Introduction

“Joker”  created by Todd Phillips’s was the most nominated comic book and highest grossing movie of all time (R-rated). Star Joaquin Phoenix, who won for Best Actor, faced controversy since the movie’s release, from helping the Golden Globes go meatless to being arrested at a Jane Fonda climate change protest.

“Joker” had been generating controversy even before its release. People were concerned about the portrayal of a mentally ill person turning to violence would perpetuate false ideas about mental health issues, undermining recent gains in public understanding. Doctors who work on acute inpatient psychiatric wards, say that serious mental illness is our daily reality.

Doctors argue that the film’s dominance in the debate about portrayals of mental illness in the movies comes at a curious time. Awareness about relatively common mental-health issues such as depression and anxiety is increasing and a people now have dismissal reaction towards unhelpful prejudices that used to surround them. These are now readily discussed without shame and often represented in the media with a well-informed grasp of the facts, thanks to effective information campaigns.

While reviews have ranged from labeling the film as brilliantly provocative to irresponsible in an era where there have been so many mass shootings, one of the biggest conversations it has generated both on screen and off has been about mental health.

Movie Background:

“Joker” tells the story of Arthur Fleck, who turns to violence after feeling unfairly outcast by society.But he lacked the realization of his wrong doings. The idea of him getting violent involves idealization of having everything what he wants without taking the responsibility of his actions.

It attempts to explain how a man who was once a mental patient turned into the most infamous villain in the Batman saga.

After Arthur discovers, for example, that his mother lied to him his entire life—she maintained that she gave birth to him, but he discovers he was adopted (and also abused) as a child—he suffocates her. “She totally misled him,” Its like the carpet has been ripped out from underneath his feet with this shocking revelation. He’s reacting to this very upsetting, insulting discovery. His whole life has been reversed. His whole identity is gone.”

Arthur himself wouldn’t have thought of turning into a mass killer. But the circumstances, people’s behavior towards him, his loneliness, his illness everything became a reason for him getting violent.

The character portrayed anti authority avatar of aggression whereby the Joker only has rules for himself but he is not willing to follow rules for others. Thus his mental illness can’t be a justification for his anarchical behavior.

Stigma

As discussed above that several mental illnesses like depression are now being discussed openly, however, severe mental health conditions, such as psychotic illnesses, remain shrouded in stigma and are consistently misrepresented and misunderstood.

Arthur’s bursts of incongruous and uncontrolled laughter is a neurological condition pseudobulbar affect – also known as “emotional incontinence” – perhaps caused by his childhood head trauma. Joker may make an attempt to unpick the difference between the psychiatric and the neurological – between a mental illness and a medical disorder – but it runs the risk of conflating the two with a haunting, stigmatizing and problematic image

Portrayals of mental illness in film is a delicate task which can perpetuate unfounded stereotypes and spread misinformation. One of the more toxic ideas that Joker subscribes to is the hackneyed association between serious mental illness and extreme violence. The idea that mental sickness necessarily leads to violence against others – implied by the behavior of Phoenix’s character Arthur stopping his medication with his increasingly frequent acts of violence – is not only misinformed but further amplifies stigma and fear.

According to researches, association between mental illness and violence is exaggerated and people with severe mental illness are more vulnerable to violence from others than the general population.

Psychiatrists’ remarks:

Several doctors and Psychiatrists have shared their views about the portrayal of mental illness in Joker.

Dr. Ziv Cohen, a criminal psychiatrist and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Cornell University, specializes in violence, predatory behavior, psychopathy, and other toxic personality disorders. He discussed that the film portrays the lack of resources and neglect around mental health quite well, but it also gets a lot wrong.

“Research clearly indicates that individuals with mental illness are no more violent than the population as a whole,” he said. “In fact, persons with mental illness are more likely to be victims of crimes than to commit them.”

Cohen says that we could think ‘’Joker’’ as a psychopath, but again it is probably too simplistic. Psychopaths, after all, thrive on some of the most challenging career paths, like law, medicine, and leadership roles, because of their ability to deal with stress with a cool head. Most of the time they do it without murdering anyone. He further argues that human history has seen some of the major crimes being committed by the persons without any mental illness or evidence of psychopathy in their daily lives. So he thinks that the Joker character forces us to grapple with this innate human capacity for evil, which is ultimately unexplainable.

