Dramatic art.

Byline: Jamal Kamali - Karachi

THIS is independent of the controversy about the Turkish TV play about Ertugrul. I do not know who has told our directors that the highest form of dramatic art is a woman crying.

I have been watching, much against my will, many TV plays, and all I see is a woman shrieking, and crying and weeping and shedding tears in the loudest possible voice. And it goes on, for the wailing and lamenting and mourning do not seem to end.

Hollywood movies too show scenes of tragedy, but I have seldom seen the kind of hysteria we see in our TV plays. A look of sadness and a few dialogues do more to convey a woman's sentiments of deep grief coupled perhaps with anger than the prolonged crying and shrieking we see on our idiot box.

Just to give some examples: in The World of Suzie Wong, Nancy Kwan is in mourning because her child dies. But you see her expressing her grief without sobbing and crying hoarse, while William Holden stands by. She shows her grief in a way that is...