Pinky Memsaab

Pinky Memsaab[1] (transl. Pinky Madam) is a 2018 Urdu-language Pakistani drama film. The film stars Hajra Yamin, Kiran Malik, Adnan Jaffar, Sunny Hinduja, Khalid Ahmed and Shamim Hilaly. It was distributed by Eveready Pictures on 7 December 2018.[2][3][4][5][6]

Pinky Memsaab
Directed byShazia Ali Khan
Produced byFahad Shaikh
Umr Khan
Raza Namazi
Yusuf Ali Khan
Written byShazia Ali Khan and Babar Ali
StarringHajra Yamin
Kiran Malik
Sunny Hinduja
Khalid Ahmed
Shamim Hilaly
Music byAbbas Ali Khan
CinematographyHumza Yousaf
Edited bySuraj Gunjal
Distributed byEveready Pictures
Release date
  • 7 December 2018 (2018-12-07)
Running time
120 minutes
CountryPakistan
LanguageUrdu

Plot Summary

The film opens to 21-year old Pinky about to leave her home village in Pakistan for a new job in Dubai. To Pinky, who has never left her village, the airplane, the airport at Dubai, all of Dubai with its glass and steel and air-conditioning is a shock. Her new job, as a maid in a wealthy Pakistani family in Dubai, will pay well. Pinky slowly gets a hold on her new life; she learns to serve her masters and she befriends the other help, the Filipino cook and the Indian driver. Her employers are among the high society of Dubai: the husband is a banker, always traveling, and the wife is a socialite who directs the help in managing the home and her 10-year-old son.

Life as a maid is not as easy as she had hoped. Her employers had wanted a quiet Pakistani girl who would speak Urdu and cook Pakistani food and massage her mistress’ head with oil in the Pakistani way; these are easy for Pinky. The difficulties are around money; Pinky often requires salary advances to send home to her family. Her income pays for food and clothing and in building a new house with a proper roof. One evening Pinky ventures into downtown Dubai and becomes lost on the streets. The mistress and the driver are worried and Pinky's cell phone (low battery) is dead. They eventually find her, frightened and shaken, on the street and bring her home. The mistress scolds her and, upon suggestions from the driver, begins teaching Pinky English and how to present herself. Pinky slowly gains confidence and develops a kind of bond with her new employer/family.

In time Pinky discovers that the life of a socialite wife is not easy either. The home is run by the help, the socialite wife has little to do and the routine of massages and shopping and parties quickly becomes dull. Some socialite wives start boutiques: clothes, yoga, jewelry. The stuff is bought, cheap, from Asia and marketed as unique and exotic. It does not sell, the boutique is liquidated at a loss and the husband will not fund another experiment. Pinky's employer purported to be a writer. A publisher friend of her husband published her first book which did okay. This publisher received her second manuscript warmly. In the course of editing the book he told her, gently, that the first book was a kind of favor to the husband and that she was not really a writer and ought to try something else. It was a shock to be told this when the woman, after all the years in boutiques and having and rearing the child, had approached middle age. It was not easy to switch careers at this stage and there was the fear (and the most common topic at socialite-wife parties) that the husband would go to a younger woman.

In one such party a friend of the husband serenades the socialite wife. The husband retreats from the party and admits to Pinky that he still loves his wife. The socialite wife spots them and fearfully concludes there is an affair. She throws a loud public tantrum accusing her husband and the ungrateful Pinky. The party is over. The couple continues fighting in their room. It is the same script: the husband is exhausted from his job and travel. The wife resents being called a trophy and accuses him of neglect and adultery and, to fuel the fire, discloses that their child has developed behavioral problems at school. The argument escalates and the husband pushes the wife; she hits her head; the husband leaves the home for the night. The wife takes the child and moves to a friend's house. The husband storms into the friend's house and forcefully reclaims the child and warns the wife of the laws of Dubai which permit him to divorce her and get custody of the child – immediately. The wife returns to Pakistan. Pinky quits the job and moves in with her childhood friend who, like her, works in Dubai.

The wife returns to Pakistan, to her aging father and his second wife. There is some initial tension between step-mother and step-daughter. In the course of time they all settle into a quiet routine of garden work in the mornings and reading and music into the evenings. The wife misses her husband and child in Dubai. The step-mother dies; this becomes the turning point for the wife to realize the needs of her own family, her child, and she returns to her husband in Dubai.

Pinky is on her own for the first time in her life. With some help from her friend she looks for work and finally lands a job as a kind of art studio assistant to an artist couple. This is a new experience for Pinky who had only known her village in Pakistan and her ‘banker’ employer in Dubai. One day her employer, the artist, begins painting a portrait of Pinky and innocently makes a pass at her. Pinky is not shocked but surprised; she quits the job and persuades her friend to find something at the friend's job. The friend warns her away. Pinky persists and follows her friend only to discover that the friend is not a beautician as she had claimed. The friend is a bar dancer. Later that evening the friend confides that her own husband had married her in Pakistan in brought her to Dubai and, some years later, left her and her child for another woman. The friend went through her hard knocks and finally settled on this dancer job because the large tips paid her bills and now her child is placed well at an international school in Pakistan. Pinky comes to a sort of reconciliation with this.

Pinky finds another job as a waitress. One day she sees her former employer, the socialite wife, at her restaurant and runs away as the socialite wife chases after her. She writes a letter to her mistress: "Dear Madam: I realize you must have been angry that evening, I bear you no grudge and I am thankful to you for bringing me here. I am told you have been looking for me everywhere. You need not look for me. I am no longer the Pinky you had brought here. You need not worry either; I have found my feet and I am OK with my new life. Best wishes, Pinky." Pinky walks away as the film ends.

Cast

Notes
  1. was nominated as best actress in 18th Lux Style Awards[7]

References
  1. "Hajra Yamin: Relatable, grounded and above all, real". Gulf-Times (in Arabic). 17 September 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  2. "Pinky Memsaab's trailer hints at big dreams and bigger disappointments". Dawn Images. 17 October 2018. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  3. Irfan ul Haq (6 September 2018). "Upcoming film 'Pinky Memsaab' will take you on a journey of self discovery". Dawn Images. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  4. Chris Newbould (16 December 2018). "In praise of Pinky Memsaab: Pakistan film offers look at less-seen facets of Dubai life". The National. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  5. Buraq Shabbir (11 December 2018). "Indian actor Sunny Hinduja speaks about working in Pinky Memsaab". The News International. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  6. Manjusha Radhakrishnan (13 December 2018). "'Pinky Memsaab' review: An earnest UAE tale". Gulf News. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  7. "A list of everyone who went home a winner from the Lux Style Awards 2019". Dawn Images. 7 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
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