Characterization is the most important aspect in story-telling. For any story to work, it is the utmost need of the script to have strong and such kind of characters who do not only do justice to the plot and theme of the drama, as well as have a strong personality. In every single drama, there are good and negative characters because they are the demands of the script and also help the writer in depicting the story in a well-rounded manner. A writer makes any character realistic when they add a lot of layers and personality and not just stick to the black and white approach. This is the why, at times even the negative characters are not disliked by the audience because they are written with a lot more clarity and their reasonings are explained.
There are also such characters who do not serve any purpose whatsoever and end up just being the most annoying fillers in the drama. Such characters do not have anything going for them and anything they say or do has no effect on the story. There is also another category of characters which are hated for all the right reasons and because they have such strong personalities and standing in the story, they depict what it’s like to be around such people in real life. Then the writers also come up with the most exaggerated and over the top personalities which make it very hard for the viewers to connect to them.
In any story or drama, for a character to work, it is very important that they have a solid reasoning to back the way they behave. Clarity is also one of the main elements in writing the characters so that the viewers can understand them better. Pakistani dramas have had quite a few characters that were hated by the audience, sometimes for the genuine reasons, which goes to show that the writers evoked the justified emotion in the audience and then the viewers also hated those characters who did not have anything going for them.
Here are the 10 characters that the audience loved to hate:
Mehwish (Mere Pass Tum Ho)
This character was not only difficult for the audience to digest but also written in such a manner that showed that such people do exist in the society who destroy the lives and do not even worry about the consequences. Mehwish’s character was hated for a lot of reasons and the writer Khalil ur Rehman Qamar exactly wanted the same reaction out of the viewers who watched the drama. This was one such character which sparked a debate amongst the audience where some justified her wrongdoings but the majority of the viewers saw her for who she was; a gold-digger and an adultress who did not mind a live-in relationship because she was getting the perks that came with it.
The writer skillfully showed how such women feel entitled to have things their way and when nothing works, they also feel entitled to forgiveness. Mehwish’s weakest personality trait was that she never once regretted what she did and in fact kept on wondering why it was so hard for her ex-husband Danish to forgive her. She never held herself responsible for the damage that she had done and the few tears she shed were only because she fell flat on her face and did not know what to do. This was one such character which was conceived with a lot of clarity and made people hate her, exactly why it was written for. No wonder why Ayeza Khan felt it was one of the most difficult characters to portray.
Jameel (Aangan)
This was another character which was beyond viewers’ understanding for what he wanted from his life and how selfish he was. Jameel was a poorly conceived and written character who did not have a spine to fend for himself and loved mooching off of others because he knew he was unable to do anything for himself without their support. Jameel was also the one who exploited the blind love that his cousin had for him and kept on giving her the pep talks to get her to finance his education.
It did not take much for Jameel to move on from Chammi to Tehmina whom he had never met and after she passed away, Jameel pounced on Aaliya, pestering her to fall in love with him. Later when things did not work and because he was left with no other option, he ends up with Chammi, who herself comes after surviving a torturous and abusive marriage. Although fans loved seeing Ahad Raza Mir as Jameel, it still did not help them in turning a blind eye to the fact that this character was heavily flawed and really bad.
Ammar (Khaas)
This was one such character which the writer intelligently used to depict what narcissistic husbands put their wives through while carrying a facade of being an ideal husband in front of others. Ammar was a strongly written character which actually did justice to the sensitivity that was attached to it and the scenarios that kept on unfolding due to his antics. Amaar failed to see the fault in him and unfortunately, had a lot of people surrounding him who kept on justifying his wrongdoings for him, feeding his ego and blinding him to his shortcomings. All the things Ammar put Saba through, that too without acknowledging the wrongs he commits were enough for the viewers to hate him.
Ammar’s character is a perfect example of how the writers can use negative character to bring awareness and be the voice for those whose reality is very much similar to what Saba was experiencing. Such characters are hated for the right reasons and it goes to show that negative characters also serve a purpose and are not used by the writers to only grab ratings. This was definitely one of the strongest performances of Ali Rehman’s career till date.
Nimra (Jhooti)
Nimra is a one-dimensional character which has all the wrong things going for her. She is a pathological liar and a kleptomaniac and not only that, she doesn’t mind manipulating her own parents for her selfish reasons. Nimra’s character is not only annoying but highly exaggerated. It seems that the only purpose with which the writer wrote this character and story was to get as much ratings out of it as possible because other than that, the story has nothing new to offer and the continuous dose of negativity is mind-numbing.
It is already predictable that Nimra will end up paying the price for her wrongdoings but what’s the purpose is it going to serve when that is going to happen in the last couple of episodes after a heavy dose of unethical behavior displayed for so many weeks. An over-the-top negative character which is hated because of poor writing and poorer characteristics. After Ranjha Ranjha Kardi, the fans of Iqra Aziz did not expect or even wanted to see her in a drama like Jhooti.
Zeeshan (Kahin Deep Jalay)
One of the most resented characters from the recent Pakistani dramas is Zeeshan. The writer used this character to show the insecurities and complexes of a weak man, but he ended up looking like a coward who could not man up to own his mistakes and decided to observe chup ka roza. In the entire second half of the drama, Zeeshan probably had a couple of dialogues per episode and the rest of the time, he was seen hovering around the city in black salwar kameez, trying to show he was so upset with life.
