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Posted online: Friday, July 28, 2006 at 0000 hours IST
She's the one who revolutionised the face of the Indian woman with Tara. A decade later, Vinta Nanda, creator of Tara finds television has regressed when it comes to depicting women characters. In this column, the writer-producer-director vents her views on what she feels strongly about...
"I don't know whether this is about Tulsi versus Barkha Dutt, or Parvati versus Tara, or even Navneet Nishan versus……of Kavyanjali, but I know for certain that this is not about France versus Italy in the World Cup Football Finals.
I happened to be watching We The People on NDTV, where the likes of Swami Agnivesh and Parvati Khan (love her name!) and others were heatedly discussing the Sabarimala situation. Rahul, the 23-year-old son of the head-priest of Sabarimala Temple had the gall to say that he stood in support for Sati and when Swamiji intervened and said that tradition and all religions are driven by men to control women, he actually dared to say, "So what's wrong with these women, that they don't like to be controlled by men?" (I'm surprised why any of those women on the show, who were flabbergasted with his stupidity, did not break his teeth).
Then again when Barkha steered the conversation to why any of the religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or any other, don't permit women to conduct prayers as priests, again one gentleman (I'm glad I've forgotten his name), piped up and said that women because of biological qualities given by nature, are impure. Oh my God! Yet nobody got up and bashed him up. (Must congratulate Barkha for the discipline she's able to maintain on her show).
Meanwhile Sagarika Ghosh on CNN IBN had an entire hour discussing how well-respected women used to be in Vedic times. In those days women even got to wear the sacred thread and were considered to be philosophers. She even rounded up her discussion with a story about women being trained to be priests in Pune, something the documentary I produced earlier this year also explored. So where does the logic go astray?
I continue to believe that it is our insistence on being stubborn about portraying women in the way we do on Television. We quickly push all those serials that show women as they really are, into the art-house box and lock it up proclaiming that our audiences are not ready for it. The one thing that beats all logic is that how do the commercials that support the same programmes on television reach their target of boom sales for the products they endorse if our audiences aren't ready for it. None of the women portrayed in any of the advertisements are regressive and sketched in a derogatory fashion.
Even movies have progressed. None of the films, commercial or art house, show us these crazy women that are etched out on the soap operas. Yet when I go to a meet in any channel to pitch for a programme, after a hugely-successful Miilee who was like none of the other characters you see on television these days, I hear the same thing. Regressive women work on soaps. Women like to see them suffer. They enjoy pain and sorrow. I invariably come back feeling terrible and wondering why the programmers can't get honest with themselves. Why don't they just admit that this is how most men in India like to see women? And this is what most men in India like women to watch and acknowledge as their own gender.
Just like it is men who say that women cannot enter certain temples and they cannot conduct prayers because they are impure, they say that women only like this kind of programmes. But I think that the revolution has started. The Sabarimala temple has raked up the debate and there is no stopping it. And thank God for enough intelligent men and women in the newsrooms who won't let go.
I can see the new launches on TV showing women differently. There is the youngest bahu in Thodi Khushi Thoda Gham questioning tradition. There is even this dark-skinned girl in Saat Phere who has a mind of her own. The poor little weepy sacrificing filled-with-sorrow and soaked-in-misery thing looks dated in comparison to these two determined young girls. I laud Ekta Kapoor for trying hard to reinvent the woman on the small screen, but she's burdened with the past that she dare not replace so she can keep the bourses balanced. Yet, when I bump into her at a pumping party at Olive Bar, freaking out with her friends and read all about how she got all invitees to the party drunk with her test-tube shots, I cannot help but think that the change of image is drastic. From walking barefoot to Siddhi Vinayak Temple to taking tapes of her episodes to Tirupati Balaji to be blessed, and turning those into PR pegs, Ekta has come a long way. When the veil of hypocrisy lifts and you begin to write about the life you lead, change can be heard knocking at the door.
The editor of Screen has requested me to write a weekly column on the portrayal of one woman on Television, every week. I have taken up the offer, because I think the time to interpret our mythologicals correctly has come. In this time of true democracy where communication and information is so readily available, there will be no more Sitas who'll agonize as they go through the agnipareeksha and no more Parvatis who will suffer in silence while her Shiva goes a-visiting.
We are in the times when boys can cry! David Beckham weeps when his team loses the World Cup Quarter Finals and women swoon and forgive him for (mis-) leading his team. We are in the times when women can laugh! Men go mad when the Brazilians do the Samba and Shakira opens the finals. They can surf, they can swim, they can glide and they can fly, just like anybody else.
