Time marches on fairly quickly in this drama despite most the characters being stuck – read still discussing the cornerstone of this play jayadat, jayadat, jayadat. With Rabia out of the picture, Zeeshan bows to family pressure and marries Romaisa much to the glee of the parents and the consternation of everyone else.

However, Zeeshan is the only one afforded some character growth in this difficult position of having to accept his brothers wife and daughter. While earlier sympathetic to his bhabhi, he seems to be questioning his responsibility to them in this paper marriage.

Although no one really expects him to fulfill the role of a husband and father his conscience operates at a higher level than his  family and that seems to bother him.  Despite his firmly stating the above,  he is likely to be tugged by his humdardi strings as well as do the right thing being the good upright guy that he is.

Adeel Husain once again effortlessly embodies his character.

The zulm on Romaisa continues with her being treated as the glorified ayah, cook and help rolled into one. And if we thought the saas couldn’t be more heartless and evil than she already is, she deals a new one ordering Romaisa to move baby, bag and baggage to Zeeshan’s room. Why pray tell if she isn’t truly expected to be married to him? Did she even think about the poor fish?

While Maham may have grown, time stands still for Romaisa and this paper marriage changes nothing for her. Though she did whimper and try and tell Daddy dearest that she would rather not marry – as if she had a choice and anyone cared what she thought! Romaisa cries, stares at the night sky, bemoans her life and stares at her fate lines.

I suspect Sanam Jung is capable of much more and this reducing her literally to constant tears and stacking the deck so unfavourably against her takes away any empathy one might feel for her.

If only they had wrapped this up in ten episodes can you imagine the fast pace this drama would have had? Also why are we so wedded to linear narratives? With some imaginative and nifty editing you could have had an inventive non-linear storyline which could have played with past and present instead of this constant flashback mode.

Since no one is bothering to innovate with stories, come on at least up the ante on presenting them along with upping the editing chops. Sigh, if wishes were fishes…..

MM (aka A musing Muslim)