Pakistani dramas are based on realities of life. The writers of Pakistani dramas take pride in the fact that they pick up real-life incidents and turn them into stories suitable for dramatization. For decades, Pakistani dramas have done well and earned a reputation due to realistic portrayal of realities, however with the passage of time, everything became a lot more commercial where the main focus shifted from quality content to profits and ratings. This approach of the producers and channels in general gave the writers the edge to come up with different and random ideas as far as they got them the ratings.

In recent years, where these sorts of dramas did earn a lot of ratings, there was a large number of audience that did not condone what was being shown in the name of entertainment or dramatization. A lot of different dramas which dealt with different issues without heavily relying on the rating-grabbing-negativity-selling ideas also did well in terms of popularity, which already sent a message loud and clear that people were looking for better content and not everyone was a fan of such sort of dramas which had nothing new to offer.

There are quite a lot of trends in Pakistani dramas that have become a norm and the writers rely heavily on them to develop and establish the story. It is unfortunate how common these trends have become because now, instead of looking like a story based on real-life incidents, it looks like there’s nothing new or different that the writers can come up with, therefore they keep on writing stories on these lines. It becomes frustrating for the viewers to keep on seeing similar things over and over again. As much as the writers should take their role in drama-making seriously, they should also focus on how to strike a healthy balance between everything they intend to come up with.

Here are the 10 common trends that should be banned in Pakistani dramas:

Lies and Deceit

There is hardly any Pakistani drama that goes on air which does not include tonnes and tonnes of lies and deceit. Every other character is shown to be capable of stirring the pot with their lies and those, who may or may not speak falsely, find it very easy to believe in these lies. Unfortunately, in order to showcase these factors, the writers compromise heavily on the traits of a human being to analyze the situation and put their brains to good use. A lot of times, the writers turn these characters black and white and forgot to maintain a balance by adding shades to their characters. Lying and deceit has become so common in every single drama that people have gotten used to this trend and if there’s a character that does not speak falsely, the viewers find it hard to digest such truthful and honest characters. The writers are very well aware of the fact that media or dramas in general are a great mind-controlling tool, therefore for the sake of ratings, to make such a questionable attribute seem totally normal is definitely not alright.

Slaps and Domestic Violence

This is one such trend that should be banned in every single Pakistani drama whatsoever, irrespective of how grave the situation is. Domestic violence unfortunately is a reality for a large part of the population, therefore to bring it to such a basic level where every helpless character is subjected to so much of violence and mistreatment in general does not send a good message across. Those who are faced with this situation in their lives find no hope by seeing so much helplessness in the dramas and those who are capable of subjecting others to this cruelty find a justification for their behavior. This issue is pretty sensitive as it is but by showing it so casually in every single drama not only normalizes it but also desensitizes the viewers to an extent that they start seeing domestic violence or slaps in any given situation as a very trivial issue. The writers always bring in the argument of depicting reality through their dramas for their defence but they often forget that the viewers are intelligent enough to see through their rating-grabbing tactics because by the end of the day, not all but most of the writers do focus on this factor the most.

Childlessness and Miscarriages As A Punishment

These matters are very sensitive for people who are going through this in any way, therefore to make it so black and white is another trend that should be stopped in Pakistani dramas. One way or the other, a villain is shown to be childless, to automatically generate this perception that because of her negativity, she is unable to bear a child and is being punished for the atrocities she is committing. There are also a few examples of negative characters falling pregnant and eventually ending up miscarrying the child, which again is the writer’s way of writing the fate of these characters that because they have not been upto any good, they could not earn the status of being a mother. Childlessness, pregnancy and motherhood, each and every stage in a Pakistani woman’s life is already related to so much judgment to an extent of putting her into depression, therefore seeing the media play such a role and highlighting it in such a negative way definitely does not help and doesn’t show a good picture in any case.

