Saloni Ka Safar: Same story again

Somehow the concept of Saath Phere - Saloni ka Safar keeps on going through the same phases. Initially, the serial was all about the struggle of a dark colored girl, Saloni (Rajshree Thakur) against the prejudices that seemed to be against people with dark complexions. She had to struggle against her own parents who favor her fairer sister. In addition, her quest for a marriage partner was a big struggle.
However, I have the serial all worked out now. The serial will essentially capture one by one, a series of stories whereby Saloni will be forced down a path whereby she has to struggle to go with her convictions, She has to live by the truth as she knows it, even though she has to forsake support from her family. So, for example, in the latest incident, Saloni's sister-in-law, Priya was estranged from her husband and had to work make her living. One day, she was raped by somebody, and eventually suspicion fell on her estranged husband. Everybody believed this except for Saloni. Manno Bhabhi has recovered her long lost son Abhi and is very happy, and is even happier when Abhi marries Priya. Then Saloni gets to know that Abhi had raped Priya, and is shocked, but accuses him. And then then inevitable happens. Her in-laws, and even her own father forsake her because of these accusations and don't believe her. So she has to struggle all alone to prove this.
These are the kinds of struggles that Saloni has to go through for the sake of living for the truth, and my belief is that as soon as a particular set of problems are resolved and Saloni is proved right, she moves into the next set of problems where again she has to struggle, people don't believe her, and so on.

Strange Sa Re Ga Ma Pa episode - Post Independence Day Special

On the 11th of August, there was the Independence Day Special on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa on Zee TV with Kapil Dev being the star guest. Now the reasonable expectation is that on an Independence Day Special, there will be a lot of patriotism on display. What would make it interesting is the fact that there are 3 Pakistanis competing, and it would be difficult for Pakistanis to sing India independence songs. Now, this could be a political thing, in the sense that the Indian Independence struggle brought independence to both India and Pakistan.
However, this is still a competition involving singing, and getting voted on by the public, and while the rest of the singers sung rousing patriotic songs, these 3 folks sang songs that were either slower, or not heard before by a large section of the population. I can play these 3 songs below:

Junaid singing 'Mere Dushman Mere Bhai' from Border:



Mussarat singing 'Dil Na Lage'



Amanat Ali singing 'Ae Watan Pyare Watan' by 'Amanat Ali Khan Sahab'



Now what happened after this, for the next week where the voting results were calculated is that all of these 3 singers (and are pretty good singers) were voted to be the lowest vote getters, with one of them guaranteed to get eliminated. Now this placed the organizers in a piquant situation, after all, if suddenly all the 3 Pakistanis were rated lowest, then there would be a lot of noise about bias. At the same time, these were votes by people, who obviously did not appreciate the songs that were sung, and so voted them lowest. This led to emotional drama, and eventually a decision was taken that there was a lot of bias, a lot of rumours, and this would have made the results wrong. So, this week, nobody was eliminated, and the votes of this would be tabulated withe votes of next week to eliminate somebody next week.

See an excerpt of this drama (with audience, singers, all very emotional):

Zaara: The only major Muslim serial on air

For a country that has a significant Muslim population, there are never too many serials on air that are based on a Muslim setting. One of the prime serials on air now that is based on a Muslim family is called Zaara – Pyaar Ki Saugat, and is about the choices having to be made in life by a young lady, about the choice between love and family. Sounds familiar, does it not? Most serials on air are about choices, sacrifice, and so on. Well, Zaara – Pyaar Ki Saugat, also has all that, in the sense that it also has all the usual stuff about back-biting, jealousy between relatives and sisters, second marriage, and so on.



The serial appears on Sahara One at 8 PM every weekday, Monday to Friday, and is part of the effort by Sahara One to bring in many more serials so as to get more user TRP's. The story so far is fairly simple. Being set in an upper middle class Muslim family, the lead character played by Samiksha Jug was a student abroad in London, and has now returned to her hometown after completing her studies. While in London, she was in love with her childhood sweetheart, Samar (Abhay Vakil), and was all prepared to get married to him.
When she comes back to her hometown, she is plunged into an ethical dilemna. Her adopted sister, Zeenat (Malini Kapoor) is childless in marriage, and married to Aamir (Jatin Grewal). Zaara is waiting for Samar to come back from London and ask for her hand in marriage, when Zeenat comes in and asks for a favour. The favour is a big one, with Zaara being asked to marry Aamir so that they can have a child. In these days of surrogate mothers, of fertility and IVF treatments, one wonders why they still need to go in for a second marriage.
Updates on the serial, including videos of episodes and updates on a day-to-day basis of the story can be had from these forums. Essentially, the story has now evolved to another serial of conspiracies, acting against each other, good vs. evil, with all 4 of them, Zaara, Zeenat, Aamir and Samar now involved. No longer a serial with a difference.

