From Malala’s opinions to 'Midsummer Chaos': Everything we argued over in 2021

Here's presenting the six most irksome controversies that took over our feeds this year.

KARACHI:

Like every year, 2021 has also been marred with controversies and conversations stemming from global political shifts, growing radicalisation, religious extremism, Kangana Ranaut’s epiphanies, and in a first, two restaurateurs’ recipe for disaster and a teenager’s midsummer madness.

But most importantly, it has been a year of spiritual awakening, unlike Feroze Khan’s, and we are here to revisit the lessons we learnt, or gave, in the form of the most talked about confrontations Twitter and celebrities partook in the past months.

Thus, if you are interested in finding out about the seven most irksome non-gossip, gossips that took over our feeds when they first surfaced, follow through.

Recipe for disaster

The year kicked off with a controversial video of a high-end eatery’s owners in Islamabad, giving a dressing down to their manager for his lack of proficiency in English. The footage became the talk of the town and was ironically shared by the two restaurateurs.

A video purportedly showing the owners of a high-end restaurant in Islamabad giving a dressing down to the manager of the establishment for his inability to speak in #English has gone #viral. pic.twitter.com/rgS7ibk1pf

— The Express Tribune (@etribune) January 20, 2021

The backlash was followed by a backhanded apology that reeked of arrogance and ignorance, making things worse. The ‘clarification’ emphasised ‘sadness’ of the owners over the reaction of the people and called the tasteless mocking, “misconstrued gup shup (banter).” But had that been the case, the viewers would have witnessed the amusement of the manager too, instead, he was visibly embarrassed in the clip.

On top of that, the owners felt compelled to make mention of the ‘very good’ salary they pay this man. Mind you, no amount of salary paid gives an employer the emancipation to humiliate their employee.

Malala’s take on marriage

Since jumping to conclusions is our national sport, Malala’s earlier remarks on marriage had to make it to the list. After the noble peace prize laureate graduated and made it to Vogue’s cover, she also made headlines back home for her harmless wonderings about the ‘need’ to get married.

Malala's biggest fear is failing voiceless girls who are married off to older men

“Why can’t it be a partnership?” she had inquired, drawing a slew of criticism and needless hullabaloo. Even actor Feroze went as far as sharing her cover on his Instagram with the caption, “Malala the puppet.” The post has now been deleted or archived.

Mathira, too, shared her two cents.

And now that the author of I Am Malala is married, providing a detailed explanation about her earlier remarks to Vogue in another interview, she said her concerns only stemmed from the stories she heard from girls who had been forced into abusive marriages.

Midsummer madness

Midsummer Chaos, a show that stood true to its name, has to be the hottest take of the year, considering the conversations surrounding it just kept growing. At a first glance, it looked like a parody of a group of teenagers from Islamabad’s affluent social class and their first-world problems. But as their intolerable accents were accentuated through their pretentious mannerism, these teenagers became more and more annoying whilst the show propelled into utter confusion.

im late to the party but i just watched midsummer chaos and believe me it was worth wasting my time on like no plot no direction no ending and bad acting what was that even 😫

— . (@pakitalks) December 20, 2021

In a nutshell, Midsummer Chaos started being discussed like a national crisis, for what could best be described as organised cringe and not a comedy. Mind you, it did not feature homemade videos of white women throwing a pizza in a blender, it was in fact, a complete show displaying teenage angst at its finest. It came out of nowhere and got everyone talking, just like Taher Shah’s songs, whose catalogue wouldn’t have been this funny either if he didn't take it so seriously.

According to its writer and director, Ahmed Sarym, the show did not intend to be funny – with the exception of a few comic elements – but it was intentionally superficial.

Feroze Khan’s Nazi fever

In a political climate as tense as it was earlier this year, the Israeli oppression of Palestine led to a furious exchange of arguments and opinions from celebrities worldwide. While the likes of Bella Hadid and Roger Waters supported Palestine openly, calling out Israel, Feroze took his crusade a tad bit further and went on to openly support Hitler and the Nazi ideology.

The Ishqiya star posted a picture of the genocidal maniac with a caption supporting the Holocaust on his Instagram stories, which was later deleted, owing to the backlash. It also highlighted the number of Pakistanis who hold similar views and reeked of antisemitism.

For the record

In 2021, one would expect artists to have gained their fair share of knowledge over copyright and publishing laws around the world. Pakistani artists still seem to be lacking in that regard. However, it is completely unexpected when an artist of Ali Sethi’s stature is accused of stealing.

This year also saw Sethi’s followers turn against him after visual artist Ali Hyder accused him of using his artwork for his single without his permission. The accusation was backed by a screenshot of a tweet from 2018, where Hyder tagged Ali and Mira Sethi to show off the artwork he made out of love for Chan Kithan. In response to the allegations, Sethi said the artist never reached out to him. He also claimed Hyder had been credited at the time of release but could not be located. The singer removed the artwork following the backlash.

Last month, singer Haroon Shahid also failed to credit a fan for an edit they made and when confronted, he went on to argue without accepting his mistake and eventually, refused to credit them altogether.

Using my song, stealing ARY's visuals and making a an edit is worse! What you on about stinker!

— Haroon Shahid (@Haroon_5hahid) November 19, 2021

No land for musicians

Religious extremism has also been at an all-time high this year. Faraz Anwar found himself in a similar disposition in September when seeking out a house to rent for himself and his family. After being refused a place of his liking because of his profession, the ace guitarist touched upon the several forms of discriminations musicians face in Pakistan, among which, is the sad reality of banks failing to acknowledge music as a full-time profession and in turn, refusing artists the right to open their own bank accounts. He also pointed out how musicians can’t even call themselves musicians on their national ID cards.

But instead of listening to his grievances, many called out Faraz for ‘maligning Pakistan’s image’ by making ‘noise’ about a ‘non-issue’. Urging that something needed to be done about the ‘kafir’ tag used against musicians, Faraz shed light on the cognitive dissonance that strum him, in a conversation with The Express Tribune. “When I meet my Indian fans, they touch my feet but Pakistanis call us 'kanjar, mirasi' while listening to Indian songs,” he remarked.

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