Children playing dress-up

So let’s call their bluff. Let’s watch Balika Vadhu (Colors),not because it is the only bluff-master around,but because it was the one we liked to watch most and the one whose success set off this obsession with “doing good”. Recently young Anandi made her last appearance before she took a big leap forward,and rejoined us later five years older (she’s now around 17),with a new actress taking over the role from the winsome Avika Gor.

For those not in the picture,Balika Vadhu is about the life of a child bride,Anandi,in Rajasthan. Throughout the episode,there was a great deal of (unnecessary) crying. Anandi cried,her mother cried,her husband cried — in fact,anyone close to her was in tears. They had their reasons of course: Anandi is living with her parents,separated from husband Jagdish,something she cannot bear. Nor can Jagdish. So what does he do? He disappears from home one fine day and sets off to visit his wife.

As he nears her village,he begins to run,shouting out her name; that echoes across the desert and reaches Anandi,dressed up like a doll,who gazes out at the vast expanse of the sand dunes,sees a moving dot on the horizon and identifies it as her lord and master. Then she,too,begins to run.

It is such a lyrical moment. There he is running towards her,rather like Shah Rukh Khan does in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai,there she is running towards him,rather like Kajol does towards SRK in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. There’s the sun-kissed desert between them,the lilting music,love is in the air. Finally,they’re face to face. They hug,or embrace,clutching on to each other as though they will never let go,all the while crying copiously. Before this can go any further,his wicked uncle arrives and yanks him away,separating them once again. Jags looks back at Anandi,sadness and yearning battling for ascendancy in his expression; she returns his look,longingly,alone in the sand.

It’s all so touching and heartrending,and it would be very tragic and romantic if this was Romeo and Juliet or the Hindi film equivalent. But this is about two young children who have been married before puberty behaving like young lovers. Don’t they remind you of the kids on the talent shows who imitate adults?

If a serial about child marriage becomes a Hindi film then you can write anything you want in the fine print against this social “evil”,but to the viewer,it looks very,very attractive. Anandi always looked gorgeous,Jagdish was boyish-baby faced,his parents loving and giving. If only Dadisa would go away,life would be wonderful for the child bride.

Watching the serial,every evening at home,we tend to suspend disbelief. We become so intimately involved with the characters that we forget we are watching a young boy and girl in a marriage situation. We begin to react to them like they are characters in any other soap. That’s the danger of these well-intentioned serials.

Moving on: the “Sohrabuddin tapes” on Times Now,last Monday and Tuesday may indeed provide clinching evidence in the Sohrabuddin case — but frankly,for the average viewer,the conversations were incomprehensible,and we spent most of our time staring at the ceiling.

And if Mani Shankar Aiyar is at all “unhappy” about the Commonwealth Games,he manages to conceal it. On NDTV 24×7 and Times Now,he looked like he was enjoying himself hugely at the expense of everyone else. Ha,ha.