Raavan, a different kind of serial

There is a serial on Zee, which can be truly called a serial with a difference. There have been a number of serials on air to do with mythology, with most of them being loud, very flashy costumes, big dialogues, etc, not at all subtle. But there is now a serial with a difference. Ravan attempts to tell the history that no one knows about, the story of Ravan, the embodiment of evil. The makers have tried to present his entire history, including many of his positive points. The attempt of the makers is that the serial will not glorify Ravan. It will simply give Ravan's point of view - why he abducted Rama's wife Sita - without justifying what he did. The serial will show Ravan's transformation from mahamanav (a great human being) to a mahadanav (a great demon).
“Ravan has been portrayed in a negative light so far. He is known as Sita’s kidnapper but what people don’t know is that he was a big pandit and a powerful man. His real persona has been hidden from the audience and in this show you will see him as a warrior, a real hero!” The serial will reveal little-known aspects about Ravan like the fact that he was the grandson of Brahma, that Hanuman was one of the ministers in his court who left after a misunderstanding, and that Ravana did not actually have ten heads; he actually wore a necklace of ten heads.



‘Ravan’ is shown Saturday nights at 9 PM (and started on 21:00 from 12th November 2006). Basic story starts with Ravan's mother Kekashi (Ravee Gupta) shown trying to seduce Rishi Vishrava (R K Gupta), because she wants to have a child with him. It all began with the Daitya named Sumaalee ( maternal Grand Father), Raavan’s Nana. After Sumaalee lost his kingdom the Devta’s, he was very upset and started to conspire and wanted his kingdom back at any cost.
He got a vision that if he had son’s from Vishravaa, he would have sons equal to Kuber the ruler of lanka. Sumaalee’s daughter Kaikasee, was convinced to go and entice Vishravaa into marrying her and has children from him. Kaikasee went to seek out for Vishravaa, and managed to win his love. After some time she gave birth to a 4 children. His father named him Dashgreev (ten-headed). Then born Kumbhkarn and after him their sister Shoorpankhaa. Kaikasee’s last child was Vibheeshan.
Having watched it many times, it can be gripping, and because of the previous mythological serials, I was a bit apprehensive. But to connect to the 21st century, the loud drama of the 80s’ Doordarshan presentation has been cut out. Ravan speaks human. There is no thigh-slapping, foot-stomping swearing of a bigmouth. He is younger and leaner. Rama looks like a conscientious leader not given to lengthy discourse and beatific smiles.
The serial is also raising a toast to scientific progress of the age. “The sages, like Agastya Rishi, were actually great scientists. Why speak of only Ravan’s Pushpak rath? There were nine types of aircraft in vogue then, including fighter planes. The Brahmastra itself was a missile. It is well-known that centuries later Leonardo da Vinci was influenced by military accounts in Ramayana.
An excerpt from the serial that shows the inherent nature of Rama. Rama has picked up the Brahmastra and taken aim, but Ravana has desisted from countering with an equally destructive weapon from his arsenal. “I cannot let Creation come to end,” he thinks and embraces his own death.

Producer : Gulshan Sachdeva ( Film and Shots )
Research : Om Prakash
Screenplay Writer : Umesh Chandra Upadhyay
Dialogue Writer : Vijay Pundit
Director : Ranjan Kumar Singh
Star Cast : Narendra Jha (Ravan), Divya Desai (Mandodari), Ravee Gupta (Keksi), Rajendra Gupta (Sumali)

