Pakistani television shows have undergone drastic changes during the last few years. This has led to a redefinition of the term 'hero' in more ways than expected. There have been some unconventional male leads that have captivated our hearts and a handful of others who have exhibited toxic behavior and have been a reflection of everything that’s wrong in our society. The only good thing we have learnt from these negative roles is how to spot and then stay away from such men! Unfortunately, these toxic male characters continue to be glorified initially in our dramas, and the audience showers them with all the love and appreciation, which further worsens the situation. These characters are portrayed as normal or ideal men instead of acknowledging their negativity and toxicity. The leading ladies fawn over them, while their mothers put them on a pedestal, singing praises for their ‘golden boy’ who is better than everyone else. There’s usually a female cousin or a relative who secretly pines for him while our ‘hero’ has eyes for no one but the demure, trembling, petite damsel who he wants to have for himself and will go to any lengths to accomplish that.

What’s worse is these characters continue to be created and portrayed by leading actors of our country because the audience exalts them to a high status and deems their characters desirable. Sadly most of the  female section of the audience goes breathless over their good looks, while the men get inspired to be like them. Luckily, there is still a section of the society that calls a spade a spade and dismisses them as nothing but a walking, talking red flag.

Here are a few lead characters from the recently concluded and currently on going shows that need to be put in an institution, or seriously be reprimanded for their problematic actions.

Faisal Qureshi in Zulm / Khae

Faisal Qureshi needs no introduction. He has been gracing our television screens for more than two decades and has a roster of memorable characters. But of late, he has focused on being a part of projects where he essays roles that are downright toxic and problematic. His character Malik Ajlal’s introductory scene in Zulm sees him throwing a man off a yacht and shooting him. He steps on the hands of his domestic help, who bumped into him and spilled water over his clothes until his hand began to bleed. He physically abuses his secret wife and has eyes for his sister’s friend, Eesha, who is probably twenty years younger than him. Malik Ajlal is rich beyond compare and does as he pleases with the power at his disposal. Another such role he is playing in the drama Khae- where he is a ‘sardar’ who is merciless and his evils know no bounds. However, Faisal Qureshi’s powerful acting in each of his projects has left us in awe!

Danish Taimoor in Rah-e-Junoon

Danish Taimoor is one of the most popular actors of the Pakistani entertainment industry. Once known for his likable small-town roles, he has off late resolved to playing toxic problematic characters that are portrayed as rich alpha men who don’t care about the repercussions of their actions as long as they get the girl. He plays Shabraiz, a recovering drug addict in Rah-e-Junoon with self-confessed anger issues. He falls for Meher, a girl belonging to a modest family, and all hell breaks loose. In the first episode, he goes to Meher’s university and beats up a guy for misbehaving with her. He has no respect for his parents and threatens to burn the house down if his family won’t take his marriage proposal to Meher’s house. His other controversial characters were Shamsher in Kesi Teri Khudgarzi and Sultan Durrani in Deewangi. Ignoring the characters- we surely love how impeccably Danish Taimoor works hard for his projects. 

Wahaj Ali in Tere Bin 

Wahaj Ali started off with your regular “boy-next-door” roles but soon progressed to headlining projects whose leading men had quite a bit of negative aspects. However, he took things way too far when he signed Tere Bin. He portrayed the character of Murtasim, a feudal who is insanely rich but gets married to a girl who is poles apart from him due to family commitments. Described as the quintessential and desirable angry young man, the character has major ego and temperamental issues. He is rude, abusive, and at one point, it is implied he even commits marital rape, though it is never explicitly clarified.

These are just a few examples from the several characters portrayed in our television shows that are a reflection of the worst traits of a man that everyone should strive to filter out from their systems. No matter how we all love them or how karma fixes these characters later in dramas, we urge production houses and writers to understand the enormity of the situation and the platform that they have and come up with characters that have a few redeemable qualities which is honestly the bare minimum thing they can do for the society at this point.