So while no one’s house got blown down, one was definitely giving some folks heartburn. In other news, I’ve never seen any man wasted so badly. This episode had its share of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
First the good – mercifully, we were spared a long drawn out shaadi, rukhsati and suhagraat. Props for an economical use of scenes to get the story going with a hat tip to the editor for good cuts, pacing and audio overlay. The subah ka sitara scene was quite lovely and loved the cut from Romaisa’s opening her beat-up trunk from her khala’s home to her own. A close-up would have worked even better, but still nicely done.
The scene with Romaisa picking fruit and Nabeel helping her was also rather sweet despite oh well, read on. And now to the absolute best part – Mikaal Zulfikar! He was exceedingly charming, romantic, playful and smitten as Nabeel. He genuinely wants his blushing bride to have all that she has been dreaming of.
And how amazingly awesome was his John Mayer rendition in what I believe to be his actual voice and guitar strumming skills! And if it’s not, please don’t correct me. Really, I mean it. Even though that song was rather risqué (hain na?), how wonderful was he serenading her? Quick, someone write an epic romance for him pronto- this man can romance a stone! Fortunately he can, and unfortunately he is.
Sanam Jung is killing it. And not in a good way. The romantic scenes did not work. At. All. For someone supposedly on her honeymoon, she’s more like a kid on her first trip to the zoo complete with her desire to be a duck – not helping! Fine, I get that she’s childlike in her innocence and discovery of all things bright and beautiful but oh lord, some variation in voice and emotional range would be nice. Did you see who you are with?? Clearly not with those sunglasses!
Who on earth let her wear those? She looked like she was visually challenged and doesn’t disguise her one bit. It might have been cute if she was wearing Nabeel’s shades but she was just so so flat in all her scenes! Sigh, what a wasted opportunity!
And while I liked the picking fruit scene, that dialogue (See! Tum mere baghair kuch nahin kar sakti) was barf-inducing! Also I felt so sorry for poor Mikaal and his charm wasted (wasted I tell you!) on this woman. As an aside, does his hair never move? even a micro millimeter? Even in the open-air boat scene? That is gravity-defying in itself.
At least he took her away from his cold-shouldering family. While the cats (or is it ducks?) are away the mice will play. Or at least be hrumph-ing. Nabeels parents are horrified at his desire to write off his new home in his wife’s name, and the rest of the clan is still fussing about their disappointment. You’d think that his shaadi means an end to that and I would like to personally repeat Zeeshan’s dialogue about moving on from that. Despite Adeel’s two bit scenes, he always leaves an impression. More of him please!
Khala’s family aren’t to be left far behind either. Khala seems to be the only one with sensible suggestions for their ill-gotten gains and shoots down everyone else’s suggestions showing them who is the boss (and bossy to boot!). That leaves the rest to attempt some more get-rich-quick schemes. I’m getting a little tired of all this matlabi money leeching now. Onward folks.
So a mixture of the good and the bad but at least things are moving fast. As for the ugly, lose the shades. Please. They are just plain ‘ol ugly.
MM (aka A musing Muslim)
