Open Thread: Pakistan’s Demons are The Daughters of God

Q writes on Pakistani source confirms US, Iran closing in on one-page memo to end war:

  1. Total Pakistani victory. If Pakistan pulls off the mediation, this will its greatest diplomatic victory ever. Lifting of Iranian sanctions will allow cheaper Iranian oil to flow directly to Pakistan, and the oil pipeline can be finally completed. Complete eradication of Indian influence from Iran is now achieved, and this will also eliminate any support to BLA from across the border.

Pakistan post Sindoor is on a winning streak. The mediation is real, the memo is real, and if it holds, the diplomatic ledger for the year goes firmly into Rawalpindi’s column. Iranian oil at the door, IP pipeline thinkable for the first time in fifteen years, BLA lifelines into Sistan throttled, Chabahar quietly demoted. A Victorious month?

But the question is whether she can conquer her demons. And the demons are not in the foreign ministry. They are in the drama studios.

Q again, on Pakistani dramas:

Women low-key love abusive behaviour from attractive men. Pretty much all women fantasy porn is about this. (What they don’t love is abusive aggressive behaviour from ugly or poor men) Since females are the primary target audience of these dramas, they tend to show this because that’s what the market demands. I would not read too much into this. What’s more concering was that foreign funded NGOs were trying implement anti-family messaging in the last 15 years – and that messaging has suddenly dried up after their funding dried up.

Fantasy is not preference. A woman reading a brooding-billionaire romance is not auditioning for one. To collapse the two is to flatten the female imagination into a market signal, which is exactly what the Pakistani dramas do and exactly why they rot the culture that consumes them.

Daughters of God Continue reading Open Thread: Pakistan’s Demons are The Daughters of God

Indians and Pakistani dramas

Recently, BB made a comment claiming that Indians don’t watch Pakistani dramas while Pakistanis are very familiar with Bollywood.  While it is certainly true that Indian media has greater penetration in Pakistan than Pakistani media does in India–which is only to be expected since Bollywood is a much larger industry– it is also a fact that there are many fans of Pakistani dramas in India.  As I pointed out in a comment, Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan became well-known in India after the success of Humsafar.  Sanam Saeed also became well-known after Zindagi Gulzar Hai (in which she starred opposite Fawad Khan) aired on Indian TV.  While the film industry in Pakistan has struggled for many reasons, our drama industry is going strong.  One point to note is that unlike Indian soap operas, Pakistani dramas generally come to an end after twenty five or thirty episodes.   This means that there is no need to keep a story going by having people return from the dead etc–this is not specific to Indian soaps since American soaps are also like this.

I personally don’t watch Pakistani dramas (I don’t really watch TV and what media I do consume tends to be Western).  I think the last Pakistani drama I watched was Barzakh which also starred Fawad and Sanam and was coincidentally made for an Indian streaming service (ZEE Zindagi).

Anyway, I came across this reel today on IG which is called “Indians after watching a Pakistani drama” and I thought I’d share it here.   This is basically light entertainment but it does prove that there is an audience in India for Pakistani content. Presumably, the user didn’t make this video just for the Pakistani audience.

I am of the opinion that art transcends national borders so there is nothing wrong with this.  Just as Pakistanis are fans of Lata Mangeskhar, Asha Bhosle and Muhammad Rafi, Indians are fans of Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan etc.  Though the two countries obviously have political tensions–both see each other as hostile states– we do share a common culture and there is nothing wrong in acknowledging that fact.

 

 

“Bad Gays: Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah” (Kabir’s Open Thread)

This is not exactly current events but in the spirit of discussing Indian History:

The podcast “Bad Gays” which defines itself as a “podcast about evil and complicated queers in history” did an episode a while back about Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah, who was the son of Alauddin Khalji (of “Padmavat” fame).  IIRC, this was the only time the podcast has featured a South Asian figure.

They also have a book called Bad Gays: A Homosexual History (Verso 2022).

On Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah, they write: Continue reading “Bad Gays: Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah” (Kabir’s Open Thread)

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