This show depicts the reality today. - Page 5

Dear Enchanted

Originally posted by: koolkc

I didn't like the slap & didn't like it how Zoya & Asad forgot about it 🤢 Abusing someone physically or mentally to vent your frustration & anger is 👎🏼 be it Man or woman 🤢

A disciplined & controlled character like Asad is shown as a hick from hinterland who slaps his wife while he's drunk & doesn't even remember about it later 😕 Sorry your character took a dive Mr High & mighty 🤔

I concur with Laila2009, PH & show has a moral obligation to not show things which can be misconstrued by the impressionable minds. Agreed its not a social message show but why send out wrong message by showing slapping,man-handling by the hero? 😕 showing everything rosy & peach is enough for a fiction show,Why depict today's reality anyways?

Originally posted by: Aalia_A

Dear Enchanted

Since yesterday I have wanted to post on your thread (but I-F was not letting me) which in a way I think was good because it gave me a lot of time to think on your words...

Neither do I outright disagree with you... You have put forth an alternative interpretation that many have accepted... Nor do I necessarily agree with all that you have argued... Let me explain why:

None of us are watching QH to be schooled or to get moral pointers on how to live and not live our life. But we do have some expectations from the show and expectations are not concieved in a vaccumm. The reason why we have been criticising the screenplay from the past couple of episodes and showing our dissaproval over the message the PH is sending out, REGARDLESS of whether they want to or not is because the makers themselves have fostered these expectations.

When there was outrage over the Nirbhaya case, articles came to the effect that QH will henceforth use the platform of the show to send out a social message which is pro-women. Up went our expectations. When the show was being launched GK went out of her way to say that this will be a show which will from day one break Muslim stereotypes. Up went many Muslim viewers expectations. Zoya characterization was that of an empowered Muslim girl, a positive character that many would relate to. Nowhere were we told that she would be butchered for the sake of romance, and have to bear the brunt of patriarchial atrocities over and over again. Up went our expectation.

In reality, the slap Asad delievered Zoya would have been sanctioned by God, here it was sanctioned by the makers and they consciously decided the brutality of it. That is something I will not accept. Not that I'm labelling you pro-slap. I understand that you are not.

All I'm trying to say here is that the makers had a choice, keeping in mind the extent they hyped the positivity and uniqueness and female-empowerment potential of the show, to use different ways to make the points they wanted to make. Bad writing yes. Shoddy screenplay yes. I agree with you there unequivocally. But that does not negate the fact that they still sent out a very disturbing message... Totally the opposite to what they went on record to say that they will. Had they not done that, none of us would have dared raise our hopes so high. Was that done for mileage? To cash in on a brutal-incident that shook up India and the women of the world everywhere? I do not know. I do not know and I will not speculate. It might be reality in India. But all I know is that I, as a first-time Indian television viewer, was holding the makers to their word and I feel badly let down. That is why I am speaking out against it.

Lastly, I really appreciate and respect the fact that you have allowed for dissenting views on your topic. I hope people keep the atmosphere civil and engage in meaningful debates.

Originally posted by: narangi314

@enchanted:

I've been meaning to reply to your post for a while now too, but I have to say I have become a little exhausted with this topic!

Anyway, what I want to say is this:

I actually agree with you (if I've got you right) that television shows are under no obligation to be agents of positive social change (one hopes that, by the same token, they are not agents of negative change either!). It's another thing that many shows initially market themselves as having a positive message, including QH as Aalia pointed out. But I have always taken that with a HUGE pinch of salt. I think the only thing that matters to any PH is the bottom line. That might sound cynical, but there it is.

And actually the entertainment industry tells us so time and again. They keep telling us that they only sell what we want to buy.

That's why I think that it's important to be an informed consumer. I am convinced by the research that tells us that media depictions of women as objects/ violence against women, etc. do influence social behavior. However, I do NOT support any form of censorship. So the only way I can change what I see on TV is to be part of the change myself. Not just by sitting back and changing the channel, but by voicing my opinion about what I see as irresponsible and actively asking for more sensitive and intelligent entertainment.

It might be true that QH only showed what is an ugly reality. But the question remains, what do I do about that? Do I consume it as entertainment? Do I change the channel and say nothing? Or do I say, no, I don't find this entertaining and I want you (the makers of this show) not to portray violence as something normal.

I choose the latter.

Thanks for starting an interesting discussion!

