Jyoti and Sushma - brave faces of prime time hindi television

How many times do you get to see a proactive female character in Hindi serial? Not many. And when you get to see two such strong characters in the same serial, you have to say ‘kuddos’ to the writers and makers. The serial in question is NDTV Imagine’s Jyoti. And the female characters are Jyoti and Sushma. Jyoti the eldest child of the family has recently been thrown out of her marital home by her husband, Pankaj Vashisht. He suspects her of having an illicit affair with her ex-lover, Brij, who also happens to be married to her younger sister (Sushma). Enraged and disillusioned he decides to snap off all ties with his wife who he believes has broken his trust.

While Jyoti struggles to come to terms with the enormity of her loss and grief, she comes to realise that she is pregnant with Pankaj’s child. Her parents decide to mediate between husband and wife and visit the Vashisht household to convey the good news to Pankaj and his family. They are confident that upon hearing this news all will be well between the couple. However Pankaj shocks everybody by declining to accept the child as his. Humiliated and insulted, Jyoti’s parents come home and they tell her about Pankaj’s accusation.

Enraged and saddened, Jyoti unlike other heroines, confronts her husband. She is not willing to let her husband get away with such demeaning allegations. She tells him in clear words that the reason Pankaj is so miffed about her past is because it revealed to him that he was her second choice and not her first. Jyoti says that it is difficult for Pankaj’s male ego, to digest the fact that he was his wife’s second option. Pankaj refuses to listen to her and once again throws her out of the office.

On the other hand, Sushma is out to rid her family of the menace called Brij. Unbeknownst to anybody, she hatches a plan to make Brij pay for all his wrongdoings. She somehow convinces him that she wants to give her marriage another shot and is even willing to move to a different city for this. She even steals jewellery in order to prove to Brij, the sincerity of her ideas. As the latter is busy packing, she pours Kerosene oil over herself, as she loudly calls out for help. She makes it sound as if Brij is the perpetrator of the crime. Whether Sushma is able to bring Brij to his knees and deliver him his just dues, remain to be seen. But for the fact that she and her sister, Jyoti, dared to take on their respective husbands in order to protect their dignity is a bold move that deserves to be lauded.