Mix Method Research

Content Analysis
Semiotic analysis
Qualitative Method of Research with Descriptive Approach

Muhammad Yasir
Zia Ur Rahman
Ali Raza
Abdul Manan
Walli ullah Auhad

Abstract:

Abstract this Study tends to find out signs, symbols, slurs and the realization of
Signs and slurs were found in “churails” web series. This study used a descriptive
Qualitative research method or approach.
The data is taken from the first episode of the series which was titled as “wafa”. The
results of study shows that episode contains “Semiotics, Slurs and signs. The signs
found in “Churails” web series are realized in individual and their Relation with
society.

Keywords: “churails”
INTRODUCTION:
Nowadays, Film has become one of the major sources to express their feelings and
showcase their skills Along with that you can also show of the reality of your society
but film has time constraints. It has unique composition and is also a powerful
medium for educating and indoctrinating citizens. So Nowadays Filmmakers
diverted themselves toward web series which are divided into episodes where the
filmmakers have no time limit issue (Dawson, 2018). So they can easily portray their
vision on screen. Web series become more popular among the people during Covid
era but it also became a tool for educating people in this digital era. Web series are
different form films (Raza SH, 2021), Films are consists of single installment and
the Web series are consists on many episodes we can say many season’s web series
are extended versions of films. In 2020 Pakistani Directors “Asim Abbasi” Directed
a web series entitled as "Churails" also known as witches. This web series is consist
of one Season with ten episodes web series Tells the story of four Pakistani women
with different backgrounds and demographics made coalition for same cause. Web
series has such a good story line and screen play with good Mise-en-scene. Talking
about Story line the series successfully portrays the patriarchy of Pakistani Society
and flawed and toxic Relations in our society. This series has many sub- themes and
it delivers the message very brutally and extremely in detail. It is only Pakistani web
series on Indian "OTT" Platform "Zee 5" (iMDB, n.d.). Besides "Toxic Relations
and "Patriarchy" Series also showed women empowered the Related Themes. This
is also one of the Reason why writer decided to analyze this web series. In this series
Semiotics helps in deepening its hidden details and meanings of every sign, symbol
through Images, Texts, Gestures, Sounds, and objects and it can be defined as
Semiotics.

Background of the study

Themes like Feminism and Toxic Masculinity Are Shown in Many Other Movies
and Web series, Like Man enough (Orbey, 2018) And Indian web series Pataal lok
Also explore man privilege in society. (BHALERAO, 2020).

So The toxic masculinity is that Where in society A man is in control, he can’t be

weak, he can’t express his feelings his emotions if he express his feelings and
emotions He symbolizes as a weak man. (islam, 2021). Masculine toxicity also
causes violence in society. We never seen a mob of women lynching somebody or
a Feminine mob causing violence. So If we suppress women Movements like
feminism, radical feminism takes place in society, while on the other hand if we
suppress men, in our patriarchal values, and religious elites Toxic masculinity takes
place in society, which causes domestic violence, and honor killings. (younas,
2021). According to latest figures 14000+ women fell a prey under the toxic
masculinity in pakistan. (ahmed, 2020). Violence against women started a wave of
feminist Movement in pakistan. Feminist Movement started out in the era of Gen
zia Ul haq in 1980’s (ShehzadiZamurradAwan).

Research Objective

This study tends to find Symbolic Meanings of Props, Camera Angles and Clothes
Used in Churails Web series.

Research Question

What is the symbolic meanings of props and semiotics used in the Churails web
series?.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:
“The Theory of signs is most suitable to apply in this research”

"Ferdinand de Saussure” (1857, 1973)”, this theory is considered as the defender to

that the "language does not reflect reality but rather constructs it" because we don’t
use only language to give meaning to anything which exists in the world of reality
and also to anything that does not exist at all.

The Founder of Structuralism and linguistic “Ferdinand de Saussure’s” He was а

Swiss Semiotician, Philosopher and linguist his ideas leads many developments in
both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Semiotics:

Semiotics Is the Study of signs, and symbols, and there interpretation in a society.
Semiotics Play a vital role in general Psychology and play the role of Signs in Social
life. Thereafter Semiotics are used in Books and eventually In Films. Semiotics are
mostly used to define the Psychology of Character, but semiotics are also play a vital
Role to portray hidden meanings and Agendas in Films. In order to find the
meanings of Signs and Symbols in “Churails" web series the writer found the theory
of signs most suitable for the present research. According to “Saussure,” the signs
of language are arbitrary in the sense that the relationship between their physical and
symbolic distinction from one another has no other reasons than convention. Yet
another basic principle concerned the distinction between "synchrony" as the
intraystemic state of la langue at a given moment and "diachronic" as its
development over time.

Film:
“Churails” web series Witches (Urdu: Churails)
This is a Pakistani web series which is Released in 2020 Directed by “Asim Abbas”

This Series is based on ten episodes. Rated (For Language, Domestic violence,
sexual content).

