FINALLY! Phase 3 is complete :P. But seriously, I’m pretty sure that everyone had been waiting for AQ, I mean, Abdul Qadir’s maulvi-esque phase since the drama first started.
Let’s start from the beginning of the episode. Abdul Qadir (Fahad Mustafa) is doing namaz, while Faiz (Faisal Qureshi) sits there watching him. I’m sure Faiz will have some background to share. He as, AQ said, has knowledge of Islam, was once a devout Muslim, and yet he doesn’t try to follow the path AQ has chosen. Something’s up, and I’m sure we’ll find out soon.
And then Nael (Aaminah Sheikh) and AQ get married. Without witnesses, I might add. Excuse me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to have witnesses in order to have a valid nikah, and it’s not like Nael and AQ don’t have any family or friends nearby. Nael’s got her mother (Anita Camphor), AQ’s got Faiz. This just seemed like an obvious fault in directing.
Speaking of directing, we haven’t seen anything fabulous or out of the ordinary in MAQH so far, but I think it’s really picked up in this episode. I liked how the little montage after AQ and Nael’s nikah was directed. Another well directed scene was Nael’s death. I loved how AQ recited innalillahi wa inna illahi rajioon right after her death. It showed how he really is, slowly but surely, getting wiser to the ways of Islam. However, I think Nael’s death was rushed. They should have at least shown Faiz’s reaction to it, as he is a main character in this show as well. Or better yet, there could have been a scene where Faiz and AQ go and break the news to Nael’s mother, and AQ tells Faiz to take care of her once he goes back to Pakistan, as AQ promised to do that once Nael died. Something along those lines. It just seemed like AQ transformed the second Nael, or Noor, died.
And here we come back to Pakistan where coquettish old Meera (Saba Hameed) is flirting, throwing parties and doing what she’s best at, fighting with her husband (Asif Raza Mir). And, enter Abdul Qadir! Topi-wearing, kameez shalwar clad Abdul Qadir, with beard to match. Everybody stops and turns to look at him, and Meera’s face is downright scared. We hear the voices of the rest of the party-goers:
“Kya yeh Abdul Qadir hai?”
“Yeh kya Taliban join kar ke aya hai?”
“Yeh terrorist kahan se agaya?”
And the rest of the episode is all about Abdul Qadir’s attempts to transition into Islam while having to deal with a mother who really can’t stand the sight of him. It’s hard to believe that a mother would ever not want her son to be religious, but it does happen. Her social status simply doesn’t allow her to have a son so devout, right? I can hardly stand to watch this kind of “social class does not compute with Islam” ideology, but it happens all over Pakistan. AQ is trying to heed Nael’s advice and be kind to his mother, but she’s just not making this easy for him.
The next episode preview makes me angry, specifically the one scene where the actress Sana Askari, who plays the girl Meera wanted Abdul Qadir to marry (forgive me, but I don’t remember her name), says “Mein tou dar gahi thi usse dekh ke. Abdul Qadir tou bilkul terrorist lag raha tha!” She sounds so bratty, but unfortunately, everyone who saw Abdul Qadir was thinking something somewhere along those lines. It just goes to show extreme Pakistan’s current society is. One side is killing over religion; one side wants nothing to do with it.
Meera’s dialogues were very well-written, and suited her annoyingly strong-willed and non-empathetic character.
“Tum kyun wapis aye ho? Kya tumhein deport kardiya hai unn logon ne? Koi extremist organization join ki hai?”
And then of course, there was:
[When talking about Nael] “Mujhe kuch nahin jaan na uss kaali bala ke barey mein!”
Oh, Meera.
—Noorie
P.S This is the MAQH OST. I’m just in love with the last couple of lines: Haan mein martey martey, roz jiya hoon, ke mein teri khudaai ko jaan gaya hoon, ke yeh teri panha hai ke soch raha hoon haan mein Abdul Qadir hooooooon <3
[youtube SMDEswPrcvo]
