Modern mainstream television's promotion of love and passion is a lethal cocktail with a common recipe — one we've watched, ingested and unwittingly internalized time and time again.
Premarital partnerships, extramarital affairs, a patriarchal system, sexism defended and justified with religious undertones, and the now popular invisible kinds of maltreatment meted out to female characters in stories make up this cocktail. Gaslighting, verbal abuse, psychological abuse, emotional abuse, and narcissistic abuse all fall under this category.
Romance stories from the past have been marked by lengthy stretches of stillness, years of desire, withered letters, fleeting looks, and the rain, the evergreen essence of a passionate meeting in the days gone by.
Romantic love has taken on a new meaning in the twenty-first century. It's full of conditions, materialism, and compromise. Selflessness and unconditional love are no longer linked with it since they are illogical. When things don't go as planned in a one-sided dynamic or even within a couple, one of the hallmarks of a somewhat successful relationship is the ability to let go.
The plots of current Pakistani Urdu primetime drama serials would make viewers question whether this is what romance should be and how terribly deceptive our dramas' plots can be when it comes to portraying romance. Here are a few really repulsive ideas about love that have been presented to us. Pakistani television has adopted a self-defeating notion of love as the pinnacle of ardor and intensity, and it is up to the showrunners and screenwriters to modify this pernicious perspective.
1 - Fitoor
Innocent young lady Dilnasheen (Hiba Bukhari) is married to filthy rich Haider (Faysal Qureshi). They broke up because they couldn't get their families to consent to the match (because of social class disparities) and then Hamza tried to commit himself after he was left heartbroken by Dilnasheen.
Despite the fact that Haider has a new wife whom he casually ignores, he continues to lavish time, attention, and passion on Mehmal (Kiran Haq), his first love and first cousin. A six-year-old kid and a previous marriage to another man make up Mehmal's family life. For example, Haider admits to his wife Dilnasheen that while Mehmal remains his first love, he intends on keeping it that way throughout their marriage.
After falling in love with Haider, Dilnasheen does her best to capture his heart, but she discovers her husband with Mehmal, reserving a hotel room under the name "Mr. and Mrs. Haider," and Haider's mother brings Mehmal home from the hotel, presumably to preserve her son's marriage. While this poisonous love triangle is growing in their home, Haider informs his naive wife that he would never accept even an iota of romantic involvement with any guy, even if it occurred before they were married. This is abhorrent and highly hypocritical.
Mehmal then blackmails Dilnasheen by using their friendship and labeling it an 'affair,' which is completely false. It's a wonder that people can watch such a shady narrative with so many moral ambiguities while still finding it to be an engrossing love story.
2 - Khuda Or Mohabbat
As a result, Farhad (Feroze Khan), an unemployed college dropout from a lower-middle-class family, develops feelings for Mahi (Iqra Aziz), the sole daughter of a wealthy and traditional landowner family that is also engaged in political disputes. Even though Mahi has no interest in him, Farhad falls head over heals in love with her after only meeting her for two days at a wedding when she casually offers to be friends with him.
When he finally catches up with her, he moves in with her, working as a live-in driver. The man refuses to go despite her dismissal, an obvious lack of feelings for him, and a warning to "get lost," all the while emphasizing their stark social differences. Farhad curses Mahi and gives her a 'bad dua,' making her feel guilty about becoming engaged to another affluent landowner.
The night of their wedding, Mahi's new husband is shot dead, and we are made to think that this is Mahi's retribution for rejecting 'real love' in the form of Farhad. What appears to be mohabbat (love) in this drama's plot lacks Khuda (God). The portrayal of love in Khuda Aur Mohabbat's beautifully filmed third season lacks any sort of divine quality. All it's done is legitimise stalker syndrome by giving it a religious and mystic veneer of legitimacy.
3 - Qayamat
In the aftermath of his assault on Samrah (Amar Khan), his first wife, Rashid (Ahsan Khan) pursues Ifrah (Neelam Munir). While he's married to Samrah, Rashid's character has a long-term relationship with a stage dancer.
During her ninth month of pregnancy, when Samrah asks her husband for some tokens of loyalty, her husband becomes furious and pushes her, causing her to die during delivery. Ifrah, her younger sister, is coerced into marrying him so she may look after and nurture their joint child (also her niece). Despite his despicably repulsive nature, Ifrah continues to fall for him, and we are meant to swallow their passion and cheer his momentary and false conversion. Then his true colors emerge, and Ifrah vows never to forgive her husband for being such an awful tyrant. However, she continues to be married to him and accepts him as he is despite this. This is it.
What role does a young educated woman have in making decisions? What kind of picture are these couples trying to paint of marital joy and tenderness, exactly?
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