Finally, Ujala spoke up and voiced her choice – she was going to keep her baby. Faisal on the other hand, also drew his line in the sand: he would not accept the baby as his own. For him, the baby was nothing more than a constant reminder of the horrible nightmare they had both gone through. It was sure to tear apart their relationship. He gave Ujala till six pm the following day to inform him of her decision.
Following this dramatic ultimatum, at the opening, the rest of the episode seemed to lag – there was no drama, no suspense, and no surprise in it for me – the main culprit being the promo that was aired last week. As I had noted then, how could the producers expect to keep the audiences’ interest if they revealed all the highlights in advance. And, that is exactly what happened here. Compared to last week, this was an action-packed episode, but there was almost nothing that happened that I did not already anticipate. Faisal’s irritation with his parents’ excitement, the accident, his close encounter with Pasha, Ujala’s agreement to abort, and his anger at the unborn child, all were all scenes I had already seen. The only new thing here was Faisal’s grudgingly given guilt-ridden acceptance to the baby paralleled by his increasing frustration at seeing Ujala and the now unmistakable evidence of the hated child growing within her belly. The episode ended with Ujala’s emotional outburst at Faisal’s behavior. Here, I must add that the beautifully penned, superbly composed, and soulfully sung OST and its selective placement throughout the episode added a whole other ambience to the narrative unfolding on the screen.
Director Anjum Shahzad has maintained a tight grip on the narrative and the scenes never seem forced or over long. Aamina Shaikh and Adeel Hussain are both superb here as the tortured couple. Both correct in their behaviors. It would be foolhardy to expect Faisal to accept this baby – and as he rightly said, he was trying to resolve this dilemma in his head, but it would take time, how much time, he did not know. Similarly, Ujala too could not be expected to make a decision that would involve taking a living being’s life, but this meant, as she put it, to become like a puppet being pulled by invisible strings in two different directions. Where will they find, if they ever do, a common meeting ground, is a question that remains to be answered.
Overall, an engrossing episode, I just wished I hadn’t anticipated so much, that I could use the FFWD button liberally, and literally watch the whole episode in less than twenty minutes. Producers and editors beware.
Written by SZ ~
