Day 3 of watching Dastaan, 6 episodes down & still finding it as gripping as the moment it started off with.
I didn’t like Basant Singh & his part but this doesn’t mean that I didn’t think it wasn’t important to show in the drama. I had my dislikes because obviously he was playing a role to stir everyone’s detest & he was good at it but I do believe that it was unsuitable to show Bano getting married to Basant Singh but it wasn’t unrealistic by any means. This is what exactly happened back then. A few Muslim girls did surrender & got married to save their lives but a few others like Bano were made to do it despite how much they hated & resisted. This obviously highlighted the level of how much Bano suffered & how much she tolerated.
It was sad to see Rasheeda & Hassan move on in their lives. I think Mehreen Raheel did play her part as Rabia quite suitably but on a personal note, I would’ve found it a bit more convincing if someone younger to Sanam Baloch was casted for that role because we all remember how young Rabia was when Hassan was in University & Mehreen Raheel has all those braids, a sort of a try to cut down her age but still she looks more mature than Sanam Baloch defying the purpose of a young Rabia – bride-to-be of Hassan. I think it was Sultana’s mistake that she let her only daughter get involved in one sided love with Hassan all her life & for this reason we saw how disturbed Rabia seemed when she didn’t get the attention she expected from him. Whereas everyone in the family knew that Hassan got engaged to Bano 5 years ago, though they all parted because of the partition but still Rabia’s claim that she had loved only Hassan all her life showed how much she was pushed by her mother. I know their scenes were just shown to move the story forward but seeing how Hassan belonged to Bano & how Bano longed for Hassan all those years, I didn’t enjoy Rabia & Hassan’s scenes at all. All this while I had Bano’s sympathy with me more & another reason being Mehreen Raheel playing the role of Rabia.
I think no other actress should be labeled as a best actress ever after this performance of Sanam Baloch as Bano. She has a league of her own & she was flawless. Struck the chord hard & she was absolutely brilliant through out. Finally, it was good to see her rescued by Basant Singh by the fate’s play. Her little dance gestures in hysteria made it seem more real that how much she hated being in a relationship with him & how much she awaited this moment.
While Basant still remains the character who I disliked but my least favorite would have to be Rasheeda. After Bano met Hassan & they got hold of the fact that how their family was killed, Rasheeda thought shedding a few tears at the sacrifice of her family’s Shahadat was just the right & enough of a thing to do. But the way she treated Bano & gave her a cold shoulder after sussing that the dream of her son’s marriage wasn’t going to materialize showed how mean Rasheeda was. She was the one who moved on though after seeing her cry I thought she would hold Bano near to her heart but it was upsetting to see how easily she cried at the death of those who she loved but how she treated Bano – the one who didn’t die physically but suffered a million deaths every single day before she made it to Pakistan. This was the last thing I ever expected to see in this drama, that too from Rasheeda. To see her become a typical mother who just wanted her son’s happiness her way wasn’t appeasing at all. It was the same Rasheeda who suffered & tolerated her Bhabhi’s dominance all her life without once complaining & just how typical she turned was something I never expected to see.
Bano’s disbelief after she steps on the land of Pakistan was beautifully portrayed by Sanam Baloch. To see her get what she wanted all these years was overwhelming. Finally, Bano & Hassan are back together & Hassan has already decided to lend the shoulder Bano needs to cry on & shower her with all the love & care she deserves but I want him to fall in love with his Bano again & then get married to her. I wouldn’t want to see him take Bano as a responsibility & a liability cluttered with guilt that he has to undo what Bano went through. It would be magical to see Hassan love Bano wholeheartedly where no such signs of sympathy would be involved. I loved the little condolence speech Hassan gives to Bano to bring her back to her senses & how he tells her to move on in her life & work towards the progress of the nation by forgetting what happened & by forgiving those who did that to her in the past.
Still finding the story unpredictable & loving it so far.
Keep Supporting,
Cheers,
Zahra Mirza.
