The story of Sammi is getting more and more riveting with time. What started out and continues as social commentary on the evil of vani has now become a narrative of what women generally have to go through in this part of the world. Whether it is Sammi herself, the Chaudhrian (who has realized that it’s her against the powerful men in her life), Chandi who has struggled to make a life for herself or Naheed, who stands divorced and pregnant with the child of a man she secretly married. There are some pretty troubled women in the TV serial and their stories are tragic, which is probably why so many of them wanted to die in this episode.
Sammi wants to die
Sammi, played by Mawra Hocane who manages to look gorgeous even when she’s tied to a tree and half faint, wants to die because death is a better option than marrying the Chaudhry. Despite the fact that she’s now been promised a life of entitlement as Chaudhry Rab Nawaz’s wife (as he wants to punish his baaghi wife) she wants Rashid chacha to put a bullet through her head before she’s roped into these vows. Looking at Rab Nawaz, we totally understand her misery.
Chandi wants to die
There can be nothing worse than losing a child and that too your one and only handsome and caring son so we totally understand why Chandi pleads Salaar’s friends to bury her in the soil next to her son. Sania Saeed excels in this scene, as expected. She howls and wails but somehow she doesn’t get annoying; it’s all very real and tragic.
Zulekha wants to die
I think Madiha Rizvi is one of the most underrated actors in this play because she gets overshadowed by the bigger stars around her. But when you look at her performance carefully, she really has done a stellar job of portraying a woman from an influential family, married to the Chaudhry Rab Nawaz; she is defiant and yet realistic in her expectations from the men in both sides of her family. Her father and brother’s attitude comes as a rude shock shen she runs off to them, expecting support in the wake of her husband’s misogynist ways. Turns out that all “powerful, rich and influential†men are equally misogynistic. “Why didn’t you just bury me when I was born?†she asks her father, when he advises her to return to her husband. “When we powerful men marry off our daughters we are in fact burying them,†he replies callously. On her way back home she tells her brother to save her the misery of her life ahead and just kill her on the way.
AND MORE: Naheed, who’s newly pregnant and divorced (though that isn’t legally possible), doesn’t want to die as yet but her brother wants her to abort her unborn child. More death.
