Poverty is a universal problem. It has financial as well as psychological effects on the poor who strive all day and sometimes night also to make ends meet. This is why the poor and their behaviors are studied. Since media is a reflection of the society, they are bound to reflect the problems of lower middle class on TV screens.
Ptv plays through the decades also depicted lower middle class through numerous plays which include 'Suraj ke sath sath' a play dealing with the plight of kiln workers, 'Khawish' a play having a central character being monkey show runner and one of my most favourite long plays 'Dhoop Jali' which featured Uzma Gilani and Bindiya as road construction workers.
However, it was only with the advent of private production houses in the country that a new crop of lower middle class dramas surfaced. This trend was started by Khala Kulsum Ka Kunba aired on Ptv. The play written by Faseeh Bari Khan & directed by Syed Atif Hussain saw the famous character of a dark complexioned girl Billo (played by Shagufta Ejaz) fighting with her brothers and later sisters-in-law, her mother and even her aunt in a language unheard of on our tv screens. Not only Billo but the rest of the characters in the play especially females also used bad language.
When hue and cry was raised over the drama, a weak justification was given that characters belonging to such set up and social class use this kind of language. Similar plays such as 'Ooper gori ka makan', 'Pyari Shammo' and 'Ap kee qudsia' were churned out by the same writer-director duo.
Later on, with the arrival of private TV channels in the country, a popular but fading actress of her time Javeria along with her filmstar husband Saud made a drama 'Yeh Zindagi Hai'. The play was written by Fizza Jaffri and directed by Syed Atif Hussain. Its lead character Jameela (played by Javeria) was a bread winner for her family comprising of her mother, her geek brother and her screeching voice holder elder unmarried sister.
This play dealt with the problems of late marriages of girls, preferential treatment given to males in society and again featured bad language though this language was restricted to a few characters in the play only. As these characters got popular, the creative team turned all the characters into maniacs with each one using fowl language and even resorting to physical assaults. With three of the main characters as well as the director leaving the play, the play had no story as such and relied on shouting, fighting and bad language which not only stunned viewers but repelled them also with the passage of time.
The trend was carried on by plays like Tanveer Fatima BA and Mahmoodabad ki malkayain. Tanveer Fatima BA showed a family of laundrymen where a daughter breaks the norm and studies through to earn her BA degree. She's met by resistance by her extended family, her grand mother, aunts and the rest and again a strange language is used by the characters which is unusual. Mahmoodabad ki malkayain dealt with a religious male head of the family and the rebellious nature of girls. It details how the girls flirt right under his nose and one of them even runs away from the house. The plot was wafer thin and rested on petty incidents.
All of these plays showed the characters especially female characters as fighting and screaming with sometimes the yelling hurting the ear drums of us poor audiences. My personal assessment tells me that females of that class mostly work in houses as maids or do other kind of work and do not conveniently sit at home to indulge in such fighting and yelling. There could be a few such cases but the class engulfed in survival problems couldn't have the luxury of resting at home and fighting incessantly.
These people, nomatter how poor, have their dignity and honour and should not be made to appear like maniacs and madmen and women. This projection of the poor as fighting and screaming bunch of people should stop now as children and immature teenagers are also subjected to such fowl language and physical abuse which affects them negatively. If such dramas continue to air on TV, we would see our children speaking the same abusive fowl language and fighting with each other for no reason at all.
The situation is especially alarming since many production houses have considered it a formula for success and their forthcoming play 'Jeena Sikha Do Hamain' shows even worse physical fights and fowl language. About time, someone takes notice and stops them before the lower middle class is further humiliated and our immature audiences subjected to further wrong behaviours and bad language. Till when will we remain silent and let producers mint money thrashing all ethical, moral and societal obligations.
Haseeb Ahmed
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