Baaghi (TV series)


Baaghi is a drama serial that premiered on Urdu 1 on 27 July 2017. It is a biographical based TV show on the famous, controversial Pakistani figure Qandeel Baloch who was murdered by her brother in the name of honor in July 2016. The screenplay of this drama has been done by Umera Ahmed. Saba Qamar is playing the lead character of Fauzia/Qandeel in the series. Within a week of its launch, Baaghi became the most watched serial being viewed by Pakistanis on YouTube and has also been the limelight of controversies, as expected. The drama is one of the most hyped TV serials ever produced in Pakistan.

Plot

Fauzia Batool is a beautiful young girl who lives in a village house along with her parents, a younger brother, a younger sister, an older brother Rahim and Rahim's wife Asma. Fauzia's older sister Nazia is married and she constantly keeps getting beaten by her husband. Fauzia keeps telling Nazia to not allow her husband to hit her which keeps enraging her brother-in-law Fauzia is the apple of her father's eye; Fauzia's mother also loves her, however, she punishes Fauzia as Fauzia is outspoken and rebellious.
Fauzia's sister-in-law is manipulative and has the complete control over her husband. Asma's brother Sajid falls in love with Fauzia and compels Asma to ask for her hand. Asma is strongly against the marriage as she does not want her brother to marry such a 'sharp' woman. Sajid manages to convince his sister who, in turn, convinces Rahim, and that too very easily. Rahim and Asma talk to Fauzia's parents about the proposal, who are initially reluctant but finally succumb to the pressure exerted by the couple, and Sajids mother, and, eventually confirm the proposal. However, Fauzia rejects the relation firstly because Sajid was a lazy jobless person who would sit on the road all day doing nothing and also because she has dreams of becoming famous and independent - creating a social career. Hence marrying Sajid would derail her dreams. But Fauzia's family tells her that it is too late to refuse to the marriage as the whole village has been told about it and calling off the engagement just before the wedding would ruin their reputation.
Fauzia, however falls in love with Abid, the owner of a cosmetic shop in her neighbourhood who recently returned from Dubai. Abid has promised to allow and help her to accomplish all her dreams and gives her many magazines of models. Fauzia tries her best to marry him and he even sends his proposal through is mother but Fauzia's mother rejects. Her wedding day with Sajid arrives but she escapes right before the ceremony.
Having no other option left, she goes to the Chaudhry and Chaudrani of the village, who help and tell her father to get Fauzia married to Abid. Fauzia and Abid, in due course, get married. However, Abid loses interest in Fauzia after their marriage. Soon, they have a son. Soon, Fauzia discovers that Abid is having an affair with Ruby, leading to conflict between Fauzia and Abid, but they reunite, but occasionally continue to fight. Fauzia wants to be a model as Abid had promised to allow her to, but after the marriage he insists her to sit at home and raise their child. Abid, also physically abuses Fauzia. Amidst his outrageous fighting he divorced Fauzia and throws her out of his house. Devastated, she leaves the village and travels to Karachi to be a model and make a career and provide for her initial family. The company she works for sends her a beautician Gogi/Rehaan who gives her a makeover, improves her English and gives her lessons of speaking English with an accent. Meanwhile, Abid, who has divorced Fauzia, marries Ruby and gives legal custody of his child to his sister to take care for. After hearing of this news, Fauzia become depressed - and is, now, desperate to get a job and reclaim her child. Meanwhile, the company owner/boss, Gauhar introduced Fauzia to the party life of elite class. Enraged, Fauzia leaves the company as soon as she realizes this and decides to go to a woman's hostel. The caretaker of the hostel is an evil woman and seeing Fauzia for how she was, she decides to send her as an escort to a rich man's house. Fauzia realizes this when she reaches the house and meets with the rich man. Fauzia runs from there and goes back to Gogi/Rehaan and starts living with him. But for many months, she does not get work. So, although reluctantly but given the circumstances, she desperately returns to the company that she was initially in, by apologizing to the boss, Gauhar. Gradually, she starts refining herself and agrees to work on Gauhar's terms, earning money. She started uploading her videos on social media and gained a lot of fan following as well as bashing and haters. After many episodes, the entry of Shehryar takes place and Fauzia and Shehryar start getting closer. Shehryar is a widower