To be honest, this article is a result of the discussion that followed after one of my comments in Diyar-e-Dil’s review regarding the child stars & their pakka-pan that gets way more coverage than it’s required in our drama these days. That discussion actually got me thinking about how much we are forced to get annoyed by watching these annoying kids on screen who have no purpose to be there in a drama in the first place. Before saying anything I just want to make it clear that this article by no means is written to defame or belittle all these young actors that we often see in different dramas but it’s actually targeted at the pakka-pan that their characters embody & portray. I do appreciate their acting skills & their charm but the roles that these kids get to play & the dialogues they get to deliver aren’t very impressive & this article is strictly based on their on-screen performances.
Sorry to say, the way the writers use the child stars in our dramas is actually an exploitation of their innocence. I say that because they are made to speak such dialogues which they might not even know the meaning of, but are so mature that they don’t go with their biological age. In so many dramas, kids are made a part of the conversation or if not actively, they are always present in such scenes which are covering some mature topics by having such sort of conversations & that makes me wonder what these kids must be learning in such an environment. I also believe that the writers try to push the fact that kids are ‘innocent’ & in their innocence spree, they can go around saying anything they feel like but to be honest, kids are impressionable & their involvement just doesn’t stop when their scene is over. The kids who tend to be around their mothers when they’re watching such dramas are drawn towards such characters & they actually end up picking up a thing or two because kids tend to connect with those they see on screen who belong to the same age group as theirs.
No matter how cute a boy might be or how pretty a girl must be, most of their characters are annoying to the core & I blame the writers & then the directors for it. I’ve picked a few annoying characters that were played by the child stars & these are those who have left me speechless with their pakka-pan.
Saman of Dusri Biwi:
Surprise Surprise! Well no surprises there, this kid is the new peeve in town. Yes, we get it, she’s like all those kids who love to have a sibling younger to them but she takes her fixation to her brother to a whole new level & oh boy! Even though her younger brother is just an infant, I am worried about him because he doesn’t know he has a sister who’s obsessed with him *creeps*. As funny as it gets, there have been a couple of episodes that have ‘only’ revolved around how Saman’s parents are going to fetch a bhai for her & in the end, her aunty in fact her papa’s dusri biwi swooped in to provide her with one. I think when the writer had no idea about how to move the story forward; she tried to use a younger character not worrying an ounce about how annoying she will get for the viewers. The writer thought by using Saman, she will cute her way into our minds but she ended up annoying us beyond our imagination. Yes, the kid playing the role of Saman is pretty but then her character is any drama-watcher’s nightmare.
Sofia of Izteraab:
Who remembers this premature aunty? Again, I am only talking about her character because she was the one who not only gave a hard time to her step-mommy, who she was smitten with before she became one, but she also has a credit of going out on a date at the age of 12 years. I must say she has broken the records of all the teenagers out there when it comes to dating. Yes, she was having a hard time because her parents were going through a rough divorce & her step mommy just swooped in out of nowhere, but the way the writer tried to show her rebellion was quite questionable & should’ve been avoided. There were almost 5 – 6 episodes that were dedicated to Queen Sofia & her tantrums & it irritated me like anything!!!
Dua of Dil Ka Kya Rang Karoon:
Even though I am not following this drama, I did watch a couple of episodes to know what was going on in this Saturday night special drama & once again, we have a highly spoiled brat Dua who is giving her step mommy a punishment for becoming one. She is in louuu with an aunty who happens to be a patient of her father & then this kid has an audacity to say that her aunty should get married to her father & her step mommy can get married to her aunty’s husband. Awww, shooo cute, remember she’s just a kid who’s out on an innocence spree? Boo Hoo!!! The writer really didn’t know how to instill the idea of a husband/wife swap so she used this masoomiyat ka pitara to do the honours!
Ali of Kabhi Kabhi:
He’s the one I’d like to call a batameez bacha very frankly. He had a mother who lost her brains because she was drugging herself & then a step-dad who was just as batameez as him, or slightly more than him so obviously when he had to choose who to follow between these two role model like parents, he chose his step dad because he had an easy access to batameezi. His dialogues were absolutely annoying & so was his character.
Guddu of Mirat ul Uroos:
Yes, he played the role of a servant but this boy has been around for so many years & has been a part of so many dramas & sadly, I have never seen him play an age-appropriate, innocent role. I don’t know if it’s his look or what but the drama-makers actually go overboard when they write down his dialogues. Yes, he is a very good actor but when it comes to the characters he plays, he can get annoying a lot of times.
Well now that I have spoken about the kids who have actually annoyed us, there have been some child stars who were often seen in the drama just to complete the picture & didn’t have much to do or say, which I feel is the right way of making the kids a part of the drama because the writers shouldn’t rely on the kids so much to do the talking & for taking the story forward.
Roomi of Shukk:
That kid was not only a cutie but was innocent as well. Yes, he also got a little too smitten by his Ehtashaam uncle but then he never had to deliver some over-aged or pakkay dialogues. He was always seen around his mother without having much say in the situations & the writer didn’t rely on Roomi to take the story forward.
Maaz of Aik Pal:
I liked how Maaz was always a part of every conversation Noor Fatima had when she was about to die but then the kid on his own didn’t get much coverage & he fitted the picture perfectly where he was always seen in the background & was spoken about as a focal point of his mother’s concern. I liked the way the drama makers used his character to show the love his mother had for him without actually relying on him to portray that. I think Maaz is a perfect example of how kids can be made a part of the team & still have their innocence kept intact.
Sila, Alisha & Ehsaal of Chup Raho:
They were a part of the second half of the drama & even though they were a main part of Shiraz & even Rameen’s life, they weren’t quite pakki as the kids mentioned above. Even though they were 3 of them, their scenes never seemed annoying & neither did their characters. I liked the fact that they all got age appropriate dialogues & contributed in a positive way in this otherwise negative drama & oh then it reminds me there was Nayla too, who was capable of speaking but never got a chance to chant a single dialogue throughout the drama & then by the way, the writer relied a lot on her to take the story forward & get back at Numair but then, as far as that masoom kid wasn’t pakki, I was fine with it.
So, this is my list of some pakkay & some kachay bachay. I believe as far as the kids are only used to complete the picture or are meant to be in the background, it’s actually ohkay but to depend on them heavily & to give them a lot of coverage is a wrong trend. Share your thoughts about how you think the drama makers use these young actors & depend on them unnecessarily by taking away their innocence & force them to speak in a way which never appeals to anyone. I really believe the drama-makers & the writers should cut down on the trend of using child stars because it doesn’t do any good to them & the dependency actually showcases the lack of ideas that the writers face while writing down the scripts & situations & oh, please feel free to contribute to the list if you’ve come across any such annoying kids in the dramas!
Keep Supporting,
Cheers,
Zahra Mirza.