Television and social media have a huge impact on people’s way of thinking and living. The makers of TV dramas and films should make decent content and give a strong message to their audience. Nowadays, it’s been a trend that the hero of the drama or film will be a psychopath who loves an innocent and dumb girl who is suppressed by the hero and his family. All she can do is love him unconditionally, ignoring the fact that he did dirty things to her and her family.
So, what kind of message are we giving our young generation out there? Who is watching 50-plus episodes of a drama or series in just one day? Are we painting the image of men as an aggressive person who beats their wife, does drugs, and by using their money and power, can buy any girl and her family too?
In some cases, makers of these dramas and films argue that they are telling the true stories and exactly what happens in our society. I agree with this because sometimes true stories or even fictional stories give a very strong message to the audience and make them think about the particular issues that exist in our society, but this should be done with a disclaimer and should not be praised at all.
I have seen many dramas. I would like to name a few of them, like Ishq hai, Aye Must e Khaak, Kaisi Teri Khudgarzi, and many more. They promote boys to be aggressive and stubborn and can do any harm to a girl or her family, and all this is for what? Because he likes her, PERIOD. Is this the way a boy likes a girl? Is this the way we can ask someone to marry them? Where are we heading?
These dramas show that if a girl wouldn’t say yes to him, then he would use other ways to torture her by causing harm to her family. This all doesn’t stop here. One of the dramas I mentioned above, ‘Ishq hai’, has a pathetic storyline where the girl’s father dies because of the fault of the boy (who wants the girl in any way). That girl ends up falling in love with the murderer who murdered her father. Like, are you kidding me? What on earth pushes that girl to fall for the murderer of her father? Bizarre.
This is one of the aspects that I discussed above. These dramas are destroying the family structure. You’re wondering how? Let me get the job done for you. Dramas like Jalan, where it is shown that a girl falls in love with her brother-in-law Have we forgotten our ethics and morals? What kind of content are we making for our young generation? These types of dramas are making this thing normal, and this shouldn’t be shown on national television at any cost. This doesn’t stop here. The typical Pakistani dramas show how saas (mother-in-law) hares bahu (daughter-in-law) and how a mother-in-law can do anything to get her out of her son’s life.
Another popular scenario is that Nand’s sister-in-law doesn’t like her baby and wants her out of her brother’s life. A son’s role did just that after every fight between his mother/sister and wife, he said this to either side: It’s okay, just don’t say anything to them/her. Everything will be fine. My question here is, for how long do we have to see this typical and bizarre storyline again and again? Do makers not have anything interesting to produce? You can hardly find some dramas that consider the ethical and moral values of the country and have different and interesting storylines.
A lot of people argue that these dramas are just for entertainment purposes. A lot of research shows how it impacts us and our behaviors. Bandura (1961) uses the “Bobo doll experiment” to show how children learn and behave through observation of people around them. These dramas and films definitely have an impact on our young generation. Moreover, according to a study done in Pakistan, it shows that Pakistani dramas are changing the cultural values of Pakistani society. These dramas are modernizing and westernizing the lifestyle of Pakistani people. Luxurious homes, expensive cars, parties, alcohol, drugs, and romance are promoted in drama settings.
One thing that I have noticed is that in Pakistani dramas, female actresses are mostly shown as weak girls who can not stand up for their rights. She silently ignores all the red flags of a boy she loves, and she doesn’t complain about the domestic violence in her family. On one side, feminists are screaming and fighting for women’s rights and want Pakistani women to have the freedom to do whatever they want.
On the other hand, why do these open-minded and Liberal actresses love to play these kinds of roles? The answer is quite obvious: they are only concerned with their Paycheck. There is a typical image of “good women” and “bad women’ in Pakistani dramas. A good woman is one who wears a dupatta, is beautiful, and is domesticated. A bad Woman is one who is career-oriented, bold in behavior, belongs to the elite class, and wears modern Western clothes. (Ashfaq and Shafiq, 2018)
In my opinion, there should be a prime time for children so that they don’t get to see these dramas, seasons, and films, as this can affect their upbringing and mental health. Parents have to play an important role here, and it is their responsibility to have a check and balance on their kids. They should have known what kind of dramas and content their children are consuming either on television or online. This is crucial, and attention should be paid by them to this issue.
In the end, it is the primary duty of PEMRA to check the psychological and social effects of these Pakistani dramas on youth before they get aired on national television.
