Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam review: Hauntingly Liberating Kick – Ass Feminist Noir

Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam review: Hauntingly Liberating Kick – Ass Feminist Noir

What: Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam review - ZEE5 & Zindagi first of its kind collaboration with award winning British Indian director Meenu Gaur is a kick – ass feminist desi noir anthology series that breaks norms and is hauntingly liberating and deadly.

OTT web series Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam synopsis

Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam’ is set in the timeless lanes of ‘AndroonSheher’ - a mythical neighborhood and showcases stories of love, lust, power, and redemption woven in a web of betrayal, angst, and revenge.

Each story from the anthology depicts the fearlessness of women and their determination to avenge deceit. At the core of the stories is mystery, suspense, and intrigue with twist endings.

OTT web series Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam review

A professor shayar by day and a contract killer by night Gulab (Ahshan Khan) and his best friend Balam (Daniyal Asad) fall for the same woman played by Sarwat Gilani. After few years at night both Balam (who is now with the woman Gulab loved more than anything else) and Gulab come face to face.

A gay hairdresser and a rich bisexual industrialist is torn between his gay hairdresser lover and his wife Zuvi (Sanam Saeed) who believes she is an artiste. The hairdresser commits suicide but there is more to what meets the naked eye.

Mocked as an ‘aunty’ a caring nurse (Faiza Gilani) is nursing a wounded killer. The typical male cops make fun of the nurse. The nurse and the killer start feeling for each other and then they elope and we see a solid twist that punches the prejudice and discrimination hard.

Followed by Mrs Massey (Beo Rana Zafar) – aged widow of an honest justice who goes at lengths to get justice.

Writer director Meenu Gaur along with her co writer Farjad Nabi create a rustic, mystic, urban, ancient & rural atmosphere with vibrantly wicked undercurrents of pulp, de noir coined with sufi music and poetry.

All the stories get a connection with the saga of Mai (Samiya Mumtaz) and her husband Najji Shah (Saleem Mairaj) - the influential strong religious head. Mai lives in her palatial villa which has some devastating secrets and hidden truths.

After the boisterous ‘Churails’ producer Shailja Kejriwal, with those lovely Pakistani actresses and ZEE5 turn the tide in the ‘Zindagi’ of dark de noir murder mystery genre with ‘Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam.

All the stories pack a punch and are successful in breaking the mould in its tribute to Macbeth, Kafka, Hitchcock, Ved Prakash – all with a gender twist of course.

The female fatale this time in Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam kick the dominance of male-centric stories in the noir genre and change the sexism of dark, pulp noir to feminist noir.

The performances are remarkable where Samiya Mumtaz, Beo Raana Zafar, Sanam Saeed and Faiza Gilani stand out.

Solid support comes from Saleem Mairaj as Najji Shah and others.