Namal Concludes- Novel Analysis by Shoby
We live in a world full of diverse stories. Stories that bear the secrets. Secrets that demand to be revealed and thus the stories need to be told. At times I feel, none of the stories are that interesting unless they are made look alluring and this job can only be done who picture the words for us. At one hand they tell simplest of a tale that goes on to become a classic just like Nicholas Sparks A Walk To Remember or John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. On the contrary, sometime the story teller chooses an exceptional premise, a very strong tale but ruins the beauty of it by just using repugnant elements.
We have number of authors in our country who have fascinated us with their strong substantial writing prowess and one of these names need no further introduction. The writer of immensely famous Mus'haf, Jannat Ke Pattay, Beli Rajpootan Ki Malika, Karakaram ke Taj Mehal and what not. Let me go straight to the main course of the day, which may ranks probably as the most famous Urdu language episodic novel of our times titled as "Namal".
I believe that Namal borrows the name from one of the Surah of QURAN PAK (Sura e Namal). Namal means ants, which are considered to be one of the most unique creature of ALLAH PAK- The Almighty. The novel "Namal" revolves around the people who are considered as the weakest elements of the society, just like the ants who are apparently the weakest of the creatures. Recall what ALLAH PAK says in Sura e Namal,
"Until when they came to the valley of the ants, and said, 'O ants, enter your houses; lest Sulaiman and his armies may crush you unknowingly." (Ayat 18).
At this point, let me PAUSE you for a moment and give you an amazing perspective regarding Ants and that too from the Door of the City of Knowledge. IMAM ALI (asws) in one of his sermons says about ants:
“Look at the ant with its small body and delicate form. It can hardly be seen in the corner of the eye, nor by the perception of the imagination – how it moves on the earth and leaps at its livelihood. It carries the grain to its hole and deposits it in its place of stay. It collects during the summer for its winter and during strength for the period of its weakness. Its livelihood is guaranteed, and it is fed according to fitness. ALLAH, the Kind, does not forget it and (ALLAH the Giver) does not deprive it, even though it may be in dry stone or fixed rocks.
If you have thought about its digestive tracts in it’s high and low parts, the carapace of its belly, and its eyes and its ears in its head you would be amazed at its creation and you would feel difficulty in describing it. Exalted is HE who made it stand on its legs and erected it on its pillars (of limbs). No other originator took part with HIM in its origination and no one having power assisted HIM in its creation. If you tread on the paths of your imagination and reach its extremity it will not lead you anywhere except that the Originator of the ant is the same as HeEwho is the Originator of the date-palm, because everything has (the same) delicacy and detail, and every living being has little difference.” (Sermon 185 from the book Nahjul Balagha).
Let us now move towards Namal- The novel. How should I describe it. Should I say that it was a a tale of self realisation. How weak ants of the society realised their inner strength and moved multiple steps forward to fight the bad ones. Was it a story of yet another Pseudo-God clan that was demolished as they wanted to rule the small world of their existence in their own style. Sort of people for whom the Sura e NAMAL says,
"I found her people prostrating before the sun leaving ALLAH and the devil (Satan) adorning their deeds in their eyes has barred them from the straight path so that they do not get the way." (Ayat 24).
OK, my one-liner, Namal was all about Kardaars vs Yousafs. This good versus bad fight lead to twists & turns that made everyone literally enchanted for all these 30 months (Read 31, as one episode of Namal was not released in digest in a month during the time period :-) ).
Let me remind you the hallmarks of a good storytelling. Besides others, there are five major ingredients that are essential to make the story look worth reading/ viewing, be it a novel, fiction or a script of a film/ drama. Premise, backdrop, characterisation, dialogues and narrative. I guess, no one can deny the significance of all these components for the success of a story. To tell you honestly, Namal was all about a great premise along with a strong backdrop, where every character was introduced & operated by the author whenever/ wherever it was required and on top of all this, a make-believe narrative that was beautifully entangled with mighty enticing dialogues.
Lets glance at the characters that made the world of Namal, a Disneyland of its own sort for the readers. You may agree or not but we have not seen any villain in the history of Urdu digest series as ruthless, as barbarous and at the same time as authoritative and as debonair, as Hashim Kardaar (which I continued to call as The desi version of Hannibal Lecters). You hate him for his deeds but many of us love the way Nemrah projected this cold-blooded barbaric style icon. There was one thing that he always cherished... Hashim sab theek ker sakta tha...
Main ne samjha tha samander tum ko
Tha ka matlab tumhain ata ho ga (Fakhira Batool)
Then comes Mr. Faris Ghazi (The man of crisis), who can break all the barriers, to beat the hell out of whatever comes in his way, in order to save his family. This one man army has done every vital thing in every possible unethical manner, but again, just like one of the wrestler in WWE used to say, It wasn't my fault. It was never his fault what-so-ever.
First chapter of Namal (series) was titled as "Humara Saadi" and we saw an innocent, happy go lucky, humble, knowledge loving, the one who was truly in love with the divine book QURAN PAK Saadi Yousaf.
