Anandi’s journey

As a mature heroine has taken over after the time-leap in Balika Vadhu, 
will the tear-jerker be able to retain its TRPs? Asks V. Gangadhar

A ‘historic’ moment in the history of Indian television as viewers of Colours TV channel kept buckets ready to collect the continuing gush of tears, the excitement became unbearable.

A five-year time-leap in the mother of all tear jerkers, Balika Vidhu and more important, the arrival of a new heroine, Anandi. She had to arrive because in the serial’s plot her character had to grow up, become mature and hopefully rejoin her husband, whom she had married at age of eight.

Since her marriage, she had lived at her in-laws’ house, undergoing all kinds of suffering, humiliation, all the time shedding copious tears. Even other females in the serial, too, were always in the tear-mode. The tears mania had also afflicted the female viewers of the serial while the husbands and male members wondered why a serial, depicting so much agony, suffering and female exploitation, was screened at a time when the family had to be together and be happy. And was it auspicious to weep at sandhya kaal?

The Mumbai actor Avika Gor, a schoolgirl, who played Anandi from episode one since July 2008 till now, was now 13. Though she looked quite mature and grown-up, she could not play the role of an 18-year-old girl. Further, Avika wanted to concentrate on her studies.

The new Anandi was Pratyusha Banerjee, who had not missed a single day’s viewing of the serial. Pratyusha was introduced with a typical filmy flair with all sorts of images, desert scenes, hero and heroine running towards each other and so on.

I had watched the serial off and on for the past two years. To begin with, the theme had good intentions, to expose the evils of child marriage. Anandi and Jagiya were married when she was eight and he, perhaps, 10 or so. Even at that tender age, Anandiparents sent their young daughter to her in-law’s place whereas the normal practice in child marriages was that this only happened after the girl had grown up.

Dadisa, the grand old female of the serial, also insisted on bringing Anandi to her home so that the new bahu could be ‘trained’ properly. What was this ‘training’? Girls were inferior to boys; they did not need education but had to do all household work. Anandi became the ideal doormat.

Of course, her in-laws loved her and so did the husband. But then, nothing moved in the house without Dadisa’s approval and she had opinions on everything. Anandi should not study because she was cleverer than her boy-husband. She could not visit her parents because they were poor and inferior. Jagiya could do no wrong, even when he stole money from home to gamble with friends, switched school reportcards to claim he had scored more marks than Anandi. Worse, when Anandi nearly died after saving Jagiya in a shootout and was saved by a near-miraculous brain surgery, Dadisa was grateful to a certain extent but concluded that Anandi had gone off her rocker after the surgery and hence she should chose a new child-bride for her beloved Jagiya Anandi bore this exploitation and suffering. Often, she was so self-righteous in defending Dadisa that one felt slapping her a bit to arouse some kind self respect for her and her sex.

As for the theme of child marriage, it got lost time and again with all sorts of meandering sub-plots offered as needless diversion (like the bizarre Thipri episodes). Avika Gor did not need to even act in the serial. All she had to do was nod her head like a dumb doll, grimace, look morose or shed tears.

In what era did take the serial take place? The characters used mobile phones, drove around in cars. Yet, no one even hinted that growing up problems included sexual attraction.

Even while shedding drums of tears while separating Anandi and Jagiya, no senior character cared to inform the two that they needed to be separated for sometime because their close proximity could end in sexual relations resulting in Anandi’s teenage pregnancy. Did the creators of the serial still believe that the stork brought babies?

Now that the new Anandi had taken over, let us see if she is able to out-weep her predecessor and confront the absurdities of the plot. Serials of this type cause great harm to the Indian society by preaching false values. The original Anandi must now be back in school and I hope she did not burst into tears if her teachers even scolded her. Habits die hard.

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