Vamp Decoded (Ahem Stereotyped)
Movies are made every day in India. Visions of perfect lives are created and plots based on real issues and illusion are narrated. While many fail miserably, some successfully gain the right recognition from its both, mainstream audience and critics.
The regular audience that comprise of the common man contribute to the crème of earnings and the great reviews by the critics help in upping the ante of the Indian cinema.
In a nut shell, it's a thriving industry where stars, story-tellers, film-makers, businessmen and artists are born, crushed, shamed, lauded and worshiped in a continuum. Simply put, it’s a mini universe of repeated nebulae and supernovae with super heroes, villains, vamps and common man with uncanny invincibility that come and go.
However, in a much smaller yet dominant part of this 'universe', the world of melodramatic soap opera exists predominantly as a compelling medium of influence for the households and families. More importantly, it serves as a capsule of opinions that allow people to instantly succumb to believing it all and judging characters (played mostly by women) even outside the TV screen.
It survives by feeding on the audiences’ quintessential need for drama and fantasy in real-time (proven by studies and also my observation). I, as an actor, in my quest to explore the glittery world of ups and downs of this interesting segment of the universe, often find myself to be thoroughly powerless to fix the absence of simple logic in many of those stories.
And the reason?
I just can’t control the storyline or have any authority to revolt against the ongoing conventions in the television saga. (I am newbie, so spare me! How did I get here? The answer is my glamorous disposition onscreen, decent acting skills, sharp features and pale skin) But, as one of the active audience and keen observers of mass-trends that impact human behavior, I am largely amused, entertained, puzzled and also greatly enraged by the stereotypes!
The stories capture my attention with the biases and assumptions that are readily made on women with certain degree of sex appeal, great emotional strength and few convictions. Oppss! I think, we all women at some point belong to this category, even outside the TV screen.
And I have a long history of being perceived as the mean, cold woman in the corporate world simply for the limited conversations I prefer to hold in a professional set up.
Provoking Thoughts Eh?
Nevertheless, in between the plots involving scandalous affairs, polygamy, after-life, family secrets, sentiments, torture and abuse, the silver lining in the stories are the forgotten traditional systems, values and joint families. (So the bottom line is that it is not just meaningless drama that TV series are pushing but also some interesting stories and lessons that are we are dismissive about. Therefore, don’t get me wrong!) However, the drama, tragedy and suspense seem to have an upper hand by working as the 'midas touch' on the TRPs.
Another note-worthy aspect of this world is that unlike movies, the storylines and scripts in all tele-series solely reflect on the travails of female protagonists. The portrayal of their lives and the level of involvement that audience show maybe compelling. But it only gives us the freedom to choose between black and white, good and evil, naïve and wise, poor and rich, the vamp and the saint, etc.
Samudra Manthan of TV Soaps
Now, this brings me to the part in one of the episodes of a popular mythological series where the gods and demons perform the Samudra Manthan or the process of churning of the ocean of milk. In their quest to find the divine Amrit or the ambrosia, the Devas and Asuras (gods and demons) work together but, battle against each other to gain full custody of the divine drink. (In all fairness they both deserved an equal share of it! But the issues run deeper, the Devas sensed the Asuras would misuse the power of immortality by drinking it and worked a plan to prevent the unfortunate event.)
This episode clearly drew out the distinction between the good and evil or black and white for me. Unfortunately, a similar form of differentiation between personalities persists today!
The audience's mindset is indicative of the constant search that the common man volunteers to find the ideal woman who is equipped to complete their illusion of perfection (maya) and perceptually guarantee unconditional love (mamatha). Surprisingly, we have Lakshmi and Alakshmi emerging from the same ocean of milk, promising us full entertainment and fueling the desire for gossip and need to stereotype Indian women.
Both, Lakshmi and Alakshmi (or Alakshmis) remain the two central characters in every tele-serial to have high TRPs, strong viewership, sponsorship from brands and long shelf-life. Between the twist and turns, the challenges in the ‘man eat man’ world (actually, woman kills woman world), endless love triangles and biased upbringing existing in trikaala (past, present and future), Lakshmi, our audience’s favorite is the one with “Amrit” in her hand.
She is depicted as the chaste, pure, fertile and profoundly divine person. Whereas, Alakshmi, the less fortunate counterpart is known for bringing misfortune, strife, poverty, and represents superficial beauty but, internally ugly.
Decoding the 'Femme Fatale'
The vamp or Alakshmi is seen as the vastly scheming, treacherous and selfish woman with an impeccable taste in fashion, great physique and mostly overdressed for any occasion! Her ambitions, self-centered nature and self-belief are projected as her negatives, calumny, insecurity, and the recurrent need to compete with the most unqualifying candidates in the story.
