“Sabaat” earns rave reviews each week due to the chemistry between Mawra Hocane and Ameer Gilani and their beautiful portrayal of Hassan and Anaya. Now married, Hassan and Anaya continue to face problems from Hassan’s family, specifically Miraal. Lately, the show has been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism due to the unethical relationship between Miraal and Haaris, played by Sarah Khan and Usman Mukhtar.
Fortunately, the ethical issue between Dr. Haaris (Usman Mukhtar) essentially sorts itself out this week, though in a slightly creepy way. Dr. Haaris emails Miraal, referring her to other doctors and removing himself from her case in order to…..date her. There’s something very illogical, careless and irritating about this entire scenario. While yes, it’s nice to see that Dr. Haaris himself understood that his interest in Miraal was a breach of ethics and removed himself from the problem, the question still remains: What does Dr. Haaris see in Miraal other than her appearance? In this episode, he states that he is drawn to her and seems impressed by her “attachment” to her Naani. He also states that she’s getting better and is almost done with her treatment. Excuse me? Anyone watching Miraal can see that she is, in fact, getting progressively worse. And while yes, Dr. Haaris can only base his assessment on what Miraal says, it says a lot about what kind of psychiatrist Dr. Haaris must be – he’s simply not asking any of the right questions or making any effort to delve deeper into Miraal’s issues. In a way, one almost feels Dr. Haaris deserves a wife like Miraal and will have to suffer the consequences of his actions later on. There isn’t much to praise here, the concept just makes one uncomfortable that not only is Dr. Haaris interested, but Miraal is also interested (in her psychiatrist) and both their friends are encouraging this behavior.
Hassan (Ameer Gilani) and Anaya (Mawra Hocane) continue to steal the show as one of the best on-screen couples. Sharing some sweet scenes in the beginning, their story takes off when Anaya’s team loses a big project (due to Hassan’s friend) and Anaya finds herself at the receiving end of Miraal’s anger. While this isn’t anything new, as Miraal blames Anaya for anything under the sun, things get heated when Miraal slaps Anaya during a team meeting. Humiliated at being treated this way in front of her co-workers, Anaya tearfully heads to her parents place. Hassan, who finds out what happened through Miraal, speaks to Anaya’s parents and then Anaya. The relationship between Anaya and Hassan has always been beautiful and continues to be in how the two care for each other. However, in this episode, it seems as though Anaya inwardly holds Hassan responsible for tying her hands with his promise to ignore Miraal (instead of dealing with her head-on). Relationships can be strong, but will always falter if degraded at the hands of other relationships.
Sabaat Episode 14: Sarah Khan and Usman Mukhtar’s Characters Draw Criticism
Mawra Hocane is the star of this show and she performs so well in this episode, particularly in the moments after Anaya is slapped by Miraal. Mawra portrays Anaya’s internal conflict so well as her emotions spill out on her face. Ameer Gilani supports her well, as always and is an endearingly natural actor. Hassan is visibly upset at the end of this episode and the audience almost believes Hassan is going to get himself killed somehow, but fortunately that does not happen. Instead, it seems Hassan may make some big decisions for himself and Anaya to get away from Miraal. Will Hassan and Anaya move out? We’ll have to wait and see what “Sabaat” holds for the audience in the future, but this episode certainly gave the show a push forward.
