The Serial Formula We Keep Accepting

Media plays a major role in our lives. Talking about our Tamil society, it has been playing a major role for a long time. From cinema to serials and ads, it’s a part of our lives. They influence us in both positive and negative ways. Like everything else, this too depends on how each individual perceives it and takes what he or she wants out of it.

To talk particularly about serials,

 oh my God — they almost shape and control most people’s lives. I’ve seen women getting easily influenced by them, without analysing the misrepresentations and the problematic ideas these serials have been portraying. 

And it’s not only about women; even men make themselves believe this is reality. Women should always be dressed up, wear full makeup, take a head bath every morning, do all the house chores, take care of the kids, and wait eagerly for their husbands again, all dressed up.

Yes, we could argue that serials, at times, portray reality. Yes, that’s true. But rather than offering solutions to problems, these serials instead exaggerate and gaslight situations. That’s the problem. I do appreciate a few serials which portray positive things, empower people, motivate them, and rebel against stereotypes. Few 90s serials did that, and even now we can witness such portrayals. But again, those kinds of scenes can still be counted on our fingers.

So, coming to today’s discussion — I was watching a serial which has a high TRP rating among audiences. I’ve been following this serial for a few days whenever my mom watches it.

From my very first watch, one thing that troubled me was the hero’s character. He loves the heroine so much, and one day the heroine’s father fixes her marriage and forces her into it. But the heroine wants to study and pursue her dreams. So, to escape from that situation, she seeks help from her driver, who is the hero.

But the bitter thing is, instead of saving her from that worse situation, he makes it even worse by marrying her and calls it as love.

And after almost two years, the heroine gets to know about the trap she was involved in. Because she was told that marrying him was the only solution to escape from her father. But only now does she get to know that she actually had another way — she could’ve moved to Chennai with police help, without marrying him.

So eventually, he used her.

The sad part is, even after all this truth is revealed, he doesn’t feel guilty and doesn’t realise his mistake at all. Instead, he boasts that it was the only way he could get her and prove his love towards her.

How sick is that? I mean, he literally justifies his actions. He comes up with the typical 2000s hero dialogue: “A middle-class boy can attain his love only by doing such crimes.” He even asks her, “Just imagine, would you have even looked at a boy like me? So I saw that situation as a gift sent by God, and I used it. And I don’t see anything wrong in that.” 

How very easily he plays the victim card, when he is actually the cheater and his wife is the real victim.

The very portrayal of the heroine itself felt dumb in the beginning. Being there and taking part in all of this, she never realised she was being treated like a doll, even though she was witnessing everything live.

Still, I was praising the serial when the heroine opposed his actions. Very boldly, she voiced out her pain and didn’t really blame herself, though she actually was the victim. She decides to move out of the house and get a divorce.

But the director again falls back into the trope of showing the hero as the justified one through his “love” and comic sense, whereas the heroine again becomes emotionally involved. And this scene happens the very next day after such a huge truth was revealed. That’s what disturbed me.

Yes, serials have to be engaging, and at the end of the day audiences expect the pair to unite. But the fault here is that the pain is not given time to heal. There is no space for realisation.

Very easily, the next day, the hero acts like he was hit by a car and informs her that he met with an accident. And she too rushes to see him, changes her mind, and gives him time.

Okay, even this is fine if they want to follow the same typical pattern. Also, the heroine still hasn’t accepted him fully.

But the irritating part was that this whole accident was just a skit done by the hero to bring her back. Again, this shows that he never realised his mistake. Lying — which was the actual reason for the divorce — still continues.

Though the next scene shows the supporting characters criticising his actions, which is the good part, still the hero’s actions are never truly held accountable.

“At the end of the day, everything is disguised under love, sacrifice, and humour.”

And that’s how media normalises manipulation and unhealthy relationship dynamics.