Saathii Re on Star One

There used to come this cute serial on Star One at 9 PM called Saathi Re. This was a serial with a fair amount of drama, but not with the saas-bahu kind as seen in the Balaji Telefilms kind of K serials. One thing was common though, there were people who were portrayed as evil and vicious. And for those watching the serial Woh Rahne Waali Mehlon Ki on Sahara One, there was a common factor in the sense of a guruji predicting death after marriage, and hence a character doing a false marriage to get around it.
Why do I write everything in the past tense ? Well, could be because the serial is over, it ended on 9th August after around one year of operation, which is a fairly small period of time. The rumour is that the serial was stopped as the direction was planning to move to film direction, but there is no confirmation on this.
The serial principally starred the following characters: Indira Krishnan as Rajeev, Parakh Madan as Suman. The story is fairly simple. Suman wanted to marry Prem, her love; but as her sadhu had told her that her husband would die within 6 months of marriage, she refused to marry Prem and instead married Rajeev. Calculation was that when he would die, she would then marry her true love. But this is an Indian serial. Over a period of time, she fell in love with Rajeev (who played a soft, strong and gentle voiced man). But Prem refused to go away, instead he wanted to play a role in her life again.
Suman was absolutely not ready for this. She had a steady and good family life and she did not want Prem to cause disturbances in this life, especially since she had never been able to tell Rajeev about this background. Prem, having a charming personality (seemed a bit slimy to me though), eventually got Suman's sister, Chaitali, to marry him. So now he is close to Suman, even though now all she wants to do is play the part of a good dedicated and supportive wife.
At the same time, the other daughter-in-law Shalaka does not like Suman and wants a better share of the household and business operations, and makes Suman's life miserable. Eventually, things boil over. Prem rapes Suman, and when Rajeev finds her in this state, he goes after Prem. Too late, in a quirk of fate, a snake has bitten him and he dies. Chaitali tells all at this time about the background between Suman and Prem, and now Rajeev is shocked. He asks Suman to leave the home and announces the end of their relationship.
Suman leaves, but then Rajeev gets to know that she was telling the truth. In between, in a massive show of faith and devotion, Suman, after having left, goes to the Sadhu's ashram and does a rigid penance to remove the clouds hovering over Rajeev. Coincidentally, Rajeev had also been bitten by a snake, and this penance by Suman is supposed to have saved her (such a massive show of devotion, by standing for a long time in flowing water in ill health, but a very string display of superstition as well). He gets better in hospital, and then eventually comes searching for her. They finally meet; at the same time at home, Shalaka gets found out about the ill-treatment she had been doing of Suman, and after a few slaps and shakings and screamings from her mother in law and then husband, she gets reformed. A happy ending for all, except the cast who will now have to hunt for new serials to appear in.
Parakh Madan (Suman) is actually trained in Kathak, did her graduation in NIFT, and did a fair number of shows as part of a modelling career before moving to the television industry.

An update on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa as of 10th August 2007

I prefer this program over the other singing contests on the other channels (Sony's Indian Idol and Star's Voice of India). Now that the last 9 singers are left, the quality of the singing is incredible. Many times I feel that if I were to listen to these on radio, they would sound no different from the other singers who are actually singing in films. This is also a measure of how much of these people would have trained to reach this level. The judges are not hostile, and it was particularly nice today when Musarrat Ababs, a wonderful singer from Pakistan forgot the words of the songs, the judges, particularly Ismail Darbar encouraged the viewers to forget about this mistake, and not to penalize him during the public voting. This was nice. At the same time, from the final 10 selected next time, the list had to be weeded down to 9, and hence this time Joy from Himesh's team made his exit. It got somewhat emotional for Joy, but he went out with the promise to become a music director.


Raja Hasan sings 'Teri Diwani', originally sung by Kailash Kher; superb singing and I really appreciated the song:

Standard stereotypes in popular Zee serial

That is a question I got after watching the latest (9th August) episode of the serial, Ghar Ki Laxmi Betiyaan, coming at 10 PM on Zee. The fight is between the daughters of the first wife, Savitri, and the second wife, Menaka (along with her son and daughter-in-law), with the fight being over the property allocation of the father's property. In this, the daughters get to know that the daughter-in-law (Kajri / Pavitra), who wants to get the entire property, is actually a former nautch girl, a kothe ki ladki. They are horrified about this and are trying to get a way that the entire family will get to know this, so that their battle will be won.
Now, in the serial, these daughters are seen as the heroines, and the daughter-in-law with her mother-in-law being the arrogant and scheming self. They believe that the son of the house is the prime and only inheritor; and while Menaka is shown as being ignorant of Pavitra;s true identify as Kajri, her son, Yuvraj, is seen as being complicit in the knowledge of Kajri's background, but he is also being fooled to some extent. It is only Kajri who knows her true intention, which is to get the property for herself and her fictional unborn child.
So, in today's episode, the daughters manage to get the reality of Kavitra's identity unmasked by tricking her to dance for money in a party where the entire household is present, and then unmasking her. So, now things are better, with Kajri getting a resounding slap from her father-in-law who cannot take this blot on the honour of the family. And he does this even without knowing the full extent of her intentions, just because she is from a 'suspect' or non-clean background.
This was what troubled me. If it was just that the lady wanted to get out of her background, and marry into a respectable family, the reaction of the head of the family would have been the same, seeing it as a blot on the family name. This goes against the concept whereby we argue that ladies in this trade are mainly there due to circumstances and should be given every chance to leave. If Kajri had been shown to have a heart of gold, even then she would not have been welcome, which is something that is worrying. And the serial has packaged this as a right thing, which in my opinion is not handling this issue correctly.

