Karachi:
The recent episodes of Main manto Nahi Hoon Have fans who raise the eyebrows over the show’s seemingly problematic building of romance between the protagonists. Public opinion claims that Manto (Humayun Saeed) and Mehmal (Sajal Ali) should not be romantically involved in each other.
The show follows the story of Mehmal, a girl from a violent and patriarchal family who is struggling to get higher education against his father’s wishes. At university, she meets the quiet author-economic professor, Manto, who shares her name with the legendary author.
Although not shown explicitly, the show suggests against a romance between Mehmal and Manto. In one scene, Mehmal’s Aunt teases her to have a hug on her professor by pointing out how much she talks about him and suggests a romantic attraction. In another scene, Manto Mehmal’s hand grabs and tries to save her from her cousin Farhaad (Azaan Sami Khan), who strongly pursues her. He is later beaten by Farhaad’s guards for her.
Fans are disappointed with Sajal and Humayun’s choice of manuscript, which is an edge of normalizing such dynamics. An Instagram user wrote: “I don’t understand how the A-lists agree to do crap like this, don’t you have what is reading manuscripts?”
Another Sajal-Stan commented her Instagram: “I was expecting better script from you.” 
Despite the show’s high budget and good spectacle, fans couldn’t look past the writing, “Although Manto is a great character, I can’t shake the strange sense of a student and teacher who has a romantic relationship (plus 20+ age gap)”, read a YouTube comment. “I really hope that Mehmal and her fiancé (or Farhaad) meet.”
Some pointed out the respect that a student-teacher relationship requires. “The heroins, who have not studied at the university, would not know that respect teachers hold,” read a YouTube commentary. “Students also have their own dignity, teachers are your spiritual parents. Such a bad manuscript Sajal worked on.” 
Another was simply stunned by how wrong this dynamic is. “No family will send their daughter to male teachers in this way,” Reads the Instagram commentary. “And if they do, teachers and students will start to see each other from this lens, shame on this drama. You must all report this type of manuscript as they will ruin pure relationships and make people dirty.” 
The show is written by Khalil-Ur-Rehman Qamar and directed by Nadeem Baig. It is distributed by Six Sigma Plus and Next Level Entertainment and is sent on Ary Digital. The drama has a star -studded role crew with Humayun and Sajal, who take the lead, and Sanam Saeed, Asif Raza Mir, Saba Hamid, Saba Faisal, Saide Noor and Azaan Sami Khan in supporting roles.
Main manto Nahi Hoon Has been in the air since July 18 and released his 12th episode this weekend.
