“Acchi lagti hai woh mujhe!” With this unthinking declaration of affection, Dr. Ammar might just have sealed Sanjha’s fate as yet another girl destined to spend her life as a dancer, a non-entity, lost somewhere in the bowels of the big city. Illustrating that jealousy knows no boundaries, Weeda singlehandedly messed up Dr. Ammar’s plan to rescue Sanjha. Using convoluted logic to rationalize his actions and going against the well-meaning advice offered by Naji, Weeda informed Mumtaz of the planned police raid at the seth’s kothi, where Sanjha had just delivered an outstanding performance.
This was yet another bang-on episode from the Sanjha team. We saw Sanjha reconciling herself to the fact that her time as a resident of Mumtaz’s infamous kothi-khana has marked her as one of “those” girls and it was well-nigh impossible for her to return and expect to be accepted socially. Weeda continues to be plagued by his insecurities, and it’s these very doubts that cause him to overlook Sanjha’s well-being and future. Myopically focused on Dr. Ammar’s expressed desire to marry her, Weeda turns a deaf ear to Sanjha’s avowed love for him. In doing so, however, he ruins a golden opportunity for Sanjha to be reconciled with her sister. Watching Sanjha evolve from a naïve young girl into this world weary young woman has been quite a journey. Given the kinds of roti-dhoti female leads we see on TV these days, and the lack of character development, it is indeed a pleasure to see such a well-etched out character. Sanjha has her moments of despair and desperation but there is also irrepressible joy, an inner strength and a clear sense of being. Mumtaz might control her physical body, but Sanjha’s soul remains untethered. Every time she dances Sanjha is back in her beloved Thar, free, basking in a glow that nobody can take away from her.
And, finally, Nauman Ejaz makes his long awaited entry as the seth who invites Sanjha for a performance at his home. Given the attention to detail here, it was disappointing to see Nauman’s very cheesy moustache – surely MD Productions has a better one in their wardrobe/makeup department. Anyways, he didn’t have much to do today, but, as indicated by the pre-caps I see that he will play a major role. Ayesha Alam also joins in next week, and I can’t wait to see how instrumental both of them will be in writing the next chapter of Sanjha’s life.
Overall, while I enjoyed this episode, I couldn’t help but be peeved by the editing. Subtracting a 3+ min re-cap from the beginning, another 1+ min pre-cap at the end, and the other “after the break” teasers, it seems like the episode was hardly more than 26-27 minutes in total. I’m not sure what the logic behind this is, other than extending the overall number of episodes, but surely viewers deserve a little more content than that. I hope somebody from MD Productions is reading this and will pay a bit more attention to cutting down on the length of the re-caps.
Written by S Z ~
