A hard-hitting and belligerent swing at patriarchism
“Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength” – G.D. Anderson.
Churails is all about the strength of woman power which got suppressed due to the onslaught of men who treat women as slaves and means to satiate their desires. Out of suppression and exploitation, emerged a force of women who turned the world of men upside by becoming Churails (witches), a web series from Zindagi streaming now on Zee5.
Storyline
Four female protagonists Sara Khan (Sarwat Gilwani), Jugnu Chaudhry (Yasra Rizwi), Zubaida (Mehar Bano) and Batool (Nimra Bucha) who are from different strata and varied backgrounds in Pakistan get together after facing a crisis in their personal lives to start an agency with a tag line Mard Ko Dard Hoga whose motto is to help the hapless women who suffer at the hands of men and teach them a befitting lesson.
Sara Khan who comes from an affluent family finds the darker side of her husband and she decides to do something to teach the whole men a lesson. She along with Jugnu, the wedding planner, and Batool who joins her as a maid along with Zubaida who sets herself free from the torture of her father launches the secret agency by using the boutique by the name Halal Designs as a front to execute their plans.
Things go smoothly till halfway with Churails marked by considerable increase in income as well as the client base. But things start getting deteriorated with Churails expanding their network, as a result, they start becoming a target for the men who want to stop Churails from exposing their secrets.
Performances of actors
Brilliant performances by all four lead actors are a plus point of this series. Everyone has their distinct style and aura which made their characters unique and different.
Bucha in the most negative kind of role among the four is the pick of all and she had all the qualities to become a good character actor in near future. Hope her dream of becoming a household name in India may become true very soon.
Gilwani as a sophisticated urbanite looks pretty and has done extremely well especially her scenes with her husband stand apart.
Rizvi too grabs the attention with an anglicized accent and she is brilliant while delivering all those English lines with a unique tone and a touch of authority (hope her voice is not dubbed).
Bano is cute and she exhibited great talent in some of her initial scenes as a boxer which she has done with great conviction.
Direction & Technical Aspects
Churails is entirely a creator director Asim Abbasi’s dream child. Though he had taken the assistance of consultants like Zahra Mirza, Anam Abbas, and Amna Soomra with inputs from the star cast, whole Churails got its uplift mainly because of the vision and execution of Abbasi.
The individual stories took a toll on the run time of the series but it is understandable keeping in view the wider canvas of Churails which needs to justify the frustration and anger behind each character.
Though the whole story is heavily loaded in favour of women branding the whole men as exploiters, the narrative and presentation of Abbasi have added authenticity to the story, as a result, all those blemishes can be ignored.
Churails are not Charlies’ Angels even though there is a slight resemblance but Churails are a class of their own with a distinct variation which differentiates them from Charlies’ Angels. Moreover, Churails has a much bigger agenda than Charlies’ Angels and much larger scores to settle.
The music by Saad Hayat and Taha Malik is simply mind-blowing and all those songs are really good to hear especially the title song sung by Zoe Viccaji is top -notch.
Verdict & Rating
It’s lengthy and a wee bit stretched with a run time of around 60 minutes for each episode in this 10 episodes series, it requires a lot of patience to go through all episodes. But patience pays off as it gives an entirely different perspective of women emancipation and above all the performances of actors with a gripping narrative keep the viewer engaged albeit with breaks.
Being a collaborative effort which was shot entirely in Pakistan, Churails opened new avenues and Zee5 need to be applauded for making this possible by opening the green corridor for Churails to reach the homes across the border.
