I’ve been wondering ? when does one be qualified to review a mega-serial? After watching 10 episodes? After watching 100 episodes? You might say at least 100, but if it happens that you hated a serial in the first place (not yet applicable here), what is going to make you watch 100 episodes at all? So after 100 episodes all you’re going to get are ’’I lllll-ooooo-ve it!’’ reviews. Therefore, at least for the sake of the haters (it’s a democratic country after all!), you have to allow those who’ve watched as little as 10 episodes write reviews. That’s where I come in.
In fact, I’ve been planning to watch Jassi for ages. Girls at my school would go berserk about it and comments like ’’Oh I love Jassi! It’s so different from all those saas-bahu serials. I can?t tolerate them!’’ would only increase my curiousity. But somehow ? thanks to my very irregular schedule where no two days are alike ? I never quite got around to begin. Until 2 weeks ago in a desperate attempt I switched on the TV at 9:30. So my tryst with Jassi has been exactly 10 days. And boy what I saw!
A quick brush with the essential info ?
Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahi is a Hindi mega-serial aired on Sony TV, Monday to Thursday, in the prime time ie. from 9:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. It’s the story of an utterly unfashionable middleclass young girl called Jasmit Walia who works in the high-end fashion house called Gulmohar. In spite of her heavy glasses, ugly braces and baggy salwars ? Jassi has her heart in the right place and is sincere, honest and hardworking ? for which she wins the hearts of all except those who are jealous of her. A few important characters in the story are Jassi’s boss Armaan, Armaan’s girlfriend Mallika and her brother Aryan who work in the same company, the intolerable clumsy bimbo Pari, Jassi’s dad and mom and grandma and her clingy (yucky!) fiancé Nandu, suave entrepreneur Purab who’s in love with Jassi and so on. (These are the few I saw in my 10-day stint)
But this is probably what everyone knows because I knew this ages before I began to see the show, just from my girlfriends gossiping about it.
? and now, the BOMB!
After 10 days, let me confess that I HATED Jassi.
Conjuring a controversy is the last thing on my agenda but I must speak my mind. Thankfully I’ve never been subjected to the torture of having regular doses of K-serials because my mom’s the last thing the K-bahus would want to be (and don’t I respect her for that!), but sometimes I had just fancied watching a few episodes of each just to get a feel. And to me, JJKN looked no different from them.
Long-suffering, poor Jassi is an exact copy of the disgusting pativrataa from the K-serials, who suffers silently and sacrifices all for the others’ sake. She’s just so unreal! She doesn?t even have the normal feelings and desires of a young girl, even her voice reminds me of my grandmother. Clothes apart, can?t she even yank that ridiculous pair of specs? She’s such a clown!
Replace Gulmohar as the home, Armaan as the husband-gone-wayward, Mallika and Pari as the malicious ’other women’, Hansamukhi and her company as the alluring-life-outside every true pativrataa should refrain from ? and you get the perfect K-serial.
It always amazed me how could the K-serials or movies like MPKDH etc. be appreciated, even in a traditional country like India. It’s after all the 21st century! Isn’t it ridiculous that when it comes to a girl they still make virtues out of silence, suffering, sacrifice and such shit? If you give up your rights, you should be idolized. If you refrain from enjoying your life and choose to be a recluse instead, you’re a goddess. If you’re a fool, that’s only because you’re innocent. Ambition, cleverness, wanting to look good, fighting for your rights are characteristics of immoral women. If you want to look after yourself and have a good time, you must be a bitch! Because good girls aren’t supposed to do that. How great!
Jassi stands for each of these (so-called) virtues, just as the K-serial bahu does. Being ill-treated for ages at Gulmohar, Jassi decides to quit the fashion house and gets another really lucrative offer from another fashion house (forgot the name) where the boss Hansamukhi is really nice to her. She calls Jassi ’my Barbie doll’ and all sorts of endearments and gives her advice for free and Jassi knows she’d be treated well if she joins here. But still her conscience brings her back to Gulmohar. One smile from her highly-deceitful boss Armaan ? who doesn?t even care to respect her privacy and uses her honesty just for his business purpose ? and she forgets every ill-treatment she received, the lucrative job offer and the well-wisher Hansamukhi. And just as I was about to scream ’’What a bloody fool!’’ my girlfriends squeal ’’Oooh! Wasn?t that so nice for her? She won?t leave Gulmohar for life!’’ And what would Gulmohar do for her, may I ask?
And Jassi wouldn?t care about the affectionate Purab who’s secretly fallen in love with her but whom her father doesn?t approve ? nice girls aren’t supposed to do that ? but she’d go back to Armaan, whom she blindly idolizes (don’t know if she fantasizes him, but from the recluse that she is, it seems unlikely) because it’s her duty to support her boss. Urgh! Made me remember of the bought slaves in Uncle Tom’s Cabin (that’s a helluva great book!).
In the end of it all I just felt like screaming ? ’’If suffering happens to be your favourite pastime, why don’t you GO TO HELL?’’
Is this how the ideal Indian working woman is expected to be? The suffering creature who’d take into stride everyone’s tantrums and still sport a smile, who’d run after conscience forgetting about career, who’d come back home and hand all her income to her dad, to whom material comforts of the world are a sin?
Negative Characters
As with most K-serials, the negative characters of JJKN are far more interesting and realistic, though not entirely. Jassi’s father, according to me, is the most realistic character. He’s just the perfect middleclass man who’s ambition is to educate his daughter and let her work and prosper, but still keep her feet into the family tradition. His dreams, worries, speech, actions are the most real ? although he tends to overact at times.
Armaan fits into the shoes of the suave, smooth-talking, sly businessman almost convincingly, although the times he peeks around like a thief to spy over his subordinates are purely ridiculous.
Pari is good as the headless bimbo but I think they make her overact to make her more intolerable that she’s supposed to be. And the girl looks really ugly in pink, she looked quite tolerable when I saw her in the movie Rules last year.
Rakshanda Khan as Mallika looks really clever and a convincing businesswoman but I haven’t really got a chance to see her act in these 10 episodes.
So at last ?
Can I expect a few really harsh comments? (Nahi meri jaan, you should at least leave a good comment!) That’ll be a complement, actually. Thanx.