We have been wasting our breath for years, criticising the entertainment industry and asking it to stop scraping the bottom of the barrel to give us another done-to-dust drama about saas-bahu jhagray. It seems like somebody has been listening to our laments. Recent serials, starring the likes of actors such as Mira Sethi, Ali Safina and Wahaj Ali, have us wondering whether the industry has finally begun to understand that toxic masculinity is not something to glorify or even a trait that women think is swoon worthy?
In the disastrous year that was 2022, we got drama after drama with the same topic: bad boy meets good girl, he’s broken and needs fixing which apparently no therapist can do, his severe mommy issues need to be resolved by some naïve girl who has lived under a bunker all her life and is now the saviour she never signed up to be.
However, this year with dramas like ‘Kuch Ankahi’, the popular Ramzan show ‘Fairy Tale’ and even Wahaj Ali’s hit ‘Mujhe Pyaar Hua Tha’, main leads are stepping away from toxic characteristics that symbolized what patriarchy thinks an ideal man must be like. Instead, men in these dramas are gentler, caring about the women they love and showcasing that being a man is not about being loud and brash, but infact it is about how attentive you are to the people around you.
‘Kuch Ankahi’ was like a breath of fresh air for audiences who were nostalgic for the days of Haseena Moin dramas, where the women were fearless and outspoken, not props to the men around them. The women in ‘Kuch Ankahi’ come in different shades of femininity: Samia is a shy homebody who wants to fulfil her parents wishes and get married to the man they pick, while Aliya is the complete opposite because she’s a headstrong, career-obsessed woman who wants to succeed in her retail-estate business. Their differences don’t prevent the siblings from bonding with each other or from standing up for their families. Many have praised the series for depicting a healthy relationship between siblings and called it the desi version of ‘Little Women’.
But what is also heartening to witness in ‘Kuch Ankahi’ is how all the men in the dramas are gentle and actively work around the family, rather than the typical men who lounge around, while the women cook. Agha Ji, the patriarch, champions his daughters, refrains from asking them to do his chores and continuously encourages the girls to pursue their dreams.
Bilal Abbas’ character, Salman, Aliya’s professional rival in the drama, is also a fan favourite. He’s ambitious but he never resorts to sexist or demeaning jokes to push her out of the game. He is also respective and caring to his mother and even pulls his weight by helping around the house.
Among the current on-going Ramzan dramas, ‘Fairy Tale’ has been winning hearts across Pakistan because of how it has re-written the grumpy x sunshine trope in a humorous, addictive story where the women lead the show and where the male lead treats women with respect.
If audiences were left horrified when the male lead from last year’s ‘Kaisi Teri Khudgarzi’ forced the female lead to keep repeating his name in exchange for her dad’s release, this time they have better content to cheer on. Many Twitter users have found Farjaad’s dedication to Umeed quite moving as he keeps coming back to her despite convincing himself that they’re too different.
We can not say that we’re okay with the current pacing of ‘Mujhe Pyaar Hua Tha’ and how the storyline features the trope of the selfish female lead and the money-obsessed mother-in-law, but credit to Wahaj Ali’s character Saad, the anti-thesis of the typical misogynist Pakistani male lead, if ever there was one. He refuses to engage in abuse or violence to pressurize the woman he likes to be with him, instead supporting Maheer in all of her decisions.
Might we be witnessing the rebirth of the golden age of Pakistani dramas? Fingers crossed .