idek if any of y'all are even with us anymore, but yeh lo, year-end ka ek episode. Kya pata iske baad koi episode mile bhi ya na?!?!?
Itne paise mein itnaich milega~
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@badedramay
idek if any of y'all are even with us anymore, but yeh lo, year-end ka ek episode. Kya pata iske baad koi episode mile bhi ya na?!?!?
Itne paise mein itnaich milega~
Thank you for your great response to my ZGH question!
You’ve got me thinking about the difference between a truthful depiction of society and an aspirational depiction, and what is more “meaningful”.
ZGH is, as you say, more truthful than aspirational. This is good in some ways - maybe seeing a mirror to our society in the form of dramas reveals things about ourselves, if we’re willing to engage that way. For example, a single abandoned mother might see Rafiya and think “she keeps extending forgiveness to her terrible husband and it’s pointless. I should stop doing the same”
But on the other hand, I see in the YouTube comments of each ZGH episode discussions of “toxic feminism” in the form of Zaroon’s mom and sister, and how they’re constantly in the wrong. And it makes me think how much a more sympathetic portrayal would change people’s minds about women who refuse to conform. An “aspirational” ending where they also get a chance at liberated happiness could have achieved that.
Do you think society needs more truthful or more aspirational stories right now?
Sorry if this is incoherent! But I’d just love to hear your thoughts on this. I am also an Indian woman, and while I hear Indian women around me express their struggles and frustrations with society, I am genuinely interested at how Pakistani women do the same as I imagine we have a lot in common. Specifically in the way patriarchy and our history intersect. Thank you!
pakdramas do play fast and loose with both aspirational and truthful depictions tbh, usually blending the two based on the situation and convenience. both are done for the sake of sensationalism now. there was a time when dramas were made to show a mirror of the society. now i just feel the makers cherry pick topics, oftentimes going for the trending tragedies just to pull in viewers with the "shock" factor of it all. ZGH came a time when the writing of dramas wasn't still as commercialized as it is.
in my experience..the patriarchal mindset is still way too deep-rooted in our society. compared to India, Pakistan doesn't have as many and as much economically developed sectors. the major driving force of the economy (and thus the viewership of dramas) is still very much made by these very same people who continue to perpetuate the patriarchal/"anti-feminist" ideals. there is no concept of a truly liberated woman in PakDramas that lives life on her own terms and happily co-exists with the men in her life because the target audience does not have a real-life example for them to follow as a reference point when watching/interpreting such characters.
let's take ZGH example. Zaroon's mom and sister were depicted as the quintessential "ameer maa baap ki bigdi hui aulaad" characters because that's a stereotype that the audience can understand. "rich women toh don't have any respect for the sanctity of marriage" and "these feminist type women are only interested in going to social parties than caring for their husbands at home" are very common notions that have existed in our media for a long time. because these uber rich are so less in numbers because of the economic disparity they are easy to show as the alien outsiders. toh ab aliens ko kaisa bhi rang de do kya hi koi bolega?
unfortunately our audience now just does not care for characters beyond how they are shown to be. so if a narrative ends up portraying a character in good or bad light, chances are the audience will take that on the face value. a VERY recent example is the character of Rubab from Kabhi Main Kabhi Tum (lol my SIL is watching the show currently and the example fits xD). Rubab was introduced as the negative character. she was one of, if not the primary, reasons why the main characters Mustafa&Sharjeena had to face the most troubling time of their life. and until then Rubab was a very hated character in the show. then the narrative took a turn and Rubab ended up being cheated on by her husband until it all concluded in her taking revenge from her husband and in-laws (who hadn't even done anything wrong to her). she had her BIG dramatic revenge moment and she exited the drama with her head held high like a badass woman who gave the lesson of "self respect >> everything". and the audience went wild!
