New Delhi, Jan 23: Gods thrashing demons, good defeating evil, brothers making sacrifices for each other: Ramayan , India's greatest epic, came to TV two decades ago.
The show was on Doordarshan, and it was a massive hit. Streets turned empty during its telecast and many people actually started praying actors who played Ram and Sita.
Ramayan is back on TV again. This time on a private entertainment channel and in a country which has changed since the eighties.
Is Ramayan the ultimate Indian family drama - a story which will always be relevant for the country? A channel's Senior Editor asked this question to Nitish Bhardwaj, the actor who played Krishna in Mahabharat , social scientist Shiv Vishwanathan and BJP leader and senior journalist Sheshadri Chari.
Do Indians love Ramayan because it is like a soap opera? "Yes and no," said Vishwanathan.
"If you are a modernist the Ramayan is an epic soap opera. If you are a traditionalist the Ramayana is a great myth with many variants. The soap opera is only one variant of the myth. The question is not whether we can redeem the Ramayana but can it redeem us," he said.
Epics give Indians hope, said Bhardwaj. "Every one is looking for something better, an enhancement in their life. Ram and Krishna basically mean hope for Indians," he said.
Vishwanathan spoke about the "variants" of Ramayan , but does projecting Ram as the perfect human and TV serials portraying him as flawless prevent us from giving a new meaning to the epic?
"Ram has always been Maryada Purshottam (the perfect man). Hindus everywhere see him as that. You cannot reinvent the wheel. Each state and language has its own Ramayana but it is popular equally popular everywhere. Ram is an ideal with which people want to relate with still," said Chari.
Ram or Ramayan is no danger of being turned into one standard tale. "There are hundreds of variants of Ramayan . This idea of packaging Ram into some kind of potboiler soap opera is very misleading-Hindus are not so naive. I think the variety of tensions and maze of interpretations makes Ramayana interesting," said Vishwanathan.
A tale for today?
Ram may be an ideal but is his story relevant for today's India? "I hope so. Yes, there are various versions of Ramayan but the original version is the Valmiki Ramayan . It is important to see Ram as Maryada Purshottam , because within the parameters of the 'Indian penal code' then he took upon himself to lead a life based on principles," said Bhardwaj.
"Ram led two lives: public and private. People who say he was flawed-because of the agony he caused to Sita-only look at his private life. But he led a public life too and he struck a balance. He abandoned his wife and sent her away to forest but he didn't live in a palace after that. He lived exactly the same way as Sita may have lived, so he did his duty as a king and as a husband too," said Bhardwaj.
Family values
Sociologists say post-liberalisation and developing India is losing out on what was the country's cherished asset: family ties.
Does Ramayan, with its story of family life, fill a void in our lives? "People watch saas-bahu serials, which show breakdown of family values and squabbles, but they don't relate to them. Even if they were to relate to (such serials) they wouldn't want to see their problems on the screen. They would always want to watch something they can idealise with," said Chari. That is why they would watch Ramayan again.
Vishwanathan agreed Ramayan will be watched again but said for "exactly the opposite reasons" Chari listed. "Hindu gods are ideal beings with tremendous frailties. They are people with tremendous contradictions and it is because of the universality of these contradictions that Ramayana will appeal. It has got nothing do to with current history or current news," said Vishwanathan.
Bhardwaj and Chari said Ramayan is relevant because Ram's life provides a solution to "conflicts".
But can't Ram be recast to seem more modern? Why should he still be shown wearing a crown and robes?
"Myths are retold and the new Ramayan may be better technologically but something has to be left to imagination. The danger is having a standardized, Brahminical elite Ramayan ," said Vishwanathan.
Chari retorted Ram was not a Brahmin. "But he or Sita can't be shown looking at the watch. These things can't be done-the work must relate to the period it belongs to," he said.
Bureau Report
