Sab bikta hai. Everything is possible. I get it, Bashar, I really do, but can we please move on.
I am hard pressed to write a review this week. Not because I’m at a loss of words, not at all, I have a lot to say but I don’t know where to begin. There’s the acting and the story not to mention the sets, camerawork, pacing and sequencing, yet, I am for lack of a better word, “meh”-ing at this episode.
Meh-meh-meh!
Okay, okay… you get the point. In a series that I’m solely watching for its entertainment value – clearly this is not the next Humsafar – it is never a good sign to have the audience give out verbal equivalents of a shrug in the third episode. Never! A test of truly good pacing and sequencing is that it keeps the audience glued and wanting more and in all honesty this episode started out like that but somewhere in the middle it lost me, and I was nowhere to be found till the preview rolled around for next week.
Again, I’ll stress the fact (and this time in no uncertain analogies) that Bashar Momin is full-on entertainment. It’s not compelling drama, it’s not a Bombay-noiresque crime thriller, nor is it an out and out romance, it is a typically Bolly/Lolly genre with everything thrown in – action, romance, thrills, perhaps, even comedy.
Solely based on that entertainment factor, Sahira’s dramatic (all melo and all!) “mein tumharay haath joodti noon apnay bhai ko sach bata do” had me both smirking and wanting more. Now this is entertainment (for the trashy amongst us!). And we weren’t the only ones laughing, if you noticed Adil couldn’t keep a straight face either, and he’s Sahira’s shohar to hum to siraf audience hain. Even though Sahira seems all happy and placated, in my opinion, she is only buying time to strike when it hurts both brother and sister.
If marriages are made in heaven, then, this one was definitely wasn’t made on the seventh, or the sixth, or the fifth… Time and again we see Adil and Sahira on opposite sides of the fence (no, I’m not calling Rudaba a fence!). Whether at the breakfast table (side note: they love their breakfasts in BM!), in the car, or in the drawing room our couple seem to be at constant loggerheads usually because of Rudaba.
Speaking of Rudaba. Ushna, Ushna, Ushna, girl you can act. You can’t fake your emotions when you receive a phone call, you can’t spill chai on yourself like Kashaf, but you can withstand the tirade Sahira spews at you and that too without once breaking out in laughter. For that and that alone you’ve won me over. If Sahira’s dramaybaazi had an honest response it was from Ushna. I could literally feel for the girl with her pleas of: “Nahi bhabhi, aap yeh kya kahe rani hain.” Job well done, Ushna!
In another part of Bashar’s universe, Salman and his becharay Abbaji are being punished ostensibly for money laundering but actually for breaking Tayyaba’s heart. Poor Abbaji ko apni fakirana aukad ka pata chal gaya hai. First round goes to Bashar.
Waise Bashar sahab aapkay takiyan kafee reshmi lagtay hai.
What I loved, loved, loved about this episode was Rudaba’s flashback. Yes, I confess, I love my flashbacks. Here we see cuts back and forth between Rudaba thinking and Abbuji talking and that too next to the pool. Aisay cool Abba mujhe milwa dain. Mein to galti say bhi unki study mein chala jaaon to woh naraaz ho jatay hain. What I did see here was a young girl who needs a female influence in her life – a good one – not the likes of Sahira. The sad part is the manipulations are only beginning.
Bashar, I thought, was rather restrained in this episode till he threatened to kill Khan. Does this mean Khan is gone for good?
For a man who knows his business, his clients, his henchmen, and even his brother-in-law, what surprised me was his less than astute reading of his sisters especially the theeki one. My surprise was quickly countered when Bashar and Tayabba were driving back. Here’s a man who might be loud and obnoxious but loves Rudaba’s understated and composed reaction, a fact that won’t be lost later in the series.
One final observation whoever is working behind the camera needs a quick shout out. I absolutely loved how the DoP framed Sahira in front of a fountain as she is talking, again the sequence by the swimming pool (in the flashback and between Sahira and Rudaba), the breakfast scene, and when they’re driving were all very well shot. If only everything else worked as seamlessly.
Until next week,
Rab Rakha
RB (Tweet me!)
