badedramay

[badedramay]

am very belatedly watching aik sitam aur and finally read up on the usama and anmol mess from the time and oof.. do you think they'd do another drama together? it's such a shame because their chemistry with each other in the show was fantastic and i know they did do that one drama right after but ig that was unavoidable bc they were already filming it. i imagine the incident made things quite awkward between them

so trivia: i actually do NOT know about the Usama Anmol mess that led to their fallout at all 🤣 i think a friend mentioned it a few days ago to me and it made me go, "HuH? really???" cuz it completely passed me by. all i know is that Usama and Anmol were absolutely TERRIFIC as a pairing in ASA. I remember i was quite shocked and bummed out that their next stint in a project didn't have them opposite each other cuz ASA was a hit. a good chuck of PakDrama standom was properly rooting for the couple and loving them. sad..really. itni mushkil se toh koi dhang ki pairing milti hai ab aur phir uska bhi satyanash kardete hain. blaaah.

#aik sitam aur #anmol baloch #usama khan

[badedramay]

Maya was 100% right about these posers passing as critics. She correctly observed that they don't know the R of Reviewing. They don't mention anything in their reviews about the technical aspects of filmmaking or the screenplay. All they talk about are creepy sexual innuendos and "roasting" someone for their english or their fashion sense or whatever. Bohot galti hui us doran Maya ko bura bhala kaha.

well anon, now you know. dair aye, durust aye. honestly, the tragedy with Maya is that she is not exceptional in the art of articulation. except for a few times, she doesn't say things which are incorrect. however, because she doesn't frame those thoughts impeccably, they get ridiculed. Maya had NEVER meant that actors shouldn't be criticized because they put in hard work and efforts. but those words were easy to cut and take out of context so they were cut and taken out of context. if anyone bothered to watch the full interview they'd have known that what she was trying to get at was that criticism should be done in a constructive way that doesn't completely dismiss the hardwork and efforts of the entire cast and crew of a show. ya know it's NOT an impossible feat to achieve. in the same interview she had actually complimented the "critics" for the work they do and how that had made the actors more conscious of the blunders they'd have otherwise disregarded as unimportant. but of course..uss baat pe koi kyun hi focus karta jab troll karna aasaan hai. also..didn't someone else echoed Maya's sentiments a few months after she was trolled for them? that was in response to the trolling done on that review show Kya Drama Hai. tab toh koi halla nahin macha tha.

sigh. it's so tiring being a Maya Ali fan solely because of the hypocrisy people have when it comes to her.

#maya ali

[badedramay]

Maya Ali x Zara Shahjahan فنا

#maya ali #pakfashionedit #pakdramaedit #pakistani actress #pakistani fashion #myedit #type: gif #she truly carries the pinterest desi girl aesthetic on her pretty petite shoulders #wallah her nawabi adaa is just..uff!

[badedramay]

So happy the podcast is back ❤️

#thoda aur bhi response de diya karo #khushi hoti hai aur nayi epi banane ki motivation bhi milti hai

[badedramay]

Itne paise mein itnaich milega~

idek if any of y'all are even with us anymore, but yeh lo, year-end ka ek episode. Kya pata iske baad koi episode mile bhi ya na?!?!?

#mission milaap podcast #so on brand for us to even forget which epi we were on xD #tbh this is one of the funner epis we did #guess we work best when we don't think at all #also any chance to roast TT's viewing choices is always a fun time for me

[badedramay]

yaaaar koi gossip shossip batao. kya chal raha hai aaj kal? so hella outta loop here :(

#dont ask ME what's happening #TELL me what's happening #everytime i switch to itv the paktv completely vanishes from my sight

