Will Resham Jhanpi Break Stereotypes?
Love is complex. But marriage is perhaps more complicated. It’s one thing to be in love, and a big step to exchange wedding vows and start a family. A few years down the line, the husband-wife chemistry turns stale as familiarity breeds contempt. And that’s when chances of a third person entering the fissures increase.
Opinion, however, is largely divided on whether one should continue with a decaying marriage simply for the sake of commitment or should quit when matters. The traditional foundations of marriage are increasingly crumbling with women beginning to assert their rights. But Bengali television script writers usually try to avoid such ‘uneasy’ questions. National television, on the other hand, is more open with their content with extra-marital affairs being fairly common in many of the shows. Bengali directors and writers are still grounded to the belief that it’s the duty of the wife to preserve the sanctity of marriage.
Of late, some Bengali television writers are trying to break free from societal taboos. Their leading ladies have become more independent with many preferring to live separately from insensitive and abusive husbands. Even then, a major female character divorcing her husband to enter into a new relationship, is usually not seen in Bengali television. Such a possibility nonetheless emerged in the past few episodes of Aamar Durga on Zee. But the lead character Charu was sent back to her husband and the story of her new relationship was pushed to an entirely new track.
If the latest episodes of Resham Jhanpi on Colors Bangla are any indication, the serial is likely to break stereotypes in the coming days. The newly appointed officer to Reshamganj police station Indranath’s growing closeness to the protagonist Nandini, has been a surprise departure from the tried formula. Indranath protests the injustice meted to Nandini by her in-laws which brings him at loggerheads with the girl’s husband.
Whether the writers of Reshm Jhanpi would go on to explore the Nandini-Indranath relationship, will of course depend on the serial’s TRP. But the signs are clear that the writers are trying something different with the content.
