Volume 4: 2022
Author:
Mahnoor Ghani Sardar
Abstract:
This essay seeks to explore the nature of Pakistani television dramas and their role in shaping the discourse around gender, morality, sexuality in the context of the rise of media in general and new media in particular (social media). It focuses particularly on the blockbuster Meray Paas Tum Ho/I Have You (dir. Nadeem Baig 2019), penned by Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar, due to its recent success and massive popularity across the country. With the proliferation of television dramas addressing a diverse range of social issues, dramas can be agents of social change. This essay adopts an exploratory, paratextual perspective to argue that dramas in Pakistan open avenues for a more complex interaction of various social groups, including actors, drama-makers and audience, who negotiate and navigate their ways through questions of gender, morality and sexuality. This interaction is also shaped by media platforms and online interactions among different social groups which concretize and frame their reception of these dramas.
Keywords
Gender and Drama,Gender and Morality,Paratextual Analysis, Audience Reception, Mere pass tum ho
