So do you want to know my favorite part about Paani Jeisa Pyaar? The fast-paced, action-packed story, of course! There was not one scene in this episode that I thought was unnecessary or overly dragged. Everything was perfectly paced, and kept me glued to my seat the whole time.
First off, let’s talk about Dua (Nausheen Shah). While her story is really taking a back seat to Sana’s tale of woe, it’s still an important one. I feel really bad for the poor girl right now. Her fiancée left her because of her sister’s misfortune; her brother is in jail; her family has no money and is barely scraping by; and finally, she’s just found out that her family isn’t actually her family. And yet, we still haven’t seen her crying or losing hope at any point throughout the drama. Sure, you’ll see her vulnerable human side every now and again, like when she said to her mother “Aap ko tou sirf apne betay ki fikr hai.” Her dialogues are perfect, showing how strong her character is without making her inhumanly courageous. She feels betrayed at the fact that her mother is not really hers, but tries her best to keep a cool demeanor. And Nausheen Shah is doing a great job portraying Dua’s calm personality.
Another character I really like is Arham (Rizwan Ali). He obviously isn’t as strong-willed as Dua. In fact, he’s much more human, and even gave up his love in the face of “society.” His sister told him that people would talk about him marrying a girl whose sister was raped and brother is in jail, and he felt scared by that and broke the engagement. However, he felt remorse, and actually acted upon it instead of wasting our time with tons of scenes in which he went to the beach and stared at the ocean or something :P. The scene in which Arham apologizes to Dua and her mother and says “Ab aap log akele nahin hai,” was really touched. In one moment, the writer was able to show how great of a person Arham was, and alleviate Dua’s mother’s worries. I didn’t like Rizwan Ali’s acting before, but now I think that he’s doing justice to his character.
Lastly, there’s Hassan (Babrik Shah). The poor guy just can’t do anything right. The first time he goes to jail, it’s because people were talking smack about his sister. The second time he goes to jail, it’s because Saad (Ahsan Khan) actually acted on what he was saying (or thinking, rather.) Hassan is so protective of his sisters, but unfortunately, he keeps ending up being penalized for it. The scene at the jail when Hassan says “Acha hoga agar hum apne aap ko jhooti tasalliyan na dein” really emphasizes how helpless he must be feeling. His mother and sister are suffering, and he can’t do anything about it. Instead, he’s sitting in jail waiting to die.
And finally, we get back to Sana (Saba Qamar) and Adarsh (Mikaal Zulfiqar). This is what I felt during this episode:
Beginning: Poor Adarsh was tricked, so it’s not really his fault.
Middle: Adarsh is stupid.
Near the end: Adarsh is a dirty hypocrite!
End: I hate this guy.
Really? I suppose I could understand him being angry towards Sana and Arfa aunty (Samina Peerzada). I could maybe even understand Adarsh’s wanting to get back together with Sasha (Juggan Kazim). But this? Okay, so he is angry with Sana because….well there’s really no reason. If we try to look for one, I suppose we can say that he thinks that Sana wasn’t exactly raped. Okay, okay, I suppose that’s a good excuse for his actions. But if he thinks that Sana is such a horrible gunah-gaar, then why the hell would he go off with Sasha and do what he did?!
For those of you who didn’t really get what went on, I won’t tell you, but I’m sure you guessed. At first, I didn’t really understand, because I didn’t think that Adarsh and Sasha could be so disgusting. But then I realized that this probably does happen in real life, and now I feel sick. How disgusting! He’s angry with Sana because he thinks that she did something wrong. So why is it okay for him to do it? He’s a married man! Oh wait, I forgot. He’s a man, so of course it doesn’t matter. And that stupid Sasha, what about her? Why doesn’t Adarsh hate her for engaging in things like that out of marriage? Why is all the hate reserved for Sana? How hypocritical!
Adarsh and Sasha are stupid, selfish brats. That’s all there is to it. And the next day, Sasha is feeling guilt for doing that with a married man. Why isn’t she feeling guilt for committing a sin? And what happened to “I’m not interested. And frankly, I have too much self-respect.” Yeah, right!
Poor Sana is taking all the blame for being the victim. This is the most unfair thing in the world, but it happens all the time. I wonder what’s wrong with her now. I bet that she’s having some sort of problem with stress, because she’s all over the place fainting.
The next episode preview is keeping me anxiously waiting. I haven’t mentioned the directing, but that’s just because it’s been phenomenal as usual. Sarmad Khoosat is another director to add to the list of Pakistani directing royalty, along with Mehreen Jabbar and Haissam Hussain.
PJP, khara intezar hai tera! I didn’t think that Thursday’s could be fun, but you proved me wrong!
—Noorie