She is shown as the reason behind the discord and misunderstandings between family members and friends. She is made responsible for dividing wealth and destroying quintessential harmony in overtly emotional families. Sometimes, she is shown as a closeted psychopath with a gun license (they are all usually 9mm Uzis) and having connections with goons and gauls too.
Whilst the heroine is shown as a Saree-clad, naïve, soft spoken, gullible, extra-considerate, sensitive and selfless woman who is un-corrupt despite all the disturbances around her!
Her unrealistic optimism, submissive, plain-Jane looks and unreasonable emotional quotient has helped her gain the title of the ‘ideal Indian woman’. If need be, she is shown having no career prospects but, blessed with the natural instinct to grasp the infidelity behind her back and yet remain blissfully in denial.
Even in the spiritual and scientific sense, these women are created to depict the contrasting forces that may or may not co-exist like the matter and anti- matter, light and darkness, Vidhya ( Knowledge) and Avidhya (Ignorance), Lakshmi and Alakshmi. The imbalance of nava-rasas (nine emotion and sentiments) of these stories with contrasting ideas would make us question the sensibility of the educated lot. Also, I fear if they provoke the impressionable group within the audience to side forgotten theories and traditions like child marriage, dowry system and patriarchy. I hope they don’t! (Anyway they would regardless of the point that the TV serials are trying to make and educate individuals about evils of certain systems and practices.)
My problem is with the way we, women are lauded when shown as voiceless entities that are devoid of ambitions, having an independent identity. I also frown upon on the idea of showing a strong woman who is vocal about her opinions as a shallow, urban-shrew with poor morale and super-sized ego.
In this compact universe of complications, the samudra manthan of tele-series that I am a part of as a good girl-turned-bad, I veer between Lakshmi and Alakshmi, being as human as I can be. Happy when happy and also proving that 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'.
It’s unfortunate that I may come across as the stereotypical version of the either female characters I elaborated. But it’s not a new thing for me even in reality where people conveniently make uninformed opinions about us and assume we are inadequate because of our looks, social standing, bank balance, sex appeal, marital status and career-graph.
My experiences in the real world have made me embrace the fact that the trend of 'name-calling' an ambitious woman is a serious outcome of small-mindedness. It talks about the mankind's need to force-fit women and people into the frame of the unrealistic and ideal.
I only hope for the day when our true personalities with all the shades of grey are made known to the world through the tele-series. Till then, I plan to stick along and be a baddie (to the mainstream, impressionable audience who are used to the stereotypes) when I have to be in the whole saga and samudra manthan of tele-series.
The regular audience that comprise of the common man contribute to the crème of earnings and the great reviews by the critics help in upping the ante of the Indian cinema.
In a nut shell, it's a thriving industry where stars, story-tellers, film-makers, businessmen and artists are born, crushed, shamed, lauded and worshiped in a continuum. Simply put, it’s a mini universe of repeated nebulae and supernovae with super heroes, villains, vamps and common man with uncanny invincibility that come and go.
However, in a much smaller yet dominant part of this 'universe', the world of melodramatic soap opera exists predominantly as a compelling medium of influence for the households and families. More importantly, it serves as a capsule of opinions that allow people to instantly succumb to believing it all and judging characters (played mostly by women) even outside the TV screen.
It survives by feeding on the audiences’ quintessential need for drama and fantasy in real-time (proven by studies and also my observation). I, as an actor, in my quest to explore the glittery world of ups and downs of this interesting segment of the universe, often find myself to be thoroughly powerless to fix the absence of simple logic in many of those stories.
And the reason?
I just can’t control the storyline or have any authority to revolt against the ongoing conventions in the television saga. (I am newbie, so spare me! How did I get here? The answer is my glamorous disposition onscreen, decent acting skills, sharp features and pale skin) But, as one of the active audience and keen observers of mass-trends that impact human behavior, I am largely amused, entertained, puzzled and also greatly enraged by the stereotypes!
The stories capture my attention with the biases and assumptions that are readily made on women with certain degree of sex appeal, great emotional strength and few convictions. Oppss! I think, we all women at some point belong to this category, even outside the TV screen.
And I have a long history of being perceived as the mean, cold woman in the corporate world simply for the limited conversations I prefer to hold in a professional set up.
Provoking Thoughts Eh?
Nevertheless, in between the plots involving scandalous affairs, polygamy, after-life, family secrets, sentiments, torture and abuse, the silver lining in the stories are the forgotten traditional systems, values and joint families. (So the bottom line is that it is not just meaningless drama that TV series are pushing but also some interesting stories and lessons that are we are dismissive about. Therefore, don’t get me wrong!) However, the drama, tragedy and suspense seem to have an upper hand by working as the 'midas touch' on the TRPs.
Another note-worthy aspect of this world is that unlike movies, the storylines and scripts in all tele-series solely reflect on the travails of female protagonists. The portrayal of their lives and the level of involvement that audience show maybe compelling. But it only gives us the freedom to choose between black and white, good and evil, naïve and wise, poor and rich, the vamp and the saint, etc.
