If there is one new drama you can try your November luck on, (while many you can relegate to the have-beens, not our lucky day there), Qarz e Jaan might just make it on the list for all the right reasons. The story within the story is always a great reason for narratives to hit your watchlist and this one, with Bisma and Bakhtiar at the centre, already has our attention.
While a Yumna Zaidi starrer is enough to get heads turning, what many storytellers are gravitating towards, and rightly so, is the story within the story, which is not to say, the side plot, because calling it that doesn’t do justice to the cause, but rather, the plot that gets audiences so invested that they follow it with an eagle eye – be it Sofia or Samiya’s characters in Kuch Ankahi or Safina and Hunaid’s story in Noor Jahan; if the relationships and their challenges are relatable to the real life characters who watch from across the screen, within the comfort of their living rooms, well, then you’ve hit the jackpot.
So while Nashwa’s struggle as a young girl who is desperate to practice Law despite her uncle’s orthodox thinking, might be a great challenge, and a journey we want to see through to the end, it is Bisma’s plight, her compromise with life’s battles, her conscious decision not to question or push life to give her more, or what she rightfully deserves, is a character many single women might relate to. Add to that her challenge with handling the dark intentions of her brother in-law, Bakhtiar, and you have a story.
But we’ve seen this before, you say. What’s so new-age or gritty about this one?
Well, for one, Tazeen Hussain performs the role of Bisma with a sensitivity that pushes the envelope, and Deepak Perwani as Bakhtiar is your Darth Vader in disguise – persistent, threatening (but only to those he threatens, not his wife, who perhaps, hasn’t woken up to the devil in him), wolf in sheep’s clothing for sure!
But more importantly, women like Bisma exist, say viewers. And in just two swift episodes, her story has audiences rooting for her. She draws that fine line between submissive and silent courage, raising a daughter like Nashwa who wants to reach out and touch the stars, yet keeping her own dreams under cover, then fighting a silent battle within her in-laws’ home – a shelter she has reluctantly accepted as her final abode.
What’s different is the telling of the narrative
In episode one, we see a very slight move from Bakhtiar towards Bisma as he reaches for her forehead, and she recoils. We wonder if this is quite what we imagined? Could we be mistaken?
But in the second epsiode our fears are proved on-point. The unfortunate thing is, that even as we predict the subtle intentions earlier, it is only because many of us might have been in a position that makes us sit up and pay closer attention to the Bisma-Bakhtiar interaction. Many of us might have been or seen a Bisma amidst us. Many Bismas might have confided in us, or pretended to cover up the Bakhtiar’s among us. But at the end of the day, the fact that we knew, we suspected, we feared the worst, is reason enough that the storytelling, performances and scenes hit a raw nerve.
And that dear folks, is why Bisma and Bakhtiar’s story will be at the heart of Qarz e Jaan; the story within the story that will pull at our heart strings as we wave a flag for justice for Bisma (and all others like her) – trending soon?
However, it is necessary that when creators field such stories, they also give us space to hope. Because let’s face it, no one wants to watch a depressing tale that fails to hand out justice to the perpetrator. In this case, the drama is not without its hopefuls – our main leads, Nashwa and Burhan, who will ultimately match up to the hopes we pin on them! And this is how the story within the story will tie up to the bigger picture! What a stroke of genius there yeah? Just guessing our way through the plot is what we do, ala Sherlock Holmes!
And while we don’t know for sure where the drama takes us, the fact that Nashwa, a prospective Law student and Burhan, also a lawyer, will help fight for women like Bisma who need the law to defend them – property rights might also figure in the picture, we hope, is reason enough to hope that Qarz e Jaan promises to be a worthwhile watch.
Needless to say, performances, direction and storytelling have been gripping and we’d recommend you have this one down on you watchlist beacuse, it’s possibly the one to watch!
Qarz e Jaan features actors Yumna Zaidi, Usama Khan, Nameer Khan, Aniqa Zulfiqar, Faisal Rehman, Deepak Parwani, Tazeen Hussain, Daniyal Aamir, Sakina Samo, Salma Asim, Ismat Zaidi, Fajr Sheikh, Tabassum Arif, and Mubassir Khan. It is written by Rabia Razzak, directed by Saqib Khan, and produced by Momina Duraid. It airs on HUM TV on every Saturday
