It was obvious last week that Khala Rasheeda was going to be the zalim samaj ki dewar between Khelu and Shanno and now there is now doubt. Khalu Amin maybe a bit mean but mostly he seems a bit of a bumbling fool under the thumb of his chalaq wife. Zalim samaj ko bahana koi na koi tho chahiye so what have these two got against Khelu ?  Well for starters Khelu has one nakhra after another and is like a lot of young men his; age quick to anger and full of himself. Next there is the matter of his job … he doesn’t have one and is still in college but then Shanno is still in school. The real reason is much simpler than all of those combined …Money. Shano’s parents want to marry their daughter to someone with money or prospects and in those days the people with that were like Chacha Firoz’s son, who had gone to Dubai.

I think this episode belonged squarely too Shanno and her mother Rasheeda. ‘Sheeda is not the first mother in the world to treat her daughter like a commodity but it still felt cruel.  Samiya Mumtaz adds much needed depth to this story and being the good actress she is avoided becoming the overt villain yet. However her invitation to Khalil’s well-meaning parents may well cancel that impression out fast .Mahirah was again the main attraction of this week’s episode. Poor Shanno, the good girl caught in the middle. This is a time without mobiles and internet and not much television; a close, insular sheltered world. It is not hard to imagine why Shanno has set her heart on Khalil and as she tearfully reminds her mother, Khalil was chosen for her not by her. I probably will hate Rasheeda in a few episodes but at this point her dislike for nakhrila Khalil and possessiveness of her daughter seems reasonable. I wonder what would have happened if this mother had the sense to actually reason with her child rather than slapping her into submission?

Though I know these things are not necessarily shot from start to finish, but Adnan Malik seemed a lot more confident in this episode. His Khalil is kind of cute and actually quite naïve despite all the akkar mazaji and laad. His interaction with Shanno was so minimal they were hardly together for more than a moment and yet the attraction is clear. Shanno may not have met Khalil much but she knows him well enough , standing in the stairs listening to him refusing to eat like a five year old it doesn’t worry her as much as her mother’s behavior.

Again this was a colorful, well-crafted episode that is holding its audience’s interest throughout. Well done to the director Ehtashamuddin for capturing the some of the essence of that time and class. I have never seen the rasam(#not Punjabi enoughL…. ) shown in this episode so if anyone has any knowledge please share it. The only thing missing is perhaps some more of Khalil ur Rahman Qamar wonderful dialogues. I can understand the need to show rather than tell but just a little more would not have hurt.

Written by Sadaf