but honey..you STILL ruined an innocent person's life for which you never apologized nor were you punished. it's just by the end point the audience barely cared for this little detail? the conversations had moved on to very different points that this MAJOR detail was shrugged off as "yeah well so what? Rubab is a badass and as a badass she can do whatever she pleases~"
i think i'm going off on a different tangent here xD
so truthful? aspirational? unfortunately at this point neither matter. the makers and the audience are going through the phase where it's like "as long as it entertains the audience and rakes in views from an episode to episode basis, humko chalega". and in all these years only a certain truths have been depicted and certain aspirations have been fulfilled while completely ignoring the large number of other possibilities. everything is safe, everything is palatable; the references have become stories/tropes/characters that the audiences have already consumed (like Anurag Kashyap talked about Bollywood movies' references are no longer taken from the society itself but from the movies that have already been made and released).
personally i would love for PakDramas to go for wilder ideas and more unconventional endings lekin nahin hoga kyunke unka koi reference hi nahin inke paas.
I am extremely late to the zindagi gulzar hai party (have never really been into dramas much) so my apologies if I’m rehashing an old topic that you’re tired of.
There are moments when this show is so profoundly frustrating in how zaroon’s misogyny is never really addressed properly, in how certain characters are brushed aside, etc. but there are moments of such brilliant, clear-eyed insight - specifically about class and what the place of marriage in society is and should be - that I wonder if even the frustrating bits are intentional.
Osama’s extremely comprehensive call-out of Zaroon (in ep 14?) is an example of this. It was so complete, so ruthless, so well articulated that I was like. They know what they’re doing here. And then other times it’s like….where did this go.
What do you think? How intentional do you think the best and worst parts of the show were?
ZGH is such an interesting case in the way it both stands the test of time as it doesn't. you have rightfully pointed out how this show has moments of such intense brilliance and relatability which cements its position as one of the best shows produced in our country. on the other hand, the way this show has pretty much given a free-pass to the ML's misogyny and casual chauvinism is so frustrating because HOW can you be SOOO close to the point and then completely miss it?!
i think i have said this before but Umera Ahmed as a writer doesn't seem interested in shaking the foundations of the society. she steadily remains within the confines of the societal norms and makes her stand very clearly within those boundaries. therefore, her characters then become relatable but not quite inspirational. now look at Kashaf for instance. her struggle especially as a daughter born in a family where a parent specifically DIDN'T want daughters is just so brilliant to witness. the way she complains, the complains that she makes, her disdain for her one parent and annoyance at the other, her frustration at her situations, the insecurities that never leave her despite all the success that she gets in her life...all of these combined make her one of the most relatable protagonists in any desi drama, ever. however, the way her character is resolved we don't really see her doing anything that's particularly against the established social norms. she achieves a perfect work-life balance being the wife of a man who never apologizes for the chauvinism that has driven him all his life, let alone him going through any character development where he acknowledges this flaw in his personality and vows to work towards doing better. it's all a very "yeah this is how it is." with them and a happy ever after dawns upon them.
for UA the characters that do not comply to the rigid patriarchal system of the society are the wrong ones. Zaroon's sister and mother are painted as the villains of the society because they don't strictly adhere to the "man is mighty" foundation of the society. Kashaf's mother, despite being wronged by the ONE man who had the most responsibility towards her, continues to preach to her children to forgive and forget. and then specially to Kashaf she preaches to always be in the servitude mode for her own husband instead of taking on a more equal role. it's in these ways that patriarchy is upheld.
imho both the good and the bad parts are completely intentional. i think UA possesses a deep insight of the human psychology of our society specially in the matters of class privilege and gender discrimination. but she uses all her knowledge to simply present the reality of our society and not necessarily provide any revolutionary solutions to the these problems. so her stories then become a lesson of compliance. "you cannot change the world so you better change yourself to adjust in it" has unfortunately become a rather common theme among her dramas. it wasn't always so. dramas like Daam and Qaid-e-Tanhai are UA at her peak. Kankar had her protagonist walk out of an abusive marriage but there the abuse was of the conventionally accepted kind (if I may be so blunt). whereas Dur-e-Shehwar was basically a long lecture on how it's the girl's duty to patiently endure emotional and psychological abuse in her in-laws place because this patience will bear her a reward in their later years. basically, UA will write some brilliant female protagonist but she will always make it a point to send a message that all of her brilliance is incomplete without her giving in to a man; be it in marriage or in love. a woman alone is just never enough.
