Written by: Hurmat Majid
Posted on: December 16, 2019 | 
| 中文
Damsa Being Kidnapped
The monotony of television has been broken at last. Damsa, ARY's latest drama written by Asma Nabeel and directed by Najaf Bilgrami, touches upon child abduction, trafficking, and begging, topics that are much talked about, but not explored sensitively enough on TV. The drama follows the lives of a family that go through the horrid experience of having their daughter kidnapped.
Musa (Shahood Alvi) and Areeja (Nadia Jamil), are a couple who dote on each other and their two kids, Damsa (Eemaan Sheikh) and Raheem (Falak Naeem). The two working parents have the same struggles as many middle-class, millennial families do. Areeja has a typical mother-in-law who, on one hand hates her, on the other expects Areeja to wait on her hand and foot. Musa is shown to have a job as a restaurant manager, who is concerned by the fact that his wife works as a hospital staff to make their ends meet.
The family's life changes one day when Damsa is kidnapped in front of her mother's eyes. The loss is almost unbearable for Areeja, and her emotional struggle begins to unfold in the drama. She refuses to go to work, or send Raheem to school, and spends days and nights trying to come up with ways to look for her daughter.
Shahood Alvi as Musa and Nadia Jamil as Areeja
The couple’s attempt to cope with such a harrowing experience places an excruciating strain on their relationship. Despite their increasingly difficult relationship, the horrors their daughter must be going through keep the two awake at night, and they communicate their feelings to each other. While the two understand that what happened is no one’s fault, Areeja blames Musa for going back to work and moving on so quickly from the incident.
Nadia Jamil as Areeja
Musa, on the other hand, keeps asking Areeja to "come back to her senses". All this while, little Raheem cannot fathom his parents’ neglect. However, he is shown to understand that his sister is gone, and that his parents are trying to look for her.
Parallel to this storyline, Musa's boss Sohail (Talat Hussain), is shown fighting his own uphill battle. He tries to bring his daughter Saman (Momal Sheikh), out of her depression, which was the result of severe abuse at the hands of her in-laws, and the recent death of her child. Foundations have been set for Areeja and Saman's worlds to collide, but the meeting is yet to take place.
Pakistan's dismal police system is also brought under scrutiny, as we discover that the policemen are in cahoots with the child traffickers. These very policemen repeatedly tell Areeja and Musa, that they're doing everything they can to find Damsa. But they take money from a criminal gang who act as beggars, in exchange for turning a blind eye to their activities.
Damsa (C) with the Gang of Beggars
In the background, Damsa's journey is shown to be extremely difficult and full of trauma. She is passed through multiple hands, while not quite understanding what is happening to her and the others with her. Being the caring big sister that she is, she tries her best to protect the children around her, but is not met with much success.
The drama carefully explores the psychological struggle of a child trying to understand a very complex and difficult situation in a realistic manner. She comprehends the perils she may have to face, yet her innocence allows her to have hope that she may run away and reunite with her family.
‘Damsa’ explores the difficult topic of child abduction and begging with some depth and empathy. The drama never lets the audience forget the fact that the horrors these children experience are real. Six episodes into the drama, it holds promise for successfully opening a dialogue about some of the serious social issues plaguing our society, which hitherto have been neglected by our television.
Nadia Jamil and Eemaan Sheikh on the set of Damsa
However, at this point, the drama has raised many questions, and it is uncertain whether they will all be answered. Will the show be able to successfully continue its momentum, and answer to the questions it has raised with the same finesse as it has built them? Another question is whether the showrunners will try to keep the story real and show us what really happens to these children. Or will they take a milder approach, and show us an ideal and happy ending? And, in the case of the latter, how will the audiences react?
‘Damsa’ airs on Mondays at 9:00 PM. For Nadia Jamil’s interview about making ‘Damsa’, click here.
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