We Must Start From A Place Of Doubt Before We Can Really Believe
Throwback to when Raqs e Bismil came on air and I wondered how Moosa’s journey can take hold as firm believer to the truly spiritually faithful. How the man who tied a love-lorn Sakina to the tree, who failed to ever comprehend love, could not only fall for it himself, but come out the other side, to face his deepest prejudices.
Women working in films, earning for a household, and Moosa gradually growing to accept such women with all their ‘faithless’ lifestyle moves is perhaps, a journey the writer has scripted with a view to turning the tables on many young men who might be the Moosa’s in our world.
If this story were written by a woman, I would have given credit to the feminist in her. Faiza Iftikhar does it all the time. Haseena Moin has done it always, but wait a minute, this is Hashim Nadeem – a man who tells us why men like Moosa need to see the light.
Take Note
If Moosa had merely fallen for Zohra, accepted her with all her khandaani flaws & background, we would still just call it love. Deewane Aashiqui mein buhat kuch jayez hai, right? All’s fair in love & war!
But
When Moosa comes to accept a woman like Laila (Zara Sheikh in Raqs e Bismil), in fact, seems to hold a stealthily growing respect for her (perhaps), we have to laud the story-teller.
Not just that, but please note the almost silent transformation of the man who upheld the law of the (faithful) land, the pagri, the gaddi, the family ghairat to take on an almost non-judgemental perspective in life. He did not judge Sakina for attempting to escape. This heinous crime against khandaani izzat was generously covered up by him, though he wasn’t all stone cold as he exacted revenge on those who were about to harm her.
Hashim Nadeem is handing out a very insightful lesson here
We might never see the other side unless we are fallen from grace. ourselves We might never understand that there is more to life than the stark black & white we choose to see, if we do not step into the shoes of those who walk the other side every day.
Had Moosa not been banished by his father, he might not experience the lives of those who tread on a marginalized moral ground – and showbiz is perhaps the best example of that warped morality we tend to judge.
Is it wrong for women to work in showbiz? Is it right to call them out as immoral & ‘bad charactered’ , is it fair to label a prostitution den as a place not to be visited by ‘shurfa’? Who are these shurfa anyway? The same ones we welcome into our homes at times? Ahem – Malik Sheheryar rings a bell?
We, as a society are divided into 2 disproportionate wholes
The Moosa’s of this world & the Zohra’s of the other world.
Zohra’s often cross over to the other side, but for a Moosa to cross over and understand the ground reality of what we term as ‘immoral’ is a tough call indeed – it means a spiritual transformation, a relearning of what is wrong & right – for it is only when we are in a place of doubt that we can arrive at a point of real and unfailing belief. Moosa’s journey has just begun – but we can all choose to make it with him!
Finally, some great casting there & director Wajahat Rauf deserves a mention here! Imran Ashraf, Sarah Khan, Furqan Qureshi & a magnificent Zara Sheikh comeback (where were you all this time?) are making this project a riveting watch!