Hi Mais! How have you been doing? I’ve been catching up to SMD episodes. I’m glad the quality has picked up (tho it was never THAT bad aside from some writing hiccups) and I can now understand why the cast signed the project.
But having said that, I just hate HATE how the narrative has made Sadaf the unreasonable one for not trusting Bilal, and then went on to punish her by giving her a cheating abusive husband. It's like when Karan Johar said he made Alizeh get cancer in ADHM as punishment for not loving Ayaan back. It felt like a very similar thing KRQ did by giving Sadaf a miserable marriage because how dare she reject the saint incarnated Bilal Abdullah.
I can't remember if it was you or someone else who said it, but I totally agree that Sadaf had every reason to be suspicious af of BA's motives, even if Humsha hadn't been there manipulating her. A super wealthy guy who is just lavishing money and favours on you for no good reason (remember that scene where he he gifts the family a bag full of designer stuff?) and also has a reputation, which is completely accurate, of being a sleazy womanizer... any woman would wonder what's this guy up to. And he goes onto assert total control over their lives, from being their boss, to having paid for Z's treatment, to owning the house and car they have. Whether BA intends to or not, Humsha is right in that he is "buying" Sadaf's love and putting that family under his debt. There is such a massive power imbalance there that doesn't get addressed and instead Sadaf is shown as being wrong (and she herself comes to believe she is wrong) for not choosing BA the first time.
Also, writing really does affect the way an actor's performance is judged. I thought Maya was really good in that scene where Sadaf is telling Ammar that he cannot afford to marry her. But the problem was that Sadaf's actions made no sense. Why is she suddenly being so insulting to him? We know she is desperate for money, but nothing in her personality or in her relationship with Ammar at that point justified her demeaning his proposal that way. And don't even get me started on that 8cr scene. Sadaf really got the short end of the stick in the story.
honestly this is the most recurring topic of discussion in my gc about how Sadaf has been so severely let down by the narrative on every step. it's like she exists to be punished. neither the narrative nor the general discussion around the show acknowledges Sadaf's chaotic state of mind. i was talking to my friends the other day about how SMD as a story has been very wrongly interpreted for the screen. this is SADAF'S story so SHE should've been the audience's introduction and the POV of this world. instead for whatever reason despite being the central most character of this story, she had been relegated to being the most "mysterious" character for a good chunk of the story as we never saw the thought process behind WHY she made the decisions she did. we only got the visual of Sadaf deeply pondering over one development or the other but the monologue necessary for the audience to LISTEN to what she was thinking in her head was never really given to us. it's only NOW that Sadaf is really truly speaking about her grief and her regrets and getting to express her anger. and look how within 2 episodes of that the audience has begun to root for her.
i can't even say now that Sadaf is hated by the writer because in the current arc it's Sadaf and no one else who is making the most logical points. be it her showing her husband the mirror that his infidelity has cut a wound so deep within her that the mere thought of that happening to *him* has him struggling to maintain composure or her questioning her mother why can't she have the right to move on if her husband has already left her OR her questioning Bilal Abdullah why she's being accused of being unfaithful when it was her husband who was unfaithful and she's being asked to forgive him for that while the same courtesy is not being extended to her. it's Sadaf who is single handedly standing up to the suffocating patriarchal notions of the society and no one with two sound braincells can call her wrong now. but yeah..it took her 30 episodes to reach here and unfortunately that's just too long of a time for the audience to have made an impression about the character.
Sadaf has now given her reason for rejecting BA - she felt like he was trying to "buy" her and she felt like an object. so to protect her dignity she accepted Ammar's proposal, the man who wanted her so desperately he was ready to die for her. she weighed the two men's approach towards her and went for the one she thought valued her more. and that turned out to be the wrong one. she made a mistake. now she's regretting it. it's all a fairly HUMAN error on her part. but is the mistake SO big that she has to live with it all her life? that's the question that the audience should ask themselves (who continue to slander Sadaf for rejecting the oh-so-amazing hero BA) as Sadaf is asking the people around her.