Left Right Left on Sab TV: Different from the usual

Rajeev Khandelwal gained prominence as the character playing 'Sujal' in the Balaji late-night serial, Kahin To Hoga. His character was extremely popular, and made him into a semi-star. Of course, his rumoured romance with his co-star, Aamna Shariff of Kahin To Hoga also hit the gossip news. And then, apparently miffed by the turn that the serial was taking, he quit the serial (forcing them to do the usual plastic surgery to get a new person on board). After this, he did a serial called 'Bomblast' which do not do any good.
And then he joined this serial about a military academy called 'Left right Left'. This serial started with many negatives, it was not a serial about family or saas-bahu, there were no big business deals and money of 100 crores casually being tossed around. In addition, it was appearing on Sab TV, which by itself does not have a very strong viewership. However, the serial did start catching on, given that it was heavily promoted, was like a breath of fresh air, and had new faces. In addition, it had a very catchy jingle.

Not the original video, but the tune is there:



The serial is about a military academy called 'Kanchenjunga Military Academy (KMA)' and is essentially about 6 cadets who are part of this academy, being instructed by Captain Rajveer Shekhawat (Rajeev Khandelwal). He is actually there in the academy to catch the spy, who is threatening to steal the nuclear trigger (imagine a nuclear trigger hidden in a military academy). Who is the spy ? It's actually Shweta Salve (who plays the role of Dr. Ritu, the psychiatrist on campus, although most military academies would not believe in the concept of a shrink). She looks terrific, it's too sad that she had to die at the end of season 1 after her truth was revealed. If she was not a spy, there was a good budding romance between her and Rajveer.
What about the other six cadets who are the focus of the serial ? Well, they are most unlike military cadets, not ramrod straight, very rebellious with one of them essentially hating Rajveer. Many times, they refuse to obey orders, and are hardly ever shown training; which makes the serial a bad inspiration to join the army. And I wonder who designed the costumes, given that female cadets do not wear skirts that end above the knee.
Well, some detail about the six cadets who joined the Kanchenjunga Military Academy – Amardeep Huda, is here as a result of a bet put by his mother, Alekh, a criminal who has been sent to the academy to get reformed, Pooja, who has joined the academy so that she can stay in Ambala where her boy friend rohit is suppose to be, Ali who is a third generation from his family to join the army, Yudi, who wants to show his parents he can be a man by joining the army and not going to USA.
Lastly Naina Singh Ahluwalia had joined KMA to find the person who was responsible for her brother’s death. She ended up being the first suspect of Captain Rajveer Shekhawat, who had come to find a spy in the academy. Captain Rajveer found out the truth about Naina that she was Naveen’s sister, his batchmate and one who was declared a traitor by the army. In turn, she found out that Captain Rajveer was the one who actually killed her brother, and her brother was also engaged to Dr. Ritu.
Now in season 2, it is not so popular now; suffering the same fate as other serials, having to push in twists and turns in the storyline so as to keep people interested, and there is only so much drama that you can show in a military academy without having to sacrifice reality.

