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Made in Heaven: An analysis of Faiza Naqvi


Vyoma Vijai

Blog Post 3




‘Made in Heaven’ is a popular Indian web series created by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kaagti and was launched in March 2018. The show gained a lot of attention in the first few days of it coming out. It is a bold show that focuses on marriage practices in the rich and elite class of Delhi. The show focuses on the social issues and practices that are often not spoken of or are kept closeted. These issues include homosexuality, dowry, molestation and other questionable Indian customs. The story follows the lives of multiple characters at the same time. The two most important characters are Tara and Karan who run a wedding planning agency.  Tara is married to a rich industrialist whose name is Adil and her best friend in the show is Faiza, played by Kalki Koechlin. This essay analyses Faiza’s character and her role in this web series. Faiza is a complex character to understand. Her actions make it hard for the viewers to decide whether they love, hate, pity or sympathize with her.

The character of Faiza Naqvi is introduced in the series as the best friend of the lead character, Tara Khanna. Faiza was domestically abused by her ex-husband Bilal and since then has been living in the house her parents own. Faiza’s interaction with her therapist gives us an insight into Faiza’s mind. Faiza recounted this story to her therapist- when Faiza told her father about being beaten up by her husband, her father responded by saying “What did you do?” indicating that Faiza had done something wrong and that is why she deserved to be beaten. This form of victim blaming along with being domestically abused is bound to create some amount of anxiety in the victim. Faiza often speaks to her therapist about how she is feeling anxious throughout the series. The anxiousness is also triggered by the fact that Faiza is having an affair with her best friend, Tara’s husband, Adil. Faiza’s therapist tells her that her anxiety is bound to act up since Faiza is making conscious decisions and is aware of her actions that are hurting her best friend.

When Tara finds out about the affair is when Faiza’s character is shown to feel some amount of remorse towards her actions. But, this feeling of regret does not last too long as she continues to have an affair without feeling any guilt. Faiza even tries to apologize to Tara; however, the apology does not mean anything since her actions of sleeping with Tara’s husband again, show the complete opposite. She even goes to the extent of rationalizing her behavior. Faiza justifies her actions by saying that Adil is unhappy with Tara and is put off by Tara’s demeanor because of how much she has changed. She believes that she is in love with Adil and has delusional tendencies that Adil is going to leave his wife for her, even though, Adil has not mentioned divorcing his wife explicitly. After Adil ignores Faiza’s calls and texts, she barges into Adil’s office and has an emotional breakdown. Here is when we get a sense of how lonely Faiza is because all her friends, including Tara, and her family are not speaking to her because of her actions. There is still no sense of guilt on her face but instead there is this unhealthy dependence on Adil because of the loneliness in her life. Another interesting thing to note here is the double standards, where in, Faiza is being made an outcast in social and familial gatherings however Adil is facing no such repercussions even though both of them are equally in the wrong.

Faiza’s character is slightly unstable, possibly because of her abusive past and unhealthy familial relation. Her dependence on Adil is concerning to a level where she begins to act delusional about her future with him. She is convinced that Adil will leave his wife for her and they will live like a happy couple post that. There seems to be no signs of guilt after the initial wave of regret has passed by. She is hurting not just her closest friend Tara but her parents and herself in the process, but has no regard for the pain she is causing to not just herself but others as well. This directs her towards having a sociopathic personality, which could be a result of having mild ASPD symptoms however this cannot be ascertained for sure.


References

https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/made-in-heaven-stars-talk-marriage-sex-and-censorship-on-the-web/cid/1686822

https://feminisminindia.com/2019/03/22/made-in-heaven-review/

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