Waqt karta hai parwarish barson
Haadsa aik dum nahi hota
And same happened with Saadi. Fate made him get changed and Nemrah showed us two entirely opposite sides of Saadi (from being extremely kindhearted to being severely dangerous). His coming-of-age was brilliantly told by Nemrah Ahmed in the whole series.
She was a very powerful female character. Not only as a successful Lawyer (District Attorney) but also back at the home. She was hurt and she was revenge, written all over her mind. She was Zumer and she was the one many of us prayed to live really long. This character required tons of bravery, cleverness & smartness and not even a single trait was missing in the writing.
Oh that sweethearted K-culture addict, (evil) genius minded young kid who fall in love with not an eligible person. She was Hunain (Hanna) who discovered that it is not really bad to love someone odd, but worse scenario arises when you loose control over yourself. So along with the help of (book) saint's teachings, she re-discovered herself right before getting caught in the web.
Yet another authoritative character was the self-proclaimed queen of heavy is the head that wears his crown, who actually was a self-obsessed witch (read Penny Dreadful's Evelyn). She knew only one thing. Do everything what it takes in order to sustain the power, youth and wealth in your hands. She was the one who wanted to rule and rule forever. She was Jawahiraat.
Ahmer Shafi (The Con-Man) who's character started as a stapney and ended as heir of Sultan Bangash saga. He was a sheer genius and had all the guts to do whatever the master commands. I would love to call him a freelance task initiator. He has done certain real unanticipated things during the course of actions just to get the work done. No doubt, he was the reason of many smiles that came to our faces while reading this immensely serious thriller.
Aabdar Haroon (Aabi)- The victim of NDE (Near Death Experience). Actually she was not a bigger victim of an NDE than she was of the most cherished relationship of the planet (i.e. Love). Cupid made her do things that were never meant to be done by her. Let me summarise her situation, She loved Zumer's Faris and as a matter of the fact, she was loved by Hashim. Handle the equation your own self now... Ha ha ha
Last but not the least, we witnessed a disgruntled, Stubborn, objective-less, wealthy dug-addict spoiled brat (Nosherwaan Kardaar) Sheru. The younger Kardaar who shared the same ugly traits that other Kardaars possessed.
Apart from these, there were many other characters that were pertinent in the heart of the story and considering the fact that Namal lasts for 30 episodes we can give Nemrah the leverage of playing with this mega profusion of characters.
Apart from the ongoing story, many other phenomenon were running parallel along side. Nemrah never forgets to use beautiful & knowledge enriched Ayat of QURAN PAK to share with us lessons that are mandatory to be learned in order to make both of our lives (here & hereafter) worth living. She has once again used many interesting true anecdotes from QURAN PAK in the novel and these stories not only helped the reader to get the real essence of the lessons but also assisted to move the story of the novel ahead.
Talking about Namal, one most pertinent thing to mention is the narrative part of the story. It was a custom at Namal that every chapter had a unique name which hooked beautifully well with the proceedings of the entire episode. Furthermore, every time we got to read a different, unique & interesting read from diverse genres at the start of the episodes. If I have to choose my most favourite of the beginnings, I would surely go for the paragraph taken from Dante's "Divinne Comedy" (Inferno).
Nemrah made sure that every sequence of the Novel should have something "Novel" in it. Just like what I have said many time in my reviews earlier, some of the scenes that Namal featured, made us feel like we are watching an excellent Thriller. Few of the sequences were pure adrenaline pumping rush creating blasters.
Nemrah is a master when it comes to the scene detailing and she did it with utmost brilliance in Namal too. All the scenes featuring court rooms and jail were having ultimate eye-believing authenticity. In Jannat Ke Pattay, she made us visit Turkey and in Namal we visited lush green island Srilanka (Kandy) through her words. She introduced a top class desi brand, my favourite food spot #FoodlyEverAfter where we have been Zumerized many of the times :p
I believe it is impossible to write a 30 episode series and make your readers stick glued to it. Nemrah deserves a standing ovation that she was successful in her attempt and never bored us during the course of time, just apart from may be one or two episodes. Overall, Namal was a fast-paced, edge of the seat marvellously executed mystery- thriller.
Honestly Finale of the novel is very much predictable and rightly so. My regular readers will second me that I predicted almost same sort of denouement. If Nemrah would have ended the Saadi Yousaf abduction/ attempt to murder case in another style where all the culprits were hanged till death, it would not have been looked natural & obviously that was not appropriate considering the fact that we are not living in a justice-pro society.
It is also interesting to see that Nemrah has left the page of Namal still open and this story do possess the trait of having a sequel but I know Nemrah is a very intelligent writer and she will not bid for any second instalment, unless something much bigger & better than this part clicks to her mind.
There are curtains on Namal now and but NOT on reading it :-) So I would highly recommend every reader to must have this mind-boggling seven course meal at least one more read. Believe me guys, charm of this type of stories never faded away and they keep on telling you, they write us for you... So keep on reading us.
I just want to say one last (but not the least) thing about Namal, I was hungry for some real good food and Namal acted as a supremely delightful seven course meal that I enjoyed thoroghly all these months. I am going to miss Namal for sure... You tell me, will you miss my reviews at #Shobywood ???
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