A few years ago, when the digital space was beginning to open up, filmmakers saw it as an opportunity to tell stories without being tied down by box office constraints. Qubool Hai?, the six-episode Telugu-Dakhani series streaming on Aha, is one such example. Sans starry names, Qubool Hai? narrates a dramatised fictional story (by Pranav Pingle Reddy, Sanjiv Chakravarthy and Kevin Ronith Kumar) inspired by real incidents of child marriages and trafficking in Hyderabad’s Old City. Such a premise can lend itself to a compelling narrative. Directed by the trio Pranav, Umair Hasan and Faiz Rai, the series lives up to its potential in some portions but does not come together as a cohesive whole.
There is an authentic, lived-in milieu as Karthik Parmar’s camera leads us into a lower middle-class home that is decked up for a wedding. Beyond the gaiety is the sordid reality of a young girl, in her early teens, being married off to a much older Arab man. Over the years, there have been several news reports of girls being married to elderly men and later trafficked. The series turns its gaze on such instances that continue to happen and appreciably, without voyeurism.
Qubool Hai?
Cast: Abhilasha Poul, Feroze, Vinay Varma
Direction: Pranav Reddy, Umair Hasan and Faiz Rai
Streaming on: Aha
The story is set in the Talabkatta area where circle inspector Faizal Khan (AJ Karrthik) is courting the media spotlight for cracking other, comparatively smaller crimes. A newcomer to this police station is Bhanu Prakash (Manoj Muthyam), who eventually wakes up to the marriage broker and trafficking nexus.
At an NGO that counsels girls who have been rescued, two teachers want to get to the root of the issue, though their paths are different. The physical education teacher Shahnaz (Abhilasha Poul) who teaches girls self-defence techniques wants to tackle the issue head-on while Khatija (Vaishali Bisht) believes in the long-term approach of counselling families against giving away their daughters in such marriages.
Things take a turn when 13-year-old Ameena goes missing. Life goes on in Talabkatta. The only one who has the sense of urgency to track the girl before it is too late is Shahnaz.
The story tries to find answers to pressing questions: what makes families gullible enough to buy into the lofty promises of marriage brokers? How does this network operate? All this unfolds at a rather unhurried pace, which turns out to be a dampener for the story. Perhaps it was intended to reflect the unhurried lifestyle of Hyderabad and the ‘chalta hai’ attitude, but it does not augur well.
On the brighter side, there are some good performances, especially by Abilasha and Feroze. The latter plays Asif, a character from the streets of the Old City, with the authentic Dakhani lingo and diction. Asif has a talent for predicting the outcome of cricket matches and makes tidy sums in betting; he also has a way of speaking and an easy demeanour. When things come to speed, it seems surprising that Asif is indeed naive to not know what he is getting into.
The narrative takes a darker turn when a marriage broker Jawed (Suresh Gehra) and a kingpin, Rafeeq (Vinay Varma), are brought into focus. As usual, Varma stays on beat with what is required for his character and puts up a menacing performance that gets further accentuated by the space he inhabits, like the akhada.
It is easy to guess from a distance the threat to Asif and his family but when the events unfold, it is chilling. There is also an interesting character called Burqewali, who becomes a symbol of retaliation and liberation. This aspect could have been explored better. We get fleeting lines and pictorial symbols of how the Burqewali is beginning to be revered by girls in the locality, but it is not enough. Towards the end, there is a terrific episode where the Burqewali takes on a mighty force, but then, the camera keeps cutting away to show us what is happening in another space, which is not half as interesting. Jerry Silvester Vincent’s music score heightens the tempo in the final episodes. If only these episodes had also been edited better to build the tension.
The production design by Rohan Singh deserves a mention and the team, as a whole, needs to be appreciated for exploring the nooks and crannies of the Old City well enough.
The series ends on a cliffhanger, leaving a few questions unanswered. Had the series been more tightly edited with better pacing, it could have made for a gripping drama rather than something that engages in parts.
(Qubool Hai? is streaming on Aha)
Published - March 14, 2022 04:23 pm IST
