Bambai Meri Jaan – Episode 5 “Baptised by Fire” Recap & Review

Baptised by Fire

Episode 5 of Bambai Meri Jaan starts with Haji, Pathan and Anna learning about Dara’s emergence as a gangster from Bilawal. While Pathan is angered by Dara burning their arena, Haji is rather appalled. Pathan tells Haji that Dara needs to be stopped and they call in Ismail, asking him to bring Dara to them.

Ismail talks to Dara and Saadiq and asks them to apologise to Haji and Pathan. The boys tell their father that what they did was to protect his reputation. Ismail fights with his sons and tells them that the gangsters will kill if they don’t apologise. Saadiq refuses to apologise but Dara tells Ismail that he was willing to meet Haji.

In the meantime, the commissioner of police tells Inspector Malik that a new gangster was on the rise aside from the likes of Pathan, Haji, Anna and his men. Malik tells his superior that his stance was to let the gangsters fight amongst themselves and kill each other instead of intervening. The commissioner argues that a gang-led war would break out in Bombay, killing many innocents but Malik is of the opinion that the internal clash between the two rival gangs would eliminate the gangster-led crimes altogether.

Later that evening, Dara, Saadiq along with their father, Ismail go to the Maqbool house to meet Haji, Pathan and their goons. Haji handles the situation quite well and agrees to forgive Dara and Saadiq against Pathan and Anna’s will. He asks Dara to join forces with them and calls him and his gang to work for Haji and his gang. Haji asks Abdullah to train Dara while he asks Bilawal to hug Dara and solve their differences.

All this leaves Ismail shocked and he asks Haji why he did what he did. Ismail tells Haji that he compromised his pride a decade ago and started working for him in order to save his children from the world of crime. The former cop states that Haji’s decision had made his sacrifice futile. Haji tells Ismail that he was free to go now that Dara had started working for him.

Ismail goes back home and starts rearranging the furniture at home and tells Sakina what happened at Haji’s house. Dara and his friends meet Nasir who had passed his exam. Nasir shows off his new Rado watch to Dara and tells him they could go ahead and con more people with the watch. Saadiq and the other gang members mock Nasir and tell him that they’re no longer doing such rookie things because they work for Haji now.

Nasir feels left out as Dara and the others go to work. At work, Dara and his boys are loading the truck with the smuggled goods when Saadiq mentions that Haji’s proposal of having them to work with him was odd. Dara does not make much of it and gets to work as he and his gang do all the dirty work for Haji for a small fee.

Pathan, Anna and Bilawal discuss how Dara, their enemy, is right under their noses but they can’t do anything to him. Pathan asks Bilawal to be patient and wait for the right time to eliminate Dara. On the other hand, Dara and his boys have a clash with Hamid but Haji shows up and calls Dara out for a chat. Haji compliments Dara for keeping his anger under control. Haji and Dara share a smoke and the former sees a bit of himself in Dara.

Meanwhile, Nasir gets a job as a journalist at a newspaper company where he learns that the media are also in Haji’s pocket. Nasir’s editor asks him to rework a story and portray Haji in a positive light, which infuriates Nasir.

That evening, Dara, Saadiq and Ajju come back from work when Nasir shows up at the house. He brings his wedding invitation and asks the entire family to come to his wedding. The four siblings try to tease Nasir to the point that he refuses to stay for dinner.

Dara drops his friend outside the chawl and the two discuss how they’ve stopped hanging out altogether because Dara and his gang have started working for Haji. Dara tells Nasir that his job is illegal and a righteous guy like Nasir does not belong in the underworld business. Nasir argues that he would be of great help to Dara and promises to write a story about him that would make him a hero.

Additionally, Bilawal embarrasses Abdullah in front of Dara, mocking him for not extorting money from a local builder. The next day, Dara joins Abdullah to extort money from the builder. The two men bond over the fact that Pathan and his men mistreated Abdullah.

Dara helps Abdullah by threatening the builder and extracting the money from them. Later that night, Bilawal asks Ajju to relay a message to Dara, asking him to bribe the customs officer. Ajju decides to take matters into his own hands and tells the gang that he wants to make his older brother proud before his brother returns.

However, Ajju ends up bribing the wrong customs officer and rushes to see Dara, seeking his brother’s help to get out of the mess. With no way out of the mess and a customs officer waiting for the bribe money in order to pass an illegal consignment, Dara is worried about Haji finding out. He gives the customs officer the money they extorted from the builder in order to allow the consignment to pass.

Despite all his efforts to conceal the goof-up, Haji, Pathan, Anna and Bilawal find out and question Dara and Abdullah. Haji asks Abdullah to beat up Dara in order to make him pay for his mistake. Abdullah unwillingly beats Dara to a pulp and Haji warns Dara against repeating the mistake again.

At home, Habiba tends to Dara’s wounds while Ajju, Saadiq and Nasir discuss how Haji and his men insulted Dara. Nasir decides to teach them all a lesson and writes an article in favour of Dara. A few days after, Dara meets Abdullah and tells him that he was done working for Haji and asks him to tell the gangster that he will come back with his response to the way Haji treated him.

The next day, Nasir prints a story glorifying Dara as the new Godfather of the Underworld, comparing him with Haji. A worried Ismail takes Dara, Saadiq and Ajju to the police station and asks Malik to incarcerate his sons. He tells the cops that this may be a good way to punish them and end the chaos that he was sure would unfurl soon. Malik refuses to arrest the boys and leaves them with a warning.

Meanwhile, Haji and his gang discuss what they should do in order to teach Dara and Nasir a lesson for this insult. Pathan’s nephews and Bilawal’s sons Yasir and Arif announce that they would go and kill Dara but Haji asks the two to bring him alive. Pathan contradicts Haji’s orders and asks Yasir and Arif to bring not only Dara but Abdullah’s dead body as well.

At the same time, Dara and his friends also discuss the consequences of Nasir’s story. That night, Abdullah warns Dara and asks him to be careful but the Pathan gang’s men show up. Abdullah single-handedly beats them all up and saves Dara leaving a huge pile of dead bodies.

While the youngsters discuss the consequences of their actions, Sakina informs her children that they have to go to attend Nasir’s wedding. Haji, on the contrary, scolds Pathan for obliterating his orders and messing with Dara who was already known for his temper. He tells Pathan that with Abdullah on their side, Dara would soon be very powerful as the giant knew all their trade secrets.

At Nasir’s wedding, Dara and the gang pull the groom’s leg and wish the new couple a happy wedding night. However, Yasir and Arif show up out of nowhere and rape Nasir’s newly-wed wife and kill her. They then drag Nasir’s body and throw him off a bridge into a lake as the episode comes to an end.

The Episode Review

This episode does a good job and sets up the pace for the second half of the show and Dara’s character growth. Dara has his father’s temper and that was clearly visible in the final moments of the last episode when he burned down the arena. With his best friend dead, it is clear that Dara would not spare the culprits.

On the other hand, we can see that Ismail is giving up on trying to teach his son the right path. There is no way for him to make Dara stop so he spends his time devoting his attention to the things that matter to him – aka his faith. The show is closely based on the crimes of the underworld in Bombay and one could say that they have done a very accurate job of recounting the journey of Dawood Ibrahim’s rise over the last 50 years.