Hmmmmm, I am not sure what to say but I have mixed feelings about this episode & this project altogether. Even though it has an amazing cast & has been executed appropriately, I still feel there were certain limitations in the script. Even though it’s realistic & based on what usually happens with desis in America but I really would’ve liked if they had shown the background of all the characters so that we could’ve understood them better. It’s like the story began with a bunch of people with problems but apart from that, no insight into their lives, no background knowledge as to how they ended up at this stage, no base to begin with, makes it kind of harder to relate to the characters. I still find them all very real & genuine but I don’t feel for them like I was expecting in Mehreen Jabbar’s project, except for one & that is Imran Bhatti. May be because his problems get a fair share of screen space & we get to see how he deals with it all & how, at times, he gets affected on top of it as well, but others for now are looking like mere fillers without a story & that disappoints me.
I was thinking maybe we’ll get to know about our characters as the story will progress but we’re 5 episodes down & still have no idea why Michelle ended up like such a person who has a dual personality. We get to find out in the 5th episode that Salma’s a mother & has a teenage daughter, which really makes me question the pace of the play.
Apart from Jamshed’s arrival nothing else was really interesting in this episode to be honest. It was good to see that Jamshed has finally made it to America & a few reality checks were waiting for him post his arrival. He wasn’t welcomed by his Imran Mamu as he was expecting & then a series of revelations made him understand that he has finally landed in America & it’s nothing like the lala land that he had imagined. I am glad that at least Jamshed’s issues & his thought process got a decent coverage in this episode because that actually helped us in understanding what he’s going through & also made us feel for him as we’ve seen how eager he was & how much he was anticipating visiting America. So, the bubble Jamshed was living in burst quite quickly because at first he saw how people sacrifice their luxuries to provide their families with some; back home. He got to know that his Mamu doesn’t own any company but runs a cab himself & he also got to see what happens inside his Mamu’s house. I liked the phone conversation between Jamshed & his Naani because as much as he wanted to tell her openly what he was going through, he chose to stay quiet & that silence said it all.
I am really thinking about the importance of Michelle & Rizwan’s track in this play. I really think Marina Khan had a hard time playing Michelle because she does an amazing job by being that strict businesswoman but when she has to act all casual & herself in front of Rizwan, we can really see her struggling. Especially in the birthday celebration scene, she clearly looked uncomfortable playing the chirpy Michelle & it was evident that she couldn’t bring herself to act all goofy in front of her friend Rizwan which actually made their scenes look too long, turbulent & falling short of finesse.
Apart from this, nothing much happened in this episode & seems like even Imran Bhatti’s not providing much entertainment for now but yes, few of his one-liners can’t go unnoticed, so we’d have to do with that much for now. I know people in North of India; especially Delhi are profound in Urdu & even people of Bombay are good at it, but I really wish they had worked a tad bit on Rizwan’s Urdu to make him sound like he belongs to India because no matter how good the Urdu of any Indian might be, there’s still some difference in the accent for sure but here, all those pickup lines that Rizwan uses to start a conversation give away an impression that his Urdu is better than the Pakistani Michelle herself. Share your thoughts please & yes, you’re free to disagree as well. :)
Keep Supporting,
Cheers,
Zahra Mirza.