Following the motion poster and teaser reveal of the Zee5’s upcoming Pakistani series Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam (QHKN), the anticipation around the show grew double as the female performers headlining the show are all powerhouses of talent and the new genre — desi feminist noir — was enough to make minds curious as what to expect. With hashtags like “born to kill, not kneel”, QHKN gave an impression that this series will own the adage ‘Hell heath no fury like a woman scorned”, and rightfully so, as the trailer that has released a few hours ago represented just that.
In an online launch event, attended by the cast, writer, producer, director and journalists from both sides of the border, the dark and gritty trailer of Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam was released, leaving all with feelings of awe, uneasiness, excitement and wonder at the same time. The series, which is all set to premiere on 10th December, 2021, is written by Farjad Nabi and Meenu Gaur.
Meenu claims that “QHKN is a tribute/ ode to all qatil haseenas, vamps, femme fatales, whatever you name them. The stories of these women who are labelled as “bad women” are usually told from a man’s perspective. So, there has never been a story that showed why a woman turned hostile. QHKN has mystery, suspense, drama, plot twists; it’s a desi noir which has a female voice over to narrate the story,” she said, adding, “I was always fascinated by noir but you cannot cut and paste the same western formula here. Hence, I’ve translated the genre for the series to make it more desi.”
“QHKN is an anthology; every story has a thematic progression and they connected with a single thread questioning what would lead a woman to kill or fight?” Meenu shared.
The series features seven ace performers like Samiya Mumtaz, Beo Raana Zafar, Faiza Gillani, Sarwat Gilani, Sanam Saeed, Mehar Bano and Eman Suleman, who introduced their dark and mysterious characters respectively and shared how they found them very liberating as Mehar Bano aptly pointed out that “women are used to the idea of being shrunk to just victims of mistreatment; here we are telling every — not just the women of Pakistan — that women can be protagonists and not victims in a story.”
The trailer also shows us snippets of other stars including Rubya Chaudhry, Ahsan Khan, Saleem Mairaj, Osman Khalid Butt and Sheheryar Munawar amongst others. By the looks of the hard-hitting trailer, the characters played by these women are turning the tables; women in folklores and fairy tales are always the oppressed gender, but QHKN tells fiery tales that give voice to women to break the stereotypical notions imposed by years of stories delivered through male gaze.
When asked what is the core message that they aim to deliver with this series, Samiya said: “Don’t meddle with us [women] or else.” This was a hint towards her dialogue in the series: “Agar ishq sacha ho tou ya dil lahu lahu hota ha ya hath [if love is true, it’s either the heart that is bloodied or the hands].”
Read: Teaser out: Women to smash the patriarchy in ‘Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam’
These seven fierce women in the story are taking back the rein of their lives and are in control. This is essentially revolutionary content for Pakistan where feminist stories are rare. The last one was the hit series Churails by Zee5. Interestingly, some of the cast members of QHKN were also a part of Churails. So, how difficult or challenging it was for them to keep it different from their previous role of a badass female.
“The concept is novel, the aesthetics are novel and every individual’s story connecting into one narrative is novel as well,” Meenu emphasized.
“Churails was more contemporary, while QHKN has a local setting where things are forced upon women. This is a noir, and the coating is completely different because it’s a post-modern genre but more rooted in culture. I believe the visual treatment is the highlight with tilted cameras, lightening, skewed compositions, every element is unique. Meenu has taken noir genre and turn it on its head,” Sarwat explained.
Meenu also pointed out that they tried to break the stereotypical representation of “Qatil Haseenas” as well. “They should not be only young, beautiful and seductive women; we have women of all ages in our stories. We wanted to shatter the perennial archetypes,” she said.
In reply to a query about taking the extreme route (a desi feminist noir) to counter the stereotypical narrative, Meenu replied: “We’ve been watching the same kind of content from male gaze and we are okay with it. Here, we have included all the basics for a noir because that is the genre we aimed for and then there is plenty playfulness and mystery.”
To wrap it all up, Beo Raana Zafar concluded: “QHKN emphasizes that women are strong enough to balance out the prejudices whether it is a matter of revenge, ambition, justice, love, deceit, power and lust.”
Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam is directed by Meenu Gaur and produced by Hasan Abidi and Shailja Kejriwal. It will premiere on 10th December, 2021 on Zee5.
Don’t miss the highly-anticipated trailer and watch it here:
