Satyamev Jayathe: Intolerance to Love

As the previous episode on Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayathe chose to present only selected facts and bordered on being judgmental with its weight against doctors, I was disappointed for the first time with the show. Adding to that, Aamir played a bad anchor, often cutting into the speaker’s words or even trying to put some of his own into their mouths. But the episode on 3 June 2012 against honor killings was certainly a better one, despite Aamir being still the bad anchor that he has been the earlier episode. He even went a step ahead this time and edited what the Khap Panchayat elders had to say in retort or in defense to his comments. Agreed that they were dogmatic and insensible with their views, but when they were invited on the show, the audiences want to know what they have to say on the allegations. Also, it does not need a master mind to notice that the research has also been going down compared to the first two episodes. May be they started saving their energies for the climactic episodes. Sigh!

But, the issue discussed during the show was certainly deeper than the inadequacies of the show. A staggering statistic revealed on the show was that in Punjab there are 25 couples who apply for protection daily against any offenses they are vulnerable to. The fact that a couple feels a need for security for loving each other is a thought that shudders me and to think that there are scores of them can only mean that there is something totally wrong with how these matters are conducted at domestic level. I can understand parents holding a slight grudge on their children for going against their wishes, but as long as it is all within their family it should be fine as we learnt from Alka and Uday on the show. However, the intervention of a non-judicial system resulting in passing Fatwas against them in the name of upholding some age old traditions and false self-esteem, even without a right to do so, is downright condemnable. 

One of the elders of the Khap Panchayat on the show claimed that the illiterate and ignorant has only traditions and customs and not a constitution based on which he leads his life. While this has some truth in it, the problem with these traditions is that they are not transparent enough to the same illiterate. If someone says marriage within a Gotra is against the tradition, the efforts should be spent on explaining why it was so rather than enforcing it without a reason to give. Earlier, when the world was a smaller place, marrying within the same Gotra was considered equal to incest and hence it was unacceptable, but with the world being infinitely diverse than when this tradition was proposed this does not hold true any longer. In any case the most any Governance or Panchayat can do is to educate people of the demerits of this, just like the ‘Smoking Kills’ on cigarette packs and the decision to be left with the individual if he wants to do it despite knowing everything about it. 

Towards the end of the show, Sanjay Sachdev, the head of Love Commandoes brought along with him a statement claimed to be from Supreme Court that inter-caste marriages are the way ahead for the country and they can make us more diverse. While I have some reservations on this statement which in itself is debatable, he provided a bit of relief in the show. But the question to be asked remains “When two adults decide to marry and want to spend their lives together, does society or their families have the right to break the marriage or prevent it from happening through force? “. I think the answer should be No and let the couple face the consequences (Pun Intended)

Satyamev Jayate: The Big Fat Indian Wedding

I apologize for the delay in writing this as I was travelling from USA to India, over the weekend and was unwell yesterday.

Gurajaada Apparao in his most famours Telugu Drama “Kanyashulkam”(A sexist’s antonym for dowry) wrote about a ritual back in the early 19th century where old men who lost their wives gave money to the parents of younger women mostly kids under-age who were either widowed or poor. As the country progressed, the ritual just changed its direction and men started expecting money from parents of the girls for winning bread for the family. What should have been ideally a token of appreciation willingly and happily gifted on has now turned into a demon worthy of admonition as the greedy began to misuse/misinterpret/misrepresent the infamous ritual.

Blame it on the expectations set by the earlier episodes of the show, which made me to assume it often as an emotional tear fest, the third episode of Satyamev Jayate has been hugely underwhelming. Maybe, there weren’t many sad stories, no cases to be fought in court, not much research shown and the question to the country at the end of the show is so dumb sigh! Sigh! O Aamir! why? When the episode was titled “The Big Fat Indian Wedding” as opposed to “Evils of Dowry” or some such inanity, I was tempted at the thought of what all ills of marriage it might unearth but sadly, dowry is the one thing it speaks about. Jokes apart, the issue remains grave all the same.

The stories shown in the show are cringe worthy and can make us wonder what is that about money that has made people commit the said atrocities. We as a country take great pride in our marriage system and celebrate the occasion with élan giving it everything we got. But ironically, it might all end up being an atom bomb. Dowry or no Dowry, marriage is a difficult thing to sustain and for it to be the Agar batti that Aamir has proclaimed, money should not even figure in the list of things to be bothered about for a start for the simple fact that no amount of money can quell the greed if that is what demands the money.

Contrary to the issues shown in earlier episodes, where there was little hope or help expected from the judicial system, dowry has some strict laws against it and exploitation of females under the name of dowry means major trouble to the perpetrators in most parts of the country. However, all the laws on earth can only do as much if the couple wants to hush up the issue for any reason. With the wife and husband relation being so intensely personal it becomes the prerogative of the man to ask himself the question that Aamir asks him at the end of the show.

The Big Fat Indian Wedding as a phase should signify the importance we place on marriage as a milestone in our lives and the esteem with which we regard it with, but it should never be confused or misread with being unaffordable opulence.