Bharat Ek Khoj on Doordarshan: Nostalgia

Way back, in the 1980's (1988 to be precise), there used to appear a serial on Doordarshan called Bharat Ek Khoj. It presented in dramatic form, a depiction of the history for India for 5000 years till the year 1957, and was based on a book by Jawaharlal Nehru (first Indian Prime Minister) called Discovery of India. This is a pretty famous book, and the series was very gripping. Written and directed by the famous director, Shyam Benegal, and was an excellent depiction of history, especially for those who either have not been very interested in Indian history, or never got a chance to see it in a connected form, that is, a single series covering 5000 years.
I was a kid at that time, but I remember watching it regularly, and now that I am older, I got a chance to suddenly view the opening track (very impressive) on Youtube,



and memories got suddenly refreshed. I still have not found the DVD of the series, and am actively looking. There were so many things that were great in the series. For one, they had an excellent narrator; Om Puri's voice seems like a perfect fit. And, unlike some of today's serials dealing with mythology or history, there was no excessive dramatization; costumes seemed of the period with seeming artificial.
One needs to of course remember that the serial was based on the writings and evidence available from the period when Jawaharlal Nehru wrote the book, and if such a serial came out at this point of time, just the period of history from the time of the Indus Valley would have sections either not acceptable to the Left, or to the RSS/BJP. In addition, sections dealing with the Marathas vs. the Mughals would be sure to have agitations, given how easily the Shiv Sena is wont to take up controversial series as a part of its appeal to its voter base and to seem relevant.
Having said that, the serial covered so many periods such as the Vedic people and the writings of the Vedas, beginning of the caste system (consider it part of the innocence of youth that I did not understand this part of the serial, of course I would easily understand it now, although whether I would still be able to rationalize it remains to be seen), the period of Chanakya and the invasion of Alexander, Ashoka, classical ages, Kalidasa, the formation and survival of the Delhi sultanate (the slave dynasty and ahead), Mughals, Marathas, British East India Company, the first war of Independence of 1857, and numerous others).
For those who are interested in the lyrics of the opening ditty, a bit of information, it is actually the Nasadiya Sukta from the Rig Veda. For those who are not so interested in the lyrics of this one, please ignore from this point onwards (I for one found it perfectly captivating):

Original lyrics:

Srishtee se pehle sat nahin thaa, asat bhi nahin
Antariksh bhi nahin, akash bhin nahin thaa
chhipaa thaa kyaa kahaan, kisne dhakaa thaa
us pal to agam, atal jal bhi kahaan thaa

Srishtee kaa kaun hai kartaa
Kartaa hai vaa akartaa
Oonche aakash mein rahtaa
Sada adhyaksh banaa rahtaa
Wahin sachmuch mein jaantaa..Yaa nahin bhi jaanataa
Hai kisi ko nahin pataa, nahin pataa,
Nahin hai pataa, nahin hai pataa

Weh tha hiranyagarbh srishti se pehle vidyamaan
Wahi to saare bhoot jaat ka swami mahaan
jo hai astitvamaana dharti aasmaan dhaaran kar
Aise kis devta ki upasana karein hum avi dekar

Jis ke bal par tejomay hai ambar
Prithvi hari bhari sthapit sthir
Swarg aur sooraj bhi sthir
Aise kis devta ki upasana karein hum avi dekar

Garbh mein apne agni dhaaran kar paida kar
Vyapa tha jal idhar udhar neeche upar
Jagaa chuke vo ka ekameva pran bankar
Aise kis devta ki upasana karein hum avi dekar

Om ! Srishti nirmata swarg rachiyata purvaj raksha kar
Satya dharma palak atul jal niyamak raksha kar
Phaili hain dishayen bahu jaisi uski sab mein sab par
Aise hi devta ki upasana kare hum avi dekar
Aise hi devta ki upasana kare hum avi dekar


English translation:

At first was neither Being nor Nonbeing.
There was not air nor yet sky beyond.
What was wrapping? Where? In whose protection?
Was Water there, unfathomable deep?

There was no death then, nor yet deathlessness;
of night or day there was not any sign.
The One breathed without breath by its own impulse
Other than that was nothing at all.

Darkness was there, all wrapped around by darkness,
and all was Water indiscriminate, Then
that which was hidden by Void, that One, emerging,
stirring, through power of Ardor, came to be.

In the beginning Love arose,
which was primal germ cell of mind.
The Seers, searching in their hearts with wisdom,
discovered the connection of Being in Nonbeing.

A crosswise line cut Being from Nonbeing.
What was described above it, what below?
Bearers of seed there were and mighty forces,
thrust from below and forward move above.

Who really knows? Who can presume to tell it?
Whence was it born? Whence issued this creation?
Even the Gods came after its emergence.
Then who can tell from whence it came to be?

