Our forum's interesting attitude towards beauty

Shockingly, I have been able to keep myself from watching LTL now for almost 5 episodes. Actually, to be honest, I shouldn't say shockingly. It was easier than I thought...and plus I had the benefit of occasionally seeing what's going on in the forum. Exciting stuff--reminiscent of old LTL--is coming, e.g. Dutta's daddy. Love the gold chains...so bad boy-ish...now I know where Dutta gets his earrings style from. (Are the earrings back BTW?)

One thing I've noticed, and it has been for some time, but is more evident as I step back and look objectively at the show is....

OUR attitude towards beauty.

We've constantly talked about how refreshing and wonderful it is on TV that a man (Dutta) loves a woman (Naku) for her INNER beauty...that that is what matters most....that the idea of the apsara Naku's face being colored with soot is great because it teaches us about what true love is....

YET how many times on our forum (including recently as the revelation draws near) have I read about how Dutta will go gaga over Naku's beauty...how he won't be able to resist it...how he will not be immune from it...that noone will. <Not that this matters to Dutta anyway, and hopefully will not sway him at all.>

I find that with the revelation nearing, this FOCUS on Naku's outer beauty is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, there is the "valuable" lesson about love being blind, which it may very well be, BUT moreso, because by making Naku outwardly beautiful, the show is getting its cake and eating it too. Let me explain.

As some of you know, I've always had a small issue with the making of Naku as a SUPERMODEL, APSARA-like beauty underneath the soot. It's FAIRYTALE-ish to some degree. Ugly girl is loved despite her ugliness, and turns into a beautiful princess....I think they could have made Naku an average pretty girl WITHOUT losing IMPACT or the story losing its SHINE. This decision to make Naku an apsara underneath the soot always reaked of hypocrisy...but that is just my opinion--- to get the BEAUTIFUL LEAD into the story, as there is in every show. God forbid you have an AVERAGE-LOOKING girl as a lead! Oh, quelle horreur! I know many of you think otherwise, that the exceptional beauty under the layers of crap was needed so one can appreciate the full message of the story...the full contrast needed to have a greater punch...so we can understand the true sacrifice Naku made...so we can appreciate how Dutta will be appalled at Naku's lie no matter the apsara before him...I AM STILL UNCONVINCED BY THIS.

I think LTL has done an enormous job--IN WRITING and ACTING and PUTTING TOGETHER A DRAMATIC, ARTICULATE SHOW. The accolades received up till recently have been totally well deserved.

But, in my eyes, the show is SMART and knows how to play the game as well. NOTE: I am not saying this is why the show was made or made the way it was. In hindsight, it makes all the sense in the world. LET ME ASK YOU: why do we feel so strongly about the message of the show? (list below)

Who watches these shows? Women, mainly.

Are these female viewers all supermodels, or think themselves exceptionally pretty? Probably not. Most would classify themselves as average, and certainly would not define themselves by beauty alone. Most women rarely do that, they look at their total selves, except certain apsaras. 😉 There is a level of love-hate when it comes to the topic of beauty, which by the way has been borne out of actual media research.

What are these female viewers used to seeing? Beautiful female leads on pretty much every show. Sometimes it is hard for me as a female viewer to relate to that, not very realistic. I even get annoyed at love stories where there is an abundance of "unnatural or unrealistic" beauty.

What are the concepts that appeal to women viewers? Being loved for the total you, your actions, your inner beauty, your sacrifices for those you love, particularly family and the man you love...

And voila here is the show that delivers on all these things in a very RICH, APPEALING, and WELL-WRITTEN way.

But many times, when I think about this show, and Naku now being a stunning beauty, I find it funny...here in the US, they call it "jumping the shark", when a show does what every other show does to get ratings. Because in my mind I think of DISNEY...WALT DISNEY. Ugly duckling turns beautiful, Beast turns into hot prince, and other metamorphoses....ARE THEY even necessary in such drastic proportions? What is wrong with pretty or average pretty? Why does Naku have to be an apsara or beautiful like every other leading lady? Seriously, think about it...ask yourselves the question: Do you REALLY think the show would lose its message or appeal if Naku was just a pretty girl vs. apsara? My opinion on why Naku was made an UNDERCOVER or rather, UNDERSOOT, apsara is that you can have your cake and eat it too--LTL like every show will have the attractive beautiful couple, going forward, just like every other show. But, we couldn't possibly mind, because we know DUTTA proved his love by falling for the dark Naku. Is that honest of us?

So much for my babbling. Vacations do weird stuff... 😆

What are your thoughts? I gave you my perspective only...think about what I've said and write back!

Missing you guys!

🤗

I'm a bit confused, but I think I understand what you're trying to say.

Hey.. missing you too dear.. come back soon to watching the episodes..

Very interesting topic.. BTW, agree that mostly all shows have very beautiful girls with flawless skin and fair skin as their heroines. Rather than blame the channel, I would actually blame the whole nation as somehow we as a nation are obsessed with a woman's outer beauty read skin colour. I have experienced this personally. When my hubby who is a Gujju was talking to his family for the first time about me over the phone, one of the topics was if I actually looked like a typical South Indian.. and I was fuming inside.. how can you stereotype people?! but there you go, that is how 99% of India thinks.. look in matrimonial ads and u have all guys wanting a fair girl as if only fair girls are worthy of marriage !! so it is only natural for the show to have a apsara like beauty to play the main lead. In a country like ours, where even women ask the skin colour of another woman, what more can you expect?! I have seen first hand experiences of how a newly born baby is compared to her mum regarding beauty and skin colour. No one caring for a minute whether anyone is hurt in the process..

