The women of Heeramandi were dealt a tragic blow in the show’s last moments.
*Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar.*
Across its eight episodes, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar often feels like an intricately woven film, complete with musical performances, stunning sarees and plot twists that would leave even the most loyal EastEnders fan on their knees.
While the pacing can be a little waning in places, the Hindi-language series delivers exceptionally on the ability to transport you to another place, another time and completely embroil you in the world of the women at Heeramandi in the 1940s.
We follow the Queen of Heeramandi, Mallikajaan (Manisha Koirala), who runs a tight ship at the opulent mansion and keeps tabs on all of the tawaifs that work for her and the nawabs who visit.
Her daughter Bibbojaan (Aditi Rao Hydari) is a tawaif and while it’s expected for her other daughter Alamzeb (Sharmin Segal) to follow in their footsteps, Alam’s love story with Tajdar (Taha Shah Badussha) and her dreams of being a poet mean she dreams of life outside of Heeramandi’s walls.
A fairly simple premise, right? Well, the series kicks off in the most dramatic fashion when we learn just how Mallikajaan came to be the head courtesan at Heeramandi, killing her own sister Rehana and making it look like a suicide. When Rehana’s daughter Fareedan (Sonakshi Sinha) arrives in Lahore, she’s ready to succeed Mallikajaan as the head of Heeramandi, meaning that the two are embroiled in a heady power struggle for much of the series.
Starting the series off in such a punchy way immediately sucks you into the drama and much like its very first scenes, Heeramandi’s ending comes as a full circle moment of death and tragedy.
The show’s weaving in of the historical fight for Indian independence is not only commendable, but comes to a head in the show’s finale. Just when you think things couldn’t get more higher in the stakes, the finale doesn’t place anything off limits and delivers an episode that is far from being joyous – but that’s really the point.
The finale deals with the fallout of Tajdar’s vicious murder by Cartwright (Jason Shah) after being arrested for his work with the rebels. Like a claustrophobic force, the drama with the British officers continues to ramp up as they seek to take control of the city and the people within it. A speech is given by General Henderson (Mark Bennington), who is informing the public of how they will be helping British soldiers fight the Nazis in the upcoming Second World War.
But it’s there that Bibbojaan takes action and shoots at the British officer. Not wanting to merely be a woman working alongside the rebels, she insisted on pulling the trigger herself and wasn’t afraid of the consequences. But you don’t really realise the ramifications of her actions until she’s captured and held in a cell, a ghost of an image of her former glamorous self. She’s beaten, yelled at and tortured for names of her conspirators but she refuses to give them up.
Her act of bravery is fed through to her mother who, putting her differences with Fareedan aside, assembles the women of Heeramandi to march the streets on the evening of Bibbojaan’s execution.
Now, there are plenty of musical numbers throughout the series which often transport you into the women’s stories of love, loss and fantasy. But it’s this final song, kicked off by Bibbojaan as she’s led to her death, that packs a punch.
She sings: “We ask for freedom. We’re willing to pay any price for freedom,” which is then sung by Mallikajaan, Fareedan and a hoard of women from Heeramandi and the city, who want to show Bibbojaan their support. Facing up to Indian soldiers, they fight their way through and are confronted by an officer that violently beats them all. Not wanting to hit an old woman who steps forward, though, he stands down and lets them pass.
They assemble on the other side of the tall brick wall in which Bibbojaan is thrown against to face the firing squad. There, Bibbojaan has a look of acceptance wash over her face as she’s reinvigorated with support from the women on the other side of the wall. “Long live the revolution,” are the final spoken words of the series – and how fitting they are.
It’s a scene that has a stark resemblance to The Handmaid’s Tale and the show’s first ever episode in which the handmaids are instructed to beat a man to death after he assaulted a pregnant handmaid, resulting in the death of her baby. The scene is then mirrored in the season 1 finale when June (Elisabeth Moss) and the other handmaids are instructed to stone Janine (Madeline Brewer), but they all refuse and drop their stones in silent protest.
These acts of female camaraderie in spite of differences or feuds is what underpins Heeramandi and also The Handmaid’s Tale, both presenting dystopian realities for women and violent consequences in their pursuit of freedom.
In Heeramandi, things finish on a sad note with plenty of questions surrounding the fate of these women. But while there may be some loose ends – what happens to Alam after she kills Cartwright? Does the crowd of women get punished for their act of rebellion during the curfew? Does Heeramandi get closed down? – the series ends on a brave reminder that these tawaifs took a risk but ultimately, fought for their freedom.
These characters didn’t wait for the wealthy men of the series to support them, nor did they rely on the kindness of the officers, they simply took matters into their own hands. Take Bibbojaan herself – one of the most successful tawaifs who managed to get information from her nawab clients and take it to the rebels as intel. Inspired by her sister, Alam shot her lover’s killer herself by agreeing to spend the night with him.
While Tajdar and Bibbojaan may be dead and the fate of Heermandi remains unsure, the finale doesn’t centre those sad moments. Rather, it delivers a shock end that delivers on every beat but is as memorable as it is tragic.
And hey, that’s what great TV is all about.
Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar is available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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