Psychiatrists Vasilis K. Pozios and Praveen R. Kambam of Broadcast Thought, a group that provides mental health consulting to film and television projects are of the view that the movie too much relies on mental illness.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report that the vast majority of people with mental health problems are no more likely to be violent than anyone else: Only 3% to 5% of violent acts can be attributed to individuals living with a serious mental illness.

Positive aspects cited by the experts tell that “Joker” depicts a true picture of the daily life of a person struggling with mental illness and the breakdown of social support for those who desperately need it – especially that pivotal scene with the social worker trying to help Arthur.

Northern Virginia social worker Devra Gordon says that the movie truthfully depicted that how one day you have a program, and the next day you don’t. And you see how that impacts the people you serve,” “It’s enormously frustrating. We’re dealing with people’s lives.”

Another Psychologist Roblyn P. Lewter at Virginia’s Stratford University says “Joker” provides a powerful view into the “daily struggle for so many people with mental illness (as they try) to conduct ‘regular’ lives, and how knowingly and unknowingly cruel and insensitive the general public can be. That tends to only exacerbate their mental health symptoms.”

Conclusion

Joker as a movie has been applauded and appreciated by the audiences. But in psychiatrists’ view, the portrayal of mental illness in the movie may not be the reality. The movie paints the villain’s violent actions as inevitable because of his mental illness. This leads to stigmatizing mental illness and depicting its very existence as inherently dangerous thus shifting the attention from real predictors of violence.

Joe Parks, a psychiatrist and Medical Director for the National Council for Behavioral Health, says he felt the mental health portrayal in “Joker” was “unnecessary” and “stigmatizing,” though he praised the film for emphasizing the importance of “being kind to one another, and not bullying.’’ He further explains that we need to take Joker as a fantasy movie about a comic book villain as ‘Joker’ is not a documentary about mental illness.

So in writer’s view, as far as entertainment is concerned, the movie is a better option to watch. But if the movie is to be conceived as a depiction of the behavior of mentally ill person and to give a justification for his violence, we can deduce that has not been done in a right way.

Introduction

It is said that art and talent has no boundaries. Movies are a modern form of performing arts and the mastery, culture, societal values and demographics of particular societies are being shown through the movies. Movies are considered to be one of the finest forms of entertainment to the masses.  And globalization has enabled the world to have access to movies of different countries. With Hollywood and Bollywood being most watched the world over. But due to political and military rivalries, some countries impose ban on the content of their rival country.

Indian movies have a huge market the world over and Indian movies are watched in every part of the world. Pakistan also has always been influenced by the movies produced by India-our neighbor since 1947, and even before independence, the masses used to live together in the subcontinent-despite the fact that both countries could never have prosperous and healthy relations. But due to their history of living together, people have common taste regarding movies and music.

Pakistan and India have been at daggers drawn since their very inception. Having two major wars, countless number of attacks-both militarily and diplomatically- several serious feuds including water issue and most importantly the Kashmir conflict, all these rivalries could never be resolved between these countries. All these issues could never let the countries be at same page for peace and have prosperous relations with each other.

The routine matters like trade, commerce and media activities were kept continued amid all these tensions between the two countries. But some major incidents caused both countries to take serious steps and impose bans and sanctions on these bilateral activities. These incidents will be discussed shortly, but first let’s have a review of subcontinent’s media industries and their presence across the borders.

Historical Background of Indian and Pakistan’s Cinema

The art of producing movies dates back to 1913 in Indian subcontinent when the first movie Raja Harishchandra was released. The industry kept on growing and new technologies were introduced with time and within a short span of almost 20 years, the first talking movie Alam Ara was released in Indian subcontinent. Before partition, the film industry had three hubs Lahore, Bombay (present Mumbai) and Dhaka and Indian film industry was flourishing since then. After partition, the Indian industry kept itself on a growing track.

                               Image Source: India Today

Raja Harishchandra

On the other hand Pakistan’s first film was produced in 1930 Husn Ka Daku in Lahore. After Independence, however, serious challenges were faced by Pakistan’s film industry like lacking infrastructure, finances and latest technologies to cope up with the challenges.

But the 60s and early 70s eras are considered to be the golden ages of Pakistani cinema. At one point quality movies were being produced by the industry along with several new faces being introduced and these new comers soon became the rulers of the industry. Muhammad Ali, Waheed Murad, Nadeem Baig are some of the names who became famous in the said era. Famous movies include Azra (1960), Armaan (1966), Chakori (1967).

Image source: Citizen Archive of Pakistan

Bans imposed on Indian Movies

On the other hand, after 1965 war, Indian movies were completely banned in Pakistan, and this gave another opportunity for Pakistani movie makers to produce good movies and cash the chance.

