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.
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