Channels ki Lakshmi, Betiyan!

Burn them for dowry, kill them in the womb or harass them till they commit suicide. The female of the species is nevertheless, or perhaps for these very gruesome reasons, excellent fodder for television programming in India today.

The channels' best defence is to say that fiction is merely reflecting what's being routinely reported in the newspapers every day, both urban and rural. Which is why Zee's attempt to portray the travails of the girl child in a positive light through Betiyann may come as a breath of fresh air, when it launches next week. Call it coincidence or inadvertent plagiarism, but Star One has a similarly themed and titled show due for release shortly, too. Taken all around, despite the similarities, it's infinitely better having shows putting womanhood in a positive light rather than demeaning them. Presuming these new shows don't stray off the promised track and succumb to mush for the assured TRPs, here's something to look forward to.

Just at the time that TV seems to be looking at women differently, we have a slew of new shows that have demure heroines as protagonists, whose sole aim in life is to wait for prince charming, and then spend the rest of their lives ruing the day they married him. Dulhann did it, as did Vaidehi, Karam Apna Apna is doing it and now Sony's forthcoming show, Kaajjal, is threatening the same thing, if the promos are to be believed. Kaajjal apparently spends all her waking hours having imaginary conversations with her Ganu bhaiya (Lord Ganesh, for those slow on the uptake), wondering when her dreamboat is going to make his grand entry. Her parents look on, indulgently.

Whichever way you look at it, betiyan (daughters) definitely spell Lakshmi (moolah). And not just for one particular show on one particular channel.

****