Sapna Babul Ka Vidai

Sometimes you get serials that promise to be real tear-jerker. Alok Nath runs a family comprising of his wife played by Vibha Chibber (the assistant coach in movie Chak de India), his daughter Ragini (played by Parul Chauhan), and her cousin Sadhana (Sara Khan). The serial bears an uncanny resemblance to the start of the movie Vivah, although things could change later.
The serial comes on Star Plus weekdays (Monday - Thursday) at 9 PM for 30 minutes. The show seems a bit regressive, given that it currently seems to focus on parents desiring only one thing out of their daughters, that is. to get them married. In addition, there is a lot of focus on the emphasis of complexion on the ability to get married, and how groom's side can actually refuse to get their boy married just on the basis of complexion.
Ragini is in the queue to get married, but her cousin Sadhana is fair compared to the darker complexion of Ragini. To this end, Ragini's mother wants to prevent Sadhana from ever being seen when boys are seeing Ragini, or anywhere during the pre-marriage and marriage occasions (imagine depriving a cousin of the chance of taking part in the marriage festivities). And typically for a serial of this type, Sadhana is forced to emerge when the marriage of Ragini is happening at which stage, the groom's mother wants to swap the beautiful Sadhana for Ragini as the bride (imagine selecting a girl just based on complexion !). At this point thankfully, Alok Nath stands firm; although why they could not call the police when the groom's family demanded money was beyond me.
Similar to Saath Phere, this type of gender type-casting and regressive customs shown make one cringe, and certainly does not lead to any positive effect on society.