Is Hum Tum breaking stereotypes through its captivating story?

Hum tum is one of the Ramzan drama serials that was aired this year. It immediately took viewers’ attention not just because of its star cast but for being much more than a just comedy-related serial. It highlights several sensitive issues that are related to our society but in a very light-hearted way that the audience loved about the serial. Hum Tum has brought fresh delicacy to our dramas. It has shown so many positive plots that broke our orthodox society’s stereotypes, so let’s just find out what Hum Tum has cooked differently.

·         The Cast and Crew:

The star cast of Hum Tum includes renowned names like Ahad Raza Mir, Junaid Khan, Ramsha Khan, Sarah Khan, Uzma Baig, Adnan Jaffar, Aina Asif, Arjumand Rahim, Munnazah Arif, Farhan Ali Agha, and Syed Muhammad Ahmed. Being Momina Duraid’s production, Hum Tum is written by the monarch of Ramzan drama serials Saima Ikram Chaudhary and directed by the very well-known director Danish Nawaz.

·        The story (plot):

The story revolves around mainly two families who are neighbors. One is the Qutub Mehal which is owned and run by Prof. Qutubuddin (Adnan Jaffer) a strict chemistry teacher. on the other hand, The Sultan House is headed by Sultan (Farhan Ali Agha) a jobless and habitual gambler. Prof. Qutubuddin has three daughters: Maha (Sarah Khan), Neha (Ramsha Khan), and Sasha (Anoosheh Rania Khan) while Sultan is the father of two sons Sarmad (Junaid Khan) and Adam (Ahad Mir).

Adam and Neha are students of Prof. Qutubuddin and have extremely opposite personalities. Both are shown fighting with each other all the time. Despite fighting with each other Adam always supports Neha in front of her father and this shows that both will develop good chemistry over some time. The second couple in the drama shown is chef Sarmad and diet-conscious girl Maha. Sarmad likes Maha who is unknown of this. The story portrays that the two will finally fall for one another but when and how this is very interesting to watch.

·        What has been done differently?

Writing a comedy serial and then executing it accurately while highlighting the sensitive issues and topics is not an easy job but Saima Ikram Chaudhary and Danish Nawaz has no doubt surpassed their job by doing extreme justice to the play. Following are the most crisped and delicate topics of the drama that took our eye making the drama a whole lot more interesting and unique:

1.      Breaking gender stereotypes:

The drama has shown a kind of role reversal where all three girls are extremely self-reliant and ambitious. Maha is studious, Sasha is a computer geek acing in the art of hacking accounts, and Neha is extremely independent and even runs a Vespa scooter. In contrast to the girls, surprisingly the boys in the drama are shown as experts in household chores. Sarmad loves cooking food and feeding his friends, family, and neighbors. Adam is outstanding at looking after his home and keeping it clean, neat, and tidy. Despite of this Adam is also a genius student and Sarmad owns a restaurant. This shows that it’s extremely normal for boys to do home chores while doing their jobs just like the girls do.

2.      Sharing a beautiful bond with siblings:

In a time when showing sibling rivalries in Pakistani dramas has become so common, almost every second drama we see a plot where the sister is ready to take the love interest or even the husband of her sister, Hum Tum has come up with the enchanting bonds that the siblings share in the drama. All three sisters Maha, Neha, and Sasha always stand for each other however the typical bickering of sisters remains there. Similarly, both the boys of the Sultan’s house love their younger sister a lot. It is admirable to see that Adam (Ahad Mir) does math homework for her younger sister, motivates her to learn martial arts, and even combs her hair with love.

3.      Addressing the issues like divorce and preference for sons over daughters:

One of the great aspects of Hum Tum drama is that unlike other comedy serials the focus is not just on the comedy rather it has addressed some of the major issues of our society. It is shown in the drama that Maha, the eldest daughter of Prof. Qutubuddin, was married to a greedy boy and the marriage was nullified. However, nobody from her family and neighbors blames Maha for this nor do they make fun of this happening. Sarmad knows all about this marriage but still likes Maha which is also very pleasing to watch. The writer has also given a lesson to the people who prefer sons over daughters. Neha vehemently believes that her mother should not be cursed or blamed for giving birth to three daughters. For the first time, the primetime drama has mentioned the XY chromosome logic to settle an argument.

4      What could be better?

Even though Hum Tum has broken so many stereotypes of our orthodox society still some of the notions were not changed for instance the mother of three studious and ambitious daughters, Ulfat (Arjumand Rahim) has shown as an unorganized and unqualified homemaker so are her daughters. This again reemphasizes the notion that daughters are bound to be like their mothers. If the writer had shown even one girl out of three a good and competent homemaker this would have set a sparkling example. Moreover, some of the characters like the character of Adam’s Nani played by Uzma Baig look superfluous and don’t add much to the script. Other than that Hum Tum is a complete package of meaningful entertainment that you must not want to miss out on!