Popular TV serials may not involve high intellect but they often reflect society in ways that can be unconsciously accurate, especially to the outsider. The oppressive, manipulative mothers-in-law in the Kyunki Saas…serial, for instance, may be a familiar state of play for the ordinary Indian. To a westerner, though, it could well reflect the derivative status of Indian women; ie they are powerful only by virtue of being a wife or a mother of a son rather than in their own right. (The unsuspecting westerner may also think Indian women cook and sleep fully made up, bejewelled and in bright saris, but let’s account for a sense of realism here – after all, we don’t assume all US lawyers and CSI detectives look like supermodels either.)
By the same token, the wide range of foreign soaps and comedies accessible on a huge number of TV channels unwittingly reveal facets of western society that they themselves take for granted. One episode of the quirkily hilarious Seinfeld, for instance, centres on the lack of water pressure in their shower baths. Their hair goes limp because they can’t wash off the conditioner properly and the purposeful Kramer goes looking for more powerful shower heads. I couldn’t help thinking that the issue wouldn’t have even arisen in India because: (a) few urban Indians use conditioner and (b) many have water-saving bucket baths.
In India, the dirtiness of the streets has long dictated that we automatically take off our footwear when we enter a home. But watch actors in almost any American serial: they rarely take off their footwear even when they lie on beds or sofas. That may be a plain oversight, but it’s a striking one, a reflection perhaps of the far superior urban environments in those countries. Certainly, it would not occur to an Indian actor to do the same in an Indian serial. Similarly, characters in western serials often drink water from the kitchen faucet; in India that would spell instant diarrhoea, dysentery and other serious stomach ailments. Equally, characters in foreign serials tend to dispose of entire meals down the kitchen dispenser, an unconscious indicator of the innate wastefulness of rich societies. Few Indians would consider wasting food that way, though, sadly, that habit is waning among rich urban Indians.
These days, much is written about the imminent decline and fall of the venal West and the rise of India and China. Forget relative per capita incomes, this trend is not so evident in the contrasting lifestyle of its people and the freedom available to women. In The Big Bang Theory, Raj, the lone Indian physicist, balks at the thought of being deported to India. “It’s hot, dirty and full of people,” he exclaims. However irritating that may sound to an Indian, when it comes to urban India, it is difficult to refute this statement.
Raj’s character (as played by Kunal Nayyar) is rooted in a rich Indian family back home. In his friends circle is Penny, a waitress, again a situation that does not attract comment from the critics. In India, the son of a rich doctor is unlikely to socialise with a waitress. Penny is able to live in an apartment, tiny and grotty by western standards, and drive a beat-up car. This is not unusual either: in the movie The Full Monty, it was (and is) possible for an unemployed factory hand to live in an apartment (albeit beat-up) thanks to the dole. In India, it would be difficult for anyone to make a serial in which a waitress or an unemployed factory employee did anything other than live with relatives or share with many others.
In Sex and the City, Samantha Jones, the PR professional played by Kim Cattrall, acquires a rich boyfriend who employs a full-time maid. That’s considered a circumstance worthy of some comment from Carrie Bradshaw, the lead character played by Sarah Jessica Parker, who wonders whether she’s living in “New York or New Delhi”. In India, a rich family that did not employ servants would attract comment.
That said, it is true that TV serials do tend to stereotype nationalities and religions. When it comes to India, it’s clear that the world has long jettisoned the old image of snake charmers and religiosity and come to recognise its colourful multi-dimensional character. But the mirror that these serials sometimes hold up to us is not always comfortable either.