This ban continued for almost 40 years. In all these years, several ups and downs were faced by Pakistani movie industry and eventually was left in a misery. The political situation of that era-Zia’s islamization regime- can be blamed for the decline of film Industry. In 2007, however, the ban was lifted by the then PM of Pakistan Pervaiz Musharraf, and the cinema industry was given a chance to get back on the road of success.

Since then, a major chunk of screens in Pakistan was being held by the Indian movies because no quality content was produced at local level for the cinema lovers. One factor for the rise of Indian movies in Pakistan could be pointed out here that the content produced at local level was far beyond its competitor (i.e. India) and lacked the innovation in storytelling techniques, performances and music scores. There came a time when low budget low quality movies started to hit the cinema screens and most of them used to be Punjabi movies. The movies lacked strong narratives, good music and impactful performances. All of them were mostly based on poor quality action, sub-standard production techniques and vulgar songs.

As Indian cinema was constantly producing quality movies and was investing a lot in the movies, the audience ultimately shifted to Indian content. So Indian movies can’t be blamed for taking away the major opportunity from the local producers. Indian movies were banned for 40 years long, If Pakistani film industry had flourished well, the Indian content wouldn’t have been able to overtake its screens so quickly.

After almost a decade, in 2016, a tumulus situation was witnessed when the Uri attack in occupied Kashmir happened. It was an attack on Indian army, and India was raged over it. Evidently, Pakistan was blamed for the incident, thereby soaring the relations between both. The tensions grew and Pakistani artists were completely banned from the Indian film industry.  This was an act done to show its rivalry with Pakistan. Pakistan answered in a same way and Indian movies and TV content was banned completely in Pakistan. Similarly Pakistani content was also banned on Indian TV. As many Pakistani dramas were exported to Indian channels. Before this situation, Indian content was widely watched by the Pakistani audiences.

But this ban couldn’t be sustained longer and the self-imposed ban was lifted by the Pakistani cinema Industry as there were hardly good productions at home and the cinema owners were getting in hot waters.

The situation was changed again, when as on 28^th Feb. 2019, India tried to intrude into Pakistan’s borders and was taken aback by the retaliation by Pakistan Air force. This was a serious clash which graved the countries’ relations. Resultantly, Indian content was banned to show solidarity and patriotism for our beloved country Pakistan.

Pakistan has always tried to pave the way for healthy relations with India. Several peace initiatives were taken by Pakistan in this context. Lifting the ban on Indian movies after 40 years was one of them. After that, several activities of cultural and art exchanges were continued between both countries. Several Indian celebrities visited Pakistan and Pakistani artists like Meera and singers like Rahat Fateh Ali and Atif Aslam going to India and working in their movies. But our artists never received a warm welcome from Indian side.

Now the question arises, how this ban can be utilised by Pakistani film and cinema industry to advance its calibre and get into the race of producing quality movies for the masses.

Current Situation of Pakistan’s Film Industry

There are on average 160 cinemas in Pakistan with 59 being in Lahore. In 2019, Pakistan film industry produced 23 movies. Excluding the Pashto and other local language movies. Even if these local productions are included, there isn’t enough movies produced to cater the regular demand. It is argued by the film fraternity that cinema can’t survive with this number of movies.

In the absence of a giant Indian movie market, Pakistan industry needs massive film productions not only to keep the industry at break even, but also help the cinema owners to retain and maintain their businesses. The movies produced by far, also do not manage to earn and stay on screens for a longer period. Thus, except for Eid occasions, the theatres stay empty most of the times throughout the year.

Why our generation needs to watch Indian movies and why our cinema industry requires Indian movies to run business in a successful way. The answer to second question lies in the first: that there has been an eternal admiration for Indian movies by our generations ever since so as we say in Urdu –Jo Dikhta Hai Wohi Bikta Hai– goes well for this scenario. And besides the ban, Indian movies are watched by the masses through pirated versions.

Our generations are being kept captivated by ever luring and indulging romances, relations, not so impressive action, and most importantly the songs and the celebrities of Indian film industry. Amid all the crises and threats India is posing on Pakistan, Indian movies would be watched by the Pakistani audiences at any cost, totally ignoring the grudges and hatred the Indian government has in their hearts for Pakistan.

What India has been doing in Kashmir for the past 73 years and what’s she doing in her own country with Muslims, should be an eye opener for the people to realize the matter and stop admiring their content.

