Dawn Images

There are only two names on the lips of netizens these days — Fizza and Shiza.

These fictional twin sisters became the butt of many jokes after a clip from an episode of A-Plus TV's 2020 drama Haqeeqat went viral on social media. The clip, which shows the sisters embroiled in a rather bizarre marital situation, left viewers both amused and critical of the story. However, Haqeeqat's director Muhammad Ashar Asghar feel that viewers should watch the complete drama before criticising the story.

The episode Judwaa from Haqeeqat tells the story of Fizza and Shiza — twin sisters who marry two brothers in the same house but end up in the wrong bedrooms on their wedding night. Haqeeqat is a Pakistani anthology television series consisting of a collection of assorted family stories. The series featured a different cast in each episode and is apparently based on real life situations. So apparently, what happened to the characters Fizza and Shiza actually happened to someone in real life.

Asghar told Images he's surprised at how the drama has become the talk of the internet over a year after its release in 2020. "It is pretty surprising that after all this time people saw a small clip from that drama — not even the whole drama — and made it go viral on social media," he said.

Before the drama's viral moment, it mostly received positive reviews from viewers on YouTube, he said. "For the past year, Haqeeqat's episodes on YouTube have gathered more than eight million views and all the comments underneath the episode videos are very positive. People have appreciated the drama which deals with sensitive societal issues. The number of views it has received speaks for the drama's success."

Asghar feels netizens were too judgemental of the story in Judwaa after the clip went viral. "The drama received compliments more than criticism, but what's happened now is people cherry-picked only one clip from the entire drama, made it viral and criticised Haqeeqat just on the basis of that. They've started creating memes without seeing the full story. The drama didn't have any bold subjects, neither was it offensive or immoral. It was a social drama tackling social issues."

The director strongly feels that viewers should see the entire series before jumping to conclusions and criticising the story. There has been no shortage of Fizza and Shiza jokes online since the drama clip went viral.

"Everything [in the story] had a logic to it," he said. "The plot of the story was clearly defined; there was a khatoon (lady) in the family who plotted and swapped the rooms of these two individuals. I would ask the viewers to watch the complete drama and then form an opinion instead of making fun of it by watching just one small clip."