You must have come across bizare Indian tv shows whether it be through memes or word of mouth. You wouldn’t find many Gen Z today watching shows of Star Plus, Colors or Zee tv, simply because there being better shows out there or just because of how shitty, illogical and absurd ITV shows have actually become.
You might think what’s there to worry about a show? The reason to worry about is it’s audience usually comprises of the older generation who are already tied down there with a massive amount of stereotypes and this shows do nothing but promote them to cater to their audience. Some of the ever existing script of such shows are evil mother – in – law or evil in laws in general, way too good to exist and forgiving female lead, the toxic relationship of the main cast, the male lead almost never defending the female lead in front of her family whilst knowing she is right, the male lead always having a second female lead with whom he has a constant involvement with even after the marriage, overly toxic second female leads, constantly associating the bad female character with western clothes and the female lead with kurti and sari (not that there’s anything wrong with kurtis but indirectly trying to glorify the fact that if you wear modern day clothes then you are minx and cheap), the main leads constantly doubting each other at every chance whilst showing them in love, unnecessary leaps whenever the trp goes down and the worst of all – never actually positively showing the main leads i.e there is always some conspiracy targeted towards them one after another etc.
Wow that’s a lot. You might wonder that it’s just a piece of art, nobody takes these shows seriously. Unless that’s not true, how can something that people see every day not have any impact in their life? It’s nearly impossible for it to not have any influence over the way you think. That’s why the blatant misogyny, double standards and the carp being promoted is something to be actually concerned about. Because these shows don’t run on their own, it runs because people wish to see it, which really portrays a very disturbing reality of India today. Just the way some people pointed out how disturbing the ‘Animal’ movie was, same way these shows are disturbing but not as aggresive as in the movie, it’s subtle and something which would change your perspective on things over a period of time.
At the end of a very tired day, wouldn’t you want to see your favourite shows with a warm meal, doesn’t the idea seem so comforting? It’s the same for people who watch these shows, just a way of relaxation, only to be hit by negativity in every way possible each time they start watching it. It’s not entirely their fault either. The majority of it’s audience comprises of women in their forties and above, most of them being housewives, who wish to lighten up their mood but are restricted by actual options that exist with them today. Indeed their exist some positive shows today but none of them are in genre of romance an drama, the one which appease most to the audience of such shows.
So at the end of day what can we do to actually solve the issue? Stop watching these shows in totality and call out their wrongs instead at laughing how horrific they are, cause while you are laughing at it, they have the last laugh because of the show being a hit despite showing nothing but toxic love triangles and brainless behaviour.
(I would like to actually mention the reason behind the idea of this article was that I saw a clip of Star Plus show named ‘Teri Meri Doriyan‘ where the male lead slaps the female lead – this show is absolutely vile to put in lightly, comprising of any such insulting and degrading scenes , they attached a small warning beneath showing that they don’t condone behaviour shown but obviously are willing to promote it in their serials, that’s when I got to know that the problem in such shows has gone far ahead from ‘Rasode mein kaun tha?’)