Pakistani dramas have always been a great source of Entertainment for the people of Pakistan, it’s a very proud moment indeed that our dramas does not only provide entertainment to our people but all over the world e.g India, Arab and European Countries. A glance at a past and you will come to know that we use to make wonderful dramas with thought provoking stories. How can I forget Ankahi, Tanhayyian, Dhuwan, Alpha Bravo Charlie etc.
At the start of 2000 our drama Industry went into recession but despite the downfall we were still producing dramas. Then finally Industry got back on to its feet from 2009 when we started making some quality dramas especially under Humayun Saeed’s Production like Meri Zaat Zara-e-Benishan and Doraha. Now many quality dramas are being produced and telecast by different Production houses making this Industry most Powerful Entertainment Industry.
However I was pondering that despite of making huge amount dramas nowadays there is still some charm missing that was used to be in our old dramas. It is a fact that we love old dramas because our childhood was attached to it but still there were so many things that makes our old dramas better than current ones. To prove it to some extent I decided to make an analysis which differs old dramas from current dramas. So have a look what was happening then and what is happening now.
So I have broken down my analysis into parts that are essential in every drama.
Episodes: For sure every drama means having episodes otherwise it will be called as telefilm. Number of episodes depend upon the story of drama and also on directors and producers for how long they wants to drag it. Now going back to our old dramas normally the dramas were 13-15 episodes long. Now coming back to our current ones and how much our directors and producers love to drag the drama to 25 episodes or more. Seriously through dragging they have spoilt lots of good dramas as the story gets out of focus. Obviously if drama got dragged for no reason then interest will be lost automatically.
Stories: Story generates interest, a drama with good story will obviously attracts people. Of course a good story depends upon the wisdom and intelligence of writers. Nowadays mostly stories are like Hey poor girl I am a rich boy with large business and villa but I love you and wants to marry you and poor girl oh I will think about it. Then after marriage a lottery for girl’s family and hatred by boy’s family and eventually conspiracies begin, through conspiracies girl and boy get separated but after knowing truth they are back together that’s it a happy ending as usual. We still got good writers now like Umera Ahmed so what’s missing? The actual thing which is missing is variety. Previously our dramas have all sort of stories tragedy, horror, comedy, action, romantic and stories focusing on different professions. Sadly now stories revolves around cheating spouses, love triangles, oppressed women, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law rivalry or sisters rivalry and stories full of blames and suspicions. Comedy is now very less to been seen I mean how many comedy dramas or sitcoms we produce in a year hardly 1 or 2. Action stories are now totally vanished and no is giving a thought towards action based dramas like we use to have previously for example Dhuwan, Alpha Bravo Charlie and Aahan. It is my sincere request to all writers to please come up with some different stories at least some more wittiest and hilarious stories.
Dialogues: I love you, I hate you, I cannot live without you, you are mine, I will die for you, will you marry me, what are you doing with other women, please come back don’t leave me, get out of my house, Talaaq, Talaaq,Talaaq! Oh don’t worry I was just writing popular dialogues that we use to have now. So again coming back to our writers and their way of writing, when every writers write for the television he/she includes expressive dialogues and the way these dialogues needs to be delivered depends on actors in order to seek more viewers’ attention. In our old dramas there was a habit among writers to include poetic and thought provoking dialogues and pure Urdu Language was used but now the dialogue and dialogue delivery seems to be flat however there are still some good dialogues especially in Umera Ahmed’s Stories. Another thing seems like our writers are now heavily influenced with English Language, English words and sentences are being used more especially when the stories are focused on rich families.
Simplicity: Showing large houses with a Mercedes car and a multi-millionaire business usually a factory seems to be in fashion in our dramas now. Even middle class families have furniture with large cupboards, luxurious and comfortable sofa set and an American style kitchen with a fine crockery. In every story every rich person is running a business mostly a factory and no one is a highly recognised doctor, accountant or engineer or graphics designer seriously only businessmen are rich and no one else being in other field. Looking at our previous dramas the trend to show rich families were less and if there is you can still see a simplicity with no expensive furniture at all.
Dressing Sense and make up: Nowadays actresses looks cool wearing a slim fit wrangely’s Jeans and a dolce and gabbana half sleeve T-shirt. What type of culture are we projecting seriously this is not our culture. If actresses are wearing shalwaar kameez then where the hell duppatta went. Instead of being fashionistas I guess there is a need to more focus on simple shalwar kameez and if they are showing rich families then at least wear long sleeve shirts on regular Jeans. In old dramas rich women were either wearing sarees or branded lawns for example 1993 drama “Marvi”. Now coming on make up 95% of country’s cosmetics you can now see on actresses’ face what a waste of country’s essential asset just to make actresses look skinny and white. Previously talent was considered instead of making actresses look attractive.
Hugging: Now giving a reference to Kanwal’s article we are for sure noticing much cosiness between actor and actresses. Hugging in every single drama was not a problem at all and now slowly drinking and dancing is also getting common current ON-AIR drama Bunty I love you is a great example of it. I wonder that a time will come soon when kissing will not be a problem at all. If this would have happened in old times literally people would protest and obviously dramas are family entertainment if we started to show too much boldness then it is better to switch to internet and watch alone.
Any more differences that you can find out or if you disagree with me then please have your say.