Yet another great episode –though slow in terms of story progression, the pace was character driven rather than narrative driven, I thoroughly enjoyed the insights into each character’s mindset. I laughed out loud at Peeno’s confused answers to Inayat’s brusque questions, enjoyed the friendly banter between Sultan and Hasan, smiled at Faraz’s nerdiness, as he solemnly laid out the reasons for his mother inability to travel to the US, loved Iqbal’s snide reference to the hakim who stocked the neela thotha, and identified with Bilqees’ deep concern about her chidren’s welfare – a complete package in terms of the range of emotions it elicited from me – excellent job!
What continues to impress me is how well Bilqees’ character has been etched out by Faiza Iftikhar and brought beautifully alive by the combined efforts of the director, Adnan Ahmed, and Bushra Ansari. Even as she wears a hard outer shell, it covers a very soft interior, which though well hidden, does peek out once in a while. Her blustery concern over her brother’s visit to the jail, and earlier, in her bedroom, where she ruminates over Mumtaz’s phone call, figuring out the pros and cons of the proposed rishtas, were very well done scenes. Apart from the well-deserved praise for her superb dialogue delivery, Bushra’s body language, the way she sits with her feet up, her biris, her hair, clothes, all come together to bring so much color to her character as Bilqees.
Watching today, I was reminded of why I used to like Sadia Imam. I say used to, because I feel that somewhere along the line we lost the actress to the star. Here, we see her stripped of all the trappings of stardom – heavy makeup, hairstyles, fancy clothes – and it’s just her and her superb acting. It’s not a lead role, but she brings so much life to a relatively smaller part that it is hard to ignore Peeno. Similarly, Kashif Mehmood as well, after a long time has registered his presence. Their scene together was brilliant. Welcome back Sadia and Kashif!
Another scene that stood out was the conversation between Sultan and Hasan. Rather than Sultan working things out in his head and having long conversations with himself, about all that went wrong between him and Liz, we saw him discussing the relationship with his friend, who sensibly helps him put things in perspective, advising him to get a grip and move on. Nicely done by Ahsan and Fawad. Using this device of a friend, as a sounding board, was a great move on Adnan’s part, warding off potential questions about how Sultan had forgotten his love so quickly and also setting up Sultan’s trip to Pakistan, thus paving the way for the “real” romantic track to begin. Smoothly done!
Something that I keep forgetting to mention is the interior of Bilqees’ house. We often hammer on set designers for creating ugly and unbelievable sets, but here I must say I am pleasantly surprised. I cannot begin to count how many times I have seen similar accessories – patently fake floral arrangements, plastic vines on curtains, the Singer sewing machines – in desi blue-collar households in the US. Just one request though, next time around, please remember to fill the empty jars on kitchen shelves. Today, when Ahsan Khan was talking to Bushra Ansari in the kitchen, my attention kept wandering to those darned jars, right behind his head. Talk about distraction!
Fabulous as everything was, my one big peeve, once again, was the use of borrowed music in the background. We have very talented musicians and composers, why not get them to compose original scores? When so many resources – talent, time, money – are being spent on creating a praise-worthy product, why not go that one extra mile and make it a truly original one as well?
Written by SZ~ [email protected]
Follow me on Twitter: SZ_DramaPakistani (@sz_dp)
