(Every great drama has its foreshadow – Shakespeare) Drama, being an effective form of performing art, has been in a process of imperceptible degradation over the last two decades here in Pakistan. It seems bizarre but still, it is a reality that there were times when Pakistani dramas used to influence beyond borders; inspiring the neighbouring countries to aspire for their class and contents. 1964 was an eventful year for Pakistan`s history when Pakistan television network was inaugurated. It was a paradigm shift in the communication realm and perhaps it was the drama that overwhelmed the then Pakistani audience that had recently graduated from radio to the visual medium of entertainment. If the dramas being produced today were to be compared with the era of drama glorification of pre-90s, we can conveniently identify some aspects that the current drama industry is lacking. Foremost is the topic selection of drama. Nowadays, that largely has no relevance to our culture and history. Then comes the quality of content, including scripts and dialogue-writing. They had been the hallmarks of orthodox drama in Pakistan but a lacklustre to the current drama industry. The mushroom growth of production houses over the past two decades has made the performing art “acting” devoid of a healthy completion. Finally, the curse of ratings has plunged the quality of drama to the lowest ebb. Topics being exercised upon by the current drama production stalwarts have been drifting the Pakistani audience away from the realities of our society to an ephemeral phase of transitional disposition. This is a primary reason quintessential to why we have to settle ourselves down with the dramas imported from other countries having altogether alien cultural manifestations! “Warris” had been the trendsetter drama, which so effectively echoed with the Pakistani audience that “deserted streets” phrase became associated with the Lahore city during its telecast time. Mehboob Alam, Khalida Riaysat, Abid Ali along with the rest of the cast had all the praise owing to remarkable performances encompassing every aspect of a fabulously orchestrated and performed drama. Along with performance tour de force, the concept of “Warris” was so compelling that it had become a topic of street talks, where people profoundly indulged themselves in swirling next episode prognostications based on personal thought processes. On the contrary, the concepts behind the dramas being produced presently are appalling. They revolve around family conspiracies; aimed at discrediting our family structures, extra-matrimonial affairs; culminating into terrible endings that affect the whole family, especially children, and physical violence against the females. Subsequently, instead of unwinding after a long day by sitting before the television to have a few moments of joy, one would feel more disturbed and disgruntled. Instead of unwinding after a long day by sitting before the television to have a few moments of joy, one would feel more disturbed and disgruntled by watching present dramas Albeit dramas like “Warris,” “Khuda ki Basti” and “Aangan Thera” had ruled the television during the 80s. However, until the late 90s, the contents and scriptwriting had been quintessential to produce dramas. Hasina Moin, Bano Qudsia, Fatima Suriya Bajia, Amjad Islam Amjadamjad, Munno Bhai and the list goes on, wrote quality dramas accentuated by authentic Urdu and comprehensive dialogues. Choice of words had always been a sine qua non to express for the writers of that. However, if we put current drama script and dialogues in juxtaposition with the old school drama, it can be found out easily that today, much less emphasis is being given to the subtle details of language and expressions. Dialogues contain more slangs than authentic words and their delivery often entails flawed pronunciations. I am recalling an interview of Late Shafi Muhammad, in which upon asking his views on the quality of dramas back in the 90s, he lamented a scene from his serial, in which he was seen travelling from Karachi to Lahore and after finishing the assigned work, he came back to Karachi. That scene had a few pleasantries exchanged amongst the characters besides the travel part. His observation was that those 13 minutes of drama had no take-out for the audience in terms of learning. That was the approach and concern even the performing artists had at that time, when “no value addition” was used to be remorse. Last but not the least, the quality of performance, which had been a tale of excellence. Character adoption was so immaculate that it seemed the actor was executing a real-life role. Profound emphasis was given to memorise the dialogue and their expressions. However, nowadays, dialogues delivery is being taken for granted and instead of making it a way to excel the art of communication, it has been merely regarded as a tool to communicate. The rat-race to excel the rating table has put quality and competence on the back foot and of least concern while producing dramas. In the recent past, quite a few dramas have been able to leave the audience with a good taste; making the concept preponderate, that the topic, content and performance are not obsolete till to date. So, drama can still be produced and liked, without succumbing to the delusion of ratings emanating from the web of rotten concepts. The writer is based in Islamabad