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Accept the Slap but Censor the Hug: TV Outrage

In the world of social psychology, there is a concept known as the “threshold of tolerance.” It’s the invisible line that...

Men Age Into Legends. Women Age Into Punchlines

Ageism and misogyny do not announce themselves as villains. They arrive smiling, joking, framed as banter. This week, we...

The Mother: A devastating family drama about being unseen

There are no villains in Usama Khan’s “The Mother”, only a slow suffocating absence. Absence of attention, of purpose, of...

Beyond the Call: How to Kill Your Dreams

Beyond the Call is an anti-motivational tale about choosing a steady pay-check over passion. Teeli’s four-part corporate...

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Kuttay (Rated 18+): Theatre That Bites Back

I thought of walking out of Kuttay: The Ones Who Don’t Bite at several points, a few people actually did. Not because the play was bad, but because it was so uncomfortable to watch. For those who stayed, it was worth it. Good art needs to shake us a little. Director Muhammad Ali uses absurdism and chaos...

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Who gets to be a Pakistani drama critic?

“Culture Critic” has always felt like a misnomer to me. The word suggests someone hovering at the edges, judging from a distance, poking holes in another’s work. In Pakistan, Kya Drama Hai, Instagram reviewers, and serious critics now coexist uneasily. Entertainment and critique collide and overlap –...

Opinions Streaming Platforms

Is Pakistan Ready to Cut the Cable Cord?

The way Pakistanis watch content is changing fast. With smartphones in nearly every hand and affordable internet bundles from telecoms, digital platforms are beginning to replace traditional cable in some urban homes. Viewers no longer wait for prime-time slots; instead they stream sports matches live,...

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The Performative Male Meets Lahori Machismo

The “Performative Male Contest” began as satire on American campuses, mocking men who deploy feminist aesthetics to appeal to progressive women. Viral clips from New York, Chicago, and Ivy League universities showed contestants showing off Clairo vinyls, wired earbuds, thrifted button-ups, long jorts,...

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Pakistan's AI Reporters Aren't What Journalism Needs

The launch of Pakistan Today English News, billed as the world’s first fully AI-powered English-language channel, has ignited debate in Pakistan’s already embattled media industry. Is this a bold step toward efficiency and global reach or a shortcut that sidelines human journalists in favour of avatars...

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Blender: The Smartest Show on TV?

Is this the smartest show on TV? Blender. Hosted by Fahad Bombaywala, Executive Director at 365 and alum of M&C Saatchi and Ogilvy, Blender looks nothing like mainstream Pakistani TV. It sounds smart, feels sharp and refuses to play dumb. It treats the audience as if they’re already insiders. At...

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Confessions of a Chronically Online Pakistani Woman

I live on the internet. Not just on it, but in it, like a fish in plastic-choked water, inhaling memes instead of air. It wasn’t always this bleak. The internet once felt like refuge, a parallel world that softened the suffocation of the offline one. Sharing silly memes was rebellion in miniature, an...

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Between Dramas and Discos: Pakistan Holds Many Worlds

For those who view Pakistan through a narrow lens, the country is imagined as a stage for endless morality plays. In mainstream dramas like Humsafar or Khiṭāb, morality is pitted against desire, female agency is checked at every turn, and middle-class values dominate the script. It’s a lens that freezes...

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Queer Visibility as Defiance: The Stakes of Pakistan’s Culture Wars

For centuries colonial and nationalist projects have painted Muslims as either hyper-conservative or exotically oppressed. Queer Muslims disrupt both of these images. Their stories are ones where faith, identity, and desire collide in ways that colonial histories, patriarchal traditions, and global pop...

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Was Sabeen Hijacked by Hate Again?

The moral outrage over Parwarish began the way most internet scandals do: with one screenshot. One frame, shared a thousand times over. A blink-and-you-miss-it second in ARY’s hit family drama Parwarish The scene that became the centre of controversy was one where the protagonist Wali records a song...

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Decoding Primetime Hegemony: Who Is the Default Pakistani?

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