I will be blunt here: I didn’t like the theme of Sanjha from what I saw in the promos and read online. I immediately placed it in the category of Khamoshiyan and Manay Na Yeh Dil (first part) and decided I would not watch it – purely because it made me feel kind of sick. In fact, I remember the only drama I watched which had anything remotely to do with red light areas was Sultana Siddiqui’s Woh Kaun Hai on PTV; I must admit it was handled so discreetly that my entire family watched it together without any reservations.
In any case, Sanjha is the story of a village girl who is sold into prostitution. So far, the direction and sets of this drama as well as the acting of Sanjha’s elder sister and brother-in-law, played by Sabreen Hisbani and Rehan Sheikh, are the only positive things to speak of.
The rest, unfortunately, is rather depressing. The way the brother-in-law connives with his friend and sells Sanjha, tricking her that she will be going into the city to work as a maid and will be able to live the good life was heart-wrenching. I don’t think I can watch it beyond one episode (sorry, Samira ji).
However, there is one point I would like to make with regard to the theme: I strongly feel that our audience is not mature enough to handle the portrayal of issues such as these. Women trafficking, prostitution and extra marital affairs are three themes which the audience will almost always misread (with the exceptions of a very few educated, mature individuals).
A very small example: when I watched Manay Na Yeh Dil, I vowed to myself I would not be the kind of wife Nadya Hussain was portraying. But did everyone think that way? Of course not. My classmates remarked: “Excellent. Now men know where to go and what to do if they are trapped in unsatisfactory arranged marriages.” That is precisely the problem: with a very few exception, most viewers will simply see themselves as the “victim spouse” rather than “blameworthy spouse”. They simply will not realize their own role in a marriage and will use these portrayals to justify their own infidelity.
Same goes for the portrayal of selling women. Kash Mein Teri Beti Na Hoti on GEO and Akhri Barish on HUM both centre on this theme of prostitution/selling women. It depresses me. This is the kind of stuff I know exists but I would rather that something concrete was done to help these women, rather than make dramas on them. Everyone knows the existence of such women and their problem so why visualize it? Sadly, even though the drama will go on to discuss women’s rights, there are viewers who are comparing it to Akhri Barish already, which is a tad unfair.
Overall, I do request Samira ji to focus more upon classical Urdu novels and adapt them for the screen rather than go for such themes or Danielle Steel novels. I look forward to more plays like Dastaan, Mera Naseeb and Kuch Pyar Ka Pagalpan.
Written by HA aka Drama Buff
