Devon ke Dev Mahadev- Life Ok- A review

Devon ke Dev Mahadev- Life OK- What’s so appealing?

-A review

The Indian television has been virtually disappointing over the years. Although the industry churns out an unfathomable number of series and programs every season, they fail to impress. The reasons are obvious: We are plagued incessantly with regressive serials in the name of uplifting society and its values. The fact is we are getting tired of the expensive saree clad soft spoken tolerant women who sacrifice all their rights and suffer continuously to showcase their “indian” strength of character. We have had enough of the family drama.

The Indian appetite is growing in terms of television entertainment. We definitely need to connect to our cultural roots but we need to do it the new way. The showcasing has to be as dynamic as our heritage. In this light, Devon ke Dev Mahadev  on Life OK  is a fresh gust of wind as it brings hope that finally the television industry is waking up to authentic creativity. The series has succeeded in bringing back harsh TV critics like me to television.

Man’s fascination with myth is not new. But that’s not what makes this series so beloved among young and old audience alike. At least a dozen mythical shows go on air all week: they don’t garner the kind of attention DKDM gets. The show’s appeal lies in its presentation and cast.

Welcome to the world’s first love story. Every Indian grows up listening to the story of the mighty Sati jumping into the yajna fire for the honour of her husband. We all know how Shiva danced the dance of destruction carrying Sati’s burnt body and had to be appeased to prevent the end of the world.  The story has been retold a million times and has been depicted on the screen many a times. So what’s new in DKDM?

Oh there is. Up until now, we all heard Sati’s story with reverence. We kept Shiva and Sati on a pedestal and were so overwhelmed by the divine nature of the myth, that we didn’t seek to know how it felt to be a part of the story. It was okay not to identify, after it was a God’s story and we are not supposed to identify with Gods..

DKDM has changed all that. When you watch their story here, you forget that it comes from scriptures. You identify with them, you feel for them and it makes you want to be them.

Modern women identify with DKDM’s Sati because she is not over burdened with piousness, which is generally heaped upon mythological women in copious amounts in our culture. You see the confidence and steadfastness in Sati, lacked by many modern women. She is headstrong. She has no qualms about pursuing Shiv when she is being opposed by everyone, including Shiv. She does not wait to be proposed just because she is a girl and she does not let anyone else decide for her. When she is in love, she does not hide it with a shy smile; she brazenly declares it with a sensuous dance. Sati is a fighter and she makes you want to fight for her. Her faults are humane. She is proud and haughty. When she is made aware of her importance in Shiv’s life, she revels in her ego. She has problems but she is in love, just like every other woman on earth.

 It is a daring feat casting Mahadev on screen. It is almost unfair to expect from any actor to play Shiv and do justice to it. The myths describe him as someone unimaginably handsome and powerful yet innocent and vulnerable. He is the master of dance, music, yoga and even love making. His anger is feared by gods and demons alike. His love is sought by heaven and earth alike. In short, it is impossible to depict him in all his glory.

And it is here that DKDM has achieved the impossible. The major strength of the show lies in the depiction of Shiva. This on screen Shiva is as good as it gets. It is not an exaggeration to say that DKDM’s Shiva makes you forget that you are watching an actor playing Mahadev, and not Mahadev himself.His eyes mirror both powerful wrath and extreme tenderness with mastery. His persona oozes power even when he has nothing to say. And when he has things to say, well, you just listen to it entranced, believing that Shiva is speaking to you.

So here we are, we have two characters that are strong yet lifelike. Very easy to believe in and identify with. The protagonists shine brilliantly through an extra ordinary chemistry. The pining Sati is extremely appealing when she defiantly questions Shiv on his rejection and the silent Shiv tears your heart with his vulnerable silence, for he alone knows that only pain and hurt will come out of their re union.

Every single role in this epic story has been played to its full glory. The unique representation of this immortal love story has been further embellished with soul stirring music. The background music and the song sequences are a blessing to the ears. It touches the heart in a most extraordinary way and leaves you wanting to pray for the rest of your life. The song sequence where Shiv comes out to sing for the sake of bringing the unconscious rag-raginis back to life and unknowingly hypnotises Sati will remain an epic sequence for years to come.

But like all other great beginnings, the series faces a challenge to maintain the high bench mark it has set for itself throughout. It has succeeded in doing so till now and has kept us glued to the TV screen. The run time has been a subject of displeasure as it occupies only a fifteen minute slot (excluding the break) on the channel.  The recap episode on Friday is an unwelcome interruption in the flow of the story.

Definitely, the entire DKDM team deserves applause for delivering an almost perfect master piece in the genre of mythological series after a really- really long time. The cinematography is excellent. The creativity is surprising. This new way of representing the oldest and the most famous love story in the world brings a surge of hope for the genre and the T.V industry in general.  And in the majority of households, at eight o clock every day, it brings fantasy, love and devotion, all together, and inspires many a hearts.

What am I here for?

The moon and the brightest stars are fading away

The skies are getting darker and the children, going away

 The ray of light is vanishing down the abysmal corridor

The music of life, slipping away quietly through the silent door..