i think the director fell too much in love with Bilal Abdullah that he completely failed to see that BA too has his flaws. his controlling nature was given the vibe of "self sacrificing lover". his cowardice is given the vibe of "peak sufi level lover". the smallest of good in him has been magnified to make him larger than life character. a very straight forward one-dimensional character is presented the most glorified lover of all time. at the same time none of Sadaf's complexities are given the time or attention. and in a way it does disservice to their favorite Bilal Abdullah as well. why is this man so obsessed with a woman who is NOTHING but flawed head to toe??? had Sadaf been more fleshed out, it would only reflect well on Bilal Abdullah that he fell for a woman so splendid that while others (Ammar) only saw her outer beauty..only he could see the beneath all her layers. but alas...that's not the case.
did suno chanda season 2 sour your feelings on season 1 at all? i just watched all 60 eps back to back in three days (got sick, had nothing else to do while laying in bed 😭) and i almost feel like i need to go back and rewatch season 1 again to convince myself i genuinely really liked arjiya at one point. like yes arsal occasionally displayed flashes of the toxicity that hovered around him for the whole second season, but he wasn't *that* bad, right??
SC2 doesn't exist for me actually xD I was wary of it from the moment it was announced and its very first episode confirmed all my fears were not without reason. I don't think I watched even two full episodes of it? An occasional clip here or there in the years but I wouldn't be able to tell you a single plot point of the season.
SC1 was just so *complete* as a show/story. You had the characters, you had a conflict, you had the plot develop steadily over the course of 30 episodes, and it ended on a beautiful point. Some stories really DO end at the "and they lived happily ever after!" credit roll. picking them up after it is just not going to do anything good for them.
I will never call Arsal a toxic character. boxing a flawed character into the label of "toxic" does so much disservice to interestingly written characters. he had flaws but that's the point! Arsal's entire journey of the story was to come to terms with his flaws and fix them in order to become the kind of partner that Jiya deserved. WHICH HE DID!! Arsal loved Jiya, he was supportive of her, he became her first and strongest line of defense; by the finale of SC1 Arsal completely *became* the romantic hero™ that one can't help but fall for. SC2 had to undo all of that development to create some stupid conflict to churn out 30 episodes worth of content again. which just..urgh.
But what actually happened to mayas script selection? She used to be so good at choosing and now since PHL it seems she’s been in a flop era.
nah i'd say only SMD has been her terrible script after PHL. PSM was not a bad script. JBG was not a bad script. Yunhi was not a bad script. these shows may not have been mammoth successes but they were all far from flops. even PHL wasn't a flop, the movie was a commercial success.
..padh le zara ankhon se dil mein jo hai chhupa..
Omg sherry’s wedding is happening and ofc the misogynistic awaam decided it was time to hate on maya for the umpteenth time this year.
Sheheryar Munawar is a loser nepo baby who has NEVER had a hit, can’t act, can’t dance, has a string of broken relationships, is a momma’s boy who broke up with an actress for being in the industry despite being a failed attempt in the industry himself and has been rumored to have *ahem* some nefarious relations with certain producers (have very good source for the last one).
If you’re hating on Maya because her ex is getting married, go do a dua for sherry to do something successful in his career, too. Maya bb has too many hits and blessings to count to care.
And lastly, fuqqqqq Asim Raza, mahira khan and legit everyone else in that circle.
PREACH SISTAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
re: female leads and criticism.
what i've seen in the PakDrama criticism/stan space is that there's no inherent love for the female leads unless the character is played by a favorite or favorable actor. the bias surely exists, heck i myself am a practitioner of that bias, and this bias awfully limits of a character is perceived and thus criticized. even the most beloved of the actors aren't 100% flawless at their craft. every actor messes up. sometimes on their own accord sometimes because they just aren't handled well by the team. and that's okay. that's not the point here. my point is that compared to how FLs are treated in kdrama spaces or western drama spaces where the most flawed of characters are babied and hailed as perfection done in a cheeky way fully leaning into the irony...PakDrama FLs struggle to find that kind of love and appreciation. the love isn't for the character, it's for the actor. same goes for the dislike. the character themselves can be fine and be making mistakes that are wanted from the story and expected from the genre however, the criticism would be going overboard. and vice versa even. the character can be actually silly and not making any sense but because the actor is a favorite, there would be a large scale denial of those traits. the criticism would then be against the real people making the criticism that oh you just don't understand or that you hate women. and i'm like...no? this isn't the nuance i'm talking about???
