I don’t hate Pakistani dramas — if anything, it’s quite the opposite. I’ve watched them for over a decade, discussed them, dissected them, and reviewed more of them than I can count. They’ve been a familiar comfort, a habit, a cultural constant.
But over the past couple of years, I’ve slowly been cutting down my screen-time — dramas, movies, everything. Part of it was practical. A lot of it was emotional.
After losing someone in the family, I entered a strange, heavy phase where entertainment felt… wrong. Almost like it didn’t belong in the same room as grief. Even when I tried watching something light, it felt jarring — like my mind wasn’t ready to engage. So I quietly stepped away.
And honestly, it helped that most dramas these days either bore me, irritate me, or make me roll my eyes so hard I can practically see my own brain. In 2025 alone, I completed only one drama — and abandoned three halfway through.
Drama I Actually completed in 2025:
2025 Dramas I Stopped Watching For No Apparent Reason:
- Shirin Farhad
- Raaja Rani
- Kabhi Main Kabhi Tum | Episode 5: This one I started to watch after it finished airing, and still couldn’t get past episode 5. Speaks more about my disinterest than the drama or it’s popularity and storyline. This was also one of those dramas that YT shorts shoved in my face until I relented.
At some point I just thought — let’s not do this anymore. Most Pakistani channels are banned here in India anyway, so the universe seemed to agree.
And that’s what I call my breakup phase with Pakistani dramas.
The moment I realised it had become official was when my sister asked me about a Mawra Hocane drama dealing with domestic cousin harassment in Muslim households. I told her, without hesitation:
“I don’t watch dramas anymore. Especially not these. They make me anxious for days… weels… sometimes months.”
And that pretty much sums up my on-again-off-again relationship with Pakistani dramas — a reluctant separation that somehow stretched beyond a year.
- Subscribe to my blog.
- Find my books on Amazon.
- Show some love!
Shabana Mukhtar