I’d heard a lot of positive things about Churails and was excited to watch it. Zee5 makes the first episode available for free, so if you’re curious, head over to watch it now. Though fair warning, the show is rather addictive. 

The trailer of Churails shows that it is about four women from different backgrounds starting a detective agency to track unfaithful men. While this premise sounded a bit gimmicky, the treatment looked excellent in the trailer. 

The show begins with a cold open. A police interrogation is taking place. A woman is tied up. But we will have to go through the story to learn what happened in the past. 

Zubeida is a girl from a poor family with conservative parents. They do not allow her to go to college without her 11 year old brother accompanying her as a bodyguard. He blackmails her into giving him money or else he will blab to the parents. Zubeida is not a docile person. She is on Tinder and she wants to be a boxer. 

Sara Khan is the second woman we meet. She comes from an incredibly wealthy life. Everything is picture perfect - her kids, her house, her husband. But one deviation from this perfection and we see an ugly side to her husband. He wants everyone to be “the best version of themselves”. Sheesh!

Sara is driving her children to work when she eats chocolate (which is forbidden for her perfect life) and hears that her daughter is being given sex education by a classmate. She is furious and decides to complain to the principal. The principal dismisses her concerns and tells her that this is not a court of law (Sara is a trained lawyer, I’m guessing) and that she should perhaps take up knitting. This infuriates Sara and she ends up attacking the principal with a stapler. The scene cuts away to the present and we see that Sara is also in the station being interrogated. Hmm…

Next up is Jugnoo. A hot shot wedding planner. She comes from money and is an expert at handling difficult clients. But at one of her events, a decor chandelier falls on some guests. Jugnoo’s voiceover tells us that because of marital problems, the gays moving in to the planning business and this mishap, she’s lost an industry that she wholly controlled. Instead, she’s dealing with major money problems now. 

Jugnoo and Sara are friends and they meet up to watch Sara’s kid Salaar practice karate. Sara tells Jugnoo that she wants to start practising law again. Jugnoo tells her that maybe she’s finished and needs to move to Islamabad. Both friends listen and support each other. And I’m always up for sister solidarity!

Sara is also pushing her kid to perform well in karate. Sara and Jameel’s kids are not going to get a break from either parent. 

Jameel we discover in the next scene is a politician. Sara runs the idea of working as a lawyer past him and he all but laughs at her. It’s the same old arguments 

• but we have money
• who will take you seriously
• no one will hire you
• maybe you should work in an NGO

Men have learned this playbook and it is the perfect way to discourage a woman her proclivities. Sara stands frozen in a perfect scene and a gold sliver falls in her hair. She removes it. I like that this show explores symbolism. That sliver is a symbol of the things imperfect in her life that she can’t seem to get rid of. The need to be herself, to exert herself and not get lost in her husband’s shadow. 

We see with Sara’s voiceover images of girls being molded, like clay. She talks about how girls are forced into certain roles. Molded. But no one ever bothers to ask if they really want to play those roles. 

Back to the story, Batool is our final character. She moves next door to Zubeida. The neighbours aren’t happy because, as we discover Batool is a murderer who’s just been released from jail. Zubeida’s mother calls her a churail. We see imagery of women eating Batool’s body. We are seeing how gossip and scandal can literally eat away at the soul of a person by society. 

Batool looks at a photo in a locket. Perhaps a lost love? We see that her wrists are full of scars. She cuts herself. And in VO she tells us that she’s about to end her life…and there is a knock on the door. It is a well-wisher who tells her to go to a certain place and get work. Batool takes this lifeline and goes over to a mansion looking for a work. 

The house belongs to Jugnoo who hires Batool. We discover that Jugnoo is an alcoholic. 

This show is from Pakistan. But what’s interesting is that it has actually been banned in Pakistan…just like the alcohol that Jugnoo drinks. It’s fascinating to see women talk openly, drink, swear and just basically be badasses! While it’s a shame that the show is banned in Pakistan, I’m not surprised by that piece of news. 