Mira

Nice post! Yeah, men like Asad are very much reality of India and as you said many women just keep quiet, though the scenario is changing nowadays. Same as you even I expected Zoya to stand against Asad not let him go easily. But now I have a little different view and feel Zoya is justified in what she did, a) knowing the kind of person Asad is, she never expected him to apologize, shocked face of Zoya when he apologized explains it well plus she doesn't know Asad is being sorry after his ammi told the truth, only us viewers know it.
b) Being a orphan herself, she knows the pain of loosing a parent so somewhere she sympathizes with him, c) she knows that this guy has brought her back from the death grave, so some leniency she shows given the fact that she is a selfless woman. Moreover Zoya didn't justify his act or words saying that Mr. Khan, its ok, I understand why you did like that, No, she didn't do it, she did tell him that nobody deserves to be a orphan.
But my problem is with the writers that what was the need for them to show the slapping? I can see the need only in 2 cases either they wanted to send a social message that slapping under any circumstances is wrong or wanted to show Asad-Zoya separation. They did neither of these, then why the slap? Once his anxiety, frustration had calmed down after Dilshad was out of danger, he never thought that his slapping Zoya was a little too much, Okay, given the person Asad is he would never think that when he was still angry at Zoya, once he got to know the truth he had the flashback of his act, he felt sorry for it, he even told Zoya that 'muje aap par haath...', grrr😡 this is where I am upset with CVs, they should have just made him complete the sentence that 'muje aap par haath utana nahi chahiye tha, me jaantha hoon ki aadmi ko kisi bhi keemath per ek aurath par haath utana galath hai', bus that's it it would make more sense and would send out a message. There is no need of giving a lengthy dialogue or lecture on how wrong his act was, because the serial is not about social evils, but just a complete sentence with 10 seconds would have had better impact. As a viewer I know Asad's character, he is so rigid that within a day he won't change completely and run behind Zoya for apology, he won't even confess his mistake with a lengthy speech because he is a egoist, regid Asad we have seen from the beginning, but when he uttered some words of guilt with great difficulty the writers should have taken it to completion instead of the broken sentence. Once again I really don't get the idea of showing the slap when it has not brought any change to the story, it's truly a flaw of a otherwise brilliant writer. Hope the makers don't repeat it such flaws.
I am not of the opinion that PH is promoting violence against women here, I never felt it. They have shown a lot of reality and treated it well like a)Asad calling Akram and his men as 'namard' and real man is who protects a woman b) Zoya saying the rapist should be punished not rewarded with the wedding c) Rashid's, Ayaan's displeasure on Hasinabi's attitude, but this particular issue is not treated well.

Originally posted by: misst

Nice post! Yeah, men like Asad are very much reality of India and as you said many women just keep quiet, though the scenario is changing nowadays. Same as you even I expected Zoya to stand against Asad not let him go easily. But now I have a little different view and feel Zoya is justified in what she did, a) knowing the kind of person Asad is, she never expected him to apologize, shocked face of Zoya when he apologized explains it well plus she doesn't know Asad is being sorry after his ammi told the truth, only us viewers know it.
b) Being a orphan herself, she knows the pain of loosing a parent so somewhere she sympathizes with him, c) she knows that this guy has brought her back from the death grave, so some leniency she shows given the fact that she is a selfless woman. Moreover Zoya didn't justify his act or words saying that Mr. Khan, its ok, I understand why you did like that, No, she didn't do it, she did tell him that nobody deserves to be a orphan.
But my problem is with the writers that what was the need for them to show the slapping? I can see the need only in 2 cases either they wanted to send a social message that slapping under any circumstances is wrong or wanted to show Asad-Zoya separation. They did neither of these, then why the slap? Once his anxiety, frustration had calmed down after Dilshad was out of danger, he never thought that his slapping Zoya was a little too much, Okay, given the person Asad is he would never think that when he was still angry at Zoya, once he got to know the truth he had the flashback of his act, he felt sorry for it, he even told Zoya that 'muje aap par haath...', grrr😡 this is where I am upset with CVs, they should have just made him complete the sentence that 'muje aap par haath utana nahi chahiye tha, me jaantha hoon ki aadmi ko kisi bhi keemath per ek aurath par haath utana galath hai', bus that's it it would make more sense and would send out a message. There is no need of giving a lengthy dialogue or lecture on how wrong his act was, because the serial is not about social evils, but just a complete sentence with 10 seconds would have had better impact. As a viewer I know Asad's character, he is so rigid that within a day he won't change completely and run behind Zoya for apology, he won't even confess his mistake with a lengthy speech because he is a egoist, regid Asad we have seen from the beginning, but when he uttered some words of guilt with great difficulty the writers should have taken it to completion instead of the broken sentence. Once again I really don't get the idea of showing the slap when it has not brought any change to the story, it's truly a flaw of a otherwise brilliant writer. Hope the makers don't repeat it such flaws.
I am not of the opinion that PH is promoting violence against women here, I never felt it. They have shown a lot of reality and treated it well like a)Asad calling Akram and his men as 'namard' and real man is who protects a woman b) Zoya saying the rapist should be punished not rewarded with the wedding c) Rashid's, Ayaan's displeasure on Hasinabi's attitude, but this particular issue is not treated well.

Originally posted by: enchanted.

Out of all the Indian TV shows that I have watched..and I have watched quite a few, this is the ONLY one with a good storyline. This show has to offer great content IMO! Yes, maybe the issues they have been dealing with in these past few epis have been too huge and delicate for them to handle. Even though I hate the whole hitting Zoya track, and how that has played out, we can to some extent say that what they have shown has been quite realistic

In real life, women, no matter how educated or modern, allow themselves to be abused, and don't speak up. Gul Khan or the PH never said that these characters are supposed to be your idols, or that their actions should be followed, as whatever they do is right. NO. She just wanted to tell a story, I presume, not supporting any social cause or issue, but just depicting reality. And the reality is not beautiful and how we like it to be, its harsh and ugly.

I have been against the way this track has been played out, but I realized that maybe there is another way to look at it.

Your views?

Originally posted by: adeeti10

I think the issue is it about the slap per se, it's about how it's portrayed and how it's construed by the audience.

The way this track was treated, I got the impression as a viewer, it's ok for Asad to slap Zoya because of what he was going through. And the half hearted apology later only reinforced this... That she was wrong, she should have known better than to bother him then.

Heres my take: Show the slap because that's reality BUT also show his realisation and acceptance that its wrong not because it was not Zoya's fault that Dilshad got shot but because physical violence in any instance other than self defence is wrong!