Dr. Bahu, the play airing on ARY nowadays, is setting the TRPs ablaze and social media is abuzz with speculation about how the story will unfold. Some feel that Kubra Khan (Sania) is a thankless and ungrateful woman, while others believe that she is in the right and should fight for her rights. Married into an extremely wealthy family, where her father and brother in law are both oncologists, she is adamant about pursuing her profession. However, all the promises made before the wedding are now turning out to be hollow, as her father-in-law is hell bent on controlling not only his sons, but the daughters-in-laws’ lives also.
The elder son, Adeel Hussain, married to Mina (Hajra Yamin), is involved with a female colleague, another doctor working in their hospital. She is aware of his extra marital affair, but as she is unable to have children, is forced to put up with it. Her infertility is rubbed in her face by her husband and on one occasion, even by his lover, when she berates her for arriving late. Although she is a gynaecologist by profession, she has been forced to put her profession on the back burner and is expected to shoulder all the domestic responsibilities. If she does choose to work, it can only be in her father in law’s hospital, where he rules everything with an iron hand.
The younger daughter in law has aspirations of becoming a surgeon and appears for her FCPS Part 1 exam only a couple of days after her wedding. Expressing her wish to do her residency in another doctor’s hospital, she is unprepared for the lengths her father in law will go to, including revoking her medical license, to ensure that she doesn’t. Like her sister-in-law, she is also being browbeaten and controlled by her father-in-law, who, according to her husband (his younger son) has a God syndrome. When he stands up for his wife, an ugly confrontation follows, much to the growing distress of his mother.
The mother-in-law offers little emotional support to her daughters-in-law and before laying the blame at her door, the viewers are offered an insight into her marital life, where she is merely a puppet in her husband’s hands. He has no respect or regard for her and has no qualms about telling her off in the presence of his daughters-in-law. In fact, she is a convenient scapegoat in the sense that he vents all his frustration and anger on her and blames her for everything that goes wrong on the domestic front.
This play captures the dynamics of a so-called enlightened and progressive household, ruled by a patriarch, in the shape of the father-in-law, who brooks no interference of any kind in his personal or professional affairs. The final word is always his and he expects everyone to jump through hoops, when he issues the command. This, of course, poses a problem for the latest entrant, the younger daughter-in-law, who often comes into conflict with him. When her father in law threatens to revoke her license, she confides in her husband and what follows is anybody’s guess.
As is expected, the mother in law berates her for creating rifts between the father and son and for breaking up the family unit, in short, perpetuating the vicious cycle instead of breaking it. This shows how bright and ambitious young women; are forced to toe the line after marriage, and reduced to a shadow of their former bright and bubbly selves. By downplaying their achievements and accomplishments and by forcing them to conform in the interest of maintaining domestic harmony, they are coerced and manipulated into submission.
People want doctor bahus; but on their own terms. A doctor bahu is like a status symbol and they want to brag about the fact that their daughters-in-law are bright, young, ambitious professionals. After all, it adds to the family prestige and standing, and this play effectively captures how the two doctor bahus are systematically brainwashed and pressurised to adhere to the family dynamics and when they try to resist, the reprisal is swift. The father-in-law brooks no opposition or interference in family or professional matters and everybody who lives in his house, is expected to toe the line.
Will Sania be able to pursue her dreams or will her father-in-law end up destroying her life and her career? How will she cope in a household, where all the odds are stacked against her? Her only ally is her husband, who tries to keep her spirits up and takes a stand for her, unafraid of the repercussions.
Mehreen Jabbar is proving her directorial prowess once again with this venture, which touches on a lot of hitherto unexplored issues. As Sania struggles to adjust in a male dominated household, will there be more confrontations with her father-in-law? Who will eventually be caught in the crossfire?
Keep watching as some serious fireworks are in the offing! Stay tuned!
Gaitee Ara Siddiqi
2 Kashmir Rd
Lahore
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The writer is an educationist and can be reached at [email protected].