Batool is cleaning up the house and doing all kinds of chores. She looks at the iron and we see a flashback to a bloody iron. Was this her murder weapon? She informs Jugnoo that she will not be able to iron. Jugnoo is okay with that. As Batool complains about her sad life, Jugnoo offers her a room in her mansion. Batool says she’ll think about it, locks the alcohol cabinet and takes the key away. Jugnoo rolls her eyes hard at this but does not object. 

Meanwhile, Zubeida meets the guy from Tinder. They have a frikkin’ adorable first date. We see a cut here to the present. This guy is also being interrogated. But aside from a quick scene we’re back in the past. The couple go to a haunted house and chat. Zubeida says she wants to be a boxer and the guy is a hacker. They’re both scared of judgement, but none is passed. 

With the heady high of this lovely evening, Zubeida heads home only to discover that her brother has tattled. Her parents search her and after finding her boxing gloves begin to hit her. They also force her to unlock her phone where they find that she has just come home from a date. 

Sara is at home sleeping next to her husband when a phone rings. The husband is fast asleep, but she hears the phone vibrating and goes to turn it off. But she realises that it’s not her husband’s phone which is ringing. She tracks down the sound and discovers that her husband has another secret phone which he uses to sleep with women all over the world as he travels for work. 

Zubeida is locked up in a room. She is crying and her face is swollen when she hears a sound by her window. Batool witnesses the beating and decides to rescue Zubeida by bringing a ladder to her window. She climbs down the window and thanks Batool. 

Sara cries and thinks about her daughter and the kind of world she will be forced to grow up in. 

Batool takes Zubeida to Jugnoo’s house. It’s likely she remembers Jugnoo’s offer from earlier that day. Just as they are entering, Sara appears at the door. She has come to vent. 

Sara and Jugnoo smoke weed and talk about all the shit in their lives. Huge shoutout here to Asim Abbasi and Yasra Rizvi here. Such fantastic dialogues and delivery. I almost spit out my drink at the dialogue “Maths kyun kar rahi ho?”.

Sara believes that the system is unjust where men can go on cheating on women with no accountability. The lawyer in her is looking for justice in the system and there is none. Jugnoo sarcastically says that they can’t follow men around, catch them and hold them accountable. But this suggestion is taken seriously by Sara who creates a plan and also has a meltdown when she starts breaking cutlery as a way of releasing her frustration. 

Thus is born the idea of Churails. The name suggested by Zubeida, which was top of her mind because her mother used the word to demean Batool. 

Churails will be a detective agency that will allow the desperate housewives of Karachi to find out if their husbands are cheating on them. If they catch the husbands in the act, it means greater settlements - more power, more independence, more money. And Sara claims, they will use that money to help women from underprivileged backgrounds who may not be able to afford leaving their husbands. 

The next morning, Sara empties the house of everyone but her husband. She confronts him with the truth. But she does not cry or show much emotion. She is a cold hearted bitch (which is awesome to see). She tells him simply that she wants his empty commercial property to run a clothing store with Jugnoo. And that he should start living in the guest room. If he complies, then she will keep up the charade of their marriage and not ruin his political career with scandal. 

The clothing store called, Halal Designs, is simply a front for the real work of the Churails - a detective agency that helps women get justice. As the store is set up we see each woman with her vice - Sara eats chocolate, Jugnoo drinks from a hip flask, Batool eats paan. The women are nursing their own desires for a change. This should be interesting. 

Wafa is an Urdu word which means Faithful. We see many instances of unfaithfulness - like when Sara learns the truth about her husband or when Zubeida’s brother tattles on her. In each instance, a man betrays a woman. But we also see four women forming bonds with each other, coming together and being loyal to one another. 

The show doesn’t let us forget that all this will end with bloodshed. We are back in the interrogation room and the voiceover hints at murder. We see images of mannequins knocked over, broken glass and one girl tied up. How do we get from here to there? I cannot wait to find out! 

Episode Rating 5/5