Fitoor Episodes 35 & 36: Haider’s Mother Falls Ill, Taking “Fitoor” Down a Cliched Path

“Fitoor” stars Faysal Qureshi, Hiba Bukhari, Wahaj Ali, Kiran Haq, Ismat Zaidi and Saba Hameed, has been written by Zanjabeel Asim and directed by Siraj Ul Haq. “Fitoor” has been a rollercoaster of a show. Starting off with a bang, the story focused on the doomed love stories of Hamza and Dilnasheen, along with Haider and Mehmal. After Haider and Dilnasheen got married and Hamza rode off with his misery, the story lost momentum, turning into a skeezy story of a man struggling with his emotions. On one end, he had his new, young wife and on the other, he had his newly separated ex living under one roof. While the boring ping-pong of love did not hold interest, the story picked up greatly after Hamza’s re-entry and has been riding high since – until now.

With the latest duo of episodes, the story heads back into regressive, misogynistic, hypocritical territory where a woman is destined to “fall in love” with her emotionally unavailable, emotionally cheating husband. Dilnasheen (Hiba Bukhari) has had more than enough reason to feel unhappy in her marriage with Mehmal (Kiran Haq) dangling in her face on a daily basis, watching her husband spend time with his ex girlfriend and her daughter. However, she silently dealt with it all despite zero support from her family members, her mother-in-law and even her husband. She faced character assassination, was accused of cheating, was followed and even slapped by Haider and even her own mother – all for something she never did. It’s no wonder then that Dilnasheen snapped and decided she would no longer indulge Haider and do exactly what she pleased – getting back together with Hamza (Wahaj Ali). Anyone watching this show would know that Hamza and Dilnasheen have both been wronged by their families and were torn apart unfairly. Except, how can a married woman, that too without a child to think about, leave a toxic marriage? That’s right, she can’t.

So now the team has turned both Hamza (Wahaj Ali) and Dilnasheen into shameless, blunt, threatening characters who are doing the “wrong thing” by asking for a divorce. Adding to this, Haider’s mother falls ill and discovers she is dying of cancer. Her “last wish” is to see Haider and DIlnasheen together, laying on the emotional blackmail thick. Could a more predictable ending have played out? Of course, Hamza will now turn villainous, Dilnasheen sacrificial, realizing the error of her ways and Haider, the most hypocritical, emotionally abusive, physically abusive, complexed character, whitewashed and happy to “accept” Dilnasheen back. Is this what we will have to watch playing out?

If the ending is something other than this, one would be pleasantly surprised. However, as of this week, the ending seems doomed to follow this predictable, unappealing story. Do women not have autonomy over themselves? Is it not possible for a woman to take a stand for herself and follow her heart without being written in a vampy, “badtameez” manner? While this ending was something that could be seen a mile away, the atrocities committed against women in recent weeks have made this turn of events even more upsetting. A woman should be able to walk away from a bad marriage without being emotionally blackmailed into staying.