How Anupamaa is Empowering Women in The World of Naagins And Witches – Opinion

Anupamaa is the hope and that tiny ray of empowerment that we need in the times when women on TV are either fighting among themselves or are becoming naagins, and daayans.

It’s been over two years since Anupamaa is ruling the TRP charts on Indian television. The show features Rupali Ganguly, who was earlier popular for playing the role of Monisha Sarabhai in the cult comedy-drama – Sarabhai vs Sarabhai. In and as Anupama, Rupali has created a new fandom for herself – the one that is absolutely loyal and always discusses the content being served on the show.

Anupamaa crawling up the TRP charts month-on-month might not be a big deal for many but the fact that a show like Anupamaa has finally found a place in the hearts of the audience – definitely is. Also starring Sudhanshu Pandey, Madalsa Sharma, Gaurav Khanna, Nidhi Shah, Arvind Vaidya and Alpana Buch among others, Anupamaa is a show that highlights the importance of a woman’s own individuality. In the times, when every woman is fighting her own battle against patriarchy, Anupama gives hope, especially to those thousands of women who are stuck in the loop of lopsided gender roles being sold as family duties.

An average Indian woman doesn’t have the luxuries of switching between Amazon Prime and Netflix, or enough time or money to devote three hours in a cinema hall on Friday. For her, daily soaps are the best source of both entertainment and finding her representation in pop culture. So when Anupama – a woman in the top TV show steps out of her house to find a job or keeps her happiness above the rest, she does more than just inspire. She tells her fellow women that it’s absolutely fine to speak to your husband about your likes and dislikes, and it’s totally right to call out the toxicity in her family. At that moment, Anupama is speaking directly to that woman who thinks she has nowhere to go if she would raise her voice against the abuse she’s facing in her own home. Anupama is speaking to that woman who is still trying to adjust in the family after years of harassment and torture, or the woman who can’t question her own son making all the wrong decisions in his life just because he’s a grown-up man now.

Anupamaa is perhaps the only show today that has rightly gauged the potential of the medium it is running on. Not just its female protagonist, but the male characters are also created to show how the idea of toxic masculinity has been rendered acceptable in most Indian households. Leave the broader issues like infidelity and mental abuse that are prominently dealt with in the show, but even the smallest twist in the show makes you wonder how the writers are smartly using the medium to spread the message of equality. Sample this: Anuj proposes to Anupama and says he wants to be ‘Mr Anupama Joshi’ – breaking the stereotype around a woman shedding her identity in order to marry a man. Or Bapuji takes a stand for his daughter-in-law and supports her when she decides to work with a man and earn her own livelihood.

Equality is a journey where all of us are learning kindness every day and accepting that women have been persecuted and marginalised for as long as we can trace history. We have had shows like Shanti, Saans, and Tara among others that found their share of popularity in the world of naagins and witches. Even with its own faults, Anupamaa is trying to change the narrative set by the endless saas-bahu sagas. At the heart of it, there lies a pure intention of setting equality as the way of life and empowering women to think better, to think for themselves.

This is not a PR-planted article!