Slow death of originality and Hum
I have said it before and I will say it again; are we not done with
two sisters being jealous of each other? No matter how many pretty faces
we put in, the story will remain to be the same. The drama sells but
please find something new, because one more play where one sister is
pissed off at the other one and I am going to pull my own eyeballs out.
There are shows which promise something new and still remain loyal to
the ideas of creativity and originality, but then there are some like
Mausam' and Meray Meharbaan'; which don't even try in the thinnest to
be different.
Mausam is our drama industry's latest stint on sister rivalry, the only
difference; this time they are cousins and not siblings. The story of
this play is so clich that I cannot even judge the performances of the
actors involved, it is hysterical now that people can even predict the
next line an actor is going to say and the expression an actor is going
to have. When this scenario starts to happen; where even the tiniest
emotion of an actor is so predictable, the producers and all the team
needs to head back to drawing board and come up with something new from
scratch. Well as for now; that is not going to happen and we have to
stick around watching two women tussle with a rich blue eyed boy; and
guess what it is the run of the mill story sweetheart Ahsan Khan. The
acting capabilities of this actor have been debated in past for the
longest as he juggled with two totally different hairdos in his recent
play Kabhi Kabhi' and mood swings in Mujhay Khuda Pay Yakeen Hai'
which by the way the way tested the audience more so than ever. The play
and its premise if seen in isolation from its predecessors might
impress, but then again we have had two rival siblings so much that
ignoring the past stints is next to impossible. The drama holds a
beautiful array of actors, and most of all it has Yumna Zaidi. I respect
Yumna because she gained massive respect in my opinion because of her
mind numbing and stellar performance in Ullu Barai Farokht Nahi'. I
know that such plays are not routine and don't pay well, but I still
believe Yumna has incredible capacity to impress out of all the actors
in Mausam'.
Such plays do sell and many people do watch it, but I still believe that
no matter how many times we try to do it; we shall never be able to
make it any better. It has been done in so many forms, that now stories
of sister rivalry is nothing more than a recipe of boredom and in near
future; disaster. The problem is as the stories continue on the same
premise; the characters have become far more polarized than ever before.
This polarization has led to disconnect between the audience and the
storytelling; whereas the previous plays in this premise allowed the
audience to connect with the character; the current ones are taking
their characters far from reality. Either it is Miss Very Good Two Shoes
or Its Miss Cruela on the other end, or as little as I know, making
your characters completely devoid of any humanity and frailty is not
going to help. The story needs to be geyer than stark black and white,
and perhaps the best example recently was when Pyaray Afzal' became our
heartbeat. We loved him not because he was the hero; we loved him
because he was a human above all. He did not play a messiah but he was a
character which made some really bad decisions but along with
everything there was a silver lining. I guess people who write shows
like Mausam' need some writing and idea classes from Khalil Ur Rahman
Qamar.
The other show which never ceases to impress me with lack of creativity
is Meray Meharbaan'. The most surprising thing to me is the fact that
Ayeza Khan happens to be the lead. After her previous impression in
Pyaray Afzal'; I believed that she will be moving from strength to
strength, but I was proved wrong when I saw Meray Meharbaan'. It takes
you a while to digest what is happening in the show. There is an aunty
who is pure evil with a husband you pity and then there is another aunty
who is like super good with a family which is like super pious. I just
don't buy this story, it is perhaps the biggest headache on air at the
moment, and to make it worse it is on Hum TV. I don't know why HUM
thought it would be okay to have such show on the air. Hum has given us
shows which we cannot forget, but believe me this is perhaps the most
questionable choice after the calamity known as Mujhay Khuda Pay Yakeen
Hai'. The story is beyond predictable, the characters and their
emotions are then again so typecast that you don't end up feeling
anything for them. Ayeza's engagement so early on in the show was doomed
and well there were no surprises.
The reason I mentioned these two shows is that since the rebirth of
Pakistani television; I envisioned that shows will become more
compelling with the time being. They indeed have and we have numerous
examples, but when shows like Mausam' and Meray Meharbaan' take the
central position in the prime time slot, I doubt there is any genuine
intention on part of the producer to keep on this spectacular revival of
our television industry. Hum TV needs to give up its complacency and
learn from its rivals. As Ary smashed with Pyaray Afzal', ATV inspired
with Marasim', Pechan' and Aun Zara' and Urdu One impressed with
Meray Hum Dum Meray Dost and promises Jackson Heights'; there is a
strong competition ahead for HUM which became the juggernaut of revival
of television in Pakistan. The first step; thinking of something new.
Jehanzeb
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