“Sabaat” continues to move forward as the show hits 25 episodes. Starring Mawra Hocane, Ameer Gilani, Sarah Khan and Usman Mukhtar in lead roles, “Sabaat” has made its place as a fan favorite. However, in recent episodes, it has gotten off-track. In episode 25, as Hassan (Ameer Gilani) remains in depression over the failure of his marriage and Anaya’s “betrayal,” his mother tries to make him see reason – but Hassan makes it clear that his mother is welcome to speak to him, not Anaya’s spokesperson. His mother can see Hassan slipping away, turning into a shell of the man he once was, all because of his own insecurities and faults which he has conveniently pinned blame for on Anaya. Meanwhile, the snake-like Atif (Abbas Ashraf Awan) continues trying to turn Hassan against Anaya, but it backfires on him when Hassan snaps, forbidding him from speaking about Anaya and overstepping his boundaries again.
Anaya (Mawra Hocane) and her mother (Seemi Raheel) continue to mourn in the wake of Anaya’s father’s death (Mohammad Ahmed). When Anaya’s college friends visit, she fills them in on what has been going on and they console her, though they try to reason with her regarding resuming her job. Anaya has decided that she will not work until after the birth of her child to avoid Hassan finding out about the baby and puts in the request for her leave. Unfortunately, Anaya’s mother is taken for a ride when “bank employees” arrive at her door and take her husband’s bank card, pin and checkbook, stating that it’s normal procedure after a death. In her innocence, she hands over all this information. Both she and Anaya are shocked later to discover that the bank account has been drained. While this seemed unnecessary in the promo last week, this week this angle does make sense. First, it highlights how the elderly are preyed upon, particularly in moments when they are at their most vulnerable. Anaya’s mother is certainly not an unintelligent woman, but she is innocent and homely and has always been protected by her husband and daughter. The second thing this problem accomplishes is that it will force Anaya back into the workplace as she can no longer afford to sit at home for 7 months, even if the bank returns the money slowly. This will force an eventual confrontation between Hassan and Anaya. This episode belongs to Mawra Hocane and Seemi Raheel. These two ladies share such wonderful chemistry and while Mohammad Ahmed’s absence is missed, their scenes only cement the feeling of the family bond between the two characters.
Dr. Haaris (Usman Mukhtar) is disturbed by Miraal’s (Sarah Khan) avoidance and behavior. Her behavior takes a turn for the worst when she bumps into Ali in the streets by chance and confronts him with hostility. They sit down and talk and Miraal informs Ali that she’s now “happily married,” sending Ali into shock. Miraal is pleased to hear Ali beg her to consider his love and decides to use Ali and Haaris against each other to extract her revenge against both men. This entire angle has become weak. The Ali angle seems to be an afterthought. How could any man claim to have been waiting for Miraal to “cool down” and still be in love with her when he hasn’t seen her in a year and has clearly been back in Pakistan without contacting Miraal? She ran into him by pure chance, this was not a scheduled meeting. Ali is now hooked again and Miraal only encourages the behavior after Haaris spots the two together and confronts her. Miraal is now using her marriage to make Ali jealous while using Ali to make Haaris miserable. But for how long will Miraal continue to get pleasure out of this situation? Like her friend tells her – what will she get out of it? Is there anything to be gained from these games? Miraal desperately needs a psychiatrist and the most unfortunate part of the situation is that her husband is still unable to see that, despite being a psychiatrist himself.
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Sarah Khan performs well in this episode, but Miraal is becoming a “dead end” character. Where is the growth? When will something happen to change her? When will there be a turning point for this character? Will she ever acknowledge her mental health issues or will she just be written off in the end in a rushed scene? We are now at episode 25 and Miraal is still at the level of instability she was in at the beginning of the show. Mawra Hocane and Seemi Raheel are the stars of the episode and carry it forward with their performances. “Sabaat” was once a very well-written show, but the strengths the script once had is no longer present. The emotional scenes have been well-written and the performances are great, but the writing just isn’t as strong as it has been in past
