Trigger Warning // Mentions of Sexual Abuse
It is heartening to witness how Pakistani dramas this year completely stepped outside of the stereotypical saas-bahu tropes and have now progressed on to discuss diverse and more challenging topics like the way ‘Tann Mann Neel O Neel’ is.
Right from the first episode, the drama left viewers spellbound with how it tackles various issues like a headstrong woman who aspires to become a famous youtuber, a man whose ambition is to become a famous dancer. But most importantly, social media users are applauding how ‘Tann Mann Neel O Neel’ took on an often overlooked and sensitive topic like male sexual assault and explores it in a beautiful manner.
The drama revolves around Rabbi (played by Sehar Khan) an aspiring YouTube content creator who meets Sonu (Shuja Asad) a dancer whose group needs online exposure in order to become more popular.
When the group is set to perform at a wedding one night, their manager Moon is beaten and raped by a mafia lord after he demands that their team is paid before their performance.
‘Tan Man Neel O Neel’ brilliantly unravels the aftermath of the trauma on Moon, with the way he begins to isolate himself from his friends because of how the crime begins to weigh on him. He openly expresses his desires about suicide and self-harm to the point that in episode two he smashes a rock to his foot, declaring that he would never dance again.
Tann Mann Neel O Neel shows that rape has less to do with gender, is more about power
In a time when sexual violence and crime rates seem to keep rising in Pakistan, we are incredibly happy to see how television dramas have begun realising their responsibility towards educating audiences about breaking the stereotype that rape is something that only happens to women because they are seen as the weaker gender. With Moon’s sexual assault, we can understand that rape has more to do with power dynamics, and how a person with more privilege exploits their position to take advantage of someone in a helpless position.
But what makes this drama so exceptional is how it stressed on the message that rape survivors should not resort to silence because of the shame attached to the crime, but instead their loved ones should help them recover and seek out vengeance against the perpetrator. In a scene from episode two, Sonu realises how he had been a bad friend towards Moon because he prioritised his dancing career over his friend and Rabbi urges him to help Moon in realising that the sexual assault was not his fault, but it was on the abuser.
