Sitara Aur Mehrunnisa

About This Drama

Sitara Aur Mehrunnisa (1992) was Anwar Maqsood's most dramatically serious work — a departure from the comedy for which he is best known and a demonstration that his understanding of Pakistani social life ran considerably deeper than satire alone. Broadcast on NTM, the drama followed two cousins whose fates after marriage diverge sharply: Sitara into psychological turmoil, Mehrunnisa into an abusive and economically exploitative marriage. Directed with restraint and purpose by Zark, and performed with exceptional commitment by Sania Saeed and Atiqa Odho in the lead roles, the drama engaged honestly with forms of domestic and marital harm that Pakistani television had rarely addressed so directly. The combination of Maqsood's precise social observation, the two lead performances, and the production's refusal to soften what it was saying made Sitara Aur Mehrunnisa one of the most significant dramatic works of the early private television era in Pakistan.