Leyla ile Mecnun

Leyla ile Mecnun
Written by Burak Aksak
Directed by Onur Ünlü
Murat Onbul
Starring Ali Atay
Melis Birkan
Serkan Keskin
Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan
Cengiz Bozkurt
Osman Sonant
Köksal Engür
Ege Tanman
İştar Gökseven
Theme music composer Mehmet Erdem
Alper Atakan
Country of origin Turkey
Original language(s) Turkish
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 103
Production
Producer(s) Orkun Ünlü
Funda Alp
Editor(s) Murat Bör
Location(s) Istanbul
Cinematography Serdar Ünlütürk
Eyüp Boz (Season 1-2)
Running time 80 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel TRT 1
TRT HD
Picture format 576i (SDTV 16:9)
1080i (HDTV)
Audio format Stereophonic sound
Original run February 9, 2011 – June 17, 2013
External links
Website

Leyla ile Mecnun (Leyla and Mecnun) is a Turkish television comedy series. The show is set in Istanbul, Turkey and premiered in 2011 on TRT. The series is a surreal and absurd comedy that revolves around the fictional love story between Leyla and Mecnun.

Plot

Leyla and Mecnun were born in the same hospital and shared the same crib because there were not enough left that day. This is where the recurrent motto for their story comes from: "They found each other from the beginning," and that's why they were given the names of sensational love: Leyla ile Mecnun.[1]

Mecnun, a confused 25 year-old, comes from a middle-class family and lives in a historical neighborhood in Istanbul. Mecnun falls in love with Leyla at first sight, and he becomes obsessed with her.

Leyla, on the other hand, comes from an upper-class family. She leads a different life than others in the district. She enjoys the time she spends with Mecnun as life gets more colorful with him.

Other notable characters from the show are Dede, Iskender, Ismail, Erdal, Yavuz, and Arda. Dede is a fictional character from Turkish folk tales, and he appears in people's dreams to give them directions and foresight. As one of the surrealistic elements in the show, Dede appears in one of Mecnun's dreams, and when Mecnun wakes up from the dream, he sees Dede standing by his bed. Afterwards, he lives with Mecnun to help him with Leyla.

Iskender, Mecnun's father, is a modest taxi driver loyal to his family. To make his son happy, he asks Leyla's father for permission for Leyla and Mecnun's marriage at every chance, even though he repeatedly gets refused for being from a middle-class family.

Ismail, Mecnun's closest friend, is a colorful character (in both appearance and personality) who is pure at heart and always there for Mecnun. One of the episodes reveals that Ismail and his father were abandoned by his mother because her life was not colorful enough. Ismail takes this literally and sets his taste in fashion accordingly. He was adopted by another family when his father became very sick, waiting for his death. He told Ismail that he was leaving to work as a shipmen and would be back one day. He further told him that he would be waving from the ship, which is the reason that ever since then, Ismail has been waving his hand to passing ships from the shore. There is no mention of Ismail's private life or where he lives. Ismail frequently switches jobs, failing at or disliking every one of them.

Erdal is the grocer of the district, and he has defined his existence through being a "grocer." For this reason, he may be greedy and inconsiderate at times and neglect his friends. He is also too direct when talking to his friends, and he is a pessimist about everything, even up to the point of being hurtful to others. With supermarkets being deployed at every corner, Erdal the grocer is also a symbol of an endangered element of traditional Turkish society. Erdal's grocery shop is a gathering place for the characters.

Another friendly neighbor is Yavuz, the thief. Yavuz describes himself as "a performance artist." His being a thief is justified for different reasons in different episodes: to help his blind girlfriend, to help his friends, out of anger because his love is not returned, etc. His talents are used in various events for the benefits of the people who live in the neighborhood. He also doesn't accept being called thief. Whenever someone uses the word "stole, theft, thief" or such, he gets offended and says his trademark line "Am I such person!"

Arda, who is Leyla's schoolmate, is also in love with Leyla. Arda's father, who is very rich, tries to get Leyla to marry his son. Arda, his father, and their helpers form the group of antagonists in the show.[2]

Notes

According to IMDB's highest-rated TV series statistics, which are determined through the votes of followers,[3] Leyla ile Mecnun, TRT’s most successful comedy TV series, came in 5th place with 9.4 points.[4]

Characters

Chronological order of Leylas

"Leyla, Leyla, Leyla.... Everyone is Leyla Yavuz! Literally! I guess only my mom is not named Leyla.... Actually, let me just go and ask her..." says Mecnun in one episode. There are many Leylas in this series but this list is only going to contain major Leylas, in chronological order.

