Womanly love on TV

Dec 09, 2012 - Suparna Sharma

Ekta Kapoorji ne last week ek Brahmastra fire kiya, in-house chudail Anushka Sarkar ke through. Aur bus, phir kya tha, two very decent serials ki waat lag gayi. In the first one, Kya Hua Tera Vaada (Sony), Pradeep tapak gaya, Vineet sir gayab ho gaye, Anushka ki illegitimate bachchi prakat ho gayi, and even as Anushka was chakki peesing and peesing in jail, the serial jumped 10 years and is now headed towards playing out the same miserable story once again — of one good girl with dupattas versus one bad girl in western attire.

In the second serial, Bade Achche Lagte Hain, Rajat sir did pyaar ka izhaar, fatty Ram Kapoor got shot and then saved. Priya and Ram now seem headed for some sort of emotional outburst that will decide their fate. Going by Ektaji’s past record, Ram will disappoint Priya and she will stay single, hurt and morally upright. Chances of Ram and Priya sharing the same bedroom are bleak.
But, you know, jaise hi Anushka Sarkar ne Ram Kapoor and Pradeep ko goli mari, mere brain mein ek bulb jala aur maine fatak se apni LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) glasses pehen li. And what I saw after that was very interesting.
Aap television ke kisi bhi top serial ko le lo, sab mein ladies live for other ladies. But nowhere are these relationships so strong as in Ektaji’s serials.
Let’s take Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi... and Kya Hua Tera Vaada. Ab uppar-uppar, surface se toh yeh serials bahut hi hetero lagte hain. But agar aap thode distance se dekhen toh you will very clearly see a different sansar, lesbians ka one happy parivaar. In both Kyunki... and Kya Hua… gents disappoint/fail ladies log and then get shot. Ektaji’s women draw all their takat — both negative and positive — from other women and their strongest, most important relationships are with other women. Whether these relationships are prem or nafrat based, they are always intense, often bordering on obsessive, and shape them and their lives. Pyaar marte dam tak, and dushmani bhi marte dam tak.
Yeh baat toh confirm hai ki Ektaji ki prerna, unki creativity, unka passion, sab ladies log pe hi jhalakta hai. But why deck it up in heterosexual pallus, paramparas and parivaars? Dus saal pehle Ektaji ne television entertainment ko define kiya tha. Ab redefinition ka time aa gaya hai. And for that mere man-madir se Ektaji ke liye ek pukar aa rahi hai:
Zara samne to aao chaliye
Chup-chup chalne me kya raaz hai
Yun chup na sakega paramatma
Meri atma ki ye aawaz hai...

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/215212" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-56592030b69332dc18e267b8051d8f21" value="form-56592030b69332dc18e267b8051d8f21" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85757315" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>