Ever since Anupamaa started airing on Star Plus in 2020, the show has been hailed for being one of the few progressive daily soaps in the country. Starring Rupali Ganguly in the lead role, Anupamaa is appreciated for giving the audience a perfect mix of family values and modernity.
However, the show has been criticised for its overly dramatic portrayal of teenagers and teenage relationships. And this only continues to deepen. In the recent episodes of Anupamaa, Anupamaa’s teenage daughter, Pakhi, is portrayed in a poor light. Again. The show portrays Pakhi as an “abusive” daughter to her mother.
With tons of rona dhona (thanks to glycerine), Anupamaa is portrayed as an abla naari who not only faces the hardships of society but also faces an ungrateful child at home. Mind you, we are talking about a teenager!
Remember the effect Baghban had on our parents, the same cycle continues. And a Reddit user pointed that out.
Ever since that show started my mom started developing more of a ‘victim complex’, she gaslights me every now and then and compares me with Paakhi of that show.
During adolescence, teenagers go through a phase of angst and that is completely normal. We all have gone through that notorious phase where we hated everything and thought that the world was against us. However as we grew up, common sense prevailed and we saw through things.
The makers of Anupamaa could have used this subplot to have a conversation on how unpredictable teenagers can be. And that the only way to deal with them is to sit down and have a conversation with them. But that is clearly not happening. For people who did go through an abusive childhood, this portrayal only continues to gaslight them.
Read the whole conversation here.
And this is not the first time, Pakhi is portrayed negatively. In the past, someone pointed out how the show put out a flawed portrayal of teenage relationships. We cannot ever expect Indian daily soaps to give us a realistic portrayal of things.