HUMSAFAR WATCH PARTY : Episode2

It would be so easy to hate Sara: spluttering about ‘standards” in her precariously high heels as she watches the love of her life repeatedly assure her that he has about the same level of affection for her as he has for his friend Raza or say the office cat. However, I could never totally despise her. Somewhere somehow I managed to scrape up a little sympathy for her. Most of her life she had been what you might call fortune’s favourite; born into a wealthy family, blessed with intelligence and beauty she really didn’t seem equipped to handle adversity. How could she have known that the same whim of fate that gave Khirad’s mother cancer would also push the man she had loved for most of her life far beyond her reach, so far that nothing would bring him back. The relationship she had been nurturing and maintaining for so long was gone in one short moment. I think Naveen Waqar played Sara really well and in her scenes with Asher she seemed natural and sincere. When she tells Asher what a fool he has been not to recognize her love for him, I truly felt bad for her. However she seemed a little exaggerated in her confrontation with Khirad, almost screaming the words at her which seemed uncharacteristic for a girl of her class and education but it certainly allowed the audience to hate her.

This episode we got to see Asher’s relationship with his parents in depth, laying the foundation for a lot of what followed in subsequent episodes. Baseerat Hussain decides to compensate his sister for a life time of neglect in one precipitous moment by marrying her daughter to his only son. There is some attempt at giving Asher a choice, the usual ‘choice’ Pakistani parents give their children:” you can be any kind of Doctor you want to be …see we are liberal.” The emotional black mail was smoothly done. The scenes between father and son gave the audience an exact measure of the strong bonds of duty and pure affection between them. Fawad Khan and Behroz Sabswari were simply wonderful, their chemistry perfect. Till now I had thought of Baseerat Hussain as a benevolent, fuzzy sort of father figure who was a little ineffectual compared to his strong willed wife but when he threatens her with a divorce if his wishes are not exactly met, an entirely different image emerged .It seemed to make sense too, after all such a supposedly large business is not built on an attitude of easy come and easy go. There was certain ruthlessness in his character that allowed him to manipulate his family. However arbitrary the decision may have seemed to Asher and his mother there did seem to be a certain evaluation behind it, like most astute business men he had been observing Khirad and thought she was a risk worth taking.

Farida’s reaction was understandable and till episode 11 she certainly had my sympathy. Of course there was the oddly cold behavior to her dying sister in law and a grieving Khirad but I could only conclude that it was the usual antipathy towards her in laws and then her natural defensiveness of her only son. She had spent her whole life caring for Asher and now she was excluded from the most important decision in his life and that too in the most insulting way possible. No wonder she seemed antagonistic, perhaps she had always feared this. Atiqa Odho came across as a tigress fighting for her son’s happiness only to be cowed into submission by her husband’s unexpectedly fierce ultimatum. I thought: here is a sensible, educated woman, taking the most sensible option under difficult circumstances. If Asher had taken more of a stand perhaps Farida would not have given up so easily either. With hindsight, that seems the most surprising part of this whole situation and quite possible the hardest to believe. Asher simply could not come up with a good enough reason to say no. He wasn’t in love with anyone else and despite Sara’s rantings about “standards”; he really had no objection against Khirad other than perhaps her supposed lack of sophistication. He hardly knew her well enough to find anything to object to. The reason Asher hardly knew Khirad wasn’t only in the past. Khirad was not the sort to push her acquaintance on anyone .The one or two interactions shown before the proposal were polite and very formal. That scene of Asher drinking orange juice while giving Khirad cold looks in the kitchen was a little funny. Poor thing she had no idea.

One of the reasons I have always loved Humsafar is the wonderful styling. In the introductory episode we saw a simple but beautiful Khirad but by this episode Mahirah looked tired as if she really had spent her time caring for her mother. Her clothes were a little mismatched and her makeup completely toned down, providing a sad but stoic contrast to Sara’s stylish image. No wonder Asher thought of her as unrefined. The whole episode was beautifully woven together, not a scene wasted. I remember desperately wanting Khirad to react more till I read the book and realized this coolness, this silence was part of the wonderful character Farhat Ishtiaq wrote. Khirad’s confusion, helplessness and love for her mother were all perfectly captured by Mahirah Khan. Throughout this episode we can see how well balanced each character’s acting is. There really was no weak link in this chain of performance.