Note to makers of TV serials: Get real in reel life

Rajkumari Sharma Tankha

Watching Hindi serials on the idiot box is literally becoming a pain in the neck. Most serials have nothing else to offer except the “decked up scheming” women. Pick up any serial and you come across women with Obsessive Compulsive Syndrome for the men they love or propose to love.

I wonder if any woman in real life would be donning a precious silk sari before going to the kitchen to cook. And I really doubt if any woman in real life would be as conceited and manipulative as shown in these fiction series. For the uninitiated, it would appear as if Indian women have nothing else to do except possessing the man they love.

On the flip side, our TV serials show our men in a very poor light, for they are always being lead by the women. If these serials and characters therein are an insult to woman, I think these are doubly more insulting towards the men. Men are shown as smiling robots, without having any grey cells in their brains. They are never shown to be thinking with their own heads.

This is so much in opposition to the existing reality.

On the contrary, despite educated women of today having awakened to their rights, in most households, it is the man who is the decision-maker. It is he who tells the women what to do and what not to. In some households, the situation of the women is even pathetic.

Lest someone takes me wrong, I am not justifying the male domination, I strongly feel the domination of any kind is bad enough for any home, any society. God made Adam and Eve complimentary to each other and that’s how they should be, we should be. Anytime the balance tilts to one side, it is bound to spell doom.

But let’s not get too philosophical. Going back to the TV serials, I also feel why do they show parents as slaves of their manipulative children? I mean in real life if my son would be as bad as the lead character of Ghulam, I would take steps to correct him.

If my daughter is obsessive about a man as Tanu is in Kumkum Bhagya, I would shift her away to another city and involve her in some other useful activity, some hobby to divert her attention and if the craving turns real out of control then get her treated from some psychiatrist, rather than making her life hell by toeing to her whims and fancies and marry her off to an already-married man who doesn’t love her at all.

Why should a father allow his daughter to make her life a mess knowingly and why should a mother allow her daughter to marry a man just for money?

Why on the earth can’t they show parents as sane individuals, capable enough to handle their children? Why do they show them as mere puppets, with strings in the child’s hand?

Again why don’t they show the victory of good over evil, why do they keep showing that the evil woman keeps on winning while the good one is forever losing. Why should the good woman/man be dumb? Why can’t she/he speak her/his mind?

I think it’s time TV producers revamp their creative teams and include some fresh talent. There are plenty of creative writers in market who are just slogging for want of good openings.