wo TV soaps all the rage nowadays are Tark-i-Wafa and Berang. They are being telecast on two different TV channels.

Tark-i-Wafa stars Mohib Mirza who plays Sibtain. Sibtain has quite a few sisters and a wife who is always at the receiving end of conspiracies being hatched by her sisters-in-law, all of whom have nothing better to do than emotionally blackmail their brother and guilt-trip him into giving more time to them so that he spends less in the company of his wife.

The soap stars scores of female leads, all of whom are always impeccably dressed with not a hair out of place, hatching conspiracies like they have been personally trained by some top agency.

Mohib Mirza as Sibtain with a deadpan expression on his face, sleepwalks through his role. It is obvious that he is no longer as choosy about the plays he acts in as he once used to be. Emotionally blackmailed and manipulated by his sisters, he and his spouse keep on defending their actions, almost as if they’re in a court.

Another soap, marred by domestic politics, is Berang where Saba Faisal plays a powerful business magnate. One of her sons passes away tragically, leaving all his property to his wife, played by Sukaina Khan. But then, Saba conspires with the lawyer and bribes him to change her son’s will.

The play is as unrealistic as it gets. In spite of the fact that her son died a few days ago, Saba is dressed to the hilt, wearing an array of bright colours under the pretense of mourning her son. Her daughter-in-law is expected to wear white and during her iddat and expected to cover her face in the presence of her brothers-in-law. No one questions why the daughter-in-law has to adhere to such behavior while her mother-in-law parades around in full makeup and jewelry.

This soap has set the TRPs on fire and has gained immense popularity, thanks to the overly decked up female leads and below average IQs which would send anyone who overdoses on these soaps into a coma.

These soaps, aired before primetime, can be consumed with a single brain cell. They are exclusively produced for an audience that is uncritical and only on the lookout for something mindless that can help them kill time. One can even watch them on silent mode and still understand the story, as the dialogues do not do much to move the narrative forward but, in fact, have been done and dusted so many times that they have become a permanent fixture in our minds, whether we like it or not. Owing to this, I am quite confident I can write a soap without much trouble. I can even predict what the next dialogue will be.

Berung is as colourless a production as one can possibly digest and still, one might suffer from indigestion. The pained expressions, clichéd dialogues and hackneyed plotline offer nothing new but, as long as these serials are raking in the moolah and setting the TRPs on fire, one can expect more of such plays to be churned out with amazing regularity.

Tune in to either Tark-i-Wafa or Berung (or rather not!) to kill time and brain cells. These two are being regularly watched by the family members in the house who have a few hours to spare before they sleep. They are the target audience and this is their staple diet. Sadly, it is all working out.

The writer is an educationist and can be reached at gaiteeara@hotmail.com