[badedramay]

sorry to keep coming back here lmaojgkdflhf but i started rewatching (bits and pieces of) mann mayal this past week and like. what a phenomenon. was the plot horrible. yes. did it drive all of us crazy with the melodrama. absolutely. is the fact that it was the note ayesha khan decided to end her career on kind of hysterical. i certainly think so. but something about it was nonetheless so enrapturing. the direction and music production definitely contribute to that but i also think for whatever all of the mess was on top i really was transfixed by mannu's narrative arc. like it was powerful! obv it was easy to get caught up in all of the fine details and chastise mannu for her brashness or stupidity but the point was that she had always had decisions taken for her her entire life. to see a female character so stubborn and possessive about her right to make her own decisions regardless of whatever anyone else with "sense" had to say about them bc her agency was that important to her in a societal context of women's oppression.. it was incredibly liberating! and i hate to bring the fairy tale comparisons back but i think esp in contrast to the latter it was empowering bc post time skip salahuddin was in every aspect The Ideal Guy. he cared about mannu, he bantered with her, he protected her, he was eager to guide her, etc. but that was precisely the problem, bc everything was about his protectiveness over her rather than a respect for her ability to make her own decisions and chart her own life path. to see her refuse to succumb to his will to the very end, the very end! the fact that he had to accept that he could not make her decisions for her and that to be let back into her life again she would have to be absolutely convinced he would respect her agency and desires! just, wow. that final scene in the last episode truly takes my breath away. sameera fazal makes me want to bash my head into a wall with how ridiculous her plots are but i can't lie that i do love the undercurrent themes in a lot of them. it makes me wonder what she'd do with a story if creating melodrama to get views wasn't such a necessity

I've been saying this for YEARS that Mannu was a far stronger character than people gave her credit for. I do blame the direction for literally bahaoing all of Mannu's strengths in the oceans of tears that she was made to shed in every fucking episode. beneath it all, Mannu as a person was just so staunchly protective of her OWN agency that really she can give many characters a masterclass in how to own their destiny. yeah sure, a deeper conversation about whether an agency that is purely masochist an agency worth celebrating can be held here. but there's no denying that Mannu's agency EXISTS. we cannot say the same about so many of the female protagonists. #MannuProtectionSquad!!

I do think Samira Fazal would make a much better short drama writer. Her basic plots are always fun. she just tends to lose the plot when she has to write 30+ episodes of it. which is what happened with Mann Mayal. which is what happens to ANY of her dramas. do you know Shukk? uska bhi yehi haal hua tha. i really enjoyed that drama in its first half and then toh phir toh too much hi hogaya.

Mann Mayal aired at the perfect time which is why the show enjoyed the blockbuster popularity it did. I am thankful it didn't air at the time when armchair "critics" were running their mouths mindlessly criticizing every project on air just to churn out an hour worth of content twice a week. social media trolled and celebrated the drama. Hamza Ali Abbasi was THE darling of the awaam and Maya got to enjoy a peak with Mannu that I am afraid she won't get to enjoy again in any other character. despite all the rubbishness..the show just worked. it didn't bother with giving any social message or sensationalizing for the sake of having a shock value. it was a melodrama, plain and simple, and fully committed itself to the genre. however, years later, the show still contains some moments of sheer brilliance that have not been tainted by time. in fact, I think now is a very good time to go back and watch Mann Mayal with an open mind. with no trolling to distract us or the long wait of a week between episodes to exhaust, and the entirety of the plot easily available on wikipedia to read..Mann Mayal becomes a show that should be watched to appreciate the technical finesse with which it handled some of the show's pivotal moments as well as to finely study the characterization of its very grey protagonists, flaws and virtues all at once.

#mann mayal #for a show that i complained about a lot..i have turned out to be its biggest defender xD

[badedramay]

is there an explanation for why mehwish and humayun have never really gotten a Good story opposite each other. like did they make the transition into lollywood too quickly so now we’re doomed to never see anything really narratively substantive from them. am rewatching dil lagi and it has some flaws as do most dramas that are more than a few years old but it makes me sad bc it feels like their only work opposite each other that actually had something interesting to say. i wish they’d do another drama again i can’t stomach another krq movie 😭

Narratively substantial ab kuch banta hi kahan hai? 🤡

I guess for both Humayun and Mehwish dramas as a medium can no longer "contain" the stature they have built for themselves? Humayun exclusively works with KRQ for the primary reasons that the Humayun-KRQ-Nadeem team are guaranteed hit maker so Humayun can continue having a crazy success streak and also KRQ has mastered how to write the vulnerable macho man who's the biggest victim without compromising on his mardaangi; a kind of character that Humayun knows how to embody very well now in his age. Humayun doesn't need to experiment when he's with KRQ - the writing carries more than half the weight of the project and all he has to do is earnestly act it out; something he knows very well do to.

