Pakistan’s most successful playwright on why she hasn’t watched TV dramas in two years.
Veteran playwright and the writer behind classic TV serials Uncle Urfi, Kiran Kahani, Ankahi, Tanhayyan and Dhoop Kinaray, Haseena Moin made a startling revelation during her interview in the See It Be It program by Cannes Lions at a local hotel in Karachi. She revealed that she doesn’t watch television dramas by choice. The writer told the audience that although she was the first one to write an original drama serial on PTV, the current dramas don’t appeal to her because they are over-the-top and illogical at the same time.
Besides sharing her experience as a playwright, Haseena Moin praised all her colleagues - alive and dead - for helping her out during her career. She told the audience that before her, PTV dramas were mostly adaptations but Kiran Kahani broke the taboo by being the first original PTV drama after which other writers stepped in with their own scripts. She took pride in the fact that her plays are remembered today for having relatable characters, something that is missing from television these days.
Haseena Moin was quick to point out that in today’s TV productions women are shown as weak and helpless when in the past a woman’s struggle was always shown in a positive manner. She also blamed the ratings game for crossing levels of decency on TV and pointed out that maids are shown as love interests in plays in a society where such things are unacceptable. She also criticized those writers who show a woman being thrown out of her house in the middle of the night or spending nights at some friend’s place without realizing that the friend doesn’t love her back, saying “Is this really our society being shown? Which parents allow their daughter to stay at their male friends’ homes overnight?”
The audience also agreed with her insights since they seemed more logical than the storyline featured in modern-day plays where there is hardly any message given at all.
