”Behtar hota hai kay kuch haqeeqaton par parda para rahay.”
I am really enjoying the storytelling here. We get more questions than answers and everyone has got something to hide – even Maria, our main character, knows more than she lets on. And what helps the storytelling is the direction. Faiz is an intelligent director who is deftly treating this multi-track story.
Today, the track that had my complete attention was Maria’s. Imran and Maria were not a happy couple, and it’s not her husband but her son, Fawad for whom Maria’s heart aches. Imran’s former colleague (Sania Saeed) tells Uzair that there was a change in Imran’s behavior during the days leading up to his disappearance; he became short-tempered and quit his job for no apparent reason. In last week’s episode, we saw one of Maria’s flashbacks, where she was telling Imran about this girl she sees in her vision – a girl, dressed in a school uniform, cries for help. And upon hearing this, Imran seemed quite taken aback. Today, we learn more about this little girl, Neeni, and her mother, Arjumand (Angeline Malik). Imran knew Arjumand and used to pay frequent visits to her in Lahore, and he had something to do with Neeni’s death. The episode ended with Arjumand showing up on Maria’s doorstep, and I did NOT see that coming. I am curious about the connection between Imran and Arjumand – an obvious one is that the two were having an affair. I will be slightly disappointed if that really is the case here because that would be a tad bit predictable in an otherwise unpredictable story.
Another thing I didn’t see coming was Maria asking Uzair to discontinue the investigation. Maria fears that if the truth comes out, she’d lose her son for good. Maria is not being completely honest with Uzair, but something tells me that Uzair is keen to get to the bottom of it and won’t be dropping the case.
The other track involving Sania Saeed’s character (I don’t think we learned her name?) could have been better. When you have someone like Sania Saeed working her magic, this track could have been much stronger. Anyways, here we follow a woman who, after her husband’s death, is struggling to get through to her daughter, Hania. Hania was extremely close to her father and is certain of his presence in their house. Hania used to spend the majority of her time with her stay-at-home dad because her mother worked to support the family. After his death, Hania misses him and thinks that her mother doesn’t try to understand her feelings. I don’t appreciate the way working mothers are portrayed in a negative light, but I am glad that they didn’t project her as a mother who couldn’t care less, and it was good that I found myself sympathizing with a mother who deeply cared about and loved her daughter and struggled to bridge the rift. Maria’s ‘’involvement’’ here seemed forced and that ‘’let your daughter move on’’ speech was rather disappointing – I couldn’t help thinking, ‘’is that all?’’Also, I wish they’d chosen some other actor to play Hania’s father. I know the guy had only one scene but still! And sitting behind his daughter in the restaurant – I don’t know but the whole scene felt a bit off to me?
I am really interested to learn more about Arjumand, Neeni and Imran. Did you guys watch this episode? I would like to know your thoughts.
Maryam Mehdi