Samudra Manthan of TV Soaps
Now, this brings me to the part in one of the episodes of a popular mythological series where the gods and demons perform the Samudra Manthan or the process of churning of the ocean of milk. In their quest to find the divine Amrit or the ambrosia, the Devas and Asuras (gods and demons) work together but, battle against each other to gain full custody of the divine drink. (In all fairness they both deserved an equal share of it! But the issues run deeper, the Devas sensed the Asuras would misuse the power of immortality by drinking it and worked a plan to prevent the unfortunate event.)
This episode clearly drew out the distinction between the good and evil or black and white for me. Unfortunately, a similar form of differentiation between personalities persists today!
The audience's mindset is indicative of the constant search that the common man volunteers to find the ideal woman who is equipped to complete their illusion of perfection (maya) and perceptually guarantee unconditional love (mamatha). Surprisingly, we have Lakshmi and Alakshmi emerging from the same ocean of milk, promising us full entertainment and fueling the desire for gossip and need to stereotype Indian women.
Both, Lakshmi and Alakshmi (or Alakshmis) remain the two central characters in every tele-serial to have high TRPs, strong viewership, sponsorship from brands and long shelf-life. Between the twist and turns, the challenges in the ‘man eat man’ world (actually, woman kills woman world), endless love triangles and biased upbringing existing in trikaala (past, present and future), Lakshmi, our audience’s favorite is the one with “Amrit” in her hand.
She is depicted as the chaste, pure, fertile and profoundly divine person. Whereas, Alakshmi, the less fortunate counterpart is known for bringing misfortune, strife, poverty, and represents superficial beauty but, internally ugly.
Decoding the 'Femme Fatale'
The vamp or Alakshmi is seen as the vastly scheming, treacherous and selfish woman with an impeccable taste in fashion, great physique and mostly overdressed for any occasion! Her ambitions, self-centered nature and self-belief are projected as her negatives, calumny, insecurity, and the recurrent need to compete with the most unqualifying candidates in the story.
She is shown as the reason behind the discord and misunderstandings between family members and friends. She is made responsible for dividing wealth and destroying quintessential harmony in overtly emotional families. Sometimes, she is shown as a closeted psychopath with a gun license (they are all usually 9mm Uzis) and having connections with goons and gauls too.
Whilst the heroine is shown as a Saree-clad, naïve, soft spoken, gullible, extra-considerate, sensitive and selfless woman who is un-corrupt despite all the disturbances around her!
Her unrealistic optimism, submissive, plain-Jane looks and unreasonable emotional quotient has helped her gain the title of the ‘ideal Indian woman’. If need be, she is shown having no career prospects but, blessed with the natural instinct to grasp the infidelity behind her back and yet remain blissfully in denial.
Even in the spiritual and scientific sense, these women are created to depict the contrasting forces that may or may not co-exist like the matter and anti- matter, light and darkness, Vidhya ( Knowledge) and Avidhya (Ignorance), Lakshmi and Alakshmi. The imbalance of nava-rasas (nine emotion and sentiments) of these stories with contrasting ideas would make us question the sensibility of the educated lot. Also, I fear if they provoke the impressionable group within the audience to side forgotten theories and traditions like child marriage, dowry system and patriarchy. I hope they don’t! (Anyway they would regardless of the point that the TV serials are trying to make and educate individuals about evils of certain systems and practices.)
My problem is with the way we, women are lauded when shown as voiceless entities that are devoid of ambitions, having an independent identity. I also frown upon on the idea of showing a strong woman who is vocal about her opinions as a shallow, urban-shrew with poor morale and super-sized ego.
In this compact universe of complications, the samudra manthan of tele-series that I am a part of as a good girl-turned-bad, I veer between Lakshmi and Alakshmi, being as human as I can be. Happy when happy and also proving that 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'.
It’s unfortunate that I may come across as the stereotypical version of the either female characters I elaborated. But it’s not a new thing for me even in reality where people conveniently make uninformed opinions about us and assume we are inadequate because of our looks, social standing, bank balance, sex appeal, marital status and career-graph.
My experiences in the real world have made me embrace the fact that the trend of 'name-calling' an ambitious woman is a serious outcome of small-mindedness. It talks about the mankind's need to force-fit women and people into the frame of the unrealistic and ideal.
I only hope for the day when our true personalities with all the shades of grey are made known to the world through the tele-series. Till then, I plan to stick along and be a baddie (to the mainstream, impressionable audience who are used to the stereotypes) when I have to be in the whole saga and samudra manthan of tele-series.
As someone who is seen as a vamp (based on my looks), i relate to this article on a deep level. I must say, excellent but of writing. Very articulate and impactful, yet entertaining and interesting.
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