With over 25,000 fans on Facebook already and numerous video mixes on the main leads Haniya and Ibad, to say Mataa-e-Jaan was highly anticipated would be an understatement. However, interestingly, the response to the first episode, has not been so appreciative.
Personally, after having the watched the episode (finally), I will say it is too early to judge. After all, it is very tricky with first episodes – either they immediately click or they don’t. Since they have to set the pace and the story in motion, I would say it is similar to being the first to speak on elocution day – I remember one judge in school clearly saying the team of judges have the hardest time marking the first candidate because they have no idea what’s coming next.
Coming back to the serial, I think it was a very decent start – we got a brief glimpse into the lives and mindset of all the characters. Haniya is sensitive, Ibad is caring, Adeel is happy-go-lucky, Adam is obnoxious and Yamina is docile. Individual character analysis will probably be more relevant for the future reviews, but for now, I will mention only a few pluses and minuses.
On the positive side, the scenes were short, the pace of the story was mellow but gripping, there was a mysterious air about certain characters like Anoushay and Adam which I am sure will be revealed later, AND overall, the quality of picture and sound was impressive.
Now, coming to the negative side, the editing of the entire episode was – there is no other word for it – sloppy. There were visuals which felt like you were on a fast forward. Literally, they just whizzed past before you could actually register what was happening. The scene change was extremely abrupt – there were some small scenes which could have been “grouped together” without affecting the overall look and feel of the episode. Haniya and her mother’s dialogues seemed very repetitive in certain scenes as well.
Also, I want to mention, in detail, the first scene. This particular scene had so much potential but it fell apart simply because:
a) It bore a starking resemblance to the first scene of the movie 2012 – television in the background, messy room, and main protagonist fast sleep, who then wakes up and rushes to get ready.
b) Throughout the scene, the camera featured almost everything in the room except Haniya’s expression when she wakes up. That shot was taken from afar. I was expecting at least a brief glimpse as she wakes up and sees the clock. There was none.
c) The scene was broken up by Haniya’s parents conversing as the mother makes breakfast. It would have been better to just show the entire scene continuously as the breakfast-making scene didn’t have anything important anyway.
OK, at the risk of elongating the review even more, I will also mention another very glaring minus – in all the Adeel-Ibad scenes, Adeel overshadowed Ibad by a long, long shot. Honestly, I enjoyed Ahsan Khan’s performance much more in all their mutual scenes. What happened to Adeel Hussain? Maybe it is just the demand of the character, but there was something lacking that made me want to forward his scenes. I am hoping his performance picks up in the next episode and onwards.
All in all, I would say the serial has made an average but decent start – again, it is the first episode only so there is hope and potential. I, for one, am looking forward to see how the story picks up next week after the death of Haniya’s parents.
Written by Drama Buff ([email protected])
