Aur dushman koon hain? Neelum poses a question to Wali. Wali doesn’t answer her. These guards are for our protection but from whom, asks Neelum once again? Wali says he doesn’t like this either.
Who is the enemy that we have not seen yet? Later in the episode we see Wali alone walking in a graveyard. He pauses at a few graves of a single-family plot. Etched on those graves are the names of his father, his uncle and so many before them. There is a look of distaste and deep etched hatred on his face, even he cannot hide from himself. We see a shadow cross his face for a moment. As a viewer I wondered if it was the look of revenge or coming to terms with all had happened. Deep down in his heart, Wali knows who the enemy is. It is this system that he belongs to that has looted and robbed all the people away from him, his mother, his father, his uncle, his freedom. It is that system in which a child is married of to a woman old enough to be his mother; it is that system that is yet brewing another hurricane on the horizon. As much as feudal system was created to oppress a class of people, it turned itself upon those who also enforce it and hence we have Wali, Mahjabeen and Neelum.
Neelum is back at boarding school and still best of friend with the tree. I sometimes have this feeling that Myra Sajid uses Neelum as a mirror for the rest of the characters to reflect their thoughts or motivations upon. She says things aloud and questions the oppression that they are all put through e.g. talking to Wali about necessity of guards. Episode 6 of Numm mainly revolved around Mehjabeen and her awareness of another phase and change in her life. “Waqt ki yehi achi baat hai kay woh guzar jata hai..,” she tells herself more then the maid who yet reminds her like everything around her that Wali is a grown man now. A young Wali might have been a solace for her broken soul, a shield to protect her self from the coercion that havili’s walls could bestow on her. She was the Vani, but to Wali she was a friend, a protector, and a mother, everything else but a wife. The leaving of that pin on his bed I feel didn’t represent any underlying sensuality between their relationship but just a connection that he saw her putting the pin on hair the first time he met her and he didn’t treat her with aversion. Maybe she wants that relationship with him again but he doesn’t see her like that anymore. Also, again I wondered aloud what exactly happened between the families when Mejhabeen mumbles in her sleep and sick state and asks for forgiveness from Wali’s Uncle.
Todays episode, narrative wise and from point of view of a TV serial still felt oddly slow. However I have feeling that is deliberately meant to be that way. Numm isn’t a conventional drama either by any standards. Numm’s pace is meant to match up with the pace of characters becoming aware of their own existence and motivations It reminded me a little of “Waris” in which the system itself is also the oppressor of people who created it as well. Waris was a masterpiece of its time and still is. I just only wish the audio and some of the main cast and their acting could have been paid attention to as well. Looking much forward to next episode!
P.S. The best moment of todays episode had to be when the servant asks about Fawad Khan’s infamous brown jacket and if it needs to be washed and SS says “yeh aisay hi hanger par jai gi aur aisay hi wapis ayyee gi!” Oh FK!
~Written by Maria
