Hindi TV Serials - Kya Huaa Teraa Vaada - The problems and distances faced by a young couple

This is a relatively new serial on Sony TV, which has been given the lucrative 10 PM slot. The serial started on January 30th, 2012. The serial stars the experienced Mona Singh, alongwith Pawan Shankar (screen name being Pradeep Singh; Mona Singh's name is the same in the serial). The couple live in Mumbai as a normal middle class couple, where Pradeep works in a company (with the usual politics in the company, where he works and his boss takes the credit, and he is looking for a promotion). They are just about ok financially, not well off, with having to save up for special occasions and feeling the pinch of raising 3 kids.
Things come to a head when Pradeep gets fired from his job, instead of the promotion that he was hoping for. However, things start changing once the company gets a new boss, a dynamic lady called Anushka Shankar (played by Mauli Ganguly). It takes some time for Pradeep to recognize her as his former friend from college, somebody who he was ready to marry, but she needed more time since she was ambitious and wanted to build up a career of her own. So, the marriage never happens and then Pradeep marries Mona and builds up a family with her.
However, Anushka notices Pradeep when he has come to pick up his stuff, and calls him back to the job, kicks out his former boss who used to take credit for the work done by Pradeep, and overall boosts up his prestige. At the same time, Pradeep makes a critical mistake when he tells Mona about his boss, but neglects to tell her that this was the same lady to whom he had almost got married. And soon after, Anushka decides that it was a mistake to have not married pradeep earlier and she wants him now; this will cause huge problems in the marriage of Pradeep and Mona.
Even otherwise, there are some tensions in the marriage, since Pradeep believes that Mona no longer gives him as much attention as earlier, probably due to taking care of the children and the house, something which is necessary, but which irritates Pradeep.

Bairi Piya-Amoli, the one who does not have a price, will she finally defeat the Thakur?

The commoditisation of woman in society is a topic that has been much debated upon in academic journals as well as in the common press. Serious art house cinemas have also raised this point time and again. Colors’ Bairi Piya talks about this very pertinent subject, using the idiom of Hindi serials. Set in rural Maharashtra it talks about the impoverished and poor farmers-the small land holders and the landless labourers- who often use the women of their household as one would use money or other possessions. In short women are used as medium of exchange.

The serial begins with a slew of farmer suicides that bring to the fore the miseries farmers have to face in our country. Amoli is the pretty daughter of a poor farmer. Soon she catches the attention of the village landlord, Thakur Digvijay Bhadoria. Her beauty sets his heart aflame with desire and he gets desperate to have her in his life. He tries to marry Amoli, albeit clandestinely, and promises her father to write off his bad debt in exchange. However he is unable to marry her. Thwarted in his evil designs, he tricks Amoli into marrying his man servant, Radhe, a man totally devoted to him.

The diabolical Thakur does his best to lure Amoli into his bed. He tries every trick in the book but fails. Here Amoli, refuses to let herself be used an object owned by either her husband or his cruel master. Her love for Radhe, her unflinching belief in a relationship that is of little value to her husband is wonderful to watch. She brings her strength of character to the forefront every time she resists the Thakur’s advances. Yes, she cries and she laments, but she is also proactive and a firm believer. She refuses to let herself be used as a plaything by the Thakur even as her servile husband stands by meekly.

Fortune favours the brave. And so things have finally started to look up for Amoli. Her husband Radhe has started taking small steps towards the creation of a relationship that can sustain the tag-husband and wife. However Thakur has not given up and it remains to be seen what new tricks he uses to finally fulfill his desire.

Bandini - the serial by Balaji Telefilms on NDTV Imagine

Bandini is a brand new serial on NDTV Imagine, scripted by Ekta Kapoor (Balaji Telefilms). Ever since television channels starting giving up on traditional saas-bahu serials, Balaji has changed track to some degree and now focuses on different serials. Bandini is a different type of serial, but there are some commonalities that one can still see - the portrayal of a bitchy elder relation (in this case, the elder sister-in-law who treats the young bride as a maid brings back some of the character traits seen in the earlier serials). Bandini is supposed to be based on the Gujarati novel Retpankhi, written by Varsha Adalja in 1972.



