In Raja Rani, hero Karthik is forced to get married to the domestic worker Semba and after some ice-breaker episodes, the couple fall in love. Perpetuating hierarchies: Serials encourage liberal use of degrading terms like Velaikkari (to refer to a domestic worker) even if the domestic worker has graduated to playing heroine. In Priyamanaval (Sun TV), the drama continues after the wedding – bride Selvi’s family comes to know that groom Kumar’s brother faked horoscopes to get them married, and the couple continue to live separately. In Kanmani (Sun TV), the heroine’s wedding is stopped twice – both times after some drama. In the hugely popular Sembaruthi (Zee Tamil), the wedding again happened amid drama, with the hero tying the knot to the domestic worker he is in love with, hoodwinking his mother.
Not that other channels lag behind with this trope. In most cases, including Nenjam Marappathillai (Vijay TV), Raja Rani (Vijay TV), Aranmanai Kili (Vijay TV), the hero and the heroine get married forced by circumstances. And sometimes, the drama continues even after the wedding. Weddings cannot happen without some drama: Sometimes, they don’t happen despite the drama. And then there are patterns – some of which travel across channels.
Perhaps they have gone from bad to worse.
Over two decades since Tamil serials started capturing the imagination of the middle classes, little or nothing has changed. Ever since Tamil channels started airing serials, portrayal of women has always vacillated between two extremes – either an epitome of sacrifice, or the personification of evil. Tamil serial terrain is not all that unfamiliar to someone like me.
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