Churails Season 1 Episode 6 - Husn
Sheela, the disowned Churail, is missing. While trying to find her, the Churails accidentally uncover something mysterious and dangerous.
Here’s the bad news. Sheela is missing. A bunch of girls are dancing to an item song on a TV set. The director is angry because he cannot see the bellybutton of one girl. Immediately in our red coloured pseudo reality, we see men’s bellybuttons in contrast - ugly, hairy, but somehow perfectly acceptable and non sexual all at once. As for the women, well of course, they don't have it so easy.
As for the good news, six weeks have passed since the last episode ended. The shop lies locked, the angry men have forgotten all about the Churails and Babli is recovering well.
The Churails are partying at Jugnoo’s house where Babli is sitting silently staring at walls while Pinky is drinking herself silly. She tells Batool that it’s too hard for her to go on being with Babli and that she’s planning to leave her. Batool talks her down and it doesn’t seem like Pinky will go through with it. Sara enters fashionably late with Sheela’s friends in tow and a discussion ensues once the other Churails find out about Sheela.
Sara still looks weak. She has lost confidence is herself because she still blames herself for what happened with the store. Zubeida is pissed because Sara refuses to take Sheela’s case and this ensues in an almost cat-fight between them which is instantly broken up by the others. Sara wants to give up, but Jugnoo tells her that while she was wallowing, they’ve already set up a new office for the Churails in a bus now parked at Jugnoo’s home. As Sara resists, quiet and sad Babli speaks up for the first time since the fire and tells her that they need courage and can’t give up now.
And so…the Churails are back!
They start distributing flyers with Sheela’s “missing” pictures all over town. They also begin an investigation and find that Sheela was working with Juice Talent. Jugnoo knows the owner of this company - a friend of hers named KK.
We are taken to a flashback scene where we learn the following facts:
- Jugnoo compliments Jameel for his talent as a gardener.
- Jugnoo’s chacha is a professor who’s retiring and writing a book on Gender Power and Colonialism.
- Sara and KK’s wife are talking about the benefits of British boarding school.
- Jugnoo is pregnant and married to a man named Jackson. But her husband doesn’t know she’s pregnant.
- Jackson gets drunk and knocks over a statue at the party. He is a black man and this is obviously going to be a problem for Jugnoo’s classist Pakistani family unfortunately. (Although, this just makes me love Jugnoo’s character even more.)
Back in present day, we find that Jugnoo’s father, Tanveer is in prison and has just had a stroke. Jugnoo’s horribly sexist and (now proven) racists Chachoo tells her that her father’s downfall was her fault. Without holding back of racial slurs, Chachoo explains, that the father couldn’t handle the trauma of his daughter marrying a black man.
Batool takes the case of Sheela to her crush, the police inspector. She asks him to look for Sheela and he agrees to help her out.
Resham and Munni search Sheela’s apartment for clues. They find that her clothes are missing, a suitcase is gone and a diary left behind that contains…drawing of claw like nails on a human hand and people kissing? What the hell is going on here?
Sara and Jugnoo pay a visit to their friend KK. He dismisses their concerns by saying that girls often run away with their lovers. But the real reason for their visit was that Shams could hack into their systems by getting into the wifi. He does this fairly easily and discovers that both Sheel and Jia were making a lot of money for Juice Talent by endorsing a fairness cream called Jalwa. This must be important because a snippet of the ad is part of the opening credits sequence of the show. Hmmm…
Jalwa was a popular fairness cream in the 90s and is being rebranded by Sherry of Sherry Salons. Sheela was supposed to be the face of Jalwa. Jugnoo and Sara pay a visit to Sherry who (much like KK) dismisses their concerns saying that models are flaky. The previous face of Jalwa was a celebrity named Tabinda. Sherry reminisces about times when actresses were professional but laments that eventually all good things come to an end. Sherry is definitely hiding something. This episode is called Husn. Sheela is a pretty model who is missing and was supposed to advertise a beauty and fairness cream. Women pay a price for being beautiful. The question is - what price has Sheela paid?
Resham and Munni are following Jia. They believe that she is not telling them the whole truth. At first they discover that she’s sleeping around for money (though she claims later that this is not the case). Then, she visits a man who turns out to be Sheela’s boyfriend. She confronts him - did he take all her stuff away? He refuses and starts getting a junkie itch. Jia gives him money and asks him not to blow it on drugs. She tells him that she thinks they should tell someone what they know, but he gets angry and asks her to keep quiet. Every single person seems to be hiding things in this episode.
Jugnoo goes on a date with her assistant. Finally! Poor guy has been trying to get her to go out with him since the first episode. It’s awkward, they’re in a fancy place and he doesn’t feel comfortable at all. The scene plays out for laughs, but I feel bad for the guy. He is serious with his affections and loyal to Jugnoo. But her choice of restaurant makes me believe that she’s just not taking him seriously at all. He leaves in anger.
Back in flashback, Iftikar or Chachoo is being racist again. He defends British colonialism and slavery. This causes Jackson to attack him in anger. Honestly, I don’t blame him. The chacha is really getting on my nerves too. He calls them out on their bullshit and everyone ostracises him. As Jugnoo tries to calm him down, he tells her that he is sick of being her rebellion and leaves in a huff.
The Churails go to Sheela’s boyfriend’s house and they question him. He tells them that he wanted to marry Sheela. She didn’t want to do the face cream commercial anymore, but that was it. The Churails don’t believe that he’s telling them the whole truth. They ask the policeman to come and question him while they question Jia.
The two of them tell our heroes about fancy parties that are thrown in an deserted house on a beach somewhere. Girls would go to those parties to be high end escorts and/or prostitutes for rich older men. That escalated quickly! Sheela would go there (at the encouragement of her boyfriend) each time. Her boyfriend says that if she had not gone, she’d still be with him. He’s making it sound like Sheela is not alive anymore.
Jugnoo thinks about her past. She never told Jackson that she was pregnant with his child. As he leaves, she tries to muster the courage, but is not able to. She calls Jackson, only to find out that he has a child and she realises just how much she’s lost and hangs up. She then goes to meet her father and we discover that he was responsible for Jugnoo’s abortion because their child wouldn’t be “white” enough. Jugnoo is only surrounded by horrible men. No wonder she's so cynical.
The episode is wrapping up with the beautiful song Mithu Donda. A lot happens in this montage.
- Sherry has Sheela’s suitcase. Sherry Salon is behind the disappearance. Jalwa and Juice Talent are probably involved with the rich men who solicit women for high end parties. Does this mean that Sara and Jugnoo's friend KK is involved as well?
- Shams tracks down Mehak and let’s Batool know that she’s living in a hostel nearby.
- Babli and Pinky reconcile.
- Jugnoo burns the picture of the ultrasound. She’s trying to let go, but she’s not able to and douses the fire out.
- Sara is still not able to get her sense of self back and continues to ignore calls from the Churails.
The songs is over and the last scene leaves us with chills. Sheela’s sketches flash across the screen. We see the sketch of two people kissing, an injection, a woman in a sexy outfit, a naked woman with crosses on her back and lots of drawings of animals - a tiger, a horse, a gorilla, a deer, a wolf. In the midst of these images we also see Zubeida in present day. She is tied up in a warehouse surrounded by men watching TV. She's alive for now, but where is she? Who are these people around her? And how did she get herself into this mess? Once again Churails pulls us in to the story while leaving so many questions unanswered. I can’t wait to watch the next episode!
Episode Rating: 4.5/5