Instead, the local content should be fully supported and the masses must stand by their own industry and fraternity to help it to grow. Although there are flaws and the movies still have a long way to go, but there is always a start point and that’s the point one needs most of the support and encouragement.

Image Source: The Newyork Times

As per Indian reports, Pakistan only contributes mere 5-6 % of their total box office collections so for them this ban is no big deal. Thus our patriotism now requires to completely oppose the Indian content, not even online or through piracies. And fully support the local content. This not only will help the local industry to grow in a positive way, but also help the cinema owners to mitigate their losses which they have been facing since the ban.

Way Forward for Pakistan’s Film Industry

The huge responsibility also lies on the fraternity to thrive for the best and do whatever it takes to produce quality content. If we look at our drama industry, Pakistan produces one of the finest projects which are watched the world over. The same quality is required in movies. The film industry requires some serious reforms and investments. For this, government can also help by providing financial subsidies and other supportive measures so that the industry manages itself.

We need good and well written screenplays, strong stories, latest production techniques, strong performances, new and fresh faces and most importantly the support from the masses. If the cinema halls go empty on film releases, it will only affect our own industry.

Pakistan doesn’t need cross border movies to entertain its masses and run its business. A golden era -when Pakistan was making super hit movies- has been witnessed by Pakistan’s cinema industry in the past and it has the talent and potential to gain that position back. There is immense raw talent available in the country. All it requires is a vision, approach, opportunity, guidance and training. Pakistan has no training institutions for actors/singers.

In order to proliferate our media especially film industry, we require genuine and devoted efforts by all the stakeholders to create quality movies even at small budgets in the beginning.  Because a good movies doesn’t require a big budget, but a strong story base line with powerful performances and better direction. And when a movie is produced, then it needs is a sincere and patriotic approach by the masses to show support towards the local content to help it improve.

Introduction

Pakistan’s Drama Industry

Drama is a form of performing arts. Its history dates back to almost 5^th Century B.C from Greece. The present day form of drama is derived through the roots of theater, where dramas were initially started. With time, their mode changed and from stage it was brought on to TV screens.

Pakistan has a very rich history of drama industry. Pakistan had world renowned drama writers who wrote masterpieces that are still remembered and cherished by all. ‘’Khuda ki basti’’ on aired in 1969, was one of the pioneer dramas that depicted the strength of our drama industry. People used to wait for the drama to be aired so that they can watch those dramas and streets used to show deserted looks when these dramas were aired.

Time changed, techniques changed and with that the Pakistan’s drama was also changed. With the introduction of digitization, Pakistan now has a lot of TV channels showing dramas 24/7. And though it has revolutionized the industry and profits are huge, there are also some serious implications as well. And there are also challenges and competitions which are faced by our present drama industry.

Drama is watched all over the world. And is mostly watched by the general masses due to its high reach and closeness with them. The scope of drama basically revolves around its core elements of story, characters, plot, music and dialogues. What makes drama so close to general masses is the connection with stories of these dramas and the characters involved. People tend to get attached by either the stories or the characters or music-original sound tracks (ost) – of these dramas.

Dramas presents the stories in a continuous and regular fashion based on episodes, so people tend to get more excited and curious to know about what will happen next. The modern world drama is immensely focused on either the contemporary topics like the issues of the society, relations, families, economy, politics, society or history.

Stories are created on historic topics and national heroes by the countries having rich and solid history. At one hand, the rich and heavily crafted culture of their societies is depicted along with glorification of their past. Similarly the stories of their legends are told by these dramas in an effective way which the world wouldn’t have come to known otherwise.

Dramas have the highest reach among public and are the most watched genre on TV, they can be effectively used a s a soft power by countries to portray their culture and values in front of the world and gain economic, social and political benefits.

Turkish Drama Industry

Turkey is an excellent example which is using this soft power to build an impressive image the world over. With the rise of its drama industry, Turkey has not only managed to gather viewership of around 500 M people but was also worth $ 250 M till 2015. Turkey is the second largest exporter of its content after US with having viewership in more than 100 countries mainly in Latin America, North Africa, Middle East, Central and South Asia, Europe (Spain, Russia, and Chile, where Chile is the largest consumer of Turkey’s content).

In 1990s, private channels were legalized in Turkey. This was the time when Turkey’s drama industry started flourishing and from that there was no stop. The industry was worth $ 10,000 till 2004, and till 2015 it was $ 250M. The culture ministry of Turkey pledges to support this industry and had contributed $40M in 2017. The president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is of the view that soft power can be effectively used to publish a better image worldwide and invite investments in the country.

