About a year ago, I had ranted in this very space about the lack of creativity when it came to mythology and epic-based serials on mainstream regional television. It was around that time that Star’s production of Mahabharata , with its opulent sets and six-pack-flaunting Pandavas, had had audiences glued to the television sets again. After all, the lure of a good story, no matter how many times it has been retold, is undeniable. The show finally came to an end last year (after a Kurukshetra battle sequence that probably lasted longer than the original), but I suppose the over-the-roof ratings and popularity of the show made it clear to