there's no separation of the art from the artist here. which is actually an issue here when nearly EVERYONE from the fandom spaces to "professional" spaces are all involved directly or indirectly with the industry. the fans have an easy access to their favs' DMs. the so-called professional "critics" regularly be dining with these celebs. in both cases the non-art related interactions become transactional. which inevitably affects how the said artist and their art then gets discussed and criticized.
everything is so PERSONAL. the love is personal. the dislike too. and it gets exhausting because more and more space is getting filled with people who are here to make things personal only. is it the frustration of having nothing productive to do in their daily, offline life? that's a whole another rabbit hole khair. how it affects ME PERSONALLY is that now i am out of spaces where i can meet new people with interesting point of views that help expand my own knowledge, ya know it used to be in the good old days. i'm always all the time just so busy trying to discern whether the criticism is coming from a place of malice or does the criticism come from an objective pov. that takes up all my energy and there's just none left to make any new interesting discoveries.
basically main sad aur lonely hoon.
That vamp Hamsha seems upset in the next episode’s preview, and there was a scene from the teasers of the show where she’s laying on a bed and scream crying which still hasn’t happened yet. More than even a BilSad jodi, I’m waiting for her downfall. She got everything she wanted and is still making that pinched little angry mun.
THAT ZEHER KI POTLI NEEDS TO JUMP OFF A CLIFF ISTG!!!! RUINED SO MANY LIVES STILL HER SELF PITY DOESN'T END! I ABHOR HER FACE!!!!!
i have forgiven this show for many things but if Hamsha doesn't have a truly horrible ending as a karma for all the shittery she has done then i'll cause a riot. this woman has SINGLE HANDEDLY with her manipulation caused allll this shit to happen. i toh don't even have any sympathy for her even when they showed that her ex was supposedly an abusive man because that just does NOT justify or excuse how she continues to manipulate and emotionally abuse the people who call her their friends. so yeah, two things i'm looking forward to the most - Sadaf phodding Ammar's sar with that pathar and Hamsha getting karma. bass yehi hai meri motivation to continue watching the show!!!
Dudeeeeeee thoughts on SMD ep 19? I’m like broken. Sadaf just seems irredeemable in my eyes now. It would be one thing if she expressed hesitation over marrying Ammar but she didn’t express any hesitation over marrying him, just questioned why she has a pull towards Bilal. Why was that convo in her mayoun outfit necessary? It seems as if she’s stringing two guys along.
personally, i didn't mind it. with Sadaf i have made my peace with the fact that the writing has NO interest in giving her a clear POV. someone on twitter said it, "there's a difference between being conflicted and flip flopping. Sadaf does the latter." which is absolutely true. Sadaf HAS no conflict. so jo hai hi nahin woh dikhega kya? Sadaf is not stringing along two guys. despite the lack of her clear POV, one thing is quite clear about her i.e. she wants to do things her way only. ab wo sahi ho, galat ho usse faraq nahin padta.
i was joking to myself after watching yday's episode that everyday Sadaf wakes up, she flips a coin. if it's head, she'll be good to Bilal Abdullah and if it's tails, she'll be against him. which is really how she has treated him all this time. one day she says "main uski neeyat pe emaan le ayi". she invokes FAITH here. which means her doubting Bilal Abdullah would be akin to committing blasphemy. the next day she has no qualms in thinking the worst of him. one day she is defending Bilal Abdullah because he only asked her to join the office in exchange of the 8 crore. next day when Hamsha or her mother tell her that oh Bilal Abdullah wants to marry you, she panics completely. one second she's finding herself falling for Bilal Abdullah when it's revealed to her that he's her brother's donor and she's running in excitement of opening the door to him...the very same day she's getting mad at Bilal Abdullah for trying to "buy" her? her brain works in mysterious ways bruh.
