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Kafeel has been receiving widespread praise for its depiction of broken a household and the effects of abusive marriages on children, and for some, like actor Atiqa Odho, it hit very close to home.

The seasoned drama reviewer was on the show Kya Drama Hai when host Mukarram Kaleem called for a discussion on the show’s last episode and asked what the panelists — Odho, Marina Khan and Nadia Khan — thought of the drama.

Odho said she could tell where the story was going from the get go. “I felt that there was a very predictable story, but told well.”

She told Kaleem it was rare to see a story where you couldn’t tell what was going to happen, especially in Pakistan. She said there were shows that left audiences guessing at every twist and turn, like White Lotus, which she had started recently, but this was hard to come by.

She praised Kafeel for its positive ending and how the show tied everything together. She was also happy with the messaging the show had for audiences, like how Warda ends up finding her place with her in-laws.

The actor said she also loved the way they had depicted the bond between a mother and her son through Subuk and Zeba. “They’ve shown such a strong mother-son bond, which is accurate too. Boys are always, always on their mother’s side, I can tell you this from experience.”

She said that, in her experience daughters will pick a fight with their mums, but her son has supported her in everything she’s ever done. “I know that boys are very soft with their mothers and here, I liked seeing the mother-son dynamic. I loved seeing that the mother who went through such abuse and deprivation, all her children collectively thought to give her a second chance at happiness. They looked at her as a human being, not just as a woman or a mother.”

Later in the show, Odho revealed her affinity for the mother-son dynamic was because she had “lived this experience” herself. She recalled a time when, after her divorce, her son came to her and suggested she get married to her now-husband, Samar Ali Khan.

“It was my son who came to me and said I should get married for a third time. That’s not something you do lightly, a third marriage, even my mother wasn’t on board, saying people will make jokes.”

She said she was also initially hesitant because she anticipated resistance from her daughters. When she told her son about that, he assured her he would convince his sisters personally.