For every one good drama that airs on TV, they bombard us with twenty that are so bad it makes you rethink your life choices! I’ve been walking around with a constant look of horror these past few weeks as I have witnessed the demise of our TV dramas. They all seem to start with a promise of showcasing something new- or maybe I’m just way too gullible to fall for it every single time…
Here is a recap of some of the recent dramas that have numbed my sensibilities so much so that I started coming up with conspiracy theories such as maybe PML-N is behind all this to distract us from the chaos in the country… Don’t blame me, my husband watches Pakistani Political news like it’s mandatory!
Ahsaas
Noman Ejaz is in every other drama and I think his primary condition for signing up is to let him enjoy at least two weddings! So the drama is about Noman Ejaz and his wife Zeba Bakhtiyar- they are a happily married couple with 2 grown up, married kids. But Zeba Bakhtiyar dies leaving a mourning Noman Ejaz behind who ends up marrying a much younger woman (Sara Khan) to help out her family… They threw in everything- from misunderstandings to what-have-you and by the end, they even kill off Noman Ejaz’s character to allow the other “hero” to take centre stage- Faisal Qureshi. I didn’t know why it had to end that way? I must’ve completely missed the point if there was even one to begin with? The drama went round in circles and you pretty much knew they’d give Sara Khan a happy ending just because she was poor and honest?
Dil Banjara
The big draw here was Adnan Mailk and Sanam Saeed both of who were so awful, I cringed until it left a permanent scar on my face! They did free publicity by promoting Nepal which made a handful of episodes watchable but not enough to salvage the drama. This drama was such a drag fest with predictable clichés and very weak acting. I really liked Adnan Mailk as Khelu is Sadqay Tumharey- granted he may have exhibited his “angry young man” side a tad too much but he made it work. This time around, however, it was just not working. Sanam Saeed needs to up her game. She’s just not managed to resurrect some of her brilliant roles like the ones in Talkhiyan, Daam, Zindagi Gulzar Hai, Mera Naseeb…
Khoobsurat
Now here I was in a pickle to determine who was the most khoobsurat of them all? Tbh, I think Azfar Rehman’s pretty boy look was the winner but oh well! So Azfar loves his cousin who tries too hard to play cute- she even sports two braids for good measure. And after some hurdles, once they are married, there’s a vamp in the form of her new neighbour whose intentions I don’t care for and then there’s the broken hearted botoxy boss – Mahnoor Baloch who had a hard time getting her feelings across because, um, botox. The ending was very open-ended- I don’t know if they left it like that on purpose to confuse the audience or they stopped caring and just wanted to finish it off?
Mere Humnawa
Yet again Noman Ejaz succeeds at what he does best- dusri shadi! ARY dramas rarely entice me as they mostly end up being mediocre at best. However, this one has Noman Ejaz, Alishba Yusuf and Azfar Rahman so I thought I’d give it a shot. The drama was extremely predictable, Noman Ejaz managed to annoy me to the core and the ending, although predictable, didn’t really have any impact after weeks of putting up with the same old ghissi pitti story. My faith in humanity was severely shaken with this one.
Saya-e-dewaar
I don’t know who is responsible for this monstrosity but OH.MY.GOD! There was such misery in this drama that squeezed every last glimmer of hope that I usually hold on to. The messaging was lost probably due to being reinforced in such a harsh manner. Naveen Waqar and Ahsan Khan had zero chemistry and Emaad Irfani is super annoying- he tried too hard and failed. Naveen Waqar was an orphan raised in a Syed Khandaan who never knew of his reality until the time came for her marriage and she finds out she can’t marry the love of her life. She gets married to Emaad Irfani who abuses her but continues having children with her only to torture her further. Then he divorces her and she goes and marries a non-muslim guy then he divorces her too… As a result, her kids suffer from neglect and negative feelings and grow up as troubled individuals. The way Naveen was tossed around made me sick to my stomach and I really wish that PEMRA had gotten involved to raise an issue on the amount of abuse being shown. It has been extremely disturbing to come across such images and I hope that drama makers take note and make some much needed changes. There seemed to be no end to her misery- she even dies a horrible, cancer- related death! Ouch!
These were some of the ones I suffered through that have fortunately ended but there are a couple more like Seeta Bagri and Mushrik that have yet to disappear.
Did any of you sit through these dramas- before you ask “What were you thinking?” let me say there’s absolutely no intention of self-induced suffering. I just happen to get hooked to a very lame drama and it becomes somewhat of a mission to see it through to the end. Mind you, I probably cue most of the 40 odd minutes but see just enough to stay in the loop.
Kanwal Murtaza