Tellydom's tyrant: The nanand : ashwini

The sister-in-law (SIL) syndrome is as old as family and tradition have existed. The daughter is the darling of the house who is never wrong and even after marriage she is often seen spending time at her maika or mother's place, brewing trouble for her brothers' wives. But our tele serials go one step ahead and accommodate not just the daughter as a permanent fixture in the form of a chugal khor or problem creating nanand (sis-in-law) but her husband is a willing and happy-go-lucky ghar jamai.

Balaji Telefilms popularised this concept with Kyunki….and now with Kasamh Se, they have raised it to such a level that it seems almost mandatory to have a ghar-jamai in every serial. In Kyunki…, Gayatri chachi's (Kamalika Guha) daughter Sejal (Khyati) played the vampish sis-in-law to the hilt. As Kamalika puts it, "In fact when I went out, I used to have viewers asking me to send Sejal back to her sasural. On the sets we used to have fun poking at Khyati by asking her on whom she was going to eavesdrop today." Similarly Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki had sister Chaya returning home after her fight with her husband, only to end up poisoning her mother against the bhabhis.

Aditi Pratap plays Aditi bhaisa in the serial Saat Phere on Zee TV, where she stays at her mom's place with her husband Dheer Kunwarsa (Ashish Kapoor) and their son. Despite the protagonist Saloni (Rajshri Thakur) being portrayed as the epitome of goodness, Aditi bhaisa more often than not regards her brother's wife with suspicion. Sometimes the track veers towards her infidel, good-for-nothing and Casanova of a husband. Though Aditi Pratap defends the storyline by saying, "In order to avoid repetitiveness in the serial, different tracks have to be explored. It can be done only through involving relatives who are insiders and relevant to the story," in real life she does not conform to the idea as she affirms, "Never. I will not marry a person who will make us stay at my parents' place. But if my parents need any help from me in their old age then I will certainly be there with them."

According to Sunjoy Wadhwa, producer of Saat Phere, "There are hundreds of ghar - jamais in real life and they add an element of drama to the story. When there are more characters, different thought processes take place and are bound to clash with each other thereby providing a variety of angles to be explored." But Wadhwa assures that his next serial Saathi Re does not involve any such maika - sitting daughter.

Resham Dankh on Star One too depicts sister Poonam (Dimple Shah) with her free-loading husband Brijesh (Rajiv Mehta) and their vagabond son having a gala time at her brother Aditya Balraj's (Raahil Azam) expense. JD Majethia clarifies, "We include more characters in the serial so that it becomes more interesting. In Resham Dankh, Poonam and Brijesh are cheats and bankrupts who have swindled people of their money. Because he cannot forsake his sister, Aditya (Raahil) entertains their stay in his house."

Poonam Narula Goyal was the typical domineering sis-in-law Nivedi in Kasauti Zindagi Ki on Star Plus who stayed at her maike with her deceitful husband
and also had a stake in the family business and competed with her brother and protagonist Anurag Basu in administrative matters and financial share.

Another SIL who not only stays with her brother Jay Walia (Ram Kapoor) along with her grown up children but demands non-existing rights too is Jigyasaa (Ashvini Kalsekar) of Kasamh Se on Zee TV. For some unknown reasons, Jigyasaa's estranged husband and mother-in-law too stay with them enjoying the generosity and luxury of the Walia household. The track also reveals Jigyasa and her son, besides her husband separately plotting and scheming to strip Mr.Walia of his wealth. The idea of portraying outsiders, like friends, and giving them so much importance would not be in keeping with the Indian mindset since viewers identify with the characters and relate to the kith and kin perception. "An outsider interfering in family matters would never be accepted by the viewers, hence the addition of wily, wicked betis, buas, mausis, jamais and chachajis," feels Ashvini Kalsekar.

Writer Rekkha Modi, the well-known writer, who has penned serials like Kyunki….., etc. for Ekta Kapoor, insists that in the forthcoming serial Parayaa Dhan on Star One which is her first production, she has not used any such element as she feels, "Look at Tulsi, Parvati, Prerna ……. when there is one positive character there should be another negative one to offset the story line. Basically, earlier when I was writing for other producers, I had to comply with their ideas and drama plots. But now after turning producer myself with my personally conceived show Betiyaan, I have used only natural characters whom people can identify with and there is no such scheming daughter/ sister in the house. This SIL syndrome has become monotonous."

Even though our country has seen the emergence of nuclear families, tellywood's mindset has not progressed beyond watching a good-for-nothing SIL camped at her maika with her hubby tagged along.