By Nitya Sriram:
At a time when family dramas still rule the roost in Indian television, upcoming action drama series AdhaFULL comes as a breath of fresh air. A sneak peek at the show (in the trailer below) suggests a refreshing detective story format that parallelly takes social issues head-on.
Set in the fictional village of “Badlipur” (an interesting play on the Hindi word for “change”), the real appeal of the show lies in the subverted gender roles among the protagonists – three teenagers named Kitty, Tara and Adrak.
Kitty sets the feminist tone of the series right at the beginning, stepping up as the ‘Angry Young Woman’ (a character popularised by men and generally reserved for them) saying, “I’m no less than a boy.”
There is no pretence regarding intent – the moral undercurrent in AdhaFULL is instantly evident from the very beginning of the teaser (courtesy – the voice-over). The social issues evidently tackled include child marriage, gender inequality and violence against women, to name a few. Overall, AdhaFULL shows great promise, set to generate a discussion around smashing prevalent social evils that Indian society is riddled with, even today.
A collaborative effort between UNICEF and BBC Media Action, the 78-episode long show will air on Doordarshan National at 7.30 p.m. every Friday & Sunday, from October 21.
