Omkara Singh Oberoi: The Feminist Lead The Indian Viewers Need
Today's episode made me feel extraordinarily proud to call myself a fan of this character and sometimes even of this show. His scenes, dialogues and general panache today deserves a comment and definitely a praise in my opinion.
His views regarding women have usually tended to be very empowering and encouraging. I know fangirls will bring up Ishaana, but his behaviour with her never crossed the line of misogyny. He only attacked her on a basis of her parenting , not on a how dare a woman do this to me' way. Unlike Shivaay he has never crossed his limits in that kind of space and even when Ishana is about to cheat him, he still has the heart to say 'if she wanted money, why didn't she just ask?". Even towards a girl like Ridhima who is lying to him (yes it is not end game, but still is a relevant part of his life). His attitude towards her work and outlook is very encouraging, and he consistently says to her that he wishes he could be more noble (yes her activism is fake, but he does not know that yet).
Furthermore, the question of his mother must come up in the viewer's mind and how he doesn't do anything for her to step away from this family. In my view, it would an injustice to make Jhaanvi a victim who needs Omkara as her son to fix her life. I consider that an unfair criticism to hold against him and in a way would be making him a white saviour' hero.
I would like to add that Omkaara till now hasn't been a perfect character. But, his views regarding women have so far been refreshing to watch and I hope the creators stick to their guns to this and don't change it to facilitate certain audience's preconceived notions regarding how a leading man on television needs to be. It must be noted that Shivaay today questioned his manliness and even accused him of not fighting Riddhima on her ridiculous suggestions of the red jacket and pink cushions. It's unfortunate that Shivaay used a trivial moment such as that in a discussion about feminism and the treatment of women. A comment on their relationship was a general low blow because at least both Riddima and Ishaana have been his equals and have been treated with respect (yes both relationships will end badly because of honesty not because he is a misogynist).
Omkara's relationship will be based around questioning his beliefs around honesty, and how people need to defy it in order to survive. Rather than how majority of male Indian leads have been focused on challenging their misogynistic ways which can only be "fixed" by their respective female lead. His love story will reflect how he needs to accept people with their imperfections and not judge them without knowing why they are lying.
On a final note, let's hope that Omkaara at least on a feminist note sticks to his beliefs regardless of who he ends up with. Because watching a man treat a woman with equal respect shouldn't be a luxury that we get treated with, it should be fundamentally engraved that anything but it should be questioned unless justified articulately.
Hope to hear all your comments and views.
