Mirror of society?

"WHAT do people want," asks an irate media analyst. The answer, usually, is simple and matter of fact. "Entertainment". In media parlance this means booking the viewer and registering weekly popularity ratings.

But scratch the surface and the answer is quite different. Has television finally managed to reshape our lives and the way we think, or is it a reflection of changing aspirations? Nowhere is this question better represented than in the reel and real life roles that Indian women play. Are they finally emerging as tough businesswomen, dressed in minis, Gucci shoes, smoking and drinking. Or are they still sati savitris, waiting at home?

Watching the spate of tele-serials like "Saans", "Swabhiman" and "Junoon", which portray the "role" of the woman quite differently from what the stereotyped middle class viewership expects, one would imagine that women, across the board, have changed. Has this been due to these women being exposed to such serials or is the soap a reflection of what society is today?

Urvashi Butalia of Kali for Women, says, "Though I am not an avid TV watcher and specially of such serials or soaps, I personally feel that there is not much of a change. What we have done is go away from portraying women as one kind of monster to another. The new soaps perhaps re-inforce the fact that we identify 'being liberated' in a stereotyped way - a way that shows the woman as a tough person whose lifestyle does not bring 'happiness'."

What Butalia feels is being done is to "swing from one extreme to another - an exaggeration of both sorts". She adds that unfortunately, no serial ever shows a woman in all her complexity. "If we got all those together then it's o.k."

Despite the popularity of TV soaps, the fear justified that these serials are actually making people, especially women, change their lifestyles seems misplaced. According to a survey by the Viewer's Forum, an independent body, what most analysts have been missing out is the fact that people decode things differently. Each person in the audience is able, at some point, to identify with a character in the serial. "TV is a one to one medium," says Akhila Sivadas of the Media Advocacy Group. Sivadas feels that despite poor quality production, poor dialogue and acting styles, these soaps have been able to impact the psyche of many middle class women. "There are 10 to 12 characters and anyone of these replicates life for most viewers. As analysts, we have found out in the last two years, we have been missing the woods for the trees when we said that there was a mass reaction to serials. This is not the case. Often, in this one to one relationship, real and reel life do get blurred."

Broadly, there are two main constructs around which most soaps revolve. In one the woman is bold and assertive and has a direct fight with the patriarchal system. This construct is set around mid-life crisis and most middle class women who watch this sort of portrayal are actively involved with it. A serial like "Dard" takes viewers down the path justifying extra-marital relationships.

The second construct, that is very popular, is that of the wronged woman. The one who is not assertive and a ready recipient of the male ego and all its assertions. "In television, it is possible to go through all this because the soap format allows scope for more complexities," says Sivadas. She added that Viewers Forum had noticed that a number of women not only from the middle class but also the rich and those from rural areas, reacted to these serials. "For many of them, 'soap time' is a time to sit down and reconstruct their lives - often they are left with a feeling of frustration because they begin to identify with the character so strongly. Through the forum they feel they have access to redress that complaint." Sivadas adds that in routine exercises where the script writer of a popular soap is asked to interact with the viewers, many of the participants end up expressing their ideas on how the story line should evolve. "The point here is that a number of people are actively decoding the serial and it reinforces a lot of very one-sided notions." Because production is basic, and the dialogues very everyday, the hold of these soaps is very strong.

Most viewers feel that these are "real situations", which might not happen in their homes but are possible. According to Mrs. Shanti Kaul, who at 78, has been watching TV now for the past 30 years, "The main difference is that in earlier serials or even stories in Hindi literature, even if the heroine was shown as bold and assertive or having an affair, somewhere there was a line commenting on the fact that extra-marital affairs were not right. Today, there is no such thing. Are you saying that popular serials and advertisements do not affect young people? Of course they do. Each one picks out a line or two with which they emphasise. It does not matter in what context it might have been used."

While it might be too early to hold television responsible for the changes that one witnesses in society, the fact remains that with a medium as powerful as TV, there is bound to be an impact on the psyche of the viewer.

Says Butalia, "I think a lot of these serials are basically reflecting a changed value system; a system where money is stressed upon and life is all about power play. One did not get to see these type of serials earlier. Interestingly, apart from portraying a different kind of woman, they are also showing a different kind of man. In their own ham-handed way, TV soap producers are trying to convey the change that has come about in society."

To Sivadas, "woman will remain a huge market for the soaps because they are a captive audience. They are a huge market right from the urban areas to the rural - they are what you may call recipients for fast moving consumer products which need a mass base".

SUCHITRA BEHAL

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