Mehwish, unfortunately, doesn't seem to have the same kind of dedicated team behind her to provide her the same home level comfort and relaxation of being in a hit project on TV. there's just so many teams and camps on TV now that I guess for older actors it's hard to make new connections with old players. you know how fragile the ego of these starry people are? kya hi pata kab kisi ko kaise annoy kiya ho ke phir kabhi baat hi nahin ki.

Individually, Mehwish and Humayun both used to do good TV back when they there was flourishing content on TV. then TV became too small for them and they ruled the big screen for a while. now switching back to the smaller screen in smaller roles might not be comfortable for them considering how BOTH of them have been part of reputable international projects. ab acha lagega ke Mehwish 7th Sky pe 100 episode dramas kare?? and the kinds of projects Humayun does for TV aren't the ones where Mehwish can fit in. she's too powerful of an actor and a personality to play the women KRQ now writes for TV. it's different in a 3 hour long movie, har haftay kon zaleel hona pasand karega? she's not like Ayeza who'd simply refuse to give an interview talking about her character.

it's sad though. Mehwish is a brilliant performer and she still has SO much to offer. but wohi same rona hai - there's no opportunity to showcase all that because TV in Pakistan in a very weird, divided space. a decade ago thoughtful dramas were the mainstream ones and now there's a clear divide between the "popular" dramas and "good" dramas. audience's reactions have evolved and I get why it could be scary for some actors who have experienced much popularity in the past to dip their toes into this now unknown territory. some of the best of our actors had their brightest days before their due time. and now the spotlight shines on others.

#humayun saeed #mehwish hayat #type: opinion

[badedramay]

Noorpur Ki Rani!

I just saw that HumTV is uploading Noorpur Ki Rani in HD on their youtube channel. I'd most definitely recommend to check the show out. It was my first Haissam Hussain show and I have to admit the me in 2009 was completely enamored by the show. i don't know if it has aged well or not but I can say for sure that visually (and even narratively) the show is so much bolder than the content that gets made in 2023. It's not the most original story whatsoever (Noorie's story is heavily inspired by Anne of Green Gables) but it's a very fun, enjoyable watch especially the Salar-Rania-Anna angle. watch it without spoiling the story for you if you do plan on watching it, that makes it so much more fun!

#drama rec

[badedramay]

I will always hold a soft spot for PSM because it's what got me back into Pakistani dramas. I know it wasn't perfect at all, far from Maya's best work, some extremely stupid writing and acting choices, but it wasn't a TERRIBLE drama either. Like when it was good, some of the scenes were really good and well directed. The cinematography for instance was topnotch and some of the dialogues were amazing. Issy badtar drameys got and continue to get amazing ratings and critically raved.

The worst part of course is that Maya got the short end of the stick with a poorly written character and also the bulk of all the negative criticism. I remember the way people were piling on her back then. I won't say she was faultless because she said yes to the script and she should have absolutely done a few scenes differently. And as the biggest star in the project she will have to bear the brunt of audience feedback, positive or negative. But I feel like the overly harsh reaction really got to her. I loved her PSM-era interviews because she appeared so confident and endearing (and anyone who says she's not well-spoken need to watch those interviews). If you compare her promotional interviews during PSM and then during Yunhi, she seems more guarded, nervous, a bit more jaded and cynical now.

I don't even know if I have an ask per se lol. Just thoughts about how PSM wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be. In fact even Maya wasn't as bad and she had some good scenes in that drama. But the way people remember and describe the drama and her character I think is slightly unfair. And as an aside, epecially love how eloquent and insightful she was in the PSM-era interviews.