The reasons behind this success of Turkish drama industry lies at the fact that the fraternity is very much professional and loyal to it and works hard to bring valuable projects for the viewers. They say that they don’t import anything and everything is being made by themselves. Dr. Arzu Orsturkman, is a senior oral history professor at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul he says that the content produced by turkey is not something ordinary, in fact it’s a genre in the making which they call Dizi.

These Dizis are gaining popularity because of their strong narratives, original locations, strong characterizations and indulging musical scores. One important aspect of the production techniques is the use of real locations most of times and hardly relying on set locations to portray the real beauty of Turkey. With this, Turkey has managed to invite hundreds of visitors who want to experience the beauty in reality which they see in these dramas. This has boosted Turkey’s tourism industry as well.

The family culture, their values and relationships between men and women are the core contents of these productions. The contemporary drama form depicts that how these relations go about in today’s society. Turkish dramas mostly portray strong family bonds and their rich culture which is highlighted through their routine life matters like greeting the elders in most respectable way, eating together, their rich cuisine and strong family relations and backgrounds. The men in these dramas are shown to be very loving, caring and compassionate about their loved ones. That’s one of the reasons why these dramas are this much popular among the general public especially in women. What they always desire from their men to be, they get a chance to see that in these dramas.

The high popularity of Turkish dramas in Middle East and in central and south Asia is because of some connection and affiliation with their pasts. In Arab countries, before the rise of Turkish productions, they used to watch Korean and Spanish content from which they could hardly relate. Arab TV itself lacks strong narrative and production techniques and thereby Turkish content was highly welcomed because it provided them high class narrative and production. In South Asia, although the culture is different from what is portrayed from the content, but the religious bond is something that connects the audience with these dramas and lets them feel the affinity to it. And when dubbed in their local languages, the content seems so much familiar to them because the content is based on local issues like gender equality, love relations, etc. says Professor Asli Tunc, head of the Media School at Istanbul Bilgi University.

This soft power of media has been used by Turkey in a powerful and effective way. With this, the country managed to build a positive image around the world and with high quality productions, there has been increasing demand for their content. The dramas are mostly based on either historic or contemporary themes.

In Middle east however, there have been some controversies and backlashes faced by the Turkish productions and there was also an incident whereby in Saudi Arabia many dramas were taken off air BY MBC which is the biggest broadcaster in Middle East and North Africa.  Saudi Prince Muhamad Bin Salman intended to buy MBC, but found the cost of $3Bn to be huge. In response, many of the MBC’s stakeholders were arrested on the charges of corruption. This might be related to political feuds between KSA and Turkey. The matter was resolved there on. Similarly in Egypt, after the chaos and death of President Mursi, the newly appointed government didn’t allow the Turkish content. So turkey lost its one of the huge markets in Middle East. But it will cover up this loss by North Africa and European countries.

Turkish Dramas in Pakistan

Reasons for rise and liking of Turkish dramas

Turkish dramas may be termed as contemporary dramas. The way they have portrayed the dramas has revolutionized the drama art. And thus has created a tough competition for local producers to be up to the mark. Their topics not only stick to one main issue rather a variety of topics is shown in their dramas ranging from social issues like the survival of a raped woman and her struggle to have a good life to a single mother doing everything to be a good parent to her son, from complicated men women relations to their rich old legacy of ottoman empire. The producers are never afraid to experiment new things.

The dramas are also based on strong human emotions. ”Cesur ve Güzel- Ek Haseena Ek Deewana”– was a drama based on the revenge of a young guy whose family was killed brutally by a rich businessman. The dramas have content, strong story lines, intriguing plots and latest production techniques. The dramas focus on entirety rather than one single piece as we see in Pakistan’s dramas.

In Pakistan’s dramas, the story lines mostly revolve around domestically abused women. Showing a patriarchal society where man is never guilty of his wrong doings and if eventually he is, he can lay off that guilt by either an apology, some tears or with a promise to be a good guy from now on.