A voice calls in a mysterious whisper amongst an uglier cacophony

Or is it just me who runs after it in search of promised harmony?

Why do I want myths in lieu of facts?

Why do I smell roses but think of lilacs?

Why do I chase without knowing what I am after?

Why do I weep in the midst of laughter?

A wave of energy flows through me and it threatens to blow me away

As I forlornly watch numerous unending nights pass into the day

Every day I stare up to the skies and look for an open door

To let me in and show me what I am here for….

Just another debate on Religion...

There are certain thoughts and practices that we call religious. Sometimes proudly, sometimes with disdain. Finding coherent answers to the questions in the nature of " why we think in a certain way and we only we as a community think of something in a certain way" is a mind boggling job. I have been looking for a straight line which could take me to where it all began. To the moment where we first decided that what is right in our territory and what is not. But of course, there are no straight lines. There are no coherent answers.

In respect to communism, Rousseau said that the first criminal in the history of mankind was the person who decided to put a boundary around a piece of land and called it his own. In respect to Hinduism,I would say that the first pundits, who proclaimed to be the only one to have a right to talk to God, committed an equally serious crime. They claimed an ability to interpret God and impose it on everyone else.

The general idea is that it all began with the advent of Vedic age and the division of people into Varnas. Almost all religious practices that we follow till date and the conditioning that a hindu mind beholds at present, took birth in the minds of  the vedic gurus and pundits who thought that the first thing God wanted them to tell people was that they were not born equal and only a certain section among them was worthy of communicating with Him.

Thus began the existence of manuals. The self proclaimed God agents started telling people what to do and what not to do. Rules came into being. The Wrong and the Right had been created.

While Manu's invention of  the concept of Family is well appreciated here on my blog, the concept of arranged marriages that came with it, is not. From where did this concept of marriage without love evolve. From the teachings of the Hindu Gods? Hardly.

Sati and Shiva married out of love defying Daksha. Ram and Sita felt the pangs of love before marriage. Parvati pursued Mahadev for years before he married her. Krishna's tales of love are well known. Hindu Gods seemed to champion love alliances. So who first thought of turning the union of two people a loveless process to be followed within social hierarchies? When did we start judging people who dared to fall in love with wrath and disdain?

And then there is the three letter word.Who made sex a taboo? Hinduism has attributed one complete God on the subject. So I don't think God has any problem with it. The most famous Hindu symbol of worship (Shivalinga) celebrates the union of the male and female energies of the universe. There are famous temples who worship the Mother Goddess in the most basic form of  a reproductive organ.Tantric texts cite Shiva talking about achieving Him through sex.

No, Hindu Gods had nothing against sex either.

All the Rigveda verses can be interpreted in more than one way, as I have heard. There is a reason why all ancient texts appear mysterious and puzzling even when you translate them into facilitating language. They were written that way. They were meant to be interpreted in more than one way. If not for the Brahmins and the pundits, Hinduism would still have been today what it was meant to be. A liberal way of life which gave each existing human being the right to decide his own set of wrongs and rights. An independent interpretation and version of God's message because everyone has the right to talk to God without any mediators. That's the way God wanted religion to be. A personal medium to connect to Him. Nothing more. Nothing less.

A Rambling..

I'll tell you why I like stories. In stories, heroes are for real. They fly over your city and take care of the bad guys. In their world, cops dont get kidnapped in day light, children dont die of hunger and cricket matches dont turn out to be fixed. Even when they do, the heroes fix it.
I love a hero. When you know that out there are a pair of shoulders you can rely on, out there are srton arms you can snuggle into and fall asleep, it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling. I dont deny the existence of real life heroes but the problem with them is that there's nothing magical about them. They almost always end up on the wrong side.Not in the stories. There, they save the day and they save themselves. They are eternal. No one kills them. They have no dirty secrets. They are heroes because they are put there to be heroes.


In a book, you can make things right. In a movie, even if you see your life running downhill, you can turn its course just before the end. The happily ever after is your eternal back up.

 Tragically, Life is depraved of any such fall back cushion. And that is why I dont like reality.

I feel it seeping in, gradual but eventual...
I feel it in my pores, from the bottom to the core.
Its envading my whole being like a growing creeper
Its creepy and insane with a course of its own.
Is it anger bitterness or disappointment streaming in
Or am I hurt, steeling myself for a grimmer scene?
Its unpleasant and it doesn't ask...
enters without permission
and wears a mask...
I have an idea but it must be wrong..
Anger is temporary and bitterness will be gone
Hurting can stop and life will go on
But what if it is that what I fear
The feeling of regret is hard to bear..
Regret leaves you empty, faithless
What if I am regretting, what if i am hopeless?

Indian Television: Why are you doing this to us?

India Television is one of the most interguing puzzles of modern India.  We are  plagued incessantly with regressive serials in the name of uplifting society and its values . If television is the reflection of our society I am appalled. Correct me if I am wrong but there is an abyssymal gap between the twenty first century we are raving about and its televised version. The success rate of these serials indicates an underlying fact which is quite sinister: Unlike our economy and infrastructure, our mindset has failed to progress. Why has this natural process  gotten stuck somewhere along? Is it the eternal confusion between tradition and backwardness, between culture and ancient practices that has kept us shackled to outdated concepts which dont hold good anymore?

