Like the entertainment industries around the world, Pakistan’s entertainment industry also makes dramas based on an amalgamation of fiction and reality. Similarly, ARY Digital makes sure to make dramas on various societal issues shedding light on what could be done to avoid these problems in the future. Dramas like Surkh Chandni, Meri Guriya, Ruswai, Aisi Hai Tanhai, Beti, to name a few, have opened doors for talks about these harrowing tumors of the society.
The recently concluded ARY Digital drama, Dunk is also based on a real story. In October 2019, a lecturer of Lahore’s MAO College, Muhammad Afzal, took his life because he was falsely accused of harassment by a female student.
According to the detailed letter Afzal reportedly wrote a day before committing suicide, he was under extreme mental stress due to the accusations hurled at him and wanted the committee to give him in writing that he was innocent and the allegations were baseless. His reputation had been hurt with his family life disturbed and his wife having left him. Another letter in his handwriting read, “I leave this matter in the court of Allah. The police are requested not to investigate and bother anybody.”
Sure, Professor Humayun’s wife did not leave him in Dunk but both she and her daughter lived in predicament for someone else’s sins after he ended his life.
Related: Dunk starts with a power-packed first episode
But that was not all. Amal’s false allegation made Haider, the only person she loved, drift away from her. She did not just ruin Professor Humayun’s home but her and Haider’s family paid the price as well.
Haider’s father, his brother, even his better half Minal were against him because of the intricacy of that matter. On the other hand, just to secure her narrative, Amal lied many more times, to a point where she also accused Haider of the same crime as the professor.
Related: Are the tables about to turn in Dunk?
According to US author Idowu Koyenikan, “There is no denying that there is evil in this world but the light will always conquer the darkness.” Similarly, Amal’s lie had to divulge and it did, but in a way, she had never thought. In the same courtroom where she thought her husband will stay on her side no matter what, he divorced her instead and ended up defending Haider.
Moreover, in the last episode, her father took his life the same way as Professor Humayun, giving Amal the taste of her own medicine. Her mother, who stood by her in all the thicks and thins slapped her in the courtroom, blaming her for destroying the family.
Dunk is written and directed in such a way that it depicts our society in its truest form. For instance, Professor’s wife was humiliated after his death, to the point where she had decided to leave her house because she was being held accountable for a crime she had nothing to do with. The same wife was given a job once Professor’s name was cleared in the last episode.
Lastly, Minal, who was made to fall in love with Haider by Amal actually trusted him and stayed with him through his tough times unlike Amal, who was so obsessed with Haider that she literally accused Professor Humayun of harassment just to save her fiance from the accountability for his actions.
Well, what about ARY Digital drama Dunk did you like the most? Have your say in the comments’ section below.