Mitti De Baway Episode 1 Written Update and Review
I know I’m late to the party. Let’s get to it.
We see Baala being released from jail, a big crowd is gathered outside, including Joji. Joji and Baala hug, look at each other emotionally (almost felt like they are about to kiss: expressions are difficult to decipher sometimes), and then they head to graveyard to see the one person who couldn’t come.
Baala: Tu to aa gaya Joji. Us ke paas chalte hain jo aa nahin sakta.
Aslam Channan’s grave.
And then there’s shooting at the graveyard. One after the other, Baala’s “aadmi” are shot, including Joji. And then Baala himself. Not once, not twice, but four times.
Bilquees the peerni refuses to eat.
Bilquees: Mannat ka roza hai, tabhi khayenge jab mannat puri hogi.
The shooter and his “supervisor” come to see Bilquees to deliver the news. Not in as many words, but we’re smart viewers. We can infer a thing or two.
And then we go back to 1996.
We meet other characters. Nazeer and his wife Bilqees and their two kids… Nausheen who carelessly reminds Bilqees about her wedding anniversary (also Bilqees’ brother’s barsi)… Kausar who’s overaged and finally getting married… Baala’s wife who demands 4 toley ke soney ke kangan… Baala who’s aware of his responsibilities to his siblings, and that he wants to do business and not take pangas with bigshots and that he doesn’t appreciate Joji’s badmaashi. I like the amazing contrast to him being released from jail. What the eff happened to turn him into a feared criminal?
And then Baala learns about Bilqees, one exchange of glances sends Baala hurtling down the narrow passages of the past (somehow past almost always feels claustrophobic, doesn’t it?) and then he sings as he recalls his past. It was a long and beautiful scene. In short, intriguing.
Review
The story starts in 1999 and jumps back to 1996 like going paster than the past, which somehow felt wrong. Not because time shift is a new thing in storytelling but that the drama never felt like it is set in a different time. 1999 wasn’t that far back but the characters’ styling, houses etc had eerily modern feeling. It could easily pass as today’s story, except perhaps mobile phones can’t be shown in 1999 and today’s story would show everyone scrolling through their phones?
Anyway. The vibe is very peer-peerni like setting which I never truly understand (or care for). I understand the real reason of a peer or peerni, I don’t understand how people are shown to be aqeedatmand of these peer-peerni as if they are nauzubillah beyond human race. That’s not what bothers me. Looking at the first episode, Bilquees makes a mannat to fast until something happens, and then she breaks her fast only after Baala is killed. Nothing is spoken out loud but it hints at Bilquees’ involvment in the graveyard killings. Do these peer-peerni get a license to kill? Are they 007?
That been said, there are a few things that were hard to ignore even if I was not completely invested in watching the drama.
Background score: horrible. I understand that MMC was being introduced but itna lamba shot itne wahiyat background score ke saath, koi lod nahin thhi. I almost abaondoned it but I was like, if I decide to not watch it, it would be because of Mahira; any other reason would not be acceptable.
Cinematography: gorgeous
Capturing tiny expressions: too freaking good. Whether it was Bala’s expression when he met Joji, or Joji’s expression when he was shot, or unnamed supervisor guy who nodded ever-so-slightly to incidicate that the “deed” is done, or the unnamed shooter guy who was gawking at Bilqees clearly hoping for appreciation or even acknowledgement for the work he did but gets nothing (story of my life).
Wahaj’s punjabi was alright but didn’t feel natural; I have always seen him speaking proper Urdu (no, I haven’t watched the drama where he was speaking Bongali). Baala singing Bulhe Shah kalaam was a nice touch even though it didn’t feel like Wahaj was singing, if he was, it was too effortless. The pained expression on his face, made me feel bad for him.
Very very intrigued but was too tired to watch the second episode. Stay tuned. Coming up soon. AdSense has stopped showing ads on my blog so I’m a little distracted these days (this month).
Shabana Mukhtar