mano to the rescue, that's what i thought as editor cut to the shot of mano sleeping on the sofa in the middle of the day.
daughters in law are always presented as objects in hindi serials. they are people who have a prescribed set of duties and emotions that they are supposed to execute and feel. then they get to be seen as achhi bahus, good daughters in law, which apparently makes them into remarkable women and role models.
never occurs to a hindi soap seller to treat women as women and not things that must fit into society in this way or that.
of course, no woman is worth her salt till she has married and proven her achhi bahuness. in fact, achhi or buri, you have to be married... i am amazed at serial after serial going on and on about shadi and sasural and oh the troubles a lovely girl is willing to face for the sake of keeping her sasural together, which miraculously overnight becomes more her family than even the family she's born into.
there seems to be no story line other than ones involving marriage and ensuing mayhem.
single girls have no place in hindi soap, unless we are going to talk about their marriage.
and no woman has the right to be not so achhi and loved. she better comply with the rules of television and patriarchy and prove her loveworthiness.
no such thing with mano... and oh her totally cool ma in law.
nani ji is marvelous as she smiles and says, "taane marna aur sona yeh toh manorama ki janam siddh huq hai. hogi duniya ki sabse badi alsi, par dil ki buri naahin hai." saying nasty things and sleeping are manorama's birthright. she may be the world's most lazy person but she isn't bad of heart.
i wanted to send a shower of muah muah emoticons to nani ji and our sleeping bootiphool, hello hi bye bye.
unlike what tv says, reality is closer to this, my grandmother never viewed my mother from the point of view of work and doing things, she always valued her and loved her for who she was.
our television is building an obnoxious and regressive image of society with women as its main doers, army of workers... working away to keep all in order. the whole bahuriya culture is dangerous for women. i am not exaggerating...
so when i see mano, i feel peace and joy. yeah, she lies and cheats and is lazy beyond belief, but her family can sees he is not a bad sort really. and that is good enough for them. the value of human beings, of relationships, ipk had a lovely view of that.
i am sad to see how pedestrian ipk is being made to become. maybe that mano nani moment is a protest from the writers, who knows.
the setting up of "automatic confession" was gauche and out of the blue. khushi is sounding more and more like a bahu from another serial, a distinct gopi vahuness to her now, she the saviour of the parivaar. and my shatir tycoon is apparently unable to handle the situation without khushi ideas. oh well.
thankfully, he can still give goosebumps when he looks a certain way...
goosebumps continue to do their thing as he reacts to her too obvious cue about now they can do anything as the cameras aren't there, and walks to her and picks up the phone instead...
then turns and leans forward and asks in smoky voice, "tumhe lag raha tha ki main kuch aisa karne wala hoon?" did you think i might do something like this?
however, even that is not enough to get everyone's mind off shyam. i think shyam did finally what he'd set out to do, hijack the story and become centre of khushi ji's attention.
i reached a head desk (is that what it's called?) moment when shyam ran into his room and started talking loudly to himself about cameras, his plans, etc., making all things clear to us uh duh viewers. tell me, who does that. and why must this be done to ipk.
......................
fanfiction
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