Can channels take responsibility? Fans calls out 'Kaisi Teri Khudgarzi' for romanticising abuse

Another day, another Pakistani drama is being called out for its irresponsible glorification of abuse and violence. Kaisi Teri Khudgarzi, a drama serial starring Danish Taimoor and Durefishan Saleem in lead roles, depicts a rather toxic love story that so far offers nothing but the mind-numbing glorification of abuse, a show of power disguised as love.

Shamsher played by Taimoor is romanticised as a love-struck spoiled brat who simply cannot take no for an answer. His obsession with a woman is greater than all and hence, he feels entitled to receive it from Mehak (Saleem). Shamsher goes to all lengths to chase Mehak — so much so that he abducts her fiancé on the day of their wedding. And the worse part of it all? The show does not depict it all as a bad part of society but it justifies his acts and normalises his behaviour by disillusioning it as love for the audience.

However, even for social media users, Kaisi Teri Khudgarzi is nothing but a troublesome plot. They’ve taken to the microblogging site to pointout how such dramas encourage behaviours of the likes of Zahir Jaffer and Sheikh Danish. The drama particularly garnered flak after the news of Khadija Abbas’ abduction went viral after she rejected her friend’s father’s marriage proposal.

“How is drama Kaisi Teri Khudgarzi allowed to be aired? It’s all about abuse, blackmail, abducting a girl and torturing her family to cave in and give her hand to a feudal brat. Girl’s family is emotionally, psychologically and physically tortured by a crazy ‘lover’,” read a tweet by an infuriated user.

Another blamed the drama for the tragic and vile incidents that happen in real life and wrote, “Dramas like Muqaddar and Kaisi Teri Khudgarzi are somehow also responsible for the incidents that happen in our society, you can't change my mind.” They also added the hashtag Justice for Khadija in the tweet.

However, what’s surprising is that only such dramas with problematic storylines generate revenues higher than any other. A user pointed out the same and said that a societal change needs to come otherwise productions and channels only care for money.

“Kaisi Teri Khudgarzi gets millions of views in a few hours, trends on top on YouTube, and gets the highest TRPs. We need societal change for such dramas to end. They are not stopping otherwise because producers and channels are money-hungry. There’s no responsibility in checking.”

Retweeting about what happened to Khadija, a tweep wrote, “What else to expect from a country where dramas like Kaisi Teri Khudgarzi are made, romanticised and go on trending number one?”

Written by Radain Shah and directed by Ahmed Bhatti, the ensemble cast for this drama includes veteran actors Naumaan Ijaz and Atiqa Odho as well. It’s disappointing to see actors endorse such behaviours through their craft and not be aware of its consequences on people’s minds.