such politicians are like this. Meanwhile, Shahmeer is happily keeping up his ruse, which in a turn of events, she discovers. She stalks him and blackmails his close friend into getting his secret. She exposes to him that she knows of his ruse. It turns out that Shibra's father Suleiman was an early pioneer of Zubaida's party, but left after her death. She also learns of this, and sits Shahmeer down and blackmails him. She gives him a time limit to expose his secret, before she goes to Shibra. She befriends Shibra, concealing her relation to Shahmeer. She tells Shibra of how impressed she is of how she stood up to Daud. Shahmeer and Mehreen strike a deal, that after the secret is exposed, if he can win Shibra, which seemed impossible due to her hate for Daud and the dirty politics, and since she is a woman of morals, she would never accept him after his ruse, and her father Suleiman would prove to be a whole other obstacle, trying to save his daughter from the potential victimisation to be inflicted on her by Daud.

He begs an extra day from her, as it is Sukaina's wedding, which he'd never want to miss. She accepts, and Fazal Baksh fully assists the family in preparations. Meanwhile, an acceptable proposal comes for Shibra from a well off man, not as rich as Shahmeer though. Suleiman seriously considers him, but his wife, Saffiyah, wishes for Fazal Baksh. This is unimaginable for Suleiman, as Fazal Baksh was not deemed worthy of his CSS distinction daughter. He warns Shibra against the man, who has gotten a lot closer to him and begins to feel something for him.

He cherishes his possible last moments with the family, and takes Shibra to the side, and has a flirtarious conversation with her, having a strong intuition to confess his love for her. This outright act of romance with his daughter is spotted by Shibra's father, who gets shattered as he thought of Fazal Baksh as a religious, miraculous man. He throws him out of the wedding and has his quarter in his house emptied. A heartbroken Shahmeer realises that this ought to have happened. Mehreen is very satisfied, and Shahmeer tries to regain Shibra. They run into each other, with him in his normal clothing as Shahmeer. She inquires what he was doing, and what he has to do with Zubaida Sikander, to which he responds that she was his mother. He reveals his true identity, shocking Shibra to her core.

Sulaiman discovers this, and is called in by Daud Ali Khan and humiliated to keep his daughter away from his son. Nargis, Sulaiman's sister is exposed to him, and Sulaiman discovers how such a large wedding was managed. After a lot of pressure, and threats to leave the party and politics, Shahmeer convinces his dad for marriage with Shibra, and they both wed, with their misunderstandings cleared out. They are madly in love with each other. Mehreen tries creating difficulties and Haroon Baig picks up his father, unbeknownst to Dawood. Shibra's dad is killed by him, and a devastated Shibra blames Dawood and returns to her home. Shahmeer investigates, first suspecting his dad but then landing to Haroon. In the final episode, he kills Haroon to avenge his mother and Shibra's dad. Shibra converts an ashamed Daud about her father, who reforms. Haroon Baig is disgraced on media, and Mehreen flees abroad. Shahmeer retires from politics and hands his party to his dad, giving up his dirty career, which touches Shibra's heart. The show has a happy ending, showing them reunite in an open field and reconcile.

Cast

• Bilal Abbas Khan as Shahmeer "Meeru" Sikandar / Fazal Baksh (Fake identity) - Dawood & Zubaida's son; Shibra's husband.
• Durefishan Saleem as Shibra Suleman - Suleman & Safia's daughter; Sukaina's sister; Shahmeer's wife.
• Omair Rana as Dawood Ali Khan - Shahmeer's father; Zubaida's widower; Farah's husband.
• Zarmeena Ikram as Farah Ali Khan - Dawood's second wife; Shahmeer's step-mother.
• Samiya Mumtaz as Zubaida Sikandar - Dawood's first wife; Shahmeer's mother (dead).
• Noor ul Hassan as Suleman Ahmad - Safia's husband; Shibra & Sukaina's father.
• Salma Hassan as Safia Suleman - Suleman's wife; Shibra & Sukaina's mother.
• Hafsa Ehsan Abbasi as Sukaina Suleman; Suleman & Safia's daughter; Shibra's sister; Zohaib's wife.
• Sajjad Paul as Zohaib - Nargis's son; Sukaina's husband.
• Rabia Noreen as Nargis - Suleman's sister; Zohaib's Mother.
• Awais Sulaman as Faraz Aftab - Shahmeer's best friend; Maliha's Husband.
• Srha Asghar as Maliha Faraz - Shibra's best friend; Faraz's wife.
• Shabbir Jan as Aftab - Faraz's father.
• Hira Tareen as Mehreen Baig - Haroon's daughter; Shahmeer's childhood friend and one-sided lover.
• Adnan Jaffar as Haroon Baig - Mehreen's father.
• Sajid Shah as Safar - Shahmeer's guard.
• Ali Gul Mallah as Fazal Baksh.

Music

The original soundtrack "Ishq Murshid" released in November 2023. Lyrics were written by Sabir Zafar, Ahmed Zahahzeb composed the music, and performed the song. Another original soundtrack "Tera Mera Hai Pyar Amar" were also released in November 2023. Ahmed Zahahzeb penned the lyrics, composed the music, and performed the song. The soundtrack gained immense popularity. Female version and Extended wedding verse of "Tera Mera Hai Pyar Amar" were also released.

Production

To portray the main protagonist, Ahad Raza Mir, Hamza Ali Abbasi, Wahaj Ali, and Bilal Abbas Khan were approached, but Khan was chosen ultimately owing to his better understanding to the character. On March, 10,2023, Khan revealed his upcoming project through his Instagram account, in which he will be paired opposite Dur-e-Fishan Saleem. Saleem was chosen to portray the female lead and was suggested to the writer Abdul Khaliq Khan by Siraj-ul-Haque. Hum TV revealed the look of the actors on 7 June. The first looks of the lead actors from the series was revealed on 23 May. The first and second teasers were released on 5 August 2023.

Reception

Critical reception

While reviewing the first episode of the series, The News International stated that the film had a "predictable" plot, "clichéd" characters and noted the lack of chemistry between the leads. DAWN Images noted, along with the characters of some other television productions, the character of the male protagonist for being in love and the female protagonist's character for being outspoken. In an article by Redbrick, The reviewer praised Abbas Khan's transition between two characters and called it as "effortless", with the character of female protagonist as "clichéd and forgettable".

Ratings

In its 18th episode which aired in February 2024, the series received the rating of 22.3 TRP, the highest for the network and third highest for the entire PTV. The first episode for the series gained more than 71 million views on YouTube.

External links

• Ishq Murshid at IMDb