Mehram Episode 6: Unexpected Twist!

On the night that episode 7 is airing, yes, I'm writing about episode 6.  Haha.  As always, delayed, but inspired.

Up until now, I've been rather on the fence about Mehram.  While shot beautifully and under the care of a director who generally churns out beautiful love stories, Siraj Ul Haq always manages to miscast, ruining those stories.  Haha.  Up until episode 5, Mehram didn't rank very high on my list of favorite dramas........

And then episode 6 happened.

In episode 6, we learn that Zubair's plane met with a severe accident.  The treatment of this scene deserves recognition - it's because of the way it's been shot that we are catapulted into Iqra, Hamzah and Hamah's mother's grief.  Instantly after hearing the news, Hamzah's mother falls into a coma due to the shock.  This leaves our childish Hamzah left to not only deal with the grief of his mother's illness and brother's death, but also to care for his now-silent-from-shock Bhabi.  After briefly opening her eyes to see Hamzah, we see Hamzah's mother pass away, turning Hamzah's world upside down, but also leaving Iqra and Hamzah left to care for each other - hence bringing up the issue of "mehram, na mehram."

While the anti-Moammar Rana viewer in me rejoiced at this turn of events, the drama lover and wife in me mourned deeply at this twist. Sudden loss is painful, because it's completely unexpected and watching this episode, it was hard not to put myself in Iqra's place and not feel her grief.  Ayesha Khan's portrayal of Iqra left me speechless in this episode, conveying Iqra's pain through her eyes.  I haven't been impressed with Ayesha's performances as of late, but this lady deserves a round of applause here.

On the other end, no grief was felt more than Hamzah's. The loss of his brother, mother and the silence of his Bhabi all at once was almost unbearable to watch.  Zahid Hamid, despite being a newcomer, has definitely won over my heart with this episode.  I have appreciated his cute acting since episode 1, but he's exceeded all expectations with his performance here.  His pain was what stood out most in this episode, literally putting it into the category of "No one should have to experience this much trauma at once."

With this episode, we lost two major characters:  Zubair (Moammar Rana) and Zubair & Hamzah's mother (Sajda Syed).  Despite Zubair missing in action for a couple of episodes, the loss of his presence is deeply felt and then his mother's passing only doubles that grief.

If there was ANY negative in this episode, I will be honest and say that the character of Maulvi Sahab.  If a character like Maulvi SubhanAllah (Pyaray Afzal) challenged and changed the stereotypes, the character of Maulvi Sahab here in Mehram again comes back to the stereotypical, mildly heartless portrayal of religious figures.  Not only is Maulvi Sahab incredibly restrictive and hard on his daughter, Iqra, he also seems heartless in this episode.  While Hamzah and Iqra are still dealing with their grief, he brings up the discussion of Iqra's "iddat" and their living situation.  It all had a feeling of "TOO SOON"!

That aside, I'm now intrigued and very curious to see how this story moves forward.  Kudos to Siraj Ul Haq for such a brilliant episode and credit to all the actors involved for making me cry like I haven't in a while.  Haha.

Happy watching!