Murdered by My Father

Murdered by My Father written by Vinay Patel is a heartbreaking tale of Salma torn between choosing family tradition or her own individual freedom. You hope that they will be some kind of happy resolution but the title kind of gives the game away.

Salma's father Shahzad (Adeel Akhtar) is a hard working widower raising two children. His teenage daughter Salma (Kiran Sonia Sawar) has been promised to Haroon, once she finishes her education which would be good business sense for the family but Salma had fallen in love with Imi who she spends a lot of time with even skipping college.

Of course once Haroon discovers that Salma has a boyfriend he and his father humiliate Shazad, who feels dishonoured and takes it out on his daughter. He locks her up but she escapes but when she returns the next day it ends in tragedy.

Not only that but as we see in the beginning of the drama the bloodied body of Shazad, who after killing Salma stabs himself and throws himself off the apartment block leaving his young son alone as an orphan. It is a double tragedy.

Kiran Sonia Sawar gives a fine performance as a young teenage girl entering into womanhood, in love with a teenage boy and trying to keep her father happy.

Shazad is really not written as a monster, he is a hard working family man who feels he is doing his best for his daughter. His actions are of someone who has just snapped and later realised the consequences of his actions.

The true monsters are Haroon and his father. They are the outsiders, who pressurise Shazad for his young daughter and then point the finger of judgment.

Once these hypocritical behavioural witch hunters are outed, shamed and shunned can the matter of honour killings be tackled.

Honour killing is a very controversial and contemporary issue in society as of today and this drama explores that theme by focusing on a Muslim household, in which the father, Shahzad wants his daughter, Salma to be in an arranged marriage.

Murdered by my father (written by Vinay Patel & shown by BBC3), was a really good film; the starting scenes consisted of what happened at the end, which immediately hooked me in as I was curious as to how and why it happened. Salma's voice over added to the somber beginning, and again adds to the mystery of the plot. I think the representation of Salma reflects teenagers now to some extent – the whole thing about hiding things from your parents, rebelling against parents, etc. The director tried show the audience the Islam tradition, for example, the Muslim wedding at the beginning and personally I think it was captured really well.

Most of the film's mood was dark and miserable, which is understandable because honour killing is a very depressing topic and there is no way that it can be romanticized or be presented in a lighthearted way. Overall, Murdered By My Father is a very moving movie, it really had an effect on me and makes me think that people in the 21st Century still go through this.

in all, i did enjoy it. the father named Shahzad was a great portrayal of those within many religions whom live in old times and have old school beliefs of their religion which do not coincide with 21st century life. Salma has the sympathetic support of the viewer,yet at the same time also infuriates the viewer as she does stupid things that would not end well for her, and does not take the precautions to keep her happiness. which i found rather annoying, because if i was in that situation i would do things differently to prevent unhappiness and murder.

technically, Imi is an antagonist in this as he is upsetting the equilibrium, however he has the sympathetic support of the viewer, as his desires are well met and pure loving, but the way he shows them towards the end are not good as he is.

overall, this is a good piece, however stupid decisions from characters distant it further away from reality.

just finished watching it felt sick to my stomach and surprised that this happens in London. ...kinda going through the same situation makes me wonder how my own father will react its true a dilemma and a hard choice to make for us middle eastern girls whether to make our parents happy or take our freedom by force. ALTHOUGH this movie is a bit too harsh real parents aren't like that at least not to the extend of murdering their own children then again I don't know until I go through this myself... I don't believe what she did was right but neither wrong. after all what is a girl or any person suppose to do when their own parents don't listen to them i really recommend showing this to your parents and try to show them how wrong forced marriage is PS I agree the title gave it all away they should have made it more mysterious especially the beginning (which is the ending)

The acting is good and you hate the religious idiot that is her father, unfortunately you soon feel very unsympathetic for the protagonist, Salma, as she seems to beg to be murdered despite having ample opportunity to help herself. Ultimately a very frustrating watch and not very enjoyable because she is that stupid.