who lost his first wife and daughter in an accident few years ago and he starts falling for Fauzia's true real innocent nature. However she does not reveal about her marriage, divorce or son. Meanwhile, Fauzia's father, faces an accident which results in the cutting of one of his legs. So, Fauzia meets her family in the hospital after a very long time and pays off for all her father's hospital expenses by working however and whatever way she can. She even takes a house in the city and shifts her family to the city for some days until her father gets a new leg fixed at a private hospital in the city. Meanwhile, she gets close to her family and also provides them with all the amenities which were not available in the village. She also lends money to her elder brother, just to pay - off his rent and other debts and to maintain a cordial relationship with him. Moreover, Shehryar gives a diamond ring to Fauzia and proposes to her in an indirect manner. Initially she agrees but she refuses when she thinks herself as unworthy of his love. However, she gradually realizes that agreeing to marry him would result in her getting a safe exit from the world of glamour. She agrees to marry him. Overjoyed, Shehryar takes Fauzia to his house and makes his mother meet Fauzia. Her life seemed to get calm when all of a sudden a breaking news is shared on television channels which mentions her real name and reveals the details of her past including her marriage and child. The TV channels also showed interview of her ex-husband who twisted the facts and stated that she ran away from his house on the pretext of working in media and did n0t even care about her infant son. The son who was now a few years of age, had completely no memory of his mother and hence agreed to what his father had fed him against his mother. This broke Fauzia's heart very badly since she did not expect to be hated by her own son and that, too on baseless lies. On the other hand, Sheheryar feels hurt on finding out the truth in this way. However his mother tells him to give Fauzia at least a chance to tell her side of the story. On hearing the truth from her own mouth, Shehryar's affection and respect for Fauzia increases and he promises to never leave her and assured her that one day he will help her bring back her son because his daughter was dead but her son was alive. They happily decide to start the wedding preparations and she meanwhile decides to pay a final visit to her parents' house.
The media breaking her past story also became the cause of her own family including her parents and siblings finding out her job and they were all extremely angry at her since Fauzia had previously told them that she earned her money by working on a boutique. However, when she visits them and informs them of her decision to marry Shehryar, their anger starts to subside. However, her younger brother, who now had become a drug addict, was mocked by his friends and peers for having such a reckless sister who was bringing shame to the name of their family. He drugs her and then strangles her in her semi- conscious state. Fauzia's whole life flashes in front of her eyes as she makes frail attempts to free herself. Eventually she dies and her brother runs away. Next morning her younger sister finds her dead body in the room. The news soon spreads like wildfire and media breaks the news which ultimately reaches Sheheryar as well who is numb with grief. Fauzia's brother is arrested by police and Fauzia's father cried helplessly on his daughter's murder. He initially did not want to forgive his son however he reluctantly had to give in to his elder son and Fauzia's mother's plea. A woman is shown visiting Fauzia's father who, after paying condolences, asks for his permission to make a documentary on Fauzia's life. He gives the permission and as a token of thanks, the lady hands him over an envelope containing money which he later hands over to Fauzia's mother saying Fauzia sent that money. The last scene of the drama shows Shehryar sitting on Fauzia's grave and recalling all the good times he had spent with her since the time he had first met her. He remembers how once, she had mentioned to him about her love for red roses, adding as a joke to bring two dozen red flowers to her grave in case she dies. He had hushed away her joke but she in her carefree mood, had made him promise to do that. Pulling himself out of the flashback, a teary eyed Shehryar puts a bouquet of two dozen red roses on her grave and leaves.
The end of the drama shows a burning candle with Fauzia's voice in the background, addressing society, stating that she had left the world, however good or bad she was. She adds that the society snatched away her any chances of redemption. She questions in the end whether the society was pure now, after killing her. The candle is blown off.

Cast