With a name like Balika Vadhu, my first instinct was to shut
the TV the other day when I had finished watching yet another episode of Bigg
Boss Season 2 on Colors. I think that was over 5 weeks ago. It seemed to me
that this serial would glorify and spread the tradition of child marriage,
which is much in evidence even today, especially in Rajasthan, but also
elsewhere.
Without much ado, let me say then, that although the producer and the TV
channel must have had commercial interests in their mind, they have really done
the nation a service by - creating awareness about the evils of child marriage
(and also other social ills like dowry, the social boycott of families who do
not "obey" retrograde rules of a society, the real evil of discarding
and even attempting to murder a girl-woman who ran away with a boy and has come
back, abandoned, with a baby in her "koakh" (is pregnant), and
so on).
By creating a matriarch (dadisa, played excellently by Sikand) who believes in
all the rotten values of an archaic social order, the serial actually makes us
hate her, and her values, albeit indirectly. She gets her elder, widowed son,
age above 50, married to a mere 18 year old - just to satisfy his
"lust" which she calls his "loneliness"; she mistreats her
daughter-in-law by keeping her suppressed and barely acknowledging her needs;
she brings a grand-daughter-in-law, just 11 years old (the irrepressible
Anandi) into the household, and terrorises her by locking her up in a dark room
for over 24 hours for a minor transgression (which is not even that, actually);
she eggs on her elder son to "keep his new wife on a tight leash",
and to bring her under his power "with love, but if need be, with
force"; she keeps her younger son (the father-in-law of Anandi, and
Jagdishya’s dad) also suppressed, as the elder son has the run of the house ...
all this and more ...with the help of acting par excellence: her expressions,
body language and attitudes are so authentic that one would be loath to believe
that she is only an actor, and not a real dadisa.
Anandi - played by a Mumbai-based discovery - is found to be constantly crying
in the first two weeks or more in the household; she gradually learns to toe
the line and keep her interests and urges in the background as dadisa slowly
warms towards her; everyone uses her, including Jagdish - her beend (husband) (what a beautiful word -
and the lovely way it is pronounced with a nasal "N" in beend and beendnee), who makes her do his homework while he lazes around.
Some questions that the serial poses:
Why should a beendnee eat the "jhootha" from her beend’s food plate?
Why do girls not get a chance to be fully educated?
Why should widows not be allowed to wear any simple jewellery even? (this social evil of a widow being asked to shave
off her hair, and live like a recluse, is also highlighted)
What kind of a person is the head of a household who has money - she will treat
her samdhees with scorn and insult
them on their face?
I recommend this serial to those who haven’t yet seen it, because it
"exposes" the above ills, and I am sure, it will continue to expose
more such evils of society in the months to come - and it does this in an
entertaining way, so that we are really moved to choose between good and evil,
and not just ignore it as if it were just one bit of news unconnected to us. A
simple two-line message appears at the end of every episode. It highlights the
evil and asks a question to viewers in particular, and to the samaaj-ke-thekedaar in general, and
exhorts them to put paid and to really abolish child marriage.
See the serial if you want to see genuine Rajasthani traditions, admire
Rajasthani decor, jewellery, food, language, and more. See the serial if you
would like to see some excellent acting by the main cast, but especially dadisa and Anandi.
Don’t see the serial if family drama does not move you, if you want to keep
your head in the sand like an ostrich, or if you want to judge serial makers by
watching only one side of any presentation.