Ruling the Roost Series: #5 - Pakeeza

Pakeeza brought Aamina Sheikh, an actress who refuses to be repetitive with her roles and strives to bring something new to the table, back to our TV screen after a gap, her last being Jackson Heights.  Her name is synonymous with quality and we are definitely on the receiving end of that with Pakeeza.

Pakeeza tells the story of a woman, Pakeeza (Aamina Sheikh), trapped in a loveless, abusive marriage where she is both physically abused and verbally belittled on a daily basis.  Her sole shining star is her daughter Kiran (Iqra Chaudhary).  Jibran (Ali Khan) may be a poor husband, but dotes on Kiran as well and she is the center of his world.  Pakeeza's escape from her life of chaos is her gallery, which she co-owns with her sister in law Naima (Angeline Malik), her support system, as she's not just her sister-in-law, but her best friend who sees the evil toll their childhood has taken on her vindictive brother.  We also have Azeem (Adnan Siddiqui), who is Naima's brother-in-law and also part-owner of the gallery, a man who has loved Pakeeza for as long as he can remember and continued loving her post her marriage.

The story truly began when Jibran, in a spate of anger, divorced Pakeeza.  At this time, with talk of Kiran's "rishta" in the works and Kiran's poor health, Jibran and Pakeeza continued to live under one roof, living in separate rooms and pretending all is well. 

This is the basic storyline for Pakeeza, but in recent weeks, new developments have pushed the story in a direction that left the viewer wondering "How will this end?"

Pakeeza is a show that, despite having a very slow pace and incredibly slow, uneventful and repetitive episodes.....somehow it simply works. 

I think we can attribute that to the powerhouse of talent that this cast is comprised of.  With Aamina Sheikh at the helm, playing the lead role of Pakeeza, I did not expect to be disappointed.  However, her being supported by Adnan Siddiqui, Angeline Malik and Aly Khan is no small deal and these four actors really deliver with each episode.  

Last we saw, Pakeeza is now happily, joyously married to Azeem, Kiran has gotten married to Saif, Pakeeza has moved out of Jibran's home with Naima's blessing and has finally told Kiran that she will never go back to her father (though she has not told her of her relationship with Azeem and the already-happened divorce).  As a viewer, I breathed a sigh of relief.  Finally, Pakeeza was going to be happy!  But wait........

At the end of the last episode, Azeem awakes to admire his beautiful bride and finds her......dead.  I am actually heart-broken at this turn of events and wonder why Pakeeza couldn't have been depicted as having a happy ending.  Why?  Sometimes I wonder what message these shows project to viewers.  HOWEVER, this does make for an interesting story and I assume the show will now go into "Whodunnit?" mode.  How the show continues and carries itself to the end without the character of Pakeeza will be something to wait and see.....

That's the last write up for this series.  I've tried to give so much positivity to each post, haha, but alas, it has to come to an end!  I'm ready to go back to my ranting about horrible shows and also ready to talk about some new, promising shows - which come right on time, since all 5 of these ruling shows are nearing their end.

Until next time, happy watching!