Haalim Episode 9 (Nemrah Ahmed)- Review by Shoby

Haalim Episode 9 (Nemrah Ahmed)- Review by Shahbaz Ali Naqvi (Shoby)

Queen Elizabeth II: It doesn't feel right, as Head of State, to do nothing.

Queen Mary: It is exactly right.

Queen Elizabeth II: Is it? But surely doing nothing is no job at all?

Queen Mary: To do nothing is the hardest job of all. And it will take every ounce of energy that you have. To be impartial is not natural, not human. People will always want you to smile or agree or frown. And the minute you do, you will have declared a position. A point of view. And that is the one thing as sovereign that you are not entitled to do. The less you do, the less you say or agree or smile...

Queen Elizabeth II: Or think? Or feel? Or breathe? Or exist?

Queen Mary: The better.

The Crown

First of all let me apologize my dear readers for this long break on Haalim's review. I know, its been too long since we last discussed Haalim and your messages that I received clearly show how much you have missed my reviews. But I promise, I'll do my level best to regularly review Haalim from now onward. Meanwhile, so much has happened in Haalim and I have to bridge up the gap.

So the time travel journey of our Three Musketeers (Fateh, Taliya & Adam) is continued and looks like there is some important stuff to be done here in ancient Malacca. Just to sum up the proceedings in "Jahan Miltey Hain 3 Chaand", let me tell you what actually happened here. 

Ancient Malacca Sultanate is turning into a jungle with no rules at all. New regime is appointing the people of their liking on important administrative positions. At one place, Sultan has appointed Abul Khair as Finance Minister  on the advise of Princess Tasha (Taliya) and Adam bin Muhammad has been appointed as the Official Court Historian by Tasha. So this Adam is the one is going to write the fabricated history of Malacca. Muarikh barey do number log hotey hain. Well, history has numerous examples of these greedy, selfish historians and their bizarre endings.

In Slaves Auction held at Abul Kher's place, Adam & San Bao come shoulder to shoulder to get Fateh and Fateh himself decides to go with San Bao. In short, he has reached his own place of future.

It is now quite evident that San Bao Wang Li (inspired by famous Chinese sailor Zheng He) is not what was written in the history book. He is not a savior. In fact Fateh is the one who looks to be the savior of the slaves. He is going to change the course of history in Malacca Sultanate. And by recognizing the fact , Fateh is somewhat broken.

However, Fateh, being a born leader is showing his true colors here as well. He has always been different from the folk and he is depicting the same in the avatar of the slave. 

Bharosa kero...

Tum Pe...

Nahi... Apney aap pe...

The dialogues penned by Nemrah for Fateh reminds me of classical Braveheart moments, where William Wallace says:

Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM! (Braveheart).

Taliya beautifully persuades Yan-Su-Fu to make a team against Bendahar Raja Murad and within a few informal meetings, they have established quite a nice bond. Dunya mein koi taaluq itna mukhlis or gehra nahi hota jitna un do aurton ka rishta jin ka dushman aik mard ho...

Taliya inspects the treasure room at her father's palace and discovers that her father is involved in Money Laundering. So she is now in search of Raja Murad's off-shore account. On the other hand, Bendahara is quite clear about the fact that Taliya was not the only one who time traveled to Melacca and he is asking her for the others she brought here with herself. Meanwhile king (Sultan Mursal Shah) has proposed Taliya and this move has seemingly not gone well with both Haalims (Taaliya & Fateh).

Beside the ongoing story, this whole episode revolves around two major phenomenon related to governance of a state. Taxation System and Administrative positions in primary institutions of the country. Nemrah gives a thorough explanation regarding how merit-less society ends up in becoming a jungle of sorts. Nemrah is so right in explaining the concept that when a corrupt person heads the crown, the first task he performs is to replace the people placed at important state affairs related departments so that his corruption does not get questioned. By doing so, he saves himself but at the cost of non productive staff that ultimately lands into the term of bad-governance. Dark is the nation and insane the king.

This episode was a nice heavy dose of brief introduction to taxation systems that flows like blood in the arteries of the state. I am not going to elaborate it more as Nemrah has already enlightened us in this regard. However I would definitely want to clear my point by just adding up this.

When a non qualified person is given the task to run anything (e.g.,) regulating finance of a country, or if ruler of a state is a business man by himself, he tries to secure his own wealth by providing undue leverages to the business class by reducing direct taxes and imposing indirect taxes to middle & lower middle class. This further strengthens the impact on inflation. Similarly, in order to cope up with a Federal Budget going deficit and Balance of Payment, they go for circulating debts and foreign debts & aids. Thus forfeiting the sovereignty of the state in the hands of foreign players. So Nemrah is 110% correct in saying that Asal  chor to yeh hukmaran hain jo ghareebon se churatey hain...

Haalim is a dense mystery series and something that really uplifts the whole energy of the story is the conversation that regularly takes place between Taliya & Adam. Nemrah's dialogues for Taliya are pitch perfect and they never fail to bring a smile to the reader's face even in most intense of the situations. Believe it or not we have some very interesting & innovative languages in making. Just like Roman text wali Malay, Urdu & Eng... Perfect Slapstick...

One thing I really like about Nemrah's writing is her focus on the distinctive qualities of the characters which are in limelight. For instance see how perfectly she has made our belief firm on the Authentic Leadership abilities of Fateh. Nemrah has made sure that we must put this thing in our minds that leaders like Fateh don't overlook the hot issue currently being faced at the moment, while looking at the larger picture.

To kiya faisal kiya tum ne...

Mujhey raja ke kamrey ki talashi leney ka mouqa nahi mil saka...

Main wazeer e khazana ki tayunati ka pooch raha hoon.

My most favorite scene in the episode was the Fateh's outburst in Restaurant Jia. The way he exploded whatever was going within himself specially after realizing the truth of San Bao, the rage he evolved was exceptional.

Mera naam Fateh bin Ramzel hai... Mujhey ALLAH ne her tabqey mein se guzaar ke is maqaam tak pohanchaya hai... Mujhey in cheezon se mat darao, jin se Fateh nahi darr sakta... (Hats Off Nemrah)...

Well (Off The Record), in China, tea was also known as Jia and its primary name in ancient Chinese was "tu".

Now coming towards a few shortcomings that made me a bit irritated in the whole series. OK I admit, Haalim is one of its kind experiment in mystery genre as far as Pakistan digest industry is concerned, but still sometimes, the characters in Haalim looks much larger than life (read meta-humans).

I mean, I really cant understand, how on Earth they can always play a super hero card in circumstances that does not assist them in any manner. For instance, how Raja Murad's treasure room was compromised even with the tightest of security being implanted. How, Taliya just banged into the room along with Adam with this much ease. How Fateh treats people including his own master like a president in charge, while he is a slave himself.

OK giving a leverage in above regards, considering Haalim a fictional tale, lets summarize this episode's review, the story in Haalim is moving at a good pace and looks like dreamers are going to get whet they deserve pretty soon. 

Fateh has succeeded in bringing all the slaves at one place (Jia, in the name of free food & drinks) and he has set the stage quite well to start the freedom moment for the slaves. It would be interesting to see how Taliya will cope up the situation she is facing in front of Raja Murad & how would she escape from the wedding proposal of Sultan. And the million dollar question is still here. How Fateh, Taliya & Adam can pave the way back to the future. But they will surely reach the destination because KL is the place where these three moons met for the first time and it will remain the place where the three moons will get together again.

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