PremiumBarzakh Review: In Fawad Khan, Sanam Saeed, and Asim Abbasi’s world, poetry is haunting and the ghosts are poetic
Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed’s Barzakh is a melancholic exploration of life and the limboland after it—of love that binds the two and longing that makes the lover restless.
Last Updated: 04.05 PM, Jul 19, 2024
The King (Jafar - Salman Shahid) is getting married to the ghost of his first lover, Mahtab (Anika Zulfikar). The Land of Nowhere has called his sons Shehryar (Fawad Khan) and Saifullah (M. Fawad Khan) and his grandson Harris (Syed Arham) to attend the night of mysticism and reunion. But as the King sits on the graves of the ancestors who need to be freed, the villagers seek their freedom. The reunion of the lovers between the two worlds will engulf the real world, and that cannot happen. But does the lover care? Does the King think? Well, Barzakh is a tempting place to be.
Asim Abbasi, a filmmaker you must discover in depth if you haven't already, has a distinct visual grammar. There is chaos in the idea, a stillness in the frames. Everything moves on his command; each prop enters as if he is God. The randomness of a rock that exists in a place where it shouldn't has a meaning that he will never explain to you in words. You either call it just a random rock or a metaphor that makes his story even better, but for him, it is his wild imagination taking shape on a screen, and he is unapologetic if you don't align with it. In his world, fairies exist, and they stay in mountains that can be climbed. They do not have wings, but a bright red hood that makes them look powerful in a land of muted colours. The campiness of his world is not for the souls with weak imagination, but a treat for the ones who can suspend their disbelief.
Asim Abbasi’s handling of this world is delicate. His idea is to have the souls of the bygone hover around seamlessly to the extent that, even as a viewer, you start watching the real world unfold without being bothered by a mystic presence in the frame. In the hands of a less nuanced filmmaker, this plot device would turn comical. But not with Asim; he keeps at it till the end, and not for once do you feel it's wrong. The writing goes into every single corner of this story in the six odd hours it takes. Barzakh is aware that it is talking to the world of the living, and the souls hovering are not really visible there. So we discuss the problems like we would understand. Postpartum depression, the guilt of having a sexuality other than straight, the fear of turning into the one we hate, the fear of being someone's cause of death.
Abbasi explores life and the aftermath of it in the most simplistic but also intricate syntax. The dead wake up in the night to own a house that is ruled by a King who is crippled with each passing day. The family is dysfunctional, and they need to discuss their differences, but their argument is always devised by the most inconsequential on the table (a trigger Abbasi and Shakun Batra use the best). The grammar of Barzakh is absurd because there are irregularities visible, and some are introduced purposefully because how else do you differentiate between the two worlds?
The writing, when it takes you outside the King’s palace, takes you to his people, who call him Aaqa. While they are scared of him, they also seek freedom for their ancestors buried under his palace. Through them and their daughters, Asim explores women and what being one means in the world of men. The girls choose to run away with the fairies to a land where there are no tears written in their fate. Because the real world will always have them looked upon as the weaker gender. The best part is that they are never judged for not standing on the battleground and fighting. They are never looked at as women who are weak. It's a choice, and even the chosen one (Sanam) will have to make it at some point.
What falters is the rebellion of the villagers. There is a section that seeks freedom for the dead, one that wants to stop the King from uniting with his lover because it will destroy the world, and another that seeks their daughters. Their entire section in the screenplay goes haywire after a point and never gets a satisfying redemption in the eyes of the viewers. Maybe I will have to watch the finale again to understand if there is something I missed, but it feels incomplete in a very bothersome way. Because neither the world shakes when the lovers meet nor does the freedom change anything about the land.
The acting performances are precious because these are all iconic names coming together. Salman Shahid is phenomenal as the man in denial. The moral compass of this man is so broken, but that doesn't mean he cannot be a lover. Fahad Khan and Sanam Saeed together are just magic because our Zindagi is Gulzar when we see them together. Saeed’s voice can heal us, and that voice-over is pristine. M Fawad Khan brings out the dilemma of a gay man in the most aching manner. There is a very interesting symbolism attached to him that makes this character so juicy because regret is a friend in his life and fear holds him tight all the time.
Mo Azmi’s cinematography is pitch perfect, as is the use of music. The production design is the best in a minute, and there will be hardly anything to top this in 2024, at least. All you Dekha Na Tha Kabhi Humne Ye Sama fans, we have a treat in here, and it is love!
Starring Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed, Barzakh is about the love that transcends worlds, the concept of living, and the idea of morality. There is only one right, and that is waiting on the other side; the rest is just a facade.