{"id":12564,"date":"2025-07-04T09:05:51","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T09:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=12564"},"modified":"2025-07-04T09:05:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T09:05:51","slug":"playing-mamas-mom-in-parwarish-opened-a-floodgate-of-traumatic-stories-bakhtawar-mazhar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=12564","title":{"rendered":"Playing Mama’s mom in ‘Parwarish’ opened a floodgate of traumatic stories: Bakhtawar Mazhar"},"content":{"rendered":"
Bakhtawar Mazhar: it is a name that will be on your lips if you, like so many others, have been enraptured by Parwarish, the drama turning the spotlight on the younger generation aching for control and independence.<\/p>\n

As Sadia – or \u2018Maya\u2019s mom\u2019, as she has been lovingly crowned by viewers online – Bakhtawar is one step removed from this aforementioned younger generation, but that in no way means that her impact on the show has had limited impact. Bakhtawar\u2019s Sadia has been winning hearts left, right and centre, sealing the deal in a viral scene as she goes almost feral protecting her daughter from a father on the warpath. And now, during an appearance on The Rafay Mahmood Podcast, the actor recalls how she was blown away after that particular scene spread like wildfire across social media.<\/p>\n

Impact of \u2018that\u2019 scene<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that scene went viral, people didn\u2019t even know my name,\u201d recalled the theatre veteran, known to film critics for her performance in Cannes film In Flames. \u201cThey would just refer to me as \u2018Maya\u2019s mom\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being known purely as Aina Asif\u2019s character\u2019s mother caused the actor to smile, with Bakhtawar adding that the way she became entrenched in the minds of the show\u2019s fans left its mark on her.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople started leaving comments on YouTube clips. It didn\u2019t strike me that people were talking about me – what hit me was how they were talking about me, and why. \u2018Maya\u2019s mom\u2019, the way she stood for her daughters, the way she protected them – she was there for them. I liked that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the impact of the emotional scene where \u2018Maya\u2019s mom\u2019 physically stands in the way of her husband beating their daughter ran far deeper than Bakhtawar could have ever predicted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat opened up the floodgates to other things, and it was so emotional,\u201d shared Bakhtawar in awe. \u201cThat whole week, I was up weeping until 2AM after getting thousands of messages from people sharing their personal stories that were so painful.\u201d<\/p>\n

An unwitting confidante <\/p>\n

The thousands of messages pouring into Bakhtawar\u2019s inbox in the wake of her performance – from men and women, boys and girls – all stemmed back to one thing: parental abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were things that they didn\u2019t think they could share with anyone else, not even their close friends,\u201d explained the actor. \u201cIn our culture, there is this stigma of never badmouthing your parents – but they wrote to me. So many said to me, \u2018Please ma\u2019am, this is not for sharing, this is only for your eyes, we are sharing because we feel the link. We have somehow connected with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

That connection, borne out of a scene in front of a camera that was in turn conceived in the mind of screenwriter Kiran Siddiqui, led to an invisible current flowing between Bakhtawar and those who had suffered beatings at the hands of their parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone wrote and said that when their mother took them, she, too, got beaten up – and they pointed out that in the real world, my character [Sadia] would have also got beaten up just for standing up for her child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amongst the messages Bakhtawar found most painful, however, were the stories where it was mothers remained bystanders after watching their children suffering physical abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone else said, \u2018My mother stood by and watched as I was beaten up by a belt. She did not say a word. She did not acknowledge it even the next morning. She just brushed it under the rug,\u2019\u201d related Bakhtawar.<\/p>\n

However, amid all the dark stories of childhood trauma, one particular message stood out – the account of a mother who took away a life lesson from watching the fictional Sadia becoming Maya\u2019s protector.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone wrote, \u2018I am a mother, I have daughters, and whenever my husband raises his voice at my daughters, I am in a dilemma about whether or not we should put up a united front and discipline together as a husband and wife, or if I should say something,\u2019\u201d recalled the Parwarish matriarch, as she stressed the importance of viewing matters through a child\u2019s lens. \u201c[She added], \u2018Right now my daughters are young, but I\u2019m so glad that I saw this scene, because now I see how important it is for children in that situation to know their mother is there for them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Not just women<\/p>\n

In a heartbreaking twist, Bakhtawar noted that it was not just women who bore the brunt of physical abuse in their homes; men, too, wrote to her of the times they had been beaten by their mothers, and how they have yet to move on from that trauma decades down the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne man wrote that his mother had beaten him up when he was eight years old just to appease the other elder women in the family,\u201d she remarked. \u201cHe said that his mother cried about it afterwards and apologised to him, but he said that he is now in his 30s and cannot forget how humiliated he felt in that moment, and how it has affected his self confidence even now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tsunami of traumatic personal stories flooding Bakhtawar\u2019s inbox opened her eyes to the amount of invisible pain still being carted around by so many in society.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were so many DMs,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI felt I needed to call in the services of a psychologist for them, because I was not equipped, not trained to give them the response that they needed. What could I say to them?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bakhtawar credits writer Kiran for sticking to the core of the story of Parwarish without adding unnecessary garnishing. She is adamant that without it, the impact of that scene that has struck so many would have been lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Kiran had not written it with such honesty and added \u2018spice\u2019 to it, things would have been different,\u201d she maintained. \u201cIt was kept to the bare bones. There were no layers. She said this is how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

With YouTube comments hailing Bakhtawar\u2019s \u201cphenomenal\u201d performance as \u201cgiving goosebumps\u201d, one thing is clear: the powerful scene where \u2018Maya\u2019s mom\u2019 becomes a tour de force has secured a place in the hearts of Parwarish fans – for reasons rooted in more than just acting alone.<\/p>\n

Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bakhtawar Mazhar: it is a name that will be on your lips if you, like so many others, have been enraptured by Parwarish, the drama turning the spotlight on the younger generation aching for control and independence. As Sadia – or \u2018Maya\u2019s mom\u2019, as she has been lovingly crowned by viewers online – Bakhtawar is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}