The Aslam-Rakhsi love story buildup!!! 😭🤌🏼✨😭

yeah, PSM isn't the worst show ever but the unfortunately for it the many mistakes it made all summed up to make it into a show with much to criticize and less to praise. although the show's themes were completely on point. and relatable as well. it's just stretching that show to 35 episodes when a 22-23 episode narrative at max would've created a far stronger impact is, for many, an unforgivable offense. the show took no time in completely giving up on the "mohabbat" portion of the story and embracing the DRAMA of it all. matlab itna lamba hi kheenchna tha toh they could've built the Aslam-Rakshi story a bit more gently instead of insta-loving the heck out of it? but then again..the insta-love was a theme so eh.

i can understand why PSM's reaction got to Maya. this was her comeback project on TV after years and that too with someone with whom she was personally entangled with in what can only be described as a messy relationship. the overlap of personal and professional, her own health issues, her basically shining the spotlight that should've been completely hers on others because that's just how this woman's heart works, and then the results she got from all that - it makes sense. Rakshi wasn't even a terrible character..just the direction couldn't bring out the character's nuances. the same character being directed by a woman director would've been presented differently. Maya was basically asked to act like a crybaby without fully giving her character the space to process other emotions. crying IS a valid response to the shit Rakshi went through but good god it's not the ONLY one. i am not saying she should've girlbossed through her emotions but not having a single episode where the FL did NOT cry can be an exhausting thing for any audience to endure.

i am just glad it became a learning experience for her and both of her characters following Rakshi have had minimal crying scenes. about time Maya breaks free from that Mannu image of "yeh toh roti hi rehti hai" and does projects with more wholly realized characters. i just hope she does them with a team/co-actors that uplift her rather than rely on pushing her down to elevate themselves.

the comparison of Maya during PSM promotion time vs Yunhi that you bring up is an interesting one and one that, I must admit, i have completely missed out on clocking. what makes you say this? i am curious to know~

#bleh

[badedramay]

No but actually, your assessment of how people lack appreciation for nuances in dramas is so true. It’s not just acting; people can’t appreciate subtleties in writing, either. People always complain of Saas-bahu dramas yet they can’t handle anything besides the overt nature of good Vs evil.

Mein is a good, recent example. Mubashira is — for Pakistani TV standards — a sort of well-written character with bipolar disorder. I say this as someone in the medical field and with family members with BPD. Ayeza has even said mubashira has BPD, but if you read the comments the majority of people are saying Ayeza is “overacting”. Like no bro she’s not overacting (imagine saying Ayeza khan can’t act lolol) she’s having manic episodes, and pretty good ones for PTV standards, but people aren’t willing to appreciate how much work she has put into this character because this character can’t easily be boxed into a category. (To be clear the writing of mubashira isn’t totally flawless like they confused a psychiatrist for a therapist but again it’s the best I’ve seen)

Slightly related but wahaj recently wore a pink Kurta for his MayaPret shoot and the comments under there are filled with demasculinizing wahaj, and this is coming from all genders. Like appreciating nuances are one thing. We have a longgggg way to go if men are still made fun of for wearing pink.

you said it. from what I have observed in terms of how acting is termed by the reviewers as "good" or "bad" very basically falls under the description of, "was it obvious?" even then it has to be obvious at just the right decibel. otherwise it's loud and overacting.

another thing that is often not taken into consideration is how much of a say TPTB have about how a project is executed. i know for a fact that different directors demand different kinds of acting from the actors. some directors specifically WANT the loudness because to them that's how a particular emotion will be best show on screen. some directors go for the subtlety. some want silence to do its job while the actor just occupies the space. and there are cases where the directors are instructed by the channel heads to shoot the project on a certain frequency. no project is made in a vacuum. there are so many decision makers operating behind the doors whose names we don't even know. we only see and react to what we have access to.

khair, acting is an art and while it can be studied and critiqued, there's no set-in-stone parameter by which we can judge its quality. or you can if you really want to but god i am just so tired by life in general to want to get into all that. so, I just stick to the very basic rule for judging an acting performance - did it move me? if yes, then it's a good acting performance. if not then bhale hi uss insaan ko laakhon oscar kyun na mile ho, for me it will never be good. for instance, Iqra Aziz was the best part of Ranjha Ranjha Kardi even if Imran Ashraf continues to make Bhola his entire personality. i won't sit and argue with anyone about it - that's just how my heart works.

AND OMG YES PLS TELL ME ABOUT HOW *FINE* WAHAJ LOOKS IN PINK?!?!?! THE MAN CARRIED THE COLOR BEAUTIFULLY!! SUCH A WELCOME BREAK FROM ALL THE MONOTONY OF BLACK&WHITE!!! FUCK ALL THE HATERS! HE'S A BEAUTIFUL MAN AND THE SOFTNESS OF THAT PINK WITH HIS UNDENIABLE CHARM CREATED AN ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL PICTURE!!! the ones hating on him are only jealous cuz they know they cannot carry the color well.

