Mujasma Saaz (Aymal Raza)- Fiction Review by Shoby

Mujasma Saaz (Aymal Raza)

Fiction Review by Shahbaz Ali Naqvi (Shoby)

Victor Hugo said, "There is a sacred horror about everything grand. It is easy to admire mediocrity and hills; but whatever is too lofty, a genius as well as a mountain, an assembly as well as a masterpiece, seen too near, is appalling." So what does it take to make a masterpiece, something that comes out of your inner side, being an artist, while going through a phase of Writer's Block (read Artist's Block). Aymal Raza has this time explored a different genre, which deals with complexities of human nature as well as relationship of two mutually exclusive human beings.

It is so true that every artist, regardless of the genre of art, has to tell a story and every artistic piece is a complete story of something. Mujasma'saaz is a definite cry of the writer over the gray shades of an artist. Marvin Gaye said, “Great artists suffer for the people.” I believe, one cannot be a true artist unless he has a specific pattern of feelings & emotions for other creations and the responsibility increases even more when the other creation is of GOD's. How can one dare to claim to be an artist, if he does not have the compassion for others, no matter, how great your (so called) artist emerges out to be in front of the world.

Analyzing the two pertinent character of Aymal Raza's Mujasma'saaz, we get to see two altogether different set of personalities. "Mujasma'saaz" is shown as a shrewd Carver, who can go to any extreme just for the sake of creating a perfect creation. On the other hand, "Rustam", the carver's servant, is depicted as a symbol of devotion. 

Rustam, who once used to enjoy the premium status of being the most trusted person of Mujasma'saaz falls right from the sky to the bottom of all the Earths, when a beautiful scripture gets broken down, courtesy his little extra love. This leads to leash an inhuman face of the mujasma'saaz which ultimately ends at the fatal fate of Rustam. You can feel a very unusual feeling of love and emotional attachment of Rustam with Mujasma'saaz but as Debolina Bhawal said, “Never fall for anyone. It's only sadness that is gifted by them to you in your rest of the life. Kills the loving person inside you.” This happens in this very case. 

Talking about the narrative part of the fiction, it is a short but comprehensive take. Considering the fact that it was written for monthly Suspense digest, the fiction had overall feel of a mystery but it has the signature of Aymal Raza. Somewhere in the proceedings, you feel this time Aymal was a bit short of producing the mind blowing one-liners in a big number, which she is undoubtedly capable of writing. I feel, the writer is immensely inspired by Auguste Rodin's sculpture "The Thinker" as she has once again used it in this writing. (I guess she has used the same somewhere earlier too. Apologies, if I am wrong). The name of both sculptures "Khamoshi" and "Pashemaani" were awesome and went good with overall theme of the story, which to me was more Noir than sad. However, keeping the story intact with exactly two protagonists with just a glimpse of a side character (to make a narrative more strong) was the winning factor of the story.