Fans take a swipe at 'Main Manto Nahi Hoon' over body-shaming joke

(Web Desk) - Viewers have criticised ‘Main Manto Nahi Hoon’ for a body-shaming joke and for reinforcing outdated portrayals of women.

In a university classroom, Manto (Humayun Saeed) is teaching a class on the theory of motivation.

The flirtatious Mehmal (Sajal Aly) interrupts and asks whether he is married.

When Manto ignores her question, Mehmal jokes that she assumed he must be married “with a bunch of kids and a fat wife”.

Visibly uncomfortable, he asks her how she assumes he would have a fat wife.

Doubling down, she replies: “The lack of motivation on your face means your wife must be fat.”

Her response results in laughter from her classmates.

Though the show presented it as humour, many viewers found the dialogue degrading, especially toward women’s bodies.

Critics argue that the body-shaming in this episode was directed not at a character, but at a woman who doesn’t exist.

Fans took to social media to question how such dialogues passed through the script approval process.

Many were disappointed that Sajal, often praised for portraying strong women, would deliver such a line without protest.

One fan commented: “She has been careful with her roles before, but this is just disappointing.”

Beyond the body-shaming, the drama is also facing backlash for romanticising a student-teacher dynamic, despite growing awareness of harassment cases.

Critics argued that portraying inappropriate advances in educational settings normalises harmful behaviour that already exists in real-life classrooms.