Why is the woman always a villain on Indian telly

I find it extremely tragic that Indian television soaps are not only ridiculously low in standards but also misogynistic in nature. The launch of Pakistani channel Zindagi in India by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited on June 23, this year, has suddenly put things in perspective for me. Zindagi is essentially the Indian counterpart of Zee TV, an entertainment channel, replete with shows filled with drama, angst, humour and romance. Most of the shows that are currently being aired deals with themes such as women empowerment, patriarchy, family and social dynamics. What more, it doesn't have a single saas-bahu drama.

Kaash Main Teri Beti Na Hoti is about a bride who's treacherously sold to bear an heir to a man who's already married. The father-in-law is the mastermind of this plan who pays the girl's family a large sum of cash to purchase her hand. He also ensures that the girl is then treated like a slave in their house. Kahi Unkahi is about a young boy who falls in love and wants to marry his driver's daughter who studies in a medical school. The boy's father opposes the match while his mother and his elder sister-in-law break taboo and come out in full support of the boy's decision. I find it curious that while we are still hell-bent on showing the woman as the bitch in our shows; just one Pakistan channel has shown us how to do it differently.

The easiest way of spotting the villain in Indian soaps is by noticing how large her bindi is. The woman is also the one who sows evil in the minds of men who end up doing horrible misdeeds. Kaisa Yeh Ishq Hai... Ajab Sa Risk Hai on Life OK is about a modern day girl from Singapore, Simran, who falls in love with a Haryanvi boy and follows him back to his village to marry him. We see her transform into a typical Haryanvi girl - clothes, cooking, accent and body language, everything about her changes. When her cover finally gets blown, it isn't her father-in-law that bumps her off; it is her father-in-law's ever suspecting real sister. Of course, Simran survives and the show moves on to its second season.

Gustakh Dil on Life Ok is another show where the modern high-class mother-in-law Barkha goes against her son's choice of marrying a village belle. Even when the village belle decides to make something of herself and is on her way to becoming the next blue-eyed girl of show biz, the mother-in-law tries to quash all her efforts by adding allergens to her kohl or mixing bhaang in the prasad from the temple to make her miss auditions and photo shoots.

It would be unfair, however, to say that all Indian soaps are unanimously against women. Udaan on Colors highlights the grave issue of bonded labour in Indian villages via a female child protagonist and Diya Aur Baati Hum on Star Plus features Sandhya's struggle to fulfil her dream of becoming an IPS officer where she finds help from the most unlikely quarter - a husband who can make it possible. Then there's Balika Vadhu, which is set in rural Rajasthan and focuses on the family dynamics by tracing the arduous journey of child bride Anandi from the brink of childhood to womanhood. Yet, even these shows have strong female antagonists who are the harbingers of all trouble. Also, most of these shows fail to impress or inspire because of their hackneyed plots, stale one-dimensional characterisations and painfully slow moving storylines.

One would expect that a country like Pakistan plagued with political and economic upheavals, whose status of democracy is questionable, would indulge in fantastical entertainment or a too sanitised content. Instead, they are rooted in hardcore realism. On this channel, their shows finish, on an average, in a mere 25 episodes. Not only do they deal with the thorny issues such as the patriarchal society of Pakistan, but also shed light into the inner lives of polygamous men and their neglected wives. Their shows capture life with such sensitivity that it moves you.

Their hit show, for instance, Zindagi Gulzar Hai is about a man who leaves behind a wife and three teenage daughters to marry another woman and how the left behind family lead a life with honour, dignity and independence, despite not having means to survive.

Indian television shows were not so terrible a generation ago. We miss shows like Campus (early '90s), Just Mohabbat (1996) and Banegi Apni Baat (1993) that dealt with issues the youth could relate to. Or housewives could watch shows about a single mother, Saans (1998), or a single independent woman, Tara (1993). For comedy, Zabaan Sambhal Ke, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Hum Paanch or Filmi Chakkar and later Sarabhai vs Sarabhai were religiously watched by one and all. Classics like Hum Log, Byomkesh Bakshi, Rajni and Shanti are just a distant pleasant memory.