Meray Paas Tum Ho doesn’t need your endorsement, lady

You are one of the millions of people who loved Meray Paas Tum Ho and today you are going with those golden tickets to watch the finale in cinemas. They’ve said someone is gonna die. Humayun Saeed? Kitne ki lagi? All bets placed it isn’t him. The ring was returned. You’ve told everyone HS has already forgiven her, and according to Islamic norms, they can’t actually get married…

You haven’t been as involved in your own marriage as much as you have with Humayun Saeed’s. That gold-digging witch got what she deserved. What goes around, comes around. It’s true when they say men aren’t faithful. Whattay line!

You and thousands of other people hate the khooni liberals and social activist types like Tahira Abdullah, who killed the buzz by crapping on Khalil Ur Rehman Qamar (KRQ) when she appeared on SAMAA TV’s News Beat a week ago and her video went viral. It’s just a drama, man. Relax. KRQ and other drama scriptwriters just show what happens in real life.

Tahira Abdullah has got it all wrong when she says, as she told SAMAA Digital later on, that these drama scriptwriters cater to “an assumed lowest common denominator”. They write dramas for the audience they assume is out there — not what audiences are really out there. And what’s with the fractions and math talk, this is supposed to be entertainment and fun, lady.

Tahira Abdullah explains feminism to Pakistan's "biggest feminist", Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar#SamaaTV pic.twitter.com/mPu3DDlJwr

— Samaa English (@SamaaEnglish) January 20, 2020

“Assumed lowest common denominator?” Sure, there are all types in any society, all kinds of classes, people from different backgrounds, beliefs, values. Just like the character Humayun Saeed plays, not all Grade 16 or 17 officers (22 is the highest) are honest. In fact, if you look at how halaat are today, most of them are corrupt. Humayun was the exception. There are honest men out there. Drama scriptwriters don’t have to show just one stereotype of the corrupt officer. That’s an insult to all the honest ones.

Tahira Abdullah is wrong when she says that these drama scriptwriters produce serials for their “intended urban, low-income and middle-class audiences”. These people want to know about affairs because that is all that happens in their lives. KRQ is just showing us what happens in real life, remember. Pakistani dramas show real life just like how Hollywood and Bollywood also portray what our real lives are about. Tahira Abdullah is wrong when she says Bollywood doesn’t show how we live.

What happens in MPTH only happens in these classes, the audience KRQ knows watches his dramas and who he portrays. Middle class people and the low-income people do not have sex outside their marriages. It is only the spoilt rich people in society, with too much time and money on their hands, who go about doing this stuff. Middle class and low-income people just want to watch it to learn.

And don’t be fooled by the urban setting of the drama. MPTH isn’t just about people who live in cities. This kind of story happens in even the smallest village in Pakistan. It happens to upper-class rich women who have money but are still gold-diggers. It happens to Grade 22 officers who take bribes. All of them take bribes these days. No harm in KRQ showing one honest man.  

And Tahira Abdullah is wrong when she talks about the behind-the-scenes money driving the entire industry. The sponsors, advertisers, directors, producers, media houses that commission the dramas do not influence any part of what comes in a drama. There is no pressure to make the drama a commercial success. True art that speaks to the people will always be a hit.

KRQ is exercising his concept of artistic license that the khooni liberals also use but only when they want, for their “art” films, that no one watches. There is a subtlety to KRQ’s art: Only Aeyza Khan is unfaithful. Shehwar hasn’t been unfaithful.

Quite conveniently, Tahira Abdullah plays a total double standard when she asks this question: “Should our films, plays and drama serials continue to cater to assumed public demands and tastes by such negative, violent, sexist/misogynist, blindly materialist, superficial portrayals of the family and gender relations?”

KRQ didn’t assume anything, lady. He just shows real life.

KRQ and Meray Paas Tum Ho is more successful than any of the dramas that Tahira Abdullah and her NGO circle types say are the dramas we learnt from: Sania Saeed’s Aurat, Udaari, Nijaat, Ehsaas, Farrar, Abba Ammi & Ali, Piyari Bitto. Don’t mention feature films such as Khuda ke Liye, Bol, Manto, and Inteha.

And typical of khooni liberals and foreign-funded NGO types, Tahira Abdullah asks this question: “Or should the entertainment industry now go beyond this, and try to uplift tastes, demands and societal norms, by moving towards the successful entertain-educate-inform model?” Remember the middle and low classes watch KRQ because they want to learn how not to behave like corrupt, sex-crazed gold-digging women and venal officers. They loved the drama because they got moral lessons from it. The millions who watch it, aren’t watching for entertainment. They want to learn how NOT to live their lives.

This opinion piece is satire.