Aisi Hai Tanhai Episodes 9-16 Review:
I finally caught up with the last 4 weeks' episodes and I am impressed with the medical accuracy of the Pakistani Dramas these days. The patients are appropriately intubated, the medical diagnoses are mostly correct and the situations shown are very true to life. The last few episodes dealt with Hamza marrying Kinza out of guilt, Hamza's family not accepting the marriage and Kinza not acceping Hamza as her husband. In the meantime, Pakeeza who was intubated at the hospital, was sexually harassed and raped by a Janitor while she was unconscious. When she finally wakes up, she was appropriately given a "cuff- leak test for extubation (or so I thought what the doctor meant), but I wish they showed more accuracy with Pakeeza's recovery process after she was extubated. A patient develops muscle wasting when they are intubated for weeks like Pakeeza was, and full recovery requires a strenuous and extensive rehabilitation process which Pakeeza was not shown to go through.
The other issue that I do want to discuss and perhaps this is the right opportunity, is that the ICU rooms in any hospital must be monitored 24/7, they ought to have low ICU patient to nurse ratio (we have 1 nurse for 2 ICU patients in US which is the standard of care) and the patient must be frequently checked by nurses throughout the night preferably with another person in the room as a witness. Also, an intubated patient needs to be moved/ repositioned every two hours to avoid any pressure ulcers and from the drama it seemed that Pakeeza was left alone all night by the staff only to be examined in the morning. My other concern is that Pakeeza's injuries/ scratches should have been recorded by the nurse and reported to the physician promptly. I am not sure how accurate the entire scenario was, but judging from medical accuracy, it seems to be more factual than fictitious.
I like how the story has progressed from cyber-crime to sexual harassment of vulnerable individuals in the hospitals, and it was refreshing to see how the doctors discussed Pakeeza's case in a professional, fact based manner. The female physician even discussed "necrophilia with Dr. Saad, which is a romantic, sexual attraction of an individual with a dead body, or simply a body that does not resist at all, and is also classified as a disorder by American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Saad has taken Pakeeza under his wings, providing a roof for her as well as taken up the charge of fighting her battles for her. Pakeeza reluctantly agrees to live at Dr. Saad's home knowing she has no other place to go, and discovers that Dr. Saad has his own issues at home with his sister who may have suffered some traumatic incidence. Meanwhile, Hamza who is married to Kinza, is battling his own demons, and trying to make ends meet. Kinza does not leave any stone unturned to embarass Hamza which he tolerates for Pakeeza's sake.
Unlike some people, I find the introduction of Dr. Saad's sister a very intelligent move for a number of reasons. One, there is a female living in the house, which makes Pakeeza's staying in his house more "acceptable" from an Islamic perspective as well as making it more justifiable to the society. Secondly, it makes sense why Dr. Saad is so highly invested in Pakeeza's case, and willing to fight her battles for her; knowing that he was not able to do the same for his sister. Thirdly, her interactions with Pakeeza showed how strong of a person Pakeeza really is, that nothing could deter her from talking to Aapi, and taking her out of her delutional state of mind. I did not get one thing, is she a call girl? Or just fakes every night? I wish they had thrown more light onn her state of mind, rather than making the audience think she is a "crazy psycho," because from what I understand she has post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from a traumatic event in her life which has made her severely depressed and delutional. It is hard to believe that a neuro intensivist like Dr. Saad has not yet seeked medical help for his own sister who needs medications as well as cognitive behavioral therapy.
Dr. Saad finds out that Pakeeza is pregnant and finally breaks the news to her after repeating the lab test and making sure they were accurate. One thing that did not make sense was that why did they run a pregnancy test on her in the first place? I had seen an episode of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" with a similar story line where they explained that they ran the pregnancy test as a normal routine prior to getting a CT scan done due to risk of radiation to a fetus. Maybe something similar could have been said here too? Pakistani audience is intelligent enough to understand, I think. Pakeeza's reaction on finding out about the pregnancy were a little over the top; I do not know though, because it might be a case by case situation on how patients react to such news, but I think that her remaining quiet would have more impactful than breaking the mirrors in the bathroom. That being said, I am in awe of Pakeeza's strength of character and her courage that despite her own mountain of problems, she wants to help Dr. Saad's sister. This is my first drama of Sonya Hussyn and I love her performance, her dialogue delivery is pitch perfect and I especially love her scenes with Dr. Saad's sister. I also like her chemistry with Dr. Saad more than Hamza to be honest, and I hope that they get together in the end.
One other matter that I want to discuss is the subject of taking the hospital to court. Unless it is a country wide standard of care enforced in all hospitals, this one hospital cannot be held responsible for the Janitor's actions. Pakeeza is actually right, this issue should be solved outside of court with the hospital that is willing to give compensation that can be used by Pakeeza and her child later on. This does not mean that the Janitor will go unpunished (he definitely should), but this particular hospital will not be explicitly named, and the real matter could be raised as a flaw in the medical system country wide and used as a tool to come up with solutions that should become laws and be strictly enforced.
We see Pakeeza deciding to keep her baby because she does not want to take another life because of the viscious behavior of one person. I agree with her decision, and I think it will be well recieved by the population in general as abortion is considered forbidden in Islam. I had hoped though that this drama could shed light on abortion laws/ rules in Islam; I actually did some research myself and it seems that the dominant position of most scholars in that the "rooh" enters the body at 40 days after conception and after that, abortion is considered haraam by most madhahib, except in pressing cases such as rape, and significant deformities in the fetus that are incompatible with life, in which case it is 120 days after conception. I am also curious to know what the laws are in Pakistan regarding abortion and how much they are followed by the physicians, since the female physician told Pakeeza explicity that she "still has time to decide" regarding aborting the fetus.
The emotional side of me and the mommy in me did not want Pakeeza to make the decision to have an abortion, and I am happy with her decision. I understand it will be difficult, but its important to remember that Allah creates every child innocent, and it is not the child's fault that he has half of the genetic makeup of that savage. For those who continue to think this way, they must realize that some of the best sahaba's fathers were the worst enemies of Islam and that one is recognized by their own deeds, rather than the deeds of the father. Also, there is no concept of "illegitimate" child in Islam, which actually omes from our next door neighbors. Also, it is important to realize that not every rape victim is same and they all react differently, and one must not pass judgement regarding whatever decision they make.
Coming to acting, every person has performed their roles well, and I want to especially mention the janitor, he was appropriately chosen for the role, and even his little "gestures were emphasized; for example showing him cleaning his hands with the hand sanitizer after exiting Pakeeza's room. Saba Hameed has been awesome throughout and I wonder how she will be treated by her daughter and Hamza when they find out that she poisoned Pakeeza.
Nadia Khan is probably the weakest link, although her chemistry with Sami Khan is amazing, much more than Sonya Hussyn unfortunately. Which makes me come to the conclusion that acting good does not have a whole lot to do with chemistry, right? But to give her credit, she has not acted in a long time, and she did tone down her facial expressions and dialogue delivery in the latest episodes. Sami Khan is brilliant as usual and his "breakdown scene with Nadia Khan was exceptional, his ego got the better of him finally! Kinza is right, Hamza is partly responsible for initiating this catastrophe; he was the one who instigated Pakeeza to take the inappropriate pictures in the first place due to his persistence. That being said, I like Hamza and Kinza more anyways, and I may be in the minority but I am looking forward to both of them falling for each other! Kinza did realize that she overdid the "vengeance part; we will see Hamza getting injured while boxing in the next episode in an attempt to make some extra cash. Will we see come cute scenes between the two? Fingers crossed! Looking forward to the next episode.
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