my theory is that SMD is not a whole script. it was a rough draft of scenes that have been hastily stitched together to form a script with no editing whatsoever. which is why one scene doesn't relate to another (specially in terms of Sadaf) and we get REPEATED dialogues (aaj bhi Bilal Abdullah said the peete hue meri beti ko drunk line like c'mon!!!)
i personally liked the mayoun outfit conversation. but again, it had NO build up which is the MAIN PROBLEM of this show. things just...are. how did Sadaf reach out to Bilal Abdullah to meet her while she's in MAYOUN? why did she think he'll have the answer to her question? so yeah, that scene was not really for Sadaf. it was more for Bilal Abdullah getting his "closure". he saw for himself just how indebted Sadaf was to him which heavily imbalanced the power scale between them, something he explicitly doesn't want. and also..because SMD is just a story of one man's selfless love for a woman who doesn't love him back, Bilal Abdullah had to give this one final sacrifice for Sadaf by "freeing" her from his love. him saying "jis ladki ki ek nazar ne mujhe pehli nazar mein barbad kardiya tha, woh aap nahin hai" is him telling Sadaf to relax and start her new life without a single hesitation in her mind. also him making himself out to be a "unworthy" guy for her by bringing up his past vice of being an alcoholic and bringing up her deceased father about how HE would've never wanted someone as bad as Bilal Abdullah to be his son in law is again an assurance for Sadaf that she made the right choice. even if there's a single minuscule barely existent hint of an emotion in her heart for Bilal Abdullah, she should squash it. for she made the "right" choice by marrying Ammar.
really, it's a hero saving the heroine. and gaining the audience's sympathy. which is the whole entire purpose of the story. the heroine here is merely an afterthought. she's not to be taken seriously. pagal hai, bewakoof hai, she doesn't know any better. she's here to make a mess for Bilal Abdullah to swoop in and clear up.
Geo tweeted that SMD would now be on three days a week then today their Instagram post suggests it’s still just Wednesday and Thursday. Do you know what’s up? If it is going to thrice weekly scheduling, do you think that’s a good sign or bad sign for the show?
it is going to air from wed-fri this week. it's a fairly normal behavior of the channel to air one of its shows for three days when they have a slot empty. Yahya ended so the fri-sat slot is free. the promos for the Imran Abbas-Neelam Muneer show are already airing so most likely the show will start next week (hence SMD going back to its original slot of wed-thur) or the week after (thus giving SMD another week to air 3 epis).
Is it a good thing for the show? tbh, yes. the pace is SO SLOW the show will only benefit from airing more episodes in the week. i can only pray we get three episodes for two weeks and in these weeks the show gets to an exciting point where the LEADS GET TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH EACH OTHER GOOD GOD I AM SO TIRED OF THE VILLAINS HOGGING UP ALL THE SCREEN SPACE AS WELL AS THE NARRATIVE CONTROL!!!!!!!!!!!!1
I normally love Reddit because I think it’s one of the more intellectual forms of social media, but the pakcelebgossip sub is basically “today’s reason for hating on Maya”. It’s like every single person on that sub is committed to hating her. What on earth is going on?
{bruh pls reddit pe kya intellectualism? it's a platform notorious for being problematic}
funnily i was talking to someone on this exact topic today. has she committed a murder that we don't know of? what's with this incessant hate? sure she has made some blunders but they are not as atrocious that there's no forgiving them.
the conclusion i have reached it simply this - she just doesn't have the necessary "back" that will shield her from these attacks. aaj kal one needs a whole dedicated army of fans that will make sure their fav is both hyped on social media and perceived as just the goshdarn perfect person by the industry. for that the celeb themselves have to make sure they invest in creating that relationship with their favs as well as doing the right networking so the people in the "right" places would support them. now, SOME celebs have organically grown that kind of support while there are some who make special efforts to foster that support. the smarter people understood where the tide was turning and shifted the gears accordingly. now they are reaping the rewards.
