Jo Bichar Gaye was a stellar show. Here are some possible reasons why it may not have worked.
The year is 2022. Pakistani dramas continue to make and break records in terms of TV ratings and online viewership. Judging by the numbers that many of the mainstream dramas are raking in on a weekly basis, it would be no hyperbole to say that the global interest in Pakistani dramas has never been greater. Yet, the criticism and conversation around the content of Pakistani dramas remains the same – it is not near enough the standard that is being set by dramas being produced internationally.
The State Of Dramas
The predictable storylines that are either hinged on sensationalism or melodrama, the length of the dramas that keeps increasing unnecessarily, the overall presentation of the dramas with repeated visuals, cliched soundtracks, and a style that is just so passé; Pakistani dramas seem to be produced following a set template.
The commercial aspect of drama making has completely overshadowed the fact that drama is foremost a form of art. And art is supposed to be bold, it is supposed to be risky, it is made for the purpose of shaking its intended audience and make them introspect, to show them the truths they are unaware of; art is created for the explicit purpose of bringing a change.
Jo Bichar Gaye – The Plot
The recently concluded 14-episode long drama Jo Bichar Gaye is an astounding reminder to the Pakistani drama industry what drama as an art form is all about.
Directed and produced by Haissam Hussain who made his return to the small screen after six years, Jo Bichar Gaye revolves around the events of the year 1970-1971 that led to the Fall of Dhaka, one of the most gruesome events of modern human history as well as one of the darkest parts of Pakistan’s history since its independence.
Haissam Hussain has weaved his magic and transformed locations in Pakistan into those of East Pakistan in ’70-’71 to tell the rarely ever told Pakistan’s side of story about the events that led to the Fall. And in doing so, Haissam and his team of spectacular artists onscreen and creatives working behind the camera have given the Pakistani drama industry a project that can be proudly boasted as truly the finest that our industry has to offer.
The Commercial Aspect
However, despite the technical finesse of the drama, Jo Bichar Gaye failed to perform commercially. The YouTube views for the drama are abysmally low compared to the brilliant content it provides. The drama also failed to make any mark on the TRP table.
In its 14-week long run, the drama garnered much critical acclaim but it couldn’t make its presence known in the mainstream drama circle.
Who Should Be Blamed?
It is definitely unfortunate, but the question that arises here is this: who should be blamed for the commercial failure of the drama? Should the onus of the drama’s commercial failure fall on the drama itself, or were there other factors that contributed in the drama failing to make a mark commercially?
For starters, Jo Bichar Gaye was not promoted properly by the channel, Geo Entertainment, at all prior to its premiere. The drama went on-air on Sunday, 12th December 2021, and the first teasers for the drama were aired on 8th December, 2021 – just four days before the show’s premiere date.
That is quite unprecedented behavior from a channel like Geo Entertainment that is know to heavily promote all its new projects often weeks in advance. It could be because unlike almost all the other Geo Entertainment dramas, Jo Bichar Gaye was not a 7th Sky Production and was produced under Haissam Hussain’s home banner H2 Films.
Either way, the lack of any initial promotion and buzz around the drama definitely contributed in the show failing to attract attention of the audience in its initial weeks.
The Ensemble Cast
The drama boasts of an incredibly talented ensemble cast including Maya Ali, Wahaj Ali, Nadia Jamil, Adnan Jaffar, Sajid Shah, and Fazal Hussain alongside introducing terrific new talent in the shape of Talha Chahour, Omar Cheema, Rana Majid Khan, Aurangzaib Mirza, Usman Zia, Umer Darr, Zaheer Taj etc.
While Maya Ali and Wahaj Ali are two of the most popular mainstream actors of Pakistan, the rest of the cast is not as known by the regular audience. The fact that almost half of the show’s cast is made up of newcomers also gave the drama a more “parallel cinema” touch.
