Jethalal Flirting With Babita Inappropriate In Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah

I was still in my early teens when Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah first aired. Since then, sitting down to watch the show together was almost a ritual at home. It has been 13 years and the television series hasn’t even begun to lose popularity. Surprisingly, even after delivering some problematic content.

The beloved family show is meant to put a smile on our face. However, one can’t lose sight of the inappropriate and distasteful comedy we are served. Our parents never miss out on any opportunity to disapprove of the content we watch. Television shows these days evoke the same concern in me (for my parents, of course).

DNA India

Jethalal and Babita ji, played by Dilip Joshi and Munmun Dutta respectively, have an equation on the show all of us are aware of. He flirts with her, on several occasions, while she smiles wide and plays along. Now, the concerning factor here is the infatuation of a married man towards another woman packaged as ‘innocent flirting’.

Koimoi

Pinkvilla

A little while back, rumours related to co-stars from the show dating led to uproar on social media. Munmun Dutta (34) and Raj Anadkat (24), who features as Jethalal’s son Tappu, are allegedly in a relationship. Dutta was age-shamed and slut-shamed on social media over the age-gap of around 9 years.

Economic Times

“Women are constantly AGE SHAMED, SLUT SHAMED, MOM SHAMED, at the cost of your humour,” she replied in an Instagram post, now unavailable.

“13 years of entertaining people and it didn’t take 13 minutes for anyone of you to RIP MY DIGNITY APART,” Dutta added.

Although the actor lashed out at trolls, the episode makes me question the fact that a similar concern wasn’t expressed over unending flirtation between Jethalal and Babita.

Before someone comes with an argument that it’s a work of fiction, haven’t we frequently questioned other fictional works?

Viewers have almost never flinched on this aspect or protested enough to be taken seriously.

Quora

In fact, their relationship has become a source of memes on social media.

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IWMBuzz

In a supposed family show, a married man flirting with another woman is sold to us as humour. The lack of criticism towards this aspect has its roots in the patriarchal mindset of our society, which doesn’t mind a man doing so even in real-life.

This makes me think if the situation is reversed, will the audience have a similar response? Are we going to sit together with our family laughing at instances where Babita frequently hits on a man?

13 Years Of TMKOC, We Can Do Without Jethalal Flirting With Babita