Bandini is the story of a young illiterate lower caste girl 18 year girl called Santu (played by Aasiya Kazi) who lives in a fictional village called Dharampur, near Surat, in Gujarat state, western India. This is a belt that is the center of the diamond exporting industry, and the village's richest man and the 'malik' is played Ronit Roy, who plays the role of Dharamraj Mahiyavanshi. He is a good man, middle aged (51 years old) who is a widower. He has multiple sons and daughters, some adult, and some teenagers. He also runs an empire with more than 2000 workers employed by him, and has tended to become egoistical with age.
Dharamraj's first wife Subadra died 7 yrs ago. He has three sons, Hiten (23 years old), Maulik (19 years old) and Suraj (7 years old), and two daughters (Kadambarai alias Kaddu, 20 years old) and Birwa (14 years old). The children have been care for by Dharamaraj's unmarried elder sister, Tarulata, who is very aware of caste and class, and uses that as a basis to essentially hate Santo.
However, for Santu, her life takes a drastic turn, when in a sequence of events, an office boy Mahesh is supposed to marry Khemi, Santo's sister (so that Santo's father cannot leave the factory). However, Khemi's horoscope has a problem, and then Santo is set to marry Mahesh. However, Dharamraj's rivals arrange to make Mahesh run away, and in order to pacify the agitated workers, Dharamraj decides to marry Santo, as a marriage of convenience. Also, his priest tells him that Santo is a good choice in terms of horoscope. And thus starts Santo's life change. She is now part of a rich household, married to a much older man, who really does not care for her and who still is devoted to his dead wife.
Santo tries to do good all around, helping out in a situation where the family and the factory desperately needs a new contract, helping in the process to also bring back the disgraced son Hiten who turns out good in the end. She is now in a new issue where the daughter of the house is romantically involved with the son of the rival (who wants to use her to settle scores), and when she is set to be engaged to the son of old family friends (and the son of that family was in love with Santo earlier). Such a combination of events can only be spun by Ekta Kapoor.

Videos of Bandini 4th June on Youtube:

Part 1


Part2


Part3


Part 4

Kitni Mohabbat Hain on NDTV Imagine

Balaji Telefilms (Ekta Kapoor) have been known in the past to focus on massively emotional family dramas, typically involving saas-bahus with each character having some personality streak (either a villain, or sweeter than anybody in the world). Now that those serials were starting to lose their charm (and their TRP's), it is no wonder that Balaji has changed and is starting to make different type of serials.
'Kitni Mohabbat Hain' does not have an entirely new story, but it has a fresh look, and the characters playing the main role of Arjun Punj (Karan Kundra) and Arohi Sharma (Kritika Kamra) seem to be able to emote okay so far.



The story is not very different. Arjun, the son of a rich man, DK, is very arrogant, and not trusting towards woman at all (since he believes that his mother left him when he was a young child). It is then that Arohi enters his life (she is forced to start working when her father is forced to quit his job) in the role of Arjun's personal assistant at work. It is quite clear to her that Arjun is arrogant, but she falls for him; however, this is only temporary. Soon Arjun makes it clear to Arohi that he is getting engaged to somebody else, and then humiliates Arohi at the engagement party.
Arohi is shell-shocked, and decides to try and become somebody, bigger than Arjun, and decides to move to Bombay to further her ambition. In the meantime, Arjun's mother reveals the truth to Arjun, causing Arjun's world to crumble. He realizes that whatever he believed in was a lie, and also realizes that he truly loves Arohi, and decides to support her in whatever she wants to become.
Arjun follows Arohi to Mumbai, and supports her in many ways (including some idiotic scenes in which Arjun takes off his gold chain in the rain so that people waiting for the bus in rain leave the shelter after the chain, giving space to Arohi and her sisters). At the same time, whatever he does is done in such a way that it seems to Arohi that Arjun is still mocking her, giving her the courage (out of hate) to keep on going on for what she wants. She wants to become a singer, and has just won a contest for a recording.

Videos of Kitani Mohabbat hain on 4th June, 2009 on Youtube

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4