PS: My apology at the start of the article was not due to my misconception that there are hordes of people waiting to read it. It was just a way of saying to myself that I need to be regular and I don’t miss too many of the things I want to do going forward.

Satyamev Jayathe: Child Sexual Abuse

It is important to distance commercial breaks and star presence from Satyamev Jayathe, because regardless of all the numbers and TRPs it generates, it is an important show and one that has to be watched for getting yourself acquainted of the issues if not anything else or more. As the initial euphoria of the first Aamir Khan Television appearance subsides, as the reviews decrease in number in comparison to the first episode, it is essential for every one of us to watch the show for what it really is because Aamir or no Aamir, this show is important and in that essence alienating the star from the show is not such a bad idea, but given the conviction with which he was organizing this makes it difficult.

The second episode of SJ, deals with child sexual abuse and once again the numbers are disturbingly staggering. The stories spoke of the abuse over an extended period of time, 12 years in one instance which is very shocking to know. At some point over the 12 years, any of them must have realized but alas. Equally frightening is one of the parent’s responses (a mother) that she even told her son not to speak about it. I can understand her dilemma and her absolute naiveté in this regard, because such types of incidents were still vastly unheard. As Anuja Gupta, founder director of Raahi rightly puts it, we need to confront this issue and this is where I think SJ plays a successful role through the research and efforts the team has put in to garner the facts and reach out to victims. Though at times dramatized and “directed”, but again I feel, this is something required, because for all we know, the trauma experienced by the victims would definitely be more than what could fit into 7-10 minutes of air time on a national television show.

Another shocking revelation of the show came from Dr Rajat Mishra a psychologist analyzing the abusers and he has to say that they never have any repentance for what they have done; in fact they claim that both the victim and the abuser enjoy it. I have some reservations on this, though I do not claim to be an expert on the subject so to speak. I definitely know of at least one person, who according to what SJ has shown has committed a milder form of child sexual abuse in his adolescence and he definitely repents what he has done. Though repentance is never a solution in itself and the heinous crime can never be supported, it is equally important to counsel the abusers too and I’m certain the issue can be prevented better working the other way around too.

Ironically, I was not surprised when I came to know that there is no law against child sexual abuse in India. There apparently is one which is now under discussion in Rajya Sabha, and if our SMSes and feedback might get the law to be in place, then we know what we should be doing.

I think, for the show to have its intended effect, it is essential for us to not rate it as a 3/5 or a one-time watch or a critique on Aamir’s business acumen and charisma. An hour on a Sunday morning or on any day is something we are at a liberty to spare in our lives and if that is used to be aware of the issues the show has to speak then I definitely feel it will be an hour well spent. Even the most cynical view that no immediate action will be taken is to be considered, it cannot deny the importance of the awareness.

Satyamev Jayathe: Is this enough?

It is easy to dismiss Satyamev Jayathe as a “directed” and “performed” product rather than presented facts and figures but it is easier to like it because of and the conviction, research and efforts that have gone into its making and of course Aamir Khan. It is indeed commendable for a person of his stature and reach to do something like this show and regardless of the outcome, it is a baby step towards the proclaimed change.

I confess I’m not the best person to comment of the female foeticide coming from a family who has no female children as such and I was largely naïve of the issue. Being of the opinion that people now a day have matured enough and this particular issue was so 1980s, I was certainly taken aback by the numbers the show has provided. In fact the show is all encompassing when it came to this issue, starting right from where it began, the victims’ horrific tales, repercussions on the society, sting operations done earlier by journalists to expose the perpetrators. The solution, SJ team offers is to expedite the judgments on these cases through fast track courts whose foundations might depend on the viewer’s concerned responses through SMSes. Neat.

The way the show was presented felt a bit dramatic and rehearsed at times which made me wonder whether all of those tears were necessary to make people understand the gravity of the issue at hand. May be the people to which it was targeted would need to be patronized or condescended as appropriate by a person whom they can look up to. Now, there are a lot of people to do that but Aamir, I still feel is the best man to do that given his carefully constructed aura and screen presence. The risk here and the key to the show was not the let the star belie the problem and I think he has done a fair job at it if not a great one. Sure, the show needs better “direction” or probably just the lack of it. As I said, it is easy to dismiss the drama, the show, the star and the commercial breaks that associate themselves with the show but the intent should resonate and if it needs a bit of theatrics and tears, so be it.

An alarming aspect of the show it that it is supposed to contain 13 episodes and I shudder to think there are 12 more issues that plague our country as per SJ team. Based on the success of the first edition, there might be another, which only means to say that there are many more than what are immediately evident. I don’t doubt the number but the fact that such a show has to be made in the first place is something that we need to introspect more on. But for a nation that is used to take even terror attacks in her stride for lack of action and miniscule attention spans, is an episode per issue enough? Would it fix it? Create sufficient awareness? Make people talk more? That will be a topic to ponder over another weekend and a couple of whiskies but as the matter stands, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s immediate assurance to take up the issue is a positive start.

PS: I'm in Sir