One-sided Domination of The Villains

This is another trend that has been prevalent in Pakistani dramas for the longest time, however in recent years, the negativity of the villains has touched the sky. There are such people in real life too, however, it is absolutely ridiculous on the writers’ part to show that the villains continue to commit their atrocities while others are completely blind and are unable to see the reality. This is one such factor which brings a lot of ratings unfortunately because the audience have become immune to seeing so much negativity that they automatically get drawn to these stories. Also because the audience do not have much option left when the leading channels sell such ideas, therefore these dramas become popular giving the writers a false idea that people are approving these themes and plots. The writers make the villains so strong for the major chunk of the drama and the rest of the characters take these sufferings as their destiny. This has to be the most absurd plot a writer can come up with. It is not only annoying but frustrating too because in real life, one way or the other, the villains are confronted and they necessarily do not have a control on every single situation that is happening under their roof, but in Pakistani dramas, the negative characters reign supreme and no one bats an eyelid.

Goodness To An Extent of Stupidity

This is another trend that frustrates a Pakistani drama viewer to no end. The good or God-fearing characters are shown to be so nice that they end up looking dumb or stupid. Things obviously don’t work that way. If someone is a harmless person who does not believe in violence or getting involved in negativity, it does not necessarily have to mean that they should not only be subjected to cruelty, they also do not speak up for themselves. In a lot of Pakistani dramas, it is shown that the good people are put through so much harassment and they do not have the courage to speak up or take a stand for themselves. To show helplessness of good or God fearing people is quite a stretch which doesn’t have much to do with reality and has been dramatized to make the most of it.

Marriage and Child As A Rehab

In so many dramas, those characters who are not fit for marriage or bearing the responsibility of a child are forced into marriage and the safest, common, most-heard argument to support it happens to be the fact that people believe these life-changing turn of events will automatically instill maturity, sense of responsibility and wisdom in the useless and good-for-nothing characters. It is quite common to hear these dialogues in Pakistani dramas that their good-for-nothing offspring will change for the better after the marriage, whereas things end up getting worse and both the people involved find themselves in deep trouble after getting to know the reality when the novelty wears off and the bubbles burst.

Male Characters Getting Away With Everything

This has to be one such narrative that needs to change in Pakistani dramas with immediate effect. It has been years and years of painting the finale of the dramas with similar brush where no matter what male characters do, they always get forgiven one way or the other and all they have to do is ask for a half-hearted apology. It is also ridiculous how men doing wrong is also blamed upon women that because they must not be meeting the man’s standards, he is losing the track and not being sincere. Cheating and infidelity is one thing, in general male characters in our dramas get away with everything and they are not held accountable and are never questioned for being complete morons.

Message Not Being Conveyed In a Single Conversation

This has to be one of the most frustrating aspects of drama watching. Indeed the stories are dramatized and some of the situations are prolonged for the effect, but there are uncountable incidents where the conversations could be easily completed, conveying the message loud and clear but the writers don’t write the dialogues or the directors and the editors feel the need to cut the conversation short. This is the reason if an entire picture is completed in a single conversation and it is not dragged for unnecessarily long scenes, the viewers sigh with relief.

Incomplete Conversations Leading To Misunderstandings

This is pretty much an extension of the point mentioned above but so many times, because the argument is not conveyed properly and accurately, it leads to misunderstandings and then every single character forgets what the actual issue was and they dwell so much into the misunderstanding that they lose the plot. There is nothing as relieving and refreshing seeing the characters having full dialogues at hand to say what is needed to be said and finish the matter off then and there.

Giving The Drama A Half Baked Wrap Up In Last 2 Minutes

This has pretty much become a fact and a done deal that the directors and even writers of Pakistani dramas don’t really know how to give any drama a proper closure. Very few dramas out of thousands give the viewers a satisfactory and complete ending, which is unfair because the audience invests so much time therefore the least they deserve is a proper closure. It is always ironic that the drama makers have weeks and weeks of time to develop the story leading towards the ending. They have a lot of episodes where they can start building the ending up so that in the last episode, they don’t have to rush everything and leave so many questions unanswered and not tying the loose ends, but unfortunately, that turns out to be the case with most of the dramas, even with the dramas that are directed by intelligent directors.

This concludes the list of the trends that should not be promoted rather banned in Pakistani dramas. Do you agree with the list? Which of these factors disappoint you the most as a drama-viewer. Feel free to share your opinion in the comment section below.