Thursday, March 30, 2006

Getting the power of Potential

peace


I'm confessing that I regularly watch ER. It's 'bout the only show I've tried to keep up with since college. We all have our vices.

I near 'bout gave up on the show last week after the 'honor killing' episode though. I was FURIOUS. Nuff said. I don't even want to think about it or I won't say what I came to say...


.... which is that Parminder Nagra is an AMAZING actress, masha'Allah. I've enjoyed her acting since Bend It Like Beckham, another fave of mine. But her acting recently has been superb. Tonight, together with the guy who plays Ray on the show (don't ask me his real name...), she played a scene that gave me a jolt. It like, woke me up with the sensuality of it.

Her character, Nila, has decided to move out of the 2bed apt that she shares with this Ray guy, because she's married now to Galant (another fave, soldier who's off in da wo'), and for other reasons that really aren't articulated, but are seen, again, through the excellent acting of these two characters.

Tonight, her acting helped me SEE a whole bushload (don't you love the non-profane profanity of that word?) of reasons behind mahram, and lowering the gaze, and what UmmZ's always saying about "nur" on faces. Wow.

You know her character's married. and you know her loyalty by her actions, by her righteousness and steadily choosing to do the right thing instead of backsliding. She never touches this guy for the last 4 minutes or so of the show tonight, while she's hastily throwing her things into bags to go stay at a girlfriend's house, b'cause she just knows she shouldn't be in this house with this man anymore. And without touching, removal of clothing, kissing (he almost kissed her but she walked away, it was brilliant, you didn't know if she did it on purpose or not), ANYTHING commonly thought of as unproper, you could see the smoldering in that scene.
In my head it just clicked. Allll of the things I'd ever questioned, whether or not I got answers to them, about separation of gender and how to act around those of the opposite sex- I got it.

Call me a hard head, I am one. Sometimes I act like I'm from Missouri, as my parents said alll the time- you got to SHOW me. So masha'Allah for Miss Nagra and whoever wrote and directed that scene. I'm sure they didn't intend it, but it totally showed me the power of the potential between a man and a woman alone, if nothing else.



yeah.


so yes, I'm blogging on the superficial stuff instead of what's going on deep in my head. sue me. I'll be back.

peace

2 comments:

  1. Salaam,
    Glad you finally 'got it.'
    Did you see Spanglish? It has a similarly charged scene...Even though they kiss, they never actually 'do it.' I like Spanglish a lot.

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  2. Yes Spanglish had a powerful scene like that too. And I know what you mean about the charged ER scene but the thing is I want her to leave her hubby and get with Ray :) So I think we saw it differently.

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