Indian TV soaps have a history of bringing bizarre storylines and characters to life. And although over the years we’ve been seeing some improvement in the kind of content TV has brought to us, there is obviously still a long way to go.
So, here’s us bringing you a list of shows that have given us some seriously problematic plotlines and made us do a double-take at the TV screen.
1. Pehredaar Piya Ki
In this show, a grown woman agrees to marry a boy who’s about 11-12 years old so that she can protect him from being assassinated. And, I just want to ask, what are bodyguards for? I mean Pehredaar Piya Ki really thought it was okay to make marriage seem like the only solution to protecting a kid’s life.
2. Pinjara Khubsurati Ka
Pinjara Khubsurati Ka normalised emotional and physical abuse heavily. The story is about a girl named Mayura who ends up getting married to Omkar, who is unfortunately very obsessed with her. So much so, he becomes emotionally volatile if she ends up with scars or dirt on her, because he can’t bear her looking less than perfect.
3. Kundali Bhagya
This show is so confusing, all it shows is people getting married to people they don’t love and then calling it destiny. It’s one thing to accept the losses or lessons in life, but another to pin the whole blame on fate, destiny and whatnot.
4. Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai
I’ll say this as many times as I need to; this show somewhere perpetuates the idea that women need to bend backwards to be deemed ‘good wives,’ and ‘good daughters-in-law.’ And it’s unbearable to watch different generations of women do the absolute most to be respected by their husbands and in-laws.
5. Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai!
Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai! normalizes emotional infidelity on a whole other level. The plot is only, and only about two neighbours who endlessly hit on each other’s wives and get jealous of one another for being married to women they find attractive. Basically, the grass is always, and quite literally, greener on the other side for these men.
6. Saath Nibhaana Saathiya
Let’s be honest, nobody thought that Gopi’s mother-in-law Kokila was a great person. Everyone recognised her as a controlling and emotionally abusive mother figure who couldn’t fathom her son and daughter-in-law being independent of her. She really was a tyrant of a sort.
7. Naagin
There isn’t much to this show’s plot. It is just a repetitive cycle of rebirth of Naagin women who keep falling in love with their archenemies!
8. Jija Ji Chhat Par Hai
Jija Ji Chhat Par Hai was a comedy show, but the plot was quite confusing and the amount of control Elaichi’s dad had on her life was ridiculous.
9. Imlie
This is a fairly new TV soap that has reopened the age-old patriarchal storyline of two women pitted against each other for a man’s affections. It’s 2021, women aren’t interested in fighting over a man anymore, because most of us know better now.
Have you watched any of these?
