Is this empowerment?
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Responding to social realities? Scenes from (Clockwise from left)Saat Phere, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya
In the current political climate, women's empowerment is occupying mindspace because of the debates engendered by the Women's Reservation Bill. The buzz it has generated unconsciously becomes a filter for evening television viewing. Suddenly prime time TV fiction on all the major Hindi channels seems even more bizarre than it normally does, a collective antithesis to any notions of empowerment. Seen in terms of direct messaging, these sagas threaten to turn the clock back quite drastically. The most cheerful among them (currently), "Ye Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai" on Star Plus, has the young bride pleading with her mother-in-law not to hand over the house keys just yet ' I am not ready for this responsibility, she pleads sweetly.
Different priorities
Judging by the popularity of these dramas, female empowerment as we understand it would seem to be the last thing on any viewer's mind. Marriage and is associated rituals are the central motif in one tale after another. The anxieties of " moo dikhayi" or the viewing of the girl by the boy's parents ("Sasural Genda Phool", Star Plus), the family politics being played out in the background of the sangeet ceremony in households with impending weddings ("Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya", Zee and "Palkhon ki Chaya Mein", NDTV Imagine), the tribulations of some recently weds ("Mann ki awaaz Pratigya", Star Plus and "Jyoti", NDTV Imagine) and those of some long married ("Na aane is des mein Laado", Colours) are what make for entertainment. The air is always thick with rasams, or rituals, the emotions are choreographed, the settings have the spatial characteristics of gilded halls rather than homes.
Women's empowerment as debated in the political arena is about women stepping out of the confines of home and hearth to discover their potential. Indian soap operas are about tussles for power over home and hearth and their near resolution before more twists and turns appear. They depict domestic violence ' one of the brothers kicks his wife repeatedly in "Pratigya"' even as his sister who is at her marital home is busy calling her husband and in laws " saale kuttey" (dogs). Women getting slapped is common, the impotent husband knocks over his distraught wife in "Laado", she in turn pulls his hands to her throat and pleads with him to strangle her. In "Jamunia", the family attempts to burn a girl. Are the viewers who favour such entertainment seriously ready for women's empowerment?
(Excerpt from article by Sevanthi Ninan. Source: www.hinduonline.com)
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