#bleh

[badedramay]

Lol it’s so funny to read your assessment or topi in yunhi — which I agree with btw. It’s just hilarious because the so-called drama reviewers were all praises for him and said nothing of Maya. Actually, they said her star power got her this role (as if that’s a bad thing???) and she didn’t deserve it. Meanwhile, bilal ashraf is a wooden plank personified. Make it make sense.

at this point I am convinced these so called reviewers wouldn't know a good acting performance even if it hits them in the face. acting goes beyond the script but for them the acting is only good if the writing of the character spells out all the layers of the characters. for them good acting performance is the one which reads off the lines from the script well. khud se koi nuance nahin lana character mein. which is what Maya does; speak the nuances that aren't written on the page with her acting. lekin yeh dekhne walon ki samajh mein aata hai bass. and hamare reviewers toh waise hi ankh ke andhay hain.

#bleh

[badedramay]

yoona was okay in exit with jo jeongsuk but other than that her only performance that's really stood out to me was hush (which is the 2018 performance i referred to lol). it's one of the rare dramas where she had no romance whatsoever and i think that benefited her a lot. not that starring in romances in bad but with the particular archetype she embodies every time of the pure innocent girl who has never done anything wrong ever it gets a bit eye roll worthy. like do something different! challenge yourself rather than simply taking on roles bc you're popular and broadcast stations love you! that's how i feel about mahira too sometimes although obv she's at least somewhat more memorable than yoona lol. but she doesn't seem to challenge herself much either and yeah ig we know why but also when you have all of that opportunity at your fingertips.. why not! i feel like regardless of whatever role she plays all i see is the same performance over and over and over

doesn't this steer the conversation to the question of "are actors lazy for not doing more challenging roles or they aren't being offered challenging roles to begin with?" i know in South Korea even the most veteran of actors complain about how typecasting is a real thing regardless of how well accomplished the actors are. like the senior actors will be only offered thriller dramas and not romcoms. the popular young actors are more likely to get romcoms than do serious stuff. same goes in Pakistan. apart from a few, not even a handful, of actors everyone else is more or less resigned to take on characters out of necessity of doing a job than following true passion. aisa kuch banta hi nahin hai jis pe jaan lagayi jaye.

if an actor is giving the same performance again and again then that's a testament of the limitation of their skills tbh. there's no conspiracy in place here. no stars have to align in one particular arrangement for them to magically give a different performance especially if they've been active as an actor for many years.

#bleh

[badedramay]

i feel like sherry and bilal have different issues. sherry's not outright terrible but he doesn't bring anything particularly unique to the table, so he ends up appearing lackluster against the male leads he co-stars with, be it fawad, adeel, bilal abbas. bilal in comparison reminds me of yoona. someone who's so content to allow themselves to be typecasted when it comes to roles bc then at least the roles are coming in, that they never really allow themselves to grow. yoona's been acting for a long time but i wasn't really compelled by one of her performances until 2018 bc the role demanded something different of her. bilal needs to actively go out of the box and push to do something where it isn't simply his job to be the obedient first born and then maybe he'll develop (and i say this while admitting his performance in yunhi was sweet! but i think that credit is largely owed to the production on the drama and ehteshamuddin's direction more than anything else)

yeah, when you put Sherry next to better actors it's hard for him to particularly shine. but that doesn't mean when he has the center stage in projects he's solo leading that he doesn't try to bring something to the table. both PHL and PSM, two projects that favored his characters the most, had him deliver various shades of his characters and to his credit he tried his BEST to bring variation to them. could he have done a better job (or could a better actor performed the characters better)? heck yeah. but i personally at least wasn't put off by his performances because of how monotonous he was where I couldn't different his one emotion from the other.