At the risk of sounding uncouth and un patriotic (?), I would like to state that the so called revival of Indian culture by our television is an encouragement to dangerous regression. The expensive saree clad  soft spoken  tolerant women who sacrifice all their rights and suffer continously to showcase their "indian" strength of character, are projecting the wrong idea out there. While this self righteousness works very well  for a moralist society, it ignores some very obvious facts. An average educated woman  who has not seen any difference between herself and her brothers or guy friends while growing up, faces absolute social crucification if she fails to match up to this idea televised model. This genre of Indian television is providing a false security blanket to all the future mother in laws!!

Another bi-product of this regressive movement  is the false adulation for the concept of joint families. There's no doubt that at one time, it was the only natural way to live, but now it does not hold too much practicality.  The propagation of the idea that family members can only remain close and in love if they live together under a roof,  burdens a married woman's life with additional complexities. In a combined family, a woman is supposed to play multiple roles for every single day of her life. If our televisions are to believed a woman is indian enough only when she can work, come back to home, cook for the whole family, make everyone happy,serve everyone's need at every moment and smile coyly at all the compliments. An indian woman  patiently waits for her husband to come back into their bedroom for having any kind of conversation and blush like a tomato at any indication of physical intimacy.

I am sorry but I dont agree. I feel that these kinds of productions are harmful. They are funny and they can make you laugh  for a while. But in the long run they can damage the dynamism necessary for any society to develop. Culture  adapts and moves ahead. If it  doesn't, it is bound to face conflict all around and end up as nothing but a cornered, lebeled and mocked society caught up in itself.

Indian Culture?

Why is tradition almost always confused with culture? I often hear people talking about “Indian culture” and I wonder if that really means anything at all. Indian culture? Can a concept as vast as culture be nationalised? Culture is innate. Each individual has their own unique culture. There is nothing indianness about wanting to respect your parents. If you open your eyes there are enough westerners who treat their elders with respect and many indians who don’t. Therefore it depends more on the individual than the nationality.

My guess is that what people refer to as indian culture, is almost always oneor more of our traditional values which we carry forward from ancient times.A lot of these traditions were made in times very different from ours and have become out of date in today’s age. Some are still holding strong.

Conflict arises when people who are misguided into believing that following a traditional practice will affirm patriotism towards a nation insist on hanging on to the medieval concepts.

To illustrate with an example, I would like to take up the concept of an Indian Marriage. In today’s world, our stories are not much different from other global love stories. Boy meets girl.Girl meets boy. They fall in love and get married with their parent’s approval and involvement. Simple? Not.

Complexities arise when we try to add “indianness” to the marriage.

1.The girl’s parents have to formally go to the boy’s parents pretending to ask for the boy’s hand.

2.The girl’s parents would have to bear all expenses of the marriage.

Then: In older times, marrying a girl off was considered a reponsibility and and a girl’s father had to look for suitable matches. Naturally, since he is the one who has to take care of the “responsibility”, he goes to the prospective groom’s home with an invitation and he bears all expenses.

Now: Two people fall in love. They want to get married with their parent’s blessings. Where is the need for going through all this charade? Think about it: Is this indianness or mindless-ness?

Secondly, I have a huge problem with the notion of  " beti: paraya dhan”. A girl is married into another family. She has to leave one family and go belong to the other. Another ancien tradition that we refuse to let go of. Every modern shaadi has a long tearful “Vidayee” where tears are induced into each individual keeping this thought process as the base. While I can understand how this held a considerable amount of truth in the past, what I cannot understand is why we refuse to move on.

Then: A girl lived with her parents till she was of a marriagable age. It was then that a suitable match was found, who lived with his parents in their house. So our girl had to leave one set of parents and go live with the other. Then she was married into other family. She belonged to her new set of parents. Makes sense.

Now: A girl gets modern education. In many cases she moves out of her parent’s house to get higher education or to work in a different city. Now she is getting married with someone she wants to , who is not living with his parents. Nothing much changes except the fact that she can officially live with the person she wanted to be with. The bonus is that she is getting to know a new set of family. She has two set of parents now and mind you, so does the guy. They both have two families and they belong to all of them. Where is the need for propagating the ancient belief that the girl leaves her own folks and loses her individuality to another family? Is it indianness to turn the whole festive mood that dominates a marriage ceremony into a morose crying marathon just because we can’t let go off medieval belief systems?

A modern girl who leaves the wedding stage laughing is as much indian as the one who leaves drowned in tears. The difference is not the nationality but their individual innate cultures. The laughing girl is happy because she thinks she has added new people into her world, the crying one thinks she is leaving the people most important to her, behind.

Being an indian is a lot more than hanging on to old traditions.Knowing them and learning as to why they were in place at a certain point of time will make us wiser. Appreciating our rich history and the set of values will add to our insight.
But not knowing when to let go off them will hold us back.Confusing them with “Indian culture” would degrade our individualities and push us into oblivion.