  1. Leyla Yılmaz (Ezgi Asaroğlu) — She is the very first Leyla. She appears through 1-30 episodes. After having a tragic car accident, she passes away. Mecnun gets into depression after her death, making him not speak a single word for a whole year, and actually try to jump off a cliff right after hearing she passed away from the doctor. Ismail Abi talks Mecnun into some sense and eventually both of them sit down and cry. Mecnun crying for his lost one, Ismail Abi crying for both Leyla and Mecnun since he knows from that point on, Mecnun is not going to be the same Mecnun.
  2. Şirin (Müge Boz) — Even though her name is not Leyla, she is in this list because towards 40th episodes, she changes her name to Leyla to impress Mecnun. She appears through 30-61 episodes. She first thinks Mecnun is some kind of weird guy but eventually, she gets to like Mecnun. Mecnun unaware of Leyla's donated organs, he thinks he has lost the purpose of his life. Since there is no Leyla, there is no need for him to be Mecnun anymore. After a long time later, a guy comes and knocks Mecnun's door. Iskender opens the door and tells Mecnun that the man on the door wants to talk to him. Once Mecnun looks the guy in the eye, he says "....Leyla?...". The man later on tells that he received Leyla's cornea. Since that day, whenever he closes his eyes, he sees Mecnun. So he thinks, if he finds Mecnun, he could be in peace once again. Once Mecnun learns that organs are donated to different people, he tries to find every single person who received a part of Leyla to find, who received her heart. He gets suspicious of Şirin, but is unable to ask for her to tell something like this right off the bat. So one night, after they a have romantic dinner, Mecnun takes her back to her house and starts having hard time asking her whether she has Leyla's heart or not. Şirin sees Mecnun's desperate attempts and says, "Actually... I know what you are looking for. And I know the answer." She then tells Mecnun to open the garden door and come closer. She shows her chest mark. Upon seeing that, Mecnun starts to feel strange. He leans towards Şirin, places his head to hear heart and starts hearing something. "Mecnun.... Mecnun...". Mecnun starts to shed some tears and says "Leyla?...Leyla?...Leyla..."
  3. Sedef Leyla (Zeynep Çamcı) — Sedef is a pizza courier who is unlike Şirin is a little bit tougher. She appears through 30-61 episodes with Şirin. Sedef's second name is Leyla, but she doesn't use it since only her father called him Leyla. She is really sensitive on this matter, and doesn't want anyone call her Leyla apart from her father. Unlike Şirin, she is not that wealthy. She lives with her grandmother. Her father abandoned her when she was little, and her mother dies not long after her father leaves them. Sedef's grandmother raises her and she adores her very much. One day, when she bumps into Mecnun, she drops a key. Unaware that she dropped it, she gets into an argument with Mecnun and leaves quickly. Mecnun then finds the key and takes it in order to give it back to her. Eventually, forgetting about giving the key back, which makes Sedef think he is a thief. When Mecnun starts to look for Leyla's heart, she comes to Sedef's house as she is also in the list of transplantees. Unable to find Sedef in her house, he finds her grandmother instead. Since Mecnun never seen his own grandmother, he feels very happy and childish, so keeps on coming to Sedef's house every morning. Eventually, Sedef starts to like him. One day, when Mecnun is at her house again, they get into an argument and she kicks Mecnun out. Sedef's grandmother comes and tries to settle things down and accidentally calling Sedef, 'Leyla'. Hearing this, Sedef gets angry and starts shouting but on the other hand, Mecnun, he feels a warm breeze in his heart.
  4. Leyla (Melis Birkan) — Leyla is the last major Leyla in the series. Last, because the show is canceled even though it had awesome rating scores. Leyla appeared through 61-103 episodes. She got into the series in 3rd season, causing the series to change its title as a joke into "Mecnun with Leyla?" for a single episode. She starred in the showed until the end of season 3. This Leyla is the most alike one to the first Leyla. Mecnun fell in love with first Leyla at their house, seeing her on top of the stairs. He sees this Leyla on top the stairs as well when they were paying a visit to Ömer since he just moved back into town after his wives death. Mecnun falls in love at the first sight and plans on telling her that he loves her. Even though the first moves turned out as a failure. Leyla owns an organisation company and since Mecnun is always around her, he always unintentionally and foolishly manages to destroy her organisations. Mostly by setting some stuff on fire. One day, again a dissaster is going to happen in Leyla's organisation, this time not because of Mecnun, Mecnun saves a persons life by pulling the guy out of a car that is going towards propane tanks. Seeing this, Leyla puts all the blame on Mecnun and starts to criticize him. Mecnun tries to defend himself by trying to some something but Leyla just keeps on going. Mecnun then shouts and stops her. He then says "What are you doing? Why are you always criticizing me? Why are you always doing this? For once, turn around and look at yourself. Maybe you are to blame huh? Maybe you are just not good enough. Maybe you are not made for this job. If you can't do this job, then don't. STOP!" After hearing this, Leyla takes a few furious steps towards Mecnun and tries to slap him. Mecnun quickly but gently grabs Leyla's hand then they start staring at each other's eyes. From that moment on, Leyla sees Mecnun differently. She felt some sort of things towards Mecnun too, but that moment, she feels what lies inside Mecnun's heart. Pure love...

Broadcast schedule

Season Timeslot Season premiere Season Finale Number of episodesTV season TV channel
Season 1 Wednesday/Monday 21:55 February 9, 2011 July 4, 2011 20 2011 TRT 1
Season 2 Monday 22:15 August 8, 2011 June 4, 2012 41 2011 - 2012 TRT 1, TRT 1 HD ( Since 59th episode)
Season 3 Monday 19:50 September 3, 2012 June 17, 2013 42 2012 - 2013 TRT 1, TRT 1 HD

Awards

Year Award Winner Giver
2011 The best series of the year Leyla ile Mecnun Milliyet
2011 The best series of the year Leyla ile Mecnun Radikal
2011 The best comedy actor Ali Atay Radikal
2012 The best comedy series of the year Leyla ile Mecnun Habertürk
2012 The best comedy actor (Men) Ali Atay Habertürk
2012 The best comedy supporting actor (Men) Serkan Keskin Habertürk
2012 The best successfully series of the year Leyla ile Mecnun Istanbul Technical University
2012 The most-watched series Leyla ile Mecnun Karadeniz Technical University
2012 The most-loved comedy series actor Serkan Keskin Karadeniz Technical University
2012 The best comedy series Leyla ile Mecnun Esenler municipality
2012 The best comedy series scenario Burak Aksak Antalya Television Awards
2012 The best series of the year Leyla ile Mecnun Milliyet

Cancellation

Leyla ile Mecnun was expected to be renewed for a new season. However it is cancelled after players' support to the Taksim Gezi protest.[5]

See also

Layla and Majnun

References