And yes, agree with you that the channel also wants a beautiful couple to promote after face revelation. BUT I am 100% sure that Dutta will not be bowled over by her beauty. He will be stunned as she is a pretty girl, but that's it.. I don't think the fact she has turned beautiful will ever matter to Dutta.. the show has depicted very clearly how Dutta loves Nakku for her beautiful heart and thoughts and if they show otherwise, then it will no longer be the show I loved and yearned for.. it will be run of the mill..

I cannot bash all channels/shows as I did recently glimpse the lead of Chaand chupa badal mein (my mum was watching it, not me ;-) and the lead girl is not an apsara, but just an average good looking girl.. I found that very refreshing as most ladies can relate to her.. same goes for Ragini in Bidaai (though never watch the show).. now.. I don't know if we all love/root for nakku cos we can all see some part of us in her.. what worries me is after the face revelation will she end up being one of those dolled up ladies on our screens and stop touching our hearts? Will we stop relating to her or stop recognising that part in her which we can relate to? We have no choice but to wait and watch..

But on responding to your question, I personally am of your opinion that a normal average girl hidden under soot would have worked just as perfectly for me as opposed to an apsara.. that would be too close to reality and maybe in tv shows, they need to dramatise everything to a certain extent to get the message across and so shoes to have a very pretty face!

Vandu

Originally posted by: lizdarcy

I'm a bit confused, but I think I understand what you're trying to say.

I was crazy about Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin, a few years ago. When I look back now, I realize why I was so madly in love with the characters. Basically, all feel good movies/soaps are fairy tales. Plain Jane meeting Prince Charming. We may pooh pooh the notion and say that we prefer realistic stories that have more depth, but heart of hearts we love such stories that speak of ordinary girls like us.

Jassi, for me, was magical because it was about a girl who was ugly, but good at heart. Every woman who's been a fan will agree that they saw themselves in Jassi. She was extra smart, yet naive when it came to the big bad world. A middle class girl with values. And yet what we all were waiting for, was the makeover. Where she gets back at the unjust world and in the end wins her prince.

One more thing about fairytales: the Prince is always obstinate, always disillusioned. 😆 It's upto the heroine to change him, make him fall in love with life.

LTL, in my opinion, is a magnificient rendition of some of the most beautiful fairytales. You have the girl who's poor, good at heart, and needs to be rescued. You have the prince, bitter and dark. He needs rescuing too, from himself.

Now, coming to beauty, there's always a transformation in fairytales. I agree, LTL, could've settledfor pretty, but Nakusha's a stunning beauty. Now, it would've been unfair if we didn't have a reason. But i love the way the CVs have woven the beauty aspect into the story. We have Babi who knows that Naku's beauty is her curse and hence hides her from the world. And we have Dutta who mistrusts beautiful faces. If Nakusha were just pretty, it would've helped him shed this misconception. But no, we need a face that's stunning, to make him really see the truth. To prove him wrong. That no, it is not the face, but the heart that matters. She's gonna shatter every misconception of his, show him that she's beautiful...because of her heart. And her color doesn't matter. It shouldn't.

Erm...I hope you get what I'm trying to say...😆

hello ladies,

Interesting topic GP ..

Ooo...interesting discussion...will come back to it later. Reserved for now.

Originally posted by: _Sanjana23_

Stories like LTL are not to show how the woman transforms from some plain jane to a supermodel instead its about emotions and understanding things apart from the looks. That's why its Laagi Tujhse Lagan not something like Chehra Tere? Or Laagi Tere Chehre Se Lagan? LOL

I hope I made sense.. Sorry if I babbled on and wrote utter crap.. :D I just wanted to get this all out as its something I have seen often appearing in the forum about beauty and Dutta and Naku so I needed to write it all up.. =))

I don't think we are comparing or wanting to see "beautiful" women vs. average women. I think what matters more to us, at least in LTL is the reaction. We don't really care that Naku is actually very beautiful under her black skin, because and I will speak for everyone, we love NAKU. However, we are interested in the reaction that will occur after she reveals herself. That anticipation should not be confused with the notion that we don't want to see average people on tv. In fact, I think Mahi (Naku) is average. She is fair, beautiful eyes and sweet smile. But there are alot of fair and beautiful eyes out there in my opinion. However, many would disagree with me, which is fine. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What I might find drop dead gourgous might be average to you. Nevertheless, the trademark of this show in my opinion was the problem one faces in this word because of color and ugliness. How people look over all the good qualities in a person only due to small flaws. There is another serial that just started "baba aiso vaar dhoondo" about a dawrf. How peopole over look her goodness because of her height. Same thing here, everyone thought that Naku is internally just as dark as externally. But what makes this more complex was that Naku is actually fair. So we as viewers want to see the reaction of the rest of the charcters because now they have fallen in love with Naku regardless of her ourside appearance. And the reaciton of all the people that caused her pain due to her looks, like a slap on their face. To be honest, our society is based on good looking people. There are very few people in this world that would be able to overlook flaws, disablity and uglyness to make a lifetime of commitment. Especially when it comes to females. Fairness is a virtue in indian culture. When we think of a beautiful women, what comes to mind? fair skin. So, as much as we would like to believe that we should look at inner beauty and so forth, the truth is very few men have the ability to do that. We can be kind to them we can be nice to them, but if it came down to marrying someone like Naku, I wouldn't be suprised if the answer was no. Thats reality. So, as a women I think I like to see that a man is falling for a women regardless of her looks. It makes me feel good as a person. But what would make me feel even better is that man is actually getting more then he fell in love with. I want to see that fantasy of beauty and the beast or cinderella............Its reel and real. If I wan't to see real, I should just open my window and look outside at the neighbors house.....lol 😆...........Bottomline is, we can easily say a book shouldn't be judged by its cover, but what do we do first when we pick a book? look at the cover. Many things are easily said then done. And this is one of them. And that is y we look foward to the reveal.