It’s the same old…successful story

The story is an old one. Sunk in the psyche of most Indians, it has been played out so many times. Still, actors don't seem to tire of it. T...

The story is an old one. Sunk in the psyche of most Indians, it has been played out so many times. Still, actors don’t seem to tire of it. They play it again and again and again: they weep at the same old family tragedies, they live dutifully by old fashioned values, stick to ancient beliefs with the same blustering, toad-faced doggedness of so many before them and pay tribute to yesterday by living in the past. Now this sad old tale is running on Zee TV every week to enthralled audiences, who are so taken with it, that they go and cry in front of the director, Sanjeev Bhattacharaya and thank him for making Amanat.

The serial, which has completed just over 20 episodes, has notched up impressive TRP ratings on the People’s Meter: over 12 in Mumbai and around 20 in Delhi. The tale is of one Lahori Ram, who migrated to Mumbai during Partition and now has the burden of seven nubile, tight salwaar kameez-clad daughters on his old shoulders. His daughters are the cliched paraya dhan for him and all his energies go into making sure that the herd toes the line.

And if one of them skips the beat that a virtuous dutiful daughter must dance to, as it happened with the second one (Dinky played by Gracie Singh), she is immediately proclaimed dead. In the “mere liye tum mar gayi ho” manner of speaking. For example, a boy who comes to see the eldest daughter, Santosh (Pooja Madan), spots Dinky and decides he’d rather marry her. Fearing her father’s wrath, Dinky reluctantly agrees but just before the wedding receives news that the boyfriend she’s jilted, has committed suicide. She rushes off to see him, discovers he’s alive and kicking, slaps him for his attention-seeking tactics and runs back home to do her duty. The father meanwhile assumes the worst and puts Santosh in the mandap, without informing the boy, and banishes Binky from the family. The same sort of drama will be played out with each daughter, in front of a teary-eyed sympathetic audience. Logically, Lahori Ram committed an unethical act, but millions of Indians will shake their stubborn heads and tell you that any self-respecting father would have done the same. And this is why the serial is doing so well — it is a mirror image of what viewers think and do. Says Madan, "Maybe the surface realities are not the same but I do identify with the role as my family is also very conventional, like so many other Indian families."

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What does Bhattacharya, who directed the path breaking Chaunati, like about his protagonist played convincingly by Sudhir Pandey? "Lahori Ram is a man who has followed the same routine all his life, the way most elders in India do and his beliefs reflect traditional Indian thinking," he says. Though he admits he couldn’t live like that himself, the director finds the familiarity of Lahori Ram’s well-worn habits charming amidst the chaos of the today’s fast-paced life. Doesn’t matter that Lahori Ram hasn’t had a new thought for decades.

This serial is also Bhattacharya’s proof that he can direct serials not based on college students. After Bante Bigede, Chaunati and Campus, he got slotted in the industry as a college student’s director. This family drama proves he can attract housewives, too.

He attributes the success of Amanat to the fact that none of his characters have negative shades. They are all essentially good people trapped in circumstances not of their making, who remain stuck in the rut, helplessly. A situation and mindset common to so many Indians.

The script has been written by three people — Raj Kumar Bedi, Mayah Base and Mir Muneer — though the story idea belongs to Muneer. The serial has a per episode budget of Rs three to five lakhs and with seven daughters to be married off, it will be some time before we hear the last of Lahori Ram’s lamentations.