Rakesh Paswan: Knowing the writer-producer

Hello ABians,

Just thought about penning my thoughts about Rakesh Paswan today before it becomes a closed emotion in my mind amongst the so many ever-present objective thoughts. It is always wonderful to know who is behind a creation which we like. For TV shows and people associated with it, knowing the creator and the rest of the crew of the show, may be is the best reward other than regular rewards that viewers like us can bestow upon them over any show.

I have started seeing Afsar Bitiya as I got to know that it is a Rakesh Paswan story. I remembered him from Colors 2009 show "Sabka Jodi Banata Wohi, Bhagyavidhaata". Paswan was the story and screenplay writer of the show. I liked his sensitivity to elements that he showed over that show. And so this time I was excited to see what he will be showing.

Paswan was intrigued at the fact that how a "pakrahua vivaah" though celeberated at the time of marriage, how it can actually work later for the girl who gets married to the groom in this style. Of course what happens after is pretty much an imagination, a situation one neither can live with nor run away from and it is the situation for everyone, the groom, the bride and both the families. Paswan said that he took the concept from his native place Jharkhand where he saw one such wedding actually happening.

Later I stumbled on to know that Paswan had been the story-writer for yet another unconventional story of a dwarf girl. Unconventional it is as we have not seen on screen that there could be any normal story about a girl born with slight handicap. That show was "Baba Aiso Varr Dhoondo" over Imagine TV. And so naturally I was inclined to see Afsar Bitiya this time as Rakesh said he wants to present a show from the point a very ordinary girl becomes a BDO.

Paswan is able to show how evil practices breed more evil practices and in the end nothing is good enough for the subjects on whom all these practices are applied. Dowry Demand leads to a response of Why not kidnap the groom and have him force-marry the bride ? Works for the girl's family. But does the girl's situation change ?

Showing the insurgent elements of the region influencing the male youth of the region..

How can an actually lose-lose situation for a dwarf girl become an actually a win-win situation through her positivity and strength of character.

And I need not speak about our Afsar Bitiya...We all know what are her challenges. To me her primary challenge is to overcome the thinking and influence that primarily her social class and culture exert on her. To me her journey is about how cannot let herself be exploited when the abject truth about being the girl born into that society is about getting exploited or subjugate herself in the name of familial bonding and its demands or the immediate environmental bonding or its demands. We already see how family authorities like Mother and Brother exert duress on the protagonist.

Very interestingly all the female characters of Paswan are the educated and women of good principles. Bindiya (Bhagyavidhaata) is MA History, Bharati (Baba aiso..) is also educated...And all of them try to make it work inspite of the repressive and regressive customs of the patriarchal society of which they are part of. Questions from viewers like us living in cosmopolitan cities, as to why the girl, who is educated and has therefore the means to independence, why she cannot liberate herself out of the daily horror of humiliations and isolations. The answer then obviously is, we may not identify ourselves with these protagonists, but there are lots of them in actual northern Indian living that life. And they would say revolting is not an answer, what is needed is a revolution in thinking and we can do that only when we change thinking within our home and start with our family members and especially the male members. So his shows are primarily women-oriented shows where women from all generations play an important part to the story.

As the story and plot warrants, we have sentimental drama depicted. People like me can only wince while watching it, but I must say I get it what it means to people who are subjected to such living. My only hope and prayer is that people who are actually watching these shows in Bihar or parts of india where this kind of customary life exists, see that they are not alone in this struggle for a liberated and wholesome life and that they should not stop dreaming and realizing them.

Probably violence is common and taken for granted in Bihar. There are insurgent elements prevailing in that region especially as governance is weak with practically no rules and regulations not enforced. It can be comprehended if one is from that region or associated with that state. However I do wish though, that Paswan had also put a disclaimer or inserted kind of commentary to show that it is just a manifestation of the regional evils.

Personal experience: At school (my years being 80-90 decade), we all used to wonder, including our teachers. There was a lot of immigrant popution from Bihar and Bangladesh into Delhi in those years where people had been coming to Delhi to find employment.

Bihar had been such a progressive state in history and now it had become one of the most backward state. It had contributed so much and now it seems it cannot give us anything. The state is naturally rich bestowed with mineral wealth and agri-wealth, yet it is poor. The constant "s" pronunciuation to every "sh" phonetic was the butt of ridicule for the rest of Hindi speaking populace against the Bihari populace. No offence intended, just an observartion. And what awed most of us how Bihar people were just divided into two categories...The HAVEs & The HAVE NOTs. Highest UPSC positions were taken by people from Bihar. The students were either rankers or just bank-benchers, they were either highy educated or uneducated, rich or poor. We never much could see the middle level for them. These traits of Bihari made them quite unfriendly and not so sociable, until my mother's friendship with two Bihari women changed things for me through a peep into their culture.

So this is it primarly what is it that draws me to Afsar Bitiya. It is wise to say it when you actually feel it. Tomorrow as the drama changes, I may not feel motivated to say all this.😉 So I worded my thought of appreciation for the writer-producer. And it is also true that I have been very vocal in criticizing his shows twists. 😆 Now that "Khuli Choot" was given to us by Paswan himself when he says he picks an event and from there he weaves his story.

Thanking you all.

Disclaimer: No offence intended to Fans of Mr.Rakesh Paswan and To people from Bihar or knowing Bihar. This is my experience and what I know about. If anything seems wrong, factually incorrect, please come forth and do correct the fallacy.

***If interested or curious, you can read my opening post.

And Pinto getting kidnapped almost opened a track of Tuntun accusing Vidyapati of doing it...but better sense prevailed and they made it a normal wedding track. 😆

"It is a great satisfaction to receive the award for being the Best Show with a Social Message, mainly because this is the pitch of the story. Though I am excited on winning this award, I always felt I should have bagged an award earlier for Bhagyavidhaata or Baba Aiso Varr Dhundo. But then it is fine, and I am happy that I have managed to get one for Afsar Bitiya", stated Raakesh Paswan.

Talking more about the concept, the producer averred, "As you know, this story of Afsar Bitiya has been inspired by the real life story of my sister, who is the BDO of Jharkhand state. When she got appointed, the excitement level in our whole family was high, and this incident had always been close to my heart."

And on the unusual way in which the show got approved, Raakesh stated, "I had a meeting with Sukesh Motwani of Zee TV wherein he asked me to work on a youth show. After two weeks, I went to him with a youth based concept and narrated the story to him. He found it interesting and approved the concept. And then when I was about to leave, I just told him that I have one more interesting concept in mind. When he asked for details, I simply told him that it was based on education. For a moment he was stunned, but then he asked me to narrate. And this is when I narrated the concept of Afsar Bitiya to him. He immediately took the decision to go ahead with it, and asked me to work on the concept. And the rest is history (smiles)."

Three cheers for the Afsar Bitiya team!!!