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Review: Turkish drama Gassal will push you to think about some hard realities of life with a chuckle

Review: Turkish drama Gassal will push you to think about some hard realities of life with a chuckle

This mini-series about a man who gives the final bath to the dead is both funny and a little sad, but definitely worth a watch.
29 Jan, 2025

“Who will bathe me after I die?” is the premise on which Turkish drama Gassal is based. This very grave (no pun intended) question is one that starts haunting Baki, a 30-something ghassal — the person who gives the final bath to the dead and covers them in a shroud in accordance with Islamic tradition — and leads to some morbidly hilarious situations in this 10-episode series.

In Islam, the final bath is the last worldly act that is performed on and for the dead. Great importance has been given to how it is performed while maintaining the dignity of the deceased. Islamic traditions lay out clear rules about the steps of the bath and the manner in which the shroud is wrapped. The person(s) giving the final bath is supposed to know and follow those rules.

A ghassal’s work is both similar to and different from that of a mortician. While both prepare the dead for their final journey, a mortician beautifies the deceased using various techniques. The ghassal, on the other hand, is supposed to purify the body by way of ablution and clean it of any worldly impurity.

In the past, the close relatives of the deceased used to perform this act themselves — usually at home. Nowadays, professional washers have overtaken this role and it’s mostly done in mosques in dedicated washing rooms or by organisations that provide funeral services.

Baki, the protagonist of the series, is a professional washer and has been so for years. He has a rather mechanical approach to his job. He is at work every day, including Sundays, because, as he says to someone, death doesn’t take a day off. The people around him often quiz him about the strange nature of his profession, but he is least bothered. In fact, he prefers working with the dead because he believes that unlike the living, the dead can’t cause you any harm.

He continues to wash dead bodies day after day until a freak incident in a graveyard forces him to think about the question that leaves him unable to focus on anything else: who will wash me when I die? This contention stems both from him being a lonely, introverted person with no family and few friends, as well as from the fact that he isn’t just another ghassal; he is one who likes his job and performs it with utmost dedication. He never rushes, for the “dead aren’t in a hurry to go anywhere”. He is mindful of every detail — the water temperature (it shouldn’t be too hot, he insists), the amount of soap to be used, how much lather there should be, the right quantity of rose water, etc.

In short, he cares about things which, according to many people around him, do not matter to the dead. Nevertheless, he carries out all the steps diligently, reciting the mandatory prayers at each step, and hence, is rightly concerned that the person who washes him might not perform the rituals with due care. This thought causes him many a sleepless night, and he actively starts to look for someone who could give him a proper bath when he dies. A person who will not treat him just as a dead body but as someone who once lived.

This serious quest results in some rather funny situations, and Gassal is the story of if and how Baki succeeds in finding a washer for himself. Actor Ahmet Kural does an excellent job portraying Baki.

Gassal is a dark comedy and the humour in it revolves mostly around death. There are moments that are meant to be comedic but also serve as serious social commentary and can be relatable for many of us. For instance, who hasn’t witnessed relatives of the dead competing with each other to prove their closeness to the deceased? Or people more concerned about the food than the funeral. Or decades-old feuds between the living rearing their obnoxious heads right at the time of the burial?

And then there are actual comedic moments, such as the confusion that ensues when Baki tries to recruit Nazim, the hearse driver, as his to-be washer and has to ask for permission from Nazim’s wife, or the unexpected turn of events when Baki visits a family to ask for their daughter’s hand in marriage, or when Baki give instructions to Merdan on a video call about how to give a bath to a dead body, using his own (alive) father as a prop!

There aren’t just funny moments, though — the series has its fair share of sad, heart-wrenching ones as well. In the absence of family members, Baki’s desperation to find someone who can give him the last bath tugs at your heart, the rejections he faces in his attempts to find a partner leaves one sympathising with him. The way his relationship with his father unravels is perhaps the most poignant part of the story.

Then there are the characters — it doesn’t matter if they are main or supporting, if someone occupies the screen for some time, their roles are integral to that particular strand of the story. Be it Baki’s childhood friend Ahmet and his wife and three kids, his assistant at the funeral home, the imam who leads the funeral prayer, the driver(s) of the hearse, his love interest, or Husëyn Uncle who sits outside the funeral house everyday but never talks to anyone — until he does.

The story moves at a somewhat relaxed pace and has some (not entirely unpredictable) plot twists. The background score — in fact the entire music collection of the series — is hauntingly beautiful, with the exception of the opening song which is as peppy as it gets. Additionally, at the end of every episode, a band pops up somewhere in the last scene singing a sad song.

Each episode in this mini-series is 30 minutes long. If you want to watch something that is both funny and a little sad at the same time, and isn’t a run-of-the-mill drama, something which will gently push you to think about some hard realities of life without overdoing it (with a smile or a chuckle at times) Gassal is the series for you.

The show has been directed by Selçuk Aydemir and written by Sümeyye Karaarslan. It stars Ahmet Kural, Muharram Turkseven, Ezgi Ozyurekoglu, Serkan Ercan, Sibel Aytan, Mertcan Erturk.

Comments

Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad Jan 29, 2025 06:09pm
Pak-Turkey friendship; Zindabaad.
Recommend
NYS Jan 29, 2025 09:32pm
I will be one of the listening audience
Recommend
Gulabo Jan 30, 2025 05:09am
Turkish dramas are boring
Recommend