Opinion Rakhi Sawant,married alive

What stood out in the show,other than the tall Elesh,is this new Rakhi — demure and ceaselessly mouthing homespun philosophy right out of Ramayana on family values,traditions,the duties of a bahu etc. This wasn’t the Rakhi we knew. Although she was dressed the part of Rakhi S,item girl,the Rakhi of Swayamvar was the girl next door. Which was for real? Was the show for keeps? Maybe that’s for Elesh to find out.

Meanwhile,the first sensible contestant took her money and ran from the truth on Sach Ka Samna and on Dadagiri,the hunterwali anchor cracked her whip,plunged her chin into her well-displayed bosom and spat abuse at the contestant whose mouth was plunged inside a septic tank (or the equivalent): this fool,bl… What a dumb a…you are. Before he could return the compliments,he was tossed out of the tank,and show,raging like a bull.

Plenty raging inside Pooja whose husband shoved her face into the floor because,well,he likes to. Poor Pooja is a good Indian naari so she suffers in silence (Ladies Special,Sony). In Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo (Zee),a young girl is sold as a daasi to a wealthy landowning family which treats her like a communicable disease and she sits mute as stone as they heap indignities upon. In Balika Vadhu,child bride Anandi’s mother in law swallows her protests at the injustice perpetrated in her family so frequently she must have more bile than can be good for her. In Pavitra Rishta (Zee),uneducated Archana is eating her words all the time because her rampaging mother can’t stop talking. Last week,she spent an entire 23-minute episode in outraged silence. Antacid anyone?

Perhaps a reason reality shows like Sach Ka Samna or Dadagiri are finding a responsive audience is because serials such as Ladies Special,Agle Janam,Balika and Pavitra are suffocating us with their repressed emotions,suppressed responses. In the current crop of social serials on the sorry state of the girl child,none of the ‘good’ may raise their voices against the ‘bad’ without monstrous punishment — so they never speak up or out. They surrender,submit,suffer and suffer. They’re waiting to exhale — and so are we.

Sach ka Samna and other reality TV leaves little unsaid. On shows like Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao,Dadagiri or earlier Bigg Boss,people can’t stop telling each other or us what they really think and feel in parliamentary and unparliamentary language peppered with four letter words. They do as they wish,letting it all (hang) out. What’s more,they’re doing it,if not with a smile on their faces,at least without all the tears in India. So when the man on Sach agreed,last week,that he shirked his responsibilities by feigning illness,he did so with a sheepish grin. He’s behaving like a human being not the human sacrifice we see in serials.

shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com