All that glitters is not gold. HUM TV’s magnum opus drama serial, Aangan has been a victim of supreme overconfidence. The period drama created quite a buzz, thanks to the union of stars like Ahad Raza Mir, Sajal Aly, Mawra Hocane, Sonya Hussain, Ahsan Khan and the list goes on and on. All eyes were on this one and people expected magic.
What went wrong?
There was a time when drama serials were an artistic endeavor. Sadly, the marketing magnitude has become bigger than the content itself. With countless BTS images, teasers, and buzz, HUM TV has clearly gone overboard with this one.
The local and international audience prefer watching drama serials online uninterrupted with TV commercials and most importantly, as per their convenience. And by online, we mean on YouTube.
What’s different with Aangan is that the show is not available on a free platform like YouTube, all thanks to HUM TV’s new policy, and honestly, the show is loosing its buzz.
Talking to Galaxy Lollywood on the subject, Minhas Saghir (PR Manager, HUM TV) said that the show will soon be available on a digital platform like Netflix or Iflix within a week. But it’s been about three weeks since then and there are still no signs of that happening.
The Problem
Although the future of visual entertainment does lie in platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime, the problem with that right now is that not many who can be classified as Aangan’s audience are willing to pay more than their internet service or cable charges to watch the show.
This has resulted in a buzzkill, as the show is failing to make it to pop-cultures like memes and vines. If you recall, Mahira’s “Mummy aap ye kya keh rahee hain” scene becoming a social media joke played a crucial hand in introducing the show to many who wouldn’t even have bothered otherwise. With Aangan, that’s missing.
Besides the show loosing its buzz, the biggest problem with it is that it is also loosing it in terms of its entertainment value. At least that’s what our findings says. In a small research on the feedback over the show, this is what we have received.
The bad: The biggest down we got to hear about the show is its pace (or lack there of). Moreover, in terms of the story rolling itself, the first two episodes barely took the story forward and all of a sudden some major characters ended up in the third episode.
What’s good: The director has depicted the pre-partition era with perfection, followed by top notch performances. The play is beautiful to look at, and although it’s too early to give a final verdict about it, it still has a lot more to offer.
