Currently, on-aired Pakistani primetime dramas started addressing issues that are less spoken about in society, and these dramas have taken a step in the right direction. The cast of every drama has performed their roles so beautifully that the audience can feel the reality.
Since the beginning of 2021, our media industry has produced astonishing storylines through which they dared to explore newer, more risky paths. While serials like Saraab and Phaans addressed mental illnesses with the end upon rape. And a few recent ones like; Dobara, Hum Khana Kay Sachay Thay, Parizaad, Ishq-e-Laa, Sinf e Ahan and much more others are touching upon the topics that have been cleared under the carpet for decades.
The current ongoing dramas are trying to portray issues like; second marriage of a widow, a broken family and child psychology, a competition between cousins or siblings, daily chaos of a life of poor/rich families, and how women fight to achieve their dreams on a professional level. These issues have always existed in our part of the world but owing to our culture and the social taboos attached, no one dares to talk about them, especially not on the public platform.
Many dramas are currently delving into many important topics, but let’s discuss 4 of them here.
We have already been full of praises for Dobara, starring Bilal Abbas Khan and Hadiqa Kiani in the lead roles.
In this drama, Hadiqa Kiani as Mehru portrays the life of a woman who got married in her teenage, and after her husband’s death, she wants to relive life by fulfilling her dreams.
As in the current episode of Dobara, we see that Mehru has been reunified with her younger self, who loves to wear bright colors, play tennis, and her love towards music or dance. Unfortunately, her kids and the typical Pakistani Durdana phopoo keep criticizing Mehru and striking her with the word widow mom. We witnessed that Mehru is continuously resisting the family’s reaction to her actions.
However, in this week’s episode, she impressed the audience with her dialogue, which says, ” Mein janti ho mein aik maa hoon magar mein aik insaan bhi hoon”.
Bang! True though.
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Another exciting role of this drama is of Mahir played by Bilal Abbas, his character is portraying a life of a broken family kid. He has two houses two families but none of them owns him as a son. Being continuously bashed by his step-parents, affects his manners of living, what we called in Urdu ‘Tameez sey rehna’.
In the recent episodes, we see that he has been kicked out of his house and living with his friend, Mehru becomes his friend.
Mhmm, oh please! he’s not flirting at all with Mehru, he’s showing respect to her.
Well getting back to the point, in this week’s episode, Mahir has asked Mehru’s help for the job or arranging any candidate who wants to learn tennis. But Mehru herself became his tennis student.
The next episode promo shows some tense conversation between Mahir and Mehru’s family.
Let see where the story moves next. We feel that the societal pressure around them will lead to Mehru & Mehir Wedding.
Though, Mahir’s Character allows the audience to see how children suffer once families fall apart. We hoped that people learn from this.
We might not be completely sold on Ishq-e-Laa’s plot yet but one thing we do appreciate about the drama is the strength of Azka’s (Yumna Zaidi) character. From raising her voice against harassment to getting blamed for a thing that she never committed, but her Bhabi is the real evil character here. Well, in the upcoming episode she will get her lesson for being evil.
The other two important characters of the drama serial, Shayana & Azlaan aka Sajal Ali & Azaan Sami Khan, respectively. Their journey is on a smooth track, they got married and know we’ll wait for how the story will roll further for both of them.
However, they both were looking adorable in the wedding scene.
In 2021, Pakistani dramas not only saw a variation in storylines but also witnessed some of the audiences’ favorites return to the small screen. Like Mahira Khan, Kubra Khan, and Usman Mukhtar, people get surprised when they heard that they all cast for Humaira Ahmed’s novel Hum Kahan Kay Sachay Thy.
We already know how dark and depressing Hum Kahan Kay Sachay Thay’s story really is! It highlighted different factual realities like; broken families, childhood trauma and its impact on adults as well as the impact the unhealthy competition between cousins.
AAKHIR KAB TAK
Well, in the past many dramas have raised the harassment issues with different plots, but the effort of the media industry to educate people is not giving us any positive impact. Back in July 2021, we all witnessed a big harassment case of Noor Mukadam, it all happened when drama Phaans was on-aired their last episode, on a strong note, but the poor reality of our society we never learn from any situation.
Here’s the clip, watch it again.
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Well, get back to Akhir Kab Tak, a drama that perfectly captures the extent of violence that women continue to bear in society. The show is fearless in its narrative and leaves no detail forgotten while addressing rape.
The evil role Zafar aka Azfar Rehman does a commendable job with his portrayal of a perpetrator. The storyline feels no less than a rollercoaster ride with audiences being able to feel Fajar’s (Srha Asghar) fear and trauma as she struggles to live a regular life. Also for her friend Tabinda. Well, both characters ended with suicide.
Aakhir Kab Tak also rightfully describes how culprits are often being around us, even in our homes, and how they rarely have only one target. Like Zafar, numerous men in real life continue to harass and blackmail multiple girls while pretending to be completely innocent in front of others.
The narrative might be an uncomfortable one for our society but stepping out of our bubbles is exactly what this country needs right now.
Well, this drama is also featured another strong taboo of our society that men always suppressed women and even they are not allowed to have a fruitful life. Basically, in the majority of areas of our country still, girls are not allowed to get an education or go out for a career, even in the toughest of times.
This whole plot was played by Ushna Shah as Noor, a strong girl who speaks for her rights and stood for her family to start working in her father’s factory. While working in a factory, another taboo framed that it’s too hard for men to take orders from women.
Well, the drama is in the final phase. Let see where Noor’s story ends.