This web series also unfolds each Individual life with their tangled problems. Try to
raise the voices of repressed women’s. Brutally depicts a women face in his daily
life Routine. How a Woman kills to her own Dreams for her Family.

Semiotics in Film:

According to a Semiotic Point of view.

Films and web series are used to understand the feeling of character and to give the
sense of Reality in Films. Semiotics can be Subjective to a Society, so the use of
Semiotics make the content more Relatable. This Series also Shows Tonic
muscularity. And liberated women’s with the themes of Feminism and also portrays
how Society creates glass ceiling for a women to live in a Society. In a fictional way
this series depicts the rebellious mode of woman.

Writer found that this Series Brutally honest and Related to our Society. This series
also show How Class Difference exist in our society- How Poor’s have their
manners and Norms Different from Rich ones. There are many other hidden
meanings or Easter eggs in the series. But series remains brutally honest with his
themes throughout that's why series was criticized at the time of "Release Because
It challenged our Male Dominated society. So the aims is to study more about this
series. Specifically to analyze symbols and signs.

Churails “Web Series”:

This web series follow the life of four women’s: Sara (Sarwat Gilani Mirza), Jugnu
(Yasra Rizvi), Batool (Nimra Bucha) and Zubaida (Mehar Bano). Each women
represents a different social class.

The four team up to form a secret agency to help wives catch and get revenge on
cheating husbands, which ends up snowballing into a mini feminist movement.
Other churails in the agency include hackers, petty thieves, a lesbian criminal
couple, a Tran’s woman, an aspiring actress, a prostitute, and male allies. It's a
motley crew of some talented female actors. Some of the funniest parts of the show
are watching them banter with each other over mutton nihari or during staking and
office parties. The 90% of the show's cast is women it’s interesting to see such real
women on screen, so wonderfully raw in language, natural in their wardrobe and
movement, or unapologetic about their motivations and uninhibited in their desires.
Their transformation into vigilantes is also natural as they adopt burqas as
superhero costumes and their quick brains and kofta curry as weapons.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

In this study, writer adopted a qualitative Method of Research and used Descriptive
Approach. The research methodology is the most important thing to conduct a
research

The Analysis of Study was contextual and the web series was Source of Data
collection, the writer mostly focus on First Episode of series. Purposive Sampling
Technique is used for Data collection under the Criteria of Social signs and Symbols.

Type of Data Studied In this Research was Visual which was consist of Images and
Frame grabs from the series.
Fig 1.0 Women Protesting Against misogynistic men

Signifier: 18 women standing in a frame while wearing Muslim Cape (

Burqa)

Signified: These women are protesting. While the different

colors of their Burqas represent Their Different background.

Context of situation:. Lead Characters made a Collation to expose

their cheater husbands And they Protest against misogynistic and patriarchal
society.
Fig 1.1 Pointing Gun at a men

Signifier:

Camera Angle: camera angel is at worm eye level which shows that these characters are in
power in this particular scene.

Expression & Body language: Their face Expressions Show that they are full of aggression
And Their Body language shows they are confident in doing what they are doing.

Signified: This scene signifies that woman’s anger will burst out if we suppress the women.
Fig 1.3 batool laying on ground

Signifier: batool laying dead on ground while different women touching her.

Camera Angle: camera view is from bird eye which shows character powerless.

Signified: This Particular scene of touching batool’s Body Shows our Society’s mentality.
Like how we Try to touch and kiss our holy Figures, in pakistani context Peer babas And
many culture symbols.

When she died, she was the hope for other women against misogynistic society when they
lost their hope they are trying to touch in solidarity.
FINDINGS:

The first episode titled “Wafa”, tells us about their motivations in life and what
made them become a Churails. “Wafa” start with a continuation of the 1st trailer and
a feminist movement become kick-started and the first episode explains the reasons
why these four women get together to break their shackles.

One night Sara finds that her husband is cheating on her and she is looking for
revenge and justice. This leads them to become Churails. A secret investigative
agency for women’s.

Four Pakistan women’s become together to run an agency to punish cheating men.
When Batool says “shayad sali WO charas the” about plan.

Sara spend many years trying to build the perfect home she sacrifice herself.
Therefore, her desire for revenge make sense. Batool, there is nothing but she is
angry and wandering. It makes sense of her and Jugnu’s motivation is money. For
Zubaida, she needs to escape from her home, she is very passionate about changing
the world.

Here the direction is toward Jugnu, she understood her need for revenge. Zubaida
and Batool are willing to follow the lead of their “bajis”. Social status at play here.
The background score used the narrative moves fast with the music and
cinematography. It also hints towards the dark future for the girls.
The way Churails story has been told leaves nothing to the viewer's everything
has been shown definitively. They didn't try to normalize or glorify anything, but
just clearly showed all the things that were happening; such as physical
relationships outside of marriage, women married to gay men, women having
physical relationships with women along with drug and alcohol use.

