Indian TV show thinks it's fine for a child to romance adult woman
We’ve seen men marrying dogs, leading women protagonists turning into flies and venomous snakes and nearly every possible bizarre element on Indian TV soaps. At this point, it’s a fact that if it’s a Hindi TV serial, it ought to be outrageous and defy logic and gravity. Yet, a new TV show takes everything one step forward and pushes us further into the dark age.
From bestiality to paedophilia to glorifying something as reprehensible as a child's marriage, it takes writing to a new low. The show, Pehredaar Piya Ki, is a story of an 18-year-old woman and a nine-year-old boy, who are apparently married. Its promo even has the child putting sindoor (vermillion) on the woman's forehead, which, for all intents and purposes, means marriage for a large number of Indians.
To be aired on July 17, the story set in Rajasthan features actress Tejaswi Prakash as the 18-year-old object of affection/bodyguard of a nine-year-old prince. And it only gets worse.
In the show, the prince's mother expects her future daughter-in-law to have certain traits, but can't find a single suitor who would possess all the virtues. So, she gets him married to five girls, each of them with one unique trait.
Here’s a question to the makers of the show: What in the name of marriage and Indian tradition are you selling?
There have been shows about child marriage like Balika Vadhu, but those have brought out the disastrous consequences and exploitation the practice leads to. They definitely did not promote such a union as a “Royal Love Story”. Balika Vadhu was at least realistic in showing how children are married in the name of tradition and honour.
In fact, Pehredaar Piya Ki's promo comes with a disclaimer: “This show doesn’t endorse child marriage in any way whatsoever” but of course it is a royal love story.
Maybe, just maybe, TV show makers in India should take a break and focus on things like logic, average ideas (because they are at their worst right now) and a little bit of sensitivity to social realities like entrenched sexism and the exploitation of childhood with the prevalence of child grooms as much as child brides.
Watch the two cringeworthy promos – yes there are two; in fact, there is a Karva Chauth promo as well – and decide for yourself, what motivates people to turn on their television sets to watch this idiocy passing off as entertainment?