Maya, as much as i love her, was never the brightest of the bunch.
she does her own thing and then leaves herself completely vulnerable to how it would be perceived. the kind of "realness" that's appreciated on social media..she doesn't show much. you need that kind of people-pleasing realness that will balance the more....quirky realness. it's really all a game of strategy and planning! that's what social media is! you HAVE to add in the artificiality to the realness. she keeps it TOO real. and then doesn't even put much effort to make sure that her realness is reciprocated.
i love her and i love how unapologetically HER she is. but good god..she's in the SHOWBIZ! you gotta fake it a bit! sheesh!
maya ali and wahaj ali in SUNN MERE DIL
Hi Mais! Hope you're doing well. I think I have watched all the popular post-2010 ptv shows. My university library has some VHS tapes of Haseena Moin dramas (yes i still own a vcr don't ask why). Would you recommend? I always see journalists raving about her and old PTV channel dramas, but were they genuinely good/more progressive than today's shows or is it a lot of nostalgia?
Oh, yes! absolutely watch them!! not just Haseena Moin but the classic PTV dramas that get praised till today are genuinely praised for the right reasons. The only thing I struggle with them is well..they are obviously dated in terms of technical finnesse. There's obviously some sound issues and some editing choices bothered me but that's solely because I am used to watching the "modern" dramas with their sharper editing and clearer sound. But the dated nature has its own charm. It does transport you to a different world. I'd say definitely watch Tanhaiyaan and Dhoop Kinaray. Post finishing Tanhaiyaan my very first reaction was, "WHY HAVE PAKISTANI DRAMAS OF TODAY REGRESSED SO MUCH WHEN THEY WERE *THIS* PROGRESSIVE LIKE 30 YEARS AGO?!?" and post watching Dhoop Kinaray I was all, "They really don't make *truly* charming men like Rahat Kazmi as Dr. Ahmar anymore..."
am very belatedly watching aik sitam aur and finally read up on the usama and anmol mess from the time and oof.. do you think they'd do another drama together? it's such a shame because their chemistry with each other in the show was fantastic and i know they did do that one drama right after but ig that was unavoidable bc they were already filming it. i imagine the incident made things quite awkward between them
so trivia: i actually do NOT know about the Usama Anmol mess that led to their fallout at all 🤣 i think a friend mentioned it a few days ago to me and it made me go, "HuH? really???" cuz it completely passed me by. all i know is that Usama and Anmol were absolutely TERRIFIC as a pairing in ASA. I remember i was quite shocked and bummed out that their next stint in a project didn't have them opposite each other cuz ASA was a hit. a good chuck of PakDrama standom was properly rooting for the couple and loving them. sad..really. itni mushkil se toh koi dhang ki pairing milti hai ab aur phir uska bhi satyanash kardete hain. blaaah.
Maya was 100% right about these posers passing as critics. She correctly observed that they don't know the R of Reviewing. They don't mention anything in their reviews about the technical aspects of filmmaking or the screenplay. All they talk about are creepy sexual innuendos and "roasting" someone for their english or their fashion sense or whatever. Bohot galti hui us doran Maya ko bura bhala kaha.
well anon, now you know. dair aye, durust aye. honestly, the tragedy with Maya is that she is not exceptional in the art of articulation. except for a few times, she doesn't say things which are incorrect. however, because she doesn't frame those thoughts impeccably, they get ridiculed. Maya had NEVER meant that actors shouldn't be criticized because they put in hard work and efforts. but those words were easy to cut and take out of context so they were cut and taken out of context. if anyone bothered to watch the full interview they'd have known that what she was trying to get at was that criticism should be done in a constructive way that doesn't completely dismiss the hardwork and efforts of the entire cast and crew of a show. ya know it's NOT an impossible feat to achieve. in the same interview she had actually complimented the "critics" for the work they do and how that had made the actors more conscious of the blunders they'd have otherwise disregarded as unimportant. but of course..uss baat pe koi kyun hi focus karta jab troll karna aasaan hai. also..didn't someone else echoed Maya's sentiments a few months after she was trolled for them? that was in response to the trolling done on that review show Kya Drama Hai. tab toh koi halla nahin macha tha.
sigh. it's so tiring being a Maya Ali fan solely because of the hypocrisy people have when it comes to her.