Pakeezah and Faraz navigate their new life, Mummy drops some hard truths on Zubair and Aliya, Pakeezah’s mother, fights off her trauma in ways that tear at the heart. Catch the review on Aik Aur Pakeezah’s recent episodes 5 & 6.
All characters in the drama are dealing with trauma in their own way. Pakeezah feels secluded, abandoned and angry all at once – from taunting Faraz to calling up her family if only to hear the sound of their vice on the other end, Pakeezah’s afraid deep down inside that Faraz, under pressuref from his family, will leave her. Her taunting and anger comes from a place of fear and insecurity and yet, if there’s anyone who will stuck with her, she knows deep down inside, it will be Faraz.
When Pakeezah guessed Faraz’s family had an agenda for calling him over, she wasn’t wrong. The drama once again reminds us how men and women who are victims of the same crime are treated differently by society. Faraz is free to meet his family, and even encouraged to leave Pakeezah. She, on the other hand, is shunned by her own family as well as all of society. Deema warns her not to go downstairs lest the men see her, a harsh realization that Pakeezah’s face is well known to everyone. Yet Faraz can obtain work, if not the kind he wants, but he can appear in public without the same repercussions or fears.
SImilarly, Yaseen’s engagement and the manner of its celebration is an unfortunate reality where Pakeezah’s nikah was performed in isolation and strangely enough, Yaseen is able to continue his life as if he has nothing to fear and he has committed no crime. The persons who have to flee public life are Pakeezah and Faraz, and the families who are ashamed of their family members are Pakeezah’s not Yaseen’s. Yet, despite her trauma, we see a glimpse of the spirited Pakeezah at moments and this very glimpse gives us hope – that she will eventually rise to fight for her rights and expose the criminals.
Faraz’s feelings for Pakeezah, his urge to hold her hand and teh throwback to earlier times when Pakeezah told him to wait till they’re married, tugged at the heart strings. Is Faraz able to forget teh trauma more easily? Is it because his punishment is not as harsh as Pakeezah’s. Is his desire to have a relationship with Pakeezah a selfish urge or, a natural feeling that will help heal them both to some extent? The fact that they are both living together as husband and wife, but still feel like they have committed a wrong and fail to be intimate emotionally or physically with each other, Faraz hesitating and Pakeezah, possibly shunning him off, shows the intensity of the mental trauma they experience – labelled as criminals by society and possibly even now, by themselves as well, in teh darkest corners of their minds.
Mummy’s conversation with Zubair revealed layers we weren’t expecting. And neither was Barister Zubair. For more on that, click here. But it is evident that Zubair runs deeper, and perhaps, he himself was not aware of what Mummy could spot in him. Is he really out to marry Saman so he can wear her like a trophy wife, or because he likes it that she is being congratulated for marrying an eligible batchelor, does it please his ego or, is Mummy reading too much into Zubair because of her own experiences with Ibrahim – Saman’s father. Furthermore, Mummy repeating the paalak gosht and white rice Ibrahim ate before he died seemed suspicious – is there more to her than meets the eye?
Aliya’s energetic talkative demeanour, behaving normally, referring to Pakeezah’s belongings, planning Akbar’s wedding and receiving Pakeezah’s calls, pretending it’s a wrong number, all point to the intense trauma she’s hiding inside – another level of trauma manifestation which is removed frm the obvious outward behaviour we witness in many people.
We wait for Saman to finally find Pakeezah somehow. For now, it seems Faraz and Pakeezah will have to shift their living arrangements once more in order to stay safe. Some great performances, clever edits and sharp scripting keep audiences invested in the story despite it being a heavy watch.
Written by Bee Gul and directed by Kashif Nisar, the drama stars Sehar Khan in the titular role alongside Nameer Khan, Amna Ilyas, Gohar Rasheed, Hina Bayat, Nadia Afgan, and Noor Ul Hassan. The drama is presented by GEO Entertainment in collaboration with Kashf Foundation, with production backed by Kashf Foundation.
