Chalo ji.. Neighbour in distress – marry her. Problem solved. Doesn’t matter that you are already married to an older woman who is the mother of your bachpan ki mangaitar and you have been kicked out of the house now to keep your wife’s daughter who is also your cousin and ex fiancé from trying to attract you towards herself. Brain in knots yet? At least that is how easily our serial nikkah-er Faisal solves the whole issue of neighbours questioning Amber’s character. This episode was neighbours overload. True, rights of the neighbours and all that but here neighbours, be it Zara’s new ones, or the faarigh interfering ones in Amber’s building or the neighbours that were Faisal and Amber – now Mr. and Mrs. Faisal (Number 2) – were in abundance!
So, Amber’s mother has passed away and left her all alone in the world – well, minus Faisal that is. Given that there are no other siblings or relatives in the picture, you could understand Amber’s loss and how bereft she looked after her mother’s death. Even though she is an educated, working woman I could still see where she was coming from when she said she was thinking of moving in with her aunt for she felt she lacked the confidence to stay alone and support herself and was not very thrilled with the idea of living with her aunt either. Faisal goes out of his way to check on her, help her out and take care of her and her affairs and with Mehwish traveling and a job that seemingly is not very demanding, he has plenty of time to give to Amber. They grow closer as expected, something the neighbours also pick up on and question their relationship.
I found the whole confrontation that led to the ‘proposal’ so absurd, I can not explain! Matlab, neighbour says why don’t you marry her and Faisal says okay, if that helps – I will marry her. He turns to a whimpering Amber, who a moment before very fiercely tells off the neighbours for trying to meddle and tell her what she should be doing, and pops the question and she promptly nods yes. Roll on the next scene (and this one had me laughing) for Faisal marries Amber and the witnesses and only attendees at the nikkah are the neighbours that moments earlier were at Amber’s doorstep and now are the ones doing the dua and then congratulating Faisal. I mean, what the hell?! Lol.
For someone who is very khidmat and bechara prone, Faisal sure as hell has a very thick skin. When he says to Amber that he never gives a thought to what people think, I thought truer words have not left this man’s mouth. He did not care what anyone thought when he married Mehwish, does not care about tongues wagging about him and Amber until it became a problem for Amber and then now shows up with wife number 2 and expects wife number 1 to ‘go with the flow’? I am not a fan of Mehwish’s character – far from it, but even I felt the casual way Faisal stated he has married Amber and brought her to live under the same roof was a bit hard to swallow.
Zara seems to have achieved her goal so what next? I was glad she stopped her mother from slapping her. Mehwish’s character is honestly so bizarre I can only shake my head. The only impression I get of her relationship with Zara is someone who is an inconvenience to her and a punching bag! I also do not understand Faisal and I am not sure if that is even a sad thing because on the one hand this guy was passionately in love with Mehwish and on the other he has not only married Amber so soon but decided to stand up against the world for her. I guess it was the chai that was his undoing – the scene when he thinks of how he would make tea for Mehwish and here this woman makes tea for him. And dinner. For the saying ‘the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’ was definitely penned by a Pakistani keeping in mind a Pakistani man. I am not a feminist nor do I have anything against Pakistani men (I am alhamdolillah happily married to one, LOL) but that is just what is drummed into our brains time and again through our dramas.
I suppose Zara will develop more than a neighbourly interest in her new neighbour and his daughter and vice versa. Faisal will fall in love with Amber – until he meets his next prey (probably not while this drama lasts). Mehwish will lose her marbles –the few she had left anyway and everyone will gravely agree she has been dealt with what she deserved. And this drama will act as another domino in the chain that is about to set off and wipe away drama viewing from my mind altogether! When I write here I often sit and ponder – why did this happen, is this justified, is this person really evil, etc. and try to choose my words and thoughts carefully before I pen them down but our writers, it seems pick issues which may not have been addressed earlier and you tune in wondering how wisely and sensitively the writer will deal with it all – only to leave you shaking your head at the end because everyone seems to have lost the plot, especially the writer! I am currently reviewing Intezaar and was interested to see how the child abuse issue would be dealt in that. I had the same thoughts when I started watching this one except that both dramas seem to have started off well and now have turned into a complete mess, like a biryani that went wrong with overboiled rice!
Next week’s preview shows more of Mehwish’s tantrums and Faisal defending helpless Amber. Meow! Anyone else watch this episode? Would love to hear your thoughts
Kunwal Javid