That is not to say that any of the cast failed to impress in term of acting. Maya Ali has given her career best performance as Sonia. Wahaj Ali completely transformed himself as Rumi and has given a performance that will go down in the actor’s history as being a career-defining role.
Talha Chahour makes his mainstream debut as Captain Farrukh but the man’s screen presence, portrayal of emotions, dialogue delivery – in fact, each and every aspect of his acting is completely on-point; what other actors might take years to accomplish, Talha has done so with just this one project.
Nadia Jamil made the audience laugh out loud and then completely shatter them by her portrayal of Begum Shabnum. Adnan Jaffar is powerful, and Fazal Hussain portrays the naïve innocence that you mourn for. However, these known faces only make up a portion of the entire cast. Despite the gripping performances of the entire cast, it is understandable how a regular member of the audience would feel the urge to switch to dramas with faces that they are familiar with instead of a show that is full of relatively new or unknown faces.
The Subject
The subject of Jo Bichar Gaye is dark. To the show’s credit it hasn’t presented the story in a boring, lecture-style manner. The drama makes use of creative reenactments of actual events as well as show real newspaper clippings, national and international news reports from the time, and where necessary, small explanation from write-ups about certain events of history for the sake of increasing knowledge of the viewers, essentially making Jo Bichar Gaye both an entertaining and informative show.
This is a style of drama making that is completely new for an average Pakistani drama viewer. Jo Bichar Gaye adopts a style of storytelling that is subtle. It doesn’t waste its time and energies into spotlighting every emotion. Rather, it creates the appropriate mood of fear, anxiety, impending doom, destruction knocking on the door; in hints and glimpses, the drama gives the audience a taste of the loss that was the reality of countless of people.
Jo Bichar Gaye doesn’t show death but it makes the audience mourn regardless. It is gripping but it is not the style of typical mainstream melodramatic way of storytelling that the audience has gotten used to due to the repeated offerings by the drama industry.
Jo Bichar Gaye is most definitely a drama that was made to show the Pakistani army in a sympathetic light in the midst of the chaotic time. But unlike the other pro-Pakistani army dramas like the currently airing Sinf e Aahan or Ehd e Wafa, there is no chest thumping patriotism screaming from every frame of the drama. Jo Bichar Gaye has humanized the Pakistani army and like every human being, the army’s weaknesses and messiness is not glossed over. If the army men stationed in East Pakistan were bold and courageous, they were also shown to be powerless when faced with a mighty enemy which cornered them from places they couldn’t control.
They had to fight hidden agents wearing the same uniform as them as well as new enemies that were mightily supported by old enemies. Stories of victory are easy to make and present; Jo Bichar Gaye is a story of loss and that is not an easy pill for many to swallow.
The Verdict
Nevertheless, the factors that made Jo Bichar Gaye not click with the mainstream audience are also the reason why this drama will go down in the history as setting a new benchmark for what it means to make a quality Pakistani drama.
Oftentimes the excuse many Pakistani drama makers give as to why they are unable to come up with new and different kind of content for the audience is the limitation of resources. Jo Bichar Gaye proves that it’s not the resources that limit the makers, it’s the intention. Haissam Hussain and his team have proven a point that there is more than enough talent and natural resources in the country, to aptly tell any kind of story a maker wants to tell without having to rely on outside help. All that it requires is having both the intention and the strength to struggle to search for them without compromise.
It would have been great had Jo Bichar Gaye gotten more vocal support from the industry folks. It definitely would’ve worked in favor of those artists who demand change in the industry’s drama making standards because it is a perfect manifestation of that change. But alas, that didn’t happen.
Regardless, it is not Jo Bichar Gaye and the team involved in its loss. Haissam Hussain called the drama’s audience as “small, but it’s an audience that matters.” It was this audience which promoted the drama when the channel failed to do so by making sure to trend it on Twitter for all 14 weeks of its run. And it will be the show’s audience that will keep reminding any ardent fan of Pakistani dramas to not miss out on a gem like Jo Bichar Gaye. The art of this drama will not be lost to time.
