It started with a fairy tale romance. Accomplished, beautiful, progressive and intelligent, Dr. Zara (Mawra Hocane) is the wife of the wealthy, educated and seemingly refined Hassan (Mohib Mirza), who lives alone in his palatial mansion with his paternal grandmother (Azra Mansoor) and is almost everyone’s dream guy. girls. He is handsome, affectionate and can’t wait to marry the beautiful doctor Zara.
But where Disney taught us that beasts are ugly and terrible but can turn into princes, this Pakistani drama shows how princes can be beasts waiting to be released.
The series, written by Samira Fazal and directed by Denmark’s Nawaz, is currently in its 21st episode and its latest offering from Hum TV sparked harsh reactions on social media as it showed Hassan beating Zara until dawn after she insisted that she did not she will have children with a man who does not want to go to therapy.
While most stories may portray the “abuser” as aggressive, callous, and unapologetic, what Jaffa it perfectly shows the type of perpetrator who in South Asian societies is often disguised as a “good” person. He sincerely apologizes. In his apology, he switches to another side of his personality that is almost childlike. He will try to help you, exchange good behavior, and even promise that things will get better if you just stay with him or stay under his “control”.
Many researchers and psychologists also suggest that perpetrators of violence, and even those who sexually assault women, are more likely to commit these crimes in order to exert control. Jaffa cleverly presents (or drops significant hints) about Hassan’s upbringing. He grew up in an abusive home where his father regularly attacked his mother, and “negative judgment” or words like “fool” became Hassan’s trigger words as he developed a broken sense of self-worth.
People with a broken sense of self often resort to controlling others, manipulation, and masking their true negative feelings in order to gain “approval” in the eyes of a partner or society at large. As we see in Jaffathis psychodrama comes into full force when Hassan becomes a troubled man who loses his temper over small matters and has nasty and almost pointless arguments with Dr. Zara for about a minute.
What Jaffa perfectly shows that the perpetrator is not always a textbook case of a perpetrator of violence. You don’t see red flags because some of these abusers are great at protecting their public image and hiding the deep-seated conflicts that turn them into monsters. Mirza skillfully and cunningly portrays Hasan as a loving, attentive and sweet person who in everyday life would not be able to hurt even a fly. But when the Mr. Hyde in him loses control, he becomes a real villain.
The show also highlights the stigma around mental health. After a long and stormy fight with her family, who only support her and want her to return to her parents’ house immediately, Dr. Zara insists that she will be able to fix everything if Hassan consults a psychiatrist. Hassan cheats on Zara because she doesn’t want to talk about her problems or solve her problems. He lies about going to a psychiatrist, which leads to Zara finally snapping. She is ready to leave the house, but during the last confrontation with Hassan, she is beaten black and blue. Since it aired a few hours ago, the episode has been watched by almost 6 million people and continues to be a key point of discussion for theatergoers around the world.
Jafaa the brilliance, subtly and carefully created by Danish Nawaz and his team, also contrasts with the contrast they created in the character of Dr. Numair (played by Usman Mukhtar), who is married to Andaleeb (Sehar Khan), an immature, inconsiderate girl. Numair and Andaleeb meet in dramatic circumstances, and viewers see how Numair’s maturity, kindness and empathy help Andaleeb not only cope with the consequences of truly disastrous life choices, but also become a happier and more fulfilled person.
In a conversation between Dr. Numair and Hassan, as Zara lies almost lifeless in the hospital due to Hassan’s assault, Numair asks Hassan how an educated guy like him could hit his wife and reminds him (and everyone watching) that no man he can prove he is a man by hitting a woman. Jaffa shows that the constant hiding of family secrets, refusal of therapy, inability to process trauma and social engineering showing that a woman must sacrifice everything – from her identity to bodily autonomy – how family members enable perpetrators of violence and that even education cannot save a child person from a toxic, violent relationship.
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