And it's right here in our living rooms that we see them LIVE!
She's the one who revolutionised the face of the Indian woman with Tara. A decade later, Vinta Nanda, creator of Tara finds television has regressed when it comes to depicting women characters. In this column, the writer-producer-director vents her views on what she feels strongly about...
"I don't know whether this is about Tulsi versus Barkha Dutt, or Parvati versus Tara, or even Navneet Nishan versus……of Kavyanjali, but I know for certain that this is not about France versus Italy in the World Cup Football Finals.
I happened to be watching We The People on NDTV, where the likes of Swami Agnivesh and Parvati Khan (love her name!) and others were heatedly discussing the Sabarimala situation. Rahul, the 23-year-old son of the head-priest of Sabarimala Temple had the gall to say that he stood in support for Sati and when Swamiji intervened and said that tradition and all religions are driven by men to control women, he actually dared to say, "So what's wrong with these women, that they don't like to be controlled by men?" (I'm surprised why any of those women on the show, who were flabbergasted with his stupidity, did not break his teeth).
Then again when Barkha steered the conversation to why any of the religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or any other, don't permit women to conduct prayers as priests, again one gentleman (I'm glad I've forgotten his name), piped up and said that women because of biological qualities given by nature, are impure. Oh my God! Yet nobody got up and bashed him up. (Must congratulate Barkha for the discipline she's able to maintain on her show).
Meanwhile Sagarika Ghosh on CNN IBN had an entire hour discussing how well-respected women used to be in Vedic times. In those days women even got to wear the sacred thread and were considered to be philosophers. She even rounded up her discussion with a story about women being trained to be priests in Pune, something the documentary I produced earlier this year also explored. So where does the logic go astray?
I continue to believe that it is our insistence on being stubborn about portraying women in the way we do on Television. We quickly push all those serials that show women as they really are, into the art-house box and lock it up proclaiming that our audiences are not ready for it. The one thing that beats all logic is that how do the commercials that support the same programmes on television reach their target of boom sales for the products they endorse if our audiences aren't ready for it. None of the women portrayed in any of the advertisements are regressive and sketched in a derogatory fashion.
Even movies have progressed. None of the films, commercial or art house, show us these crazy women that are etched out on the soap operas. Yet when I go to a meet in any channel to pitch for a programme, after a hugely-successful Miilee who was like none of the other characters you see on television these days, I hear the same thing. Regressive women work on soaps. Women like to see them suffer. They enjoy pain and sorrow. I invariably come back feeling terrible and wondering why the programmers can't get honest with themselves. Why don't they just admit that this is how most men in India like to see women? And this is what most men in India like women to watch and acknowledge as their own gender.
Just like it is men who say that women cannot enter certain temples and they cannot conduct prayers because they are impure, they say that women only like this kind of programmes. But I think that the revolution has started. The Sabarimala temple has raked up the debate and there is no stopping it. And thank God for enough intelligent men and women in the newsrooms who won't let go.
I can see the new launches on TV showing women differently. There is the youngest bahu in Thodi Khushi Thoda Gham questioning tradition. There is even this dark-skinned girl in Saat Phere who has a mind of her own. The poor little weepy sacrificing filled-with-sorrow and soaked-in-misery thing looks dated in comparison to these two determined young girls. I laud Ekta Kapoor for trying hard to reinvent the woman on the small screen, but she's burdened with the past that she dare not replace so she can keep the bourses balanced. Yet, when I bump into her at a pumping party at Olive Bar, freaking out with her friends and read all about how she got all invitees to the party drunk with her test-tube shots, I cannot help but think that the change of image is drastic. From walking barefoot to Siddhi Vinayak Temple to taking tapes of her episodes to Tirupati Balaji to be blessed, and turning those into PR pegs, Ekta has come a long way. When the veil of hypocrisy lifts and you begin to write about the life you lead, change can be heard knocking at the door.
The editor of Screen has requested me to write a weekly column on the portrayal of one woman on Television, every week. I have taken up the offer, because I think the time to interpret our mythologicals correctly has come. In this time of true democracy where communication and information is so readily available, there will be no more Sitas who'll agonize as they go through the agnipareeksha and no more Parvatis who will suffer in silence while her Shiva goes a-visiting.
We are in the times when boys can cry! David Beckham weeps when his team loses the World Cup Quarter Finals and women swoon and forgive him for (mis-) leading his team. We are in the times when women can laugh! Men go mad when the Brazilians do the Samba and Shakira opens the finals. They can surf, they can swim, they can glide and they can fly, just like anybody else.
And it's right here in our living rooms that we see them LIVE!
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