There are no obvious and inevitable consequences he has to face. Through this, the dramas deliver a message of ultimate liberty of doing wrong. In a recent drama ‘’ Khaas’’ a self-obsessed man was shown who thinks he is the perfect example of ’’flawless Perfect guy’’. His misogynistic approach towards her wife lets her into a complex and due to societal and family pressure the girl has to suffer his husband’s psychological abuse where her husband lets her feel that she is something less and inferior than him. The drama climaxes where the girl is blamed to have extramarital affair but in reality the guy was the one cheating. In that way the drama normalizes the behavior that a man can have extramarital affair without any shame, but if a girl has a male friend she is the worst ever woman on earth. The guy bears no repercussions of his wrong doings and girl is the one blamed even by her own parents. In the end, though the drama shows that the guy realizes his mistake but he gets away with it only by apologizing. The drama had a strong content, but normalizing abusive behavior needs re-thinking by Pakistan’s dramas.

Another important feature of Turkish dramas is that they have huge casts and each character either main or supportive has a separate story and is also involved in the central plot. They beautifully incorporate all the characters involved the dramas have One central theme, some priorities and a few assignments which lets all the cast to be involved. With this the dramas show big families and intricate relationships. ”Ishq-e-mamnu” was a super hit Turkish drama having a lot of priorities and assignments. The drama also had a huge cast and each character was utilized properly.

Whereas in Pakistan, the dramas only have one central plot with no priorities and a little assignments. Besides having huge casts, they are not utilized in a productive way. The supportive characters are just there to be standing in scene rather than being involved. Recent Drama ‘’Jhooti’’ had a big cast, but the drama wholly revolved around the girl. And no supporting character was strong enough to let the girl realize that she is wrong.

Comparison with Pakistan’s content

With the rising of turklsh dramas in Pakistan and their huge viewership, Pakistan’s producers also tried to copy their content. With the immense polarity of ”Magnificent Century-Mera Sultan”– local producers tried to create a drama called ‘’Mor Mehal’’. Although the drama had a big cast and was an expensive project, it failed to impress the masses because of lack of strong storyline. Turks have a rich ottoman history on which Mera Sultan was based. To compete with that, the makers need to develop strong storyline based on Mughal Empire.

And since ”Ishq-e-mamnu” told a story of a married woman cheating on her husband, several dramas have been made in Pakistan on this issue as well. However, they still lack strong characterizations, real locations, latest technologies and above all strong writers.

This leads us to a question:

What prevents Pakistan from making high level shows?

The drama industry lacks experienced and skillful drama writers. Drama has been converted to a commercial activity rather than an art. Anyone having a popular idea and some links inside the industry would write the drama and it will be produced under any production banner. Gone are the days when we had writers par excellence like Bano Qudsia, Fatima surraiyah, Haseena Moin, Ashfaq Ahmad, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi and many more. With the lack of professional writers and production houses focusing more on monetary aspects rather than content, the dramas which are produced have weak story lines.

There are no copy rights phenomena in Pakistan. If one theme gets popular, all the channels start showing dramas based on that theme. In contrast, Turkish dramas don’t repeat stories, they uses other sides/aspects of the stories. So if one show might get popular, others won’t because they don’t offer anything new to audiences. This repetition also leads to sanitization of issue. With improper handling of sensitive issues and not contextualizing all the relevant factors involved, such dramas create normalization of sensitive issues of society which leads to assuming it as truth.

How to course correct Pakistan’s dramas by taking Turkish examples?

Pakistan’s dramas have several areas which needs attention,

• The central theme of dramas: central themes now need a dynamic shift. From women related issues only. There should be dramas which show different psychologies, societal behaviors, human problems, crimes, relations and a lot more.
• The dramas should have priorities and assignments-The central story should be broad enough to handle the huge cast in productive way.
• Use of natural locations: Just as Turkish dramas show
• Stop showing women repressed and abused and try to show that besides having problems, women are also progressing and excelling in their fields.

Conclusion

Pakistan’s dramas have a legacy with outstanding projects that are still remembered by the viewers. Writing is the soul of drama and a drama writer is the one who puts that soul into drama. With marvelous drama writers, Pakistan has witnessed a golden era of drama but todays dramas are more focused on commercial aspects. This commercialization has deteriorated the essence of drama. Weak content of drama is covered up by artificial decoration and glamorization. Sensitive issues are not handled in entirety and thus are sanitized in the society. Turkish dramas are an excellent example for Pakistan’s dramas to focus on quality content rather than objectification. Dramas are an important way to deliver strong messages to society and impact it in a positive way.

Dramas should be delivering messages which the young generations could adopt in their lives. They should not be showing aspects which are not reality. Because dramas influence the societal behavior, and if delivered in a wrong way, it would become normal practice. So it’s pertinent for the industry to take lessons and realize what they are delivering to the society and then course correct itself.