which isn't something I can say of Topi. the man doesn't even TRY! he literally just stands there 🙍🏼‍♂️. I remember how fucking awful he was in Janaan especially next to Ali Rehman who brought such life to the screen. Topi thinks a slight tilt up of the lips is romance and the furrowing of the brow shows intensity and baqi full range of human emotion ka kyaaa hi karna hai woh toh 😐 hi dikha sakte hain cuz serious character. like??? any sweetness that Dawood had was solely because the character was written so wonderfully and written particularly to match what 1 strength that Topi has that is his seriously blank face. this very same character in the hands of someone capable of bringing even 10% nuance to the screen with their character would've made both the character and the story of Kim&Dawood much more engaging and memorable. the fact that Topi himself wasn't interested in exploring the character more (Maya admitted to him being so lazy with remembering his dialogues that he shortened monologues to just a few lines and had to be forced to spend time on them because the dialogues were where the magic was happening) just makes me loathe him that much more as an actor. like what even are you doing here?! who brought you here?! HOW DO YOU KEEP GETTING PROJECTS????? i really really REALLY do not want to see any more of him and it's my tragedy that i will be, yet again, subjected to his blank face in the future!!

funny you should bring up Yoona because she has never managed to impress me either. i wouldn't call her awful, there are far worse idol-turned-actors than her in the market, but she has never made mark as well. but i admit i haven't seen her movies and just a few roles she's done in dramas. maybe she is better on the big screen but on TV Yoona's presence or absence makes no difference.

#bleh

[badedramay]

I waver between whether I wish Maya had a fandom that stood up for her more and got her trending more often Vs reveling in the low key fandom that she does have.

lol, personally i see no pros of being in a low-key fandom. i have realized that bigger the fandom, the better. even if it comes with its set of toxicity and stupidity. the numbers really matter. Maya could've done more wonders had she the numbers on her side.

#bleh

[badedramay]

“Sherry is still living in the Shakar Wanda days” is sending me yooooo. It’s so true tho 😭😭

Sheheryar is the literal definition of “mid” who somehow lucked out despite having no charisma or talent or screen presence to be featured in a couple of films with bigger stars. Even despite being given all these opportunities to work with the best actresses we have, he gives us nothing but “ehhh” performances in return, and this is despite his mentorship under Asim Raza.

I don’t think an actor’s professional abilities should define their personal worth but bruh sometimes when I see just *how* mid he is, I am embarrassed I ever shipped him with maya. For all his flaws I legit think topi is a better actor.

see anon you had me until the very last sentence. and just based on that one sentence i cannot take any thing else seriously. i'd have agreed with your assessment of Sherry being a mid actor because yeah, there is some truth to that. but is he so far gone that Topi is a BETTER actor than him? nah. NAAAAAAH. bash him all you want but at least keep it grounded in plausible realities. and no version of reality in at least this timeline makes Topi a "better actor" than Sherry.

#hate karen dil khol ke karen lekin pls meri intelligence of aise insult toh na karen. #sherry is at least a 'mid' actor #topi is a non-actor #comparison ke grounds hi nahin bante.

[badedramay]

Sheheryar admitting that he and Mahira fight over who to be Asim Raza’s favorite is not the flex he thinks it is. Why are you fighting to be a mediocre man’s favorite?

Well, maybe it’s because Sheru is less-than-mediocre himself. I feel bad for Mahira at times that such a talented woman has to work for crappy directors like Asim Raza due to the limited supply of good DOPs in Pakistan, but my sympathy only goes so far if she’s actually vying to be his fave.

Asim is one of the most laughably bad storytellers I’ve seen in film; sherry isn’t even a has been—he’s a never been. MK is good and all, so I hope she gets the opportunity to work with better people in the future.

damn anon..you came with your claws sharp 🤣

Mahira is bigger than most of the industry but also not talented enough to be able to work with the best of the industry, ya know what i'm saying? besides, her relationship with Asim goes way back and it's more familial than professional. Asim's camp is some of the most narcissistic and incestuous bunch so I guess she fits right in there with them alongside Sherry. pretty sure Sherry is still living in the Shakar Wanda glory days and equates Asim's successful songs and tvcs to him being the best director of the industry (god i am embarrassed of how my love for maya/saniyar had me defending that mediocre af PHL) but again..since these particular stars live in their own delusional world so ab inhen kon hi samjhaye. khush rahen apne kharchay pe.

#bleh