That out of which creation has arisen,
whether it held it firm or it did not,
He who surveys it in the highest heaven,
He surely knows - or maybe He does not!

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara: Nostalgia about Doordarshan

A long time back, Doordarshan used to run theme based short clips on national integrity, and they made a few that had an excellent direction and theme. For example, they had this 5 minute clip called Mile Sur Mera Tumhara and featured a number of people from different parts of the country, coming together as a conclusion in the shape of young kids assembling in the form of the national flag. The voice by Lata Mangeshkar was haunting, and overall, when you look at this now, it seems very click and well made.
Here is the YouTube version:




Lyrics of this song (although in English text):

Mile sur mera tumharaa, Thoo sur bane hamaraa.... sur kee nadhiyaan har disha se behkee saagar mein milee. Baadalon ka roop leiker bharse halke halke... Mile sur mera tumharaa.. thoo... sur bane hamaara.. Mile sur mera tumhara...
Chaain taraj tahin nyay tarajek but baniye saayen taraj
Tera sur mile mere sur de naalmilke bane ek nava surtaal
Mile sur mera tumharaa....tho sur bane hamaara..
Mohnja sur tohi desa pyara mile jadein geet ashaanjo madhur tarano bane tadein
Sur ka dariya bahte saagar me mile badlaan da roop leike barasan holle haule
Isaindhal namm iruvarin suramum namadhakum.. Dhisai veru aanalum aazi ser aarugal Mugilai mazaiyai pozivadu pol isai ...Namm isssaiiii.... Thik thakida thathikakidA....thaka thimi thaka junu
Nanna dhwanige ninna dhwani-ya, seridante namma dhwaniya..
Naa swaramu nee swaramu sangammamai, mana swaram ga avatarinchey
Ende swaramum ningalude swaramum otthucheiyum Namudeya swaramai....
Tomaar shoor moder shoor srishti koroor koi ekshoor[2]...
Sriishti karoon woi katha
Toma mora swarer milan srishti kare chalbochatano
Male sur jo taro maro, bane aapno sur niralo
Majhya tumchya julta tara madhur suranchya barasti dhara
Sur ki nadiya har disha se behke saagar mein mile...
Baadlo ka roop leke barse halke halke..
Oh...Mile sur mera tumhara tho....sur bane hamara...
Mile Sur mera tumharatho sur bane hamara tho sur bane hamaratho sur bane hamara

Durgesh Nandini on Sony

Imagine making a serial based on a classic, a book by the name of 'Durgesh Nandini', written by the famous Bengali writer, Bankim Chandra Chaterjee. Based on the concept of a village girl with a heart of gold (but seemingly unsophisticated) coming into money and using her power to reform a family of arrogant people. Sounds familiar? I am sure there must have been a couple of movies made on this topic already. Even the recent movie Taxi Number 9211 was about a person being arrogant with his father's wealth, and then the father makes somebody else the trustee for the money.
Duresh Nandini is a relatively new serial, having started earlier this year and coming at 10 PM on Sony. It was interesting initially, but is now slipping down the interest scale, and seems very boring now. The same problem as faced with other serials; if you try to extend a story down many many episodes, you need to make a compromise with the quality of the script and need to keep on inventing many new happenings so that the serial can keep on continuing.


So what is the serial all about ? The Shrivastava family of Dharamadas Shrivastava are multi-millionaires and the 2 sons along with daughter-in-laws are very arrogant. They are so greedy for wealth that they cause the death of their father and illtreat their mother, wanting her to surrender the entire money to them. However, their father has left them a surprise in his will. He knows the nature of his sons, and hence decides to make the trustee of the entire property to be an unknown person, Durgesh Nandini (Rinku Ghosh), an orphan living in a village. The sons are shocked at this, and try to prevent her from knowing about this and reaching the city.
She is however very strong-willed, and wants to carry out the wishes of the late Dharamdas, who wanted her to reform the sons. At the same time, although she has an innate sneakiness, she is not as nasty as the sons and their daughter-in-laws, who will try at nothing to get her removed from the area; by placing money in her office and getting the police to raid, or trying to get her stuck in a situation where the board of the company doubts her competence, or she gets beaten up by irate employees of the company. Of course, since she is the heroine of the serial, she manages to overcome all these traps. But, in normal life, a person having seen so much treachery from people will not keep on letting them do more of such; but react harshly. Do we really have such major do-gooders in real life ?