For starters, he had an issue with his wife being loved by her family, then had a problem with her wealthy background. Although Rida did everything to make him happy, he found it very easy to accuse her of infidelity and when she proved that she was not guilty of such a heinous act, he wanted her to forgive him just like that. This is the reason viewers loathed the character of Zeeshan and did not also appreciate the way it was portrayed by Imran Ashraf because they could see the residues of Bhola in his performance, which people think he should snap out of ASAP.
Shaheena (Mera Dil Mera Dushman)
There are negative characters, then there are super negative characters, then there are those who put negativity to shame and then come the likes of Shaheena who take negativity to such a level that even negativity feel shy of being this negative. Negative characters are never a problem for the viewers to absorb and handle but then characters like Shaheena who suffer from verbal diarrhea are impossible to handle. It won’t be wrong to say that all the scenes of this character are depressing and unbearable to watch. Negative characters do look realistic when they have a few other shades but in this case, the only shade she has is the shade of negative.
The fate of this character is so predictable that it shows she has been used by the writer to grab the ratings. She is pregnant at the moment and even let her mother in law suffer and die, when she could’ve been taken to the hospital by her sister in law Maira. Shaheena will obviously end up losing her child, her husband and the roof over her head, anything new? No!
Munazzah (Thora Sa Haq)
She was a master manipulator who only wanted to own things that never belonged to her. Munazzah was a weak character but more than that, she was a mother no one wishes to have. In order to please the people around, she kept on treating her son as an after-thought. The happiness of Zamin was never her priority and she kept on committing all the wrongdoings because she wanted to stay in the home that was owned by Rabia.
In the end, after the dust settled, Munazzah could’ve easily stayed with Rabia to look after her because no matter what, Rabia allowed her to stay in her home for decades but Munazzah turned a blind eye and immediately remembered her son was now settled and had his own place. Munazzah always came up with evil plans but let Rabia pull the trigger and take the front seat, this way she kept on fooling everyone to believe how nice she was but the viewers were intelligent enough to see through her snakey-ness.
Taimoor (Balaa)
All his life, he was raised by a loving mother and all his life, he hated his cousin Nigar because before getting married to her, he was aware of her shortcomings and evil personality traits. Unfortunately, he failed to maintain a balance after his marriage and started doubting his mother’s intentions only because his wife said so. All the mishaps that his family members went through were easily blamed on his wife Nigar and it was completely ignored by the writer that Taimoor had a major role to play in giving Nigar the edge to do so. Right when his mother was at the most vulnerable state, he decided to go abroad for the sake of his job, entrusting his mother’s well-being on his wife whom he clearly knew had a problem with her.
In the end, Taimoor devised a plan to drive Nigar crazy and luckily got away from this mess scot-free. It is unfortunate that the writer gave a clean chit to such an irresponsible son who kept on making one mistake after another. Nigar was the same person because of whom he didn’t mind straining his relationship with his mother, so after her passing, why couldn’t he forgive her and work on mental well-being because no matter what, she was the mother of his child. Not only that, Taimoor was so lucky that he got married to his lady love as well. It was a loathsome character for sure but the fact that Bilal Abbas Khan played it kept the heat from Taimoor away.
Saira (Mai Na Janoo)
A self-proclaimed bechari who couldn’t look past her bechargi because she was so used to the idea of being a bechari. All her life, Saira saw her father being torn between his wives and mother, she felt unloved and lonely but after she got married to her cousin who adored her and more than that, trusted her with all his heart, Saira continued with her sneaky ways because being a bechari that she was, she could not tell her husband that her ex-boyfriend Nihaad was blackmailing her. Saira’s bechargi was so much that she was forced to celebrate her birthday at midnight in a romantic setting arranged by Nihaad.
Her husband Nain kept on reiterating that he loved and trusted her, he wanted her to be free and independent. He kept on fighting everything that came her way, yet she chose to insult and degrade him because of her own stupidity because as per her own twisted logic, she was following Nihaad’s orders only to keep her family safe? Saira’s antics were annoying and far more resentful than what the supposed villain of the drama Nihaad was doing to her. The viewers did not have a hard time hating her character and Sanam Jung’s forced and poor acting was a huge reason too.
Zoya (Kashf)
At this stage where Pakistani drama industry is thriving and doing so well in terms of popularity, the last thing viewers want to see is a younger sister being madly in love with the fiance of her elder sister. Zoya is not only in love with Wajdan but she doesn’t mind holding her feelings back. She continues to make passes at him which are uncomfortable to watch and do not show the relationship of sister and brother-in-law in a good light.
Eventually Zoya will get married to Wajdan but then she will turn his life into a living hell because she will see him still being in love with Kashf. Out of all the people in this world, why did she have to chase after the guy who is already in love with someone, that too her own sister? Sabeena Farooq has given a convincing performance but the character itself is despicable.
This completes the list of the characters the viewers have loved to hate. Which of these characters have you resented? Feel free to share your opinion in the comment section below.
