Ek Packet Umeed, refreshing!
Just Femme's very own Couch Potato (CP) starts of her monthly "TV watch" column with NDTV Imagine's 'Ek Packet Umeed'. She is not your average couch potato who sits on the couch with a pack of chips and surfs through channels aimlessly. She plans her television viewing very meticulously. She picks channels, genres (soaps, reality shows, quiz shows, talk shows, travel shows -- nothing is spared); studies them for a couple of weeks and gives her verdict.
It is easy to criticise and very hard to appreciate, my editor tells me. This is especially true if you are to review television programmes. So as a challenge, I decided to do my first Couch Potato "TV watch" column on something positive. After exercising my thumb much on the remote, I came upon “Ek Packet Umeed” (EPU).
The very name caught my attention. There was no hint of any goddess, or a saas, bahu or devrani in the title, which in itself was refreshing. Although the 15 women in the opening montage did threaten me with a flood of tears.
EPU is one of the “stellar” packages with which NDTV Imagine was launched at the beginning of this year. The serial surprisingly is telecast only once a week. Weekly dramas are such a rarity in this time of daily soaps that one was thrilled to discover it, hence the special mention. Though NDTV Imagine hasn’t caught the imagination of TV audience in a big way (I am not saying this; the TRPs show that their programmes are not in the top 10 slots yet), some of the programmes are something to watch out for.
The blurb on the channel’s website says “Umeed Bhavan is a family home for a group of women, who have come to terms with their unfortunate past and have started life afresh with a positive attitude that can never pull them down. ‘Ek Packet Umeed’ is a touching drama about the experiences and lives of these women as they unfold in Umeed Bhavan.”
One expected much melodrama with 15 women sharing the screen space. And there is enough drama in each episode; but not the kind where we wait with baited breath if Tulsi is going to slap Mihir or not. (Don’t know who they are? Good for you.) The episodes I watched were very socially relevant and full of happy endings which are such a rarity in these days of endless tearjerkers.
In one of the episodes, the women fight against corruption in gas cylinder supply in “Munna Bhai” style, with “roses and vinamrata.” They stand outside the agency and request other customers not to pay excess or bribe the agent. They even give out roses. In another episode they go against the local politician to save a little girl working in his house. Albeit in a very Bollywood style minus the blood and gore since there is no “hero” here. Quite the Rajni Behan of the 80s these women play. But what worked for me was the one about “eve-teasing”. One of the girls “Farzana” gets molested on a public transport bus and is so shaken that she refuses to take bus or even go out on her own. She even stops wearing lipstick assuming that’s what drew the molester to her! But “Mai” the central character urges her to stand up to the guy. But Farzana’s retaliation only angers the guy all the more and troubles don’t end for the girl. However the episode ends with the molester being taken on a bus ride with a lot of women. Among them are his sister, wife and mother. Of course no fun without some drama right? So we have the mother slapping the guy for what he has done and embarrassing the entire family. Reality told with just a touch of a drama, isn't television all about that?
What was heartwarming was that at the end of the episode, Farzana is asked to don her abandoned lipstick again, which she readily agrees to.
The serial of course is not all about the women fighting the big bad world. It also has glimpses of their little personal wars, little romances and idiosyncrasies. The little habits or actions that show that they are after all human (or women, as the situation may be) EPU may not be a pathbreaking piece of action on television yet, but is certainly refreshing. Hopefully the TRPs keep it going.
The serial airs on Tuesdays at 8.30 pm
