Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam is a Pakistani anthology miniseries produced by Zee5. It is a fictional setup in Lahore about the survival and struggle of ordinary women in a male-dominated society. For female viewers, this show is a podium of mahogany because the content drives a lot of zeal for depicting women tackling tough situations ahead. There are moments where insecurity hurdles and put to insult.
The show is pretty noir, visually creative, and blended with dark elements of black mysticism and fantasy that compels the audience to rope into a crony portion of absolutism. I do not say that hell is installed over women. There are a few women here with power or authority. But basically, Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam is about women breaking stereotypes in a culture where she is not equal to men.
I like the use of hatred and angst nipped by a backstory. The second and the fourth episodes based on Nurse Kanwal and Massey Ma respectively are quite better than the rest but the former meets an absurd conclusion.
The performances are average. The soundtracks are interesting and the poetry is used in the screenplay pretty well. And speaking of the screenplay, I think the non-linear pattern of presentation really begins to grab the interest at the halfway mark. Because first, I felt that the show will end up depicting six different stories but no, the writer connected the dots.
I think the Pakistani shows are meeting their desired content on a platform as the general audience raises criticism over the drastic change of elements as they were not used to such bold dramatizing. But I feel this is a good start for Pakistan on any platform. The norm of traditional soaps needs to break and start working on the stories that will attract the audience. Before this, Zee5 financed another Pakistani show, Churails. Both the shows are female-centered using almost the same pattern. So I am expecting a Pakistani show from ZEE5 with a different plotline.
The show is directed by Meenu Gaur who is known for directing a Pakistani film, Zinda Bhaag. Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam is a one-timer artistic social commentary on women’s injustice.
Sami Naik | Film Critic 