All these things are very prevalent in the society, but this is what makes Churails
controversial because the Pakistani viewers are not treated with such topics with
detail and openness. The language shows the way of thinking of all people from
different walks of life. They wear naqaab and hijab for their face value and showed
that they are used exclusively to hide the identity of women behind that. This may
not well for many viewers, but it shows that how it perceived because it is also
used as a symbol of empowerment as it gives freedom to the women to be who
they are or what they want to be.

Another aspect of Churails is the exposure of fairness creams, their relation to

various diseases and how colorism and racism is ingrained in the minds of society
so that the elite few can get their way and make money off of it. Its correlation with
the prostitution ring also suggests how one thing leads to another, and when these
depths and layers are uncovered, you find nothing but the exploitation of women.
With this, Churails ends on a high note and leaves an impression with plenty of food
for thought.

The final scene the characters coped with the possibility of losing one of their own
and Meesha Shafi's 'Mein' swelled in the background in what felt like a haunting
nod to the country's #Me-too movement.
Feminist catharsis is not limited the greatest catharsis can be found in the endless
badassery-ass-kicking, mard march, stick-wielding types from the burkha-wearing
feminist brigade. , an abusive father puts up a gun until he gives his daughter the freedom
to live life on her own terms.

Antagonist in addition being a misogynist and a liar, he is also the member of

political establishment, a bad husband, a sex freak, a murderer, and member of some
male cult with British boarding school.

She puts herself in a position where she can't meaningfully separate herself from the
complexities she sets up—to the point that in Jugnu's last episode, she holds up a T-
shirt that says "once you go black, you can't go back," in a particularly cruel attempt
to acknowledge her growth after it turns out that her latent racism became the reason
for her divorce from Jackson, her black ex-husband.

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

Churails is a Pakistani web series that was released in 2020 and has
gained widespread popularity for its unique and powerful
portrayal of four women who form a secret detective agency to
uncover and expose the infidelities of powerful men in their society.

The series tackles themes of feminism, gender roles, and power

dynamics in a thought-provoking and engaging way, and the
performances of the main cast are strong and compelling.

One of the standout aspects of Churails is the way it tackles

important social issues in a nuanced and layered manner, using the
plot and characters to explore complex themes in a way that is both
entertaining and educational.
 Overall, Churails is a must-watch for anyone interested in social
issues, feminism, or simply looking for a well-written and well-
acted series. It is a powerful and thought-provoking piece of
storytelling that is sure to leave a lasting impression on its viewers.

As a suggestion, it would be interesting to see the series delve

deeper into the motivations and backgrounds of the main
characters, as well as exploring the consequences of their actions
and the impact they have on their society. It would also be
interesting to see how the series addresses the issues of power and
corruption in a broader societal context, and how the women's
efforts to expose infidelity and injustice fit into the larger struggle
for social justice.
1. References
ahmed, w. (2020, October 22). Retrieved from tribune.pk:
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2382568/sharp-rise-in-violence-against-women

BHALERAO, Y. P. (2020, May 19). #Entertainment. Retrieved from shethepeople:

https://www.shethepeople.tv/home-top-video/paatal-lok-finally-a-web-series-
which-addresses-toxic-masculinity/

Dawson, D. D. (2018, 1 7). city-times. Retrieved from Khaleejtimes:

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/city-times/are-web-series-the-new-movies

iMDB. (n.d.). Trivia. Retrieved from IMDB:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12803682/trivia/?ref_=tt_trv_trv

islam, H. a. (2021, December 14). Blog. Retrieved from The Pakistan Daily:
https://thepakistandaily.com/how-toxic-masculinity-breeds-violence-in-pakistan/

Orbey, E. (2018, September 10). The New Yorker Recommends. Retrieved from
newyorker.com: https://www.newyorker.com/recommends/watch/the-corrective-
conversations-of-man-enough

Raza SH, Y. M. (2021, 10 8). Investigating Binge-Watching Adverse Mental Health

Outcomes During Covid-19 Pandemic: Moderating Role of Screen Time for Web
Series Using Online Streaming. . pp. 1615-1629.

ShehzadiZamurradAwan. (n.d.). Impact of Zia-ul-Haq’s Gender Policieson Pakistani

Society. Retrieved from nihcr.edu.pk:
http://www.nihcr.edu.pk/Latest_English_Journal/Jan-
Jun%202016%20No.1/2.%20Impact%20of%20Zia-ul-
Haq,%20shahzadi%20awan.pdf

younas, u. (2021, october 21). Toxic masculinity is a problem. So what are men going to do
about it? Can a society where half the population feels unsafe, traumatised, and
harassed every day of their lives make progress?