Flawed portrayals demean women

IN Media Practice | 27/02/2013

Indian television is on a roll. Sanjay Leela Bhansali has graced the small screen with his epic show Saraswatichandra (Star Plus) for the first time. Anil Kapoor owns the rights of the counter-terrorism drama series 24. The Indian version, directed by Abhinay Deo, will be aired on Colors. News is that Amitabh Bachchan, fresh after tasting success on television, will be seen in a serial to be co-produced by his banner Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (ABCL). Vikram Bhatt has marked his presence with Bisaat Rishton Ki, a business drama currently being advertised on television.

Yes, the small screen has changed, but not enough. Those who have tasted success on television remain rooted in kitchen politics and relationship hitches created by vicious women. The portrayal of women on most shows remains flawed. 

A full-page advertisement for new show Savitri on Life Ok (February 18) reinforces the fact that serials continue to pedal backwards. Savitri is a supernatural fantasy show about demonic siblings Rahukaal and Shaitan in the life of a young contemporary Kolkata-based couple. Anamika on Sony is also a love story interspersed with supernatural encounters. Something is just not right about the archaic plots and the sati savitri (chaste) protagonists being hounded by dark diabolical women.  According to Ekta Kapoor, an assortment of chudail and daayan sagas are in response to the American vampire fixation. News is that her protégé Smriti Irani has agreed to feature in the first episode of the new Daayan series. Supernatural thrillers belong to an unexplored exciting genre but they need not propagate myths and paint women as evil characters.

With a majority of soap viewers being women, it is not difficult to understand why shows are designed to appeal to small-town women and their household dilemmas. Agreed that the vicious mother-in-law has paved way for a more doting avatar, and the daughter-in-law is doing more than opening doors and stirring pots. But women are painted in white and black, to be categorised in convenient categories. The typical leading lady of a daily soap is an epitome of sacrifice devoid of any personal likes or dislikes. There are no imperfections when it comes to her morals or taking care of her family (Punar Vivaah). The attempt to reassert traditional gender roles is obvious.  Rather strangely, she calls her husband Mr Kapoor (Bade Achche Lagte Hain). Ambition is exclusive to the wicked woman who wears a business suit, works with a big corporate house and remains lonely and single. Trapped in negativity, office is where she lures the heroine’s gullible husband to wreck a happy marriage (Kya Hua Tera Vaada).

What’s welcome is that the husband’s role has changed from being a puppet in the hands of vicious women to being a covert sympathiser. What’s also welcome is that widows and divorcees are playing lead roles in mature love stories. However, in a world where fathers are kind and brothers generous, the impediments in the script continue to come from vicious women. The evil women apply darker, thicker layers of kohl, which enables them to flutter eyelashes and torture a gaggle of silent suffering ladies (Qubool Hai).

Sadly, most producers remain inimical to changing demographics, challenged by originality of any kind. In the popular show Uttaran, actress Krutika Desai is required to shave her head after her husband’s death.  She returns after a gap of 18 years to take revenge on the leading lady Ichcha. Labeled as a bold ‘bald’ act, this depiction of evil is devoid of any logic. If the woman is bold enough to torment the heroine, can’t she can refuse to chop hair against her will? Logic, anyway, was never a priority for soap producers.

The first episode of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s new show Saraswatichandra had everything – lavish sets, great star cast and brilliant cinematography. Logic, however, was not on the director’s mind. The Dubai-based son of a billionaire is a rebel who performs puja at a particular muhuratam, wears a dhoti for a cocktail party, dives from the sky and yet offers no resistance when his father announces his marriage to an unknown girl in some remote village in Gujarat. The first episode suggests that the impediments in the story are again going to come from the evil woman enacted by Monica Bedi. While the heroine of ‘Saraswatichandra’ is a Sita re-incarnate, the step-mother reminds one of the mythological character of Kaikeyi who was the pivot behind all the tumults in the life of the epic hero.

This clichéd stereotyping is subjecting women to misplaced assessments by the society. And it is not a comforting thought at all.  One hopes that new shows will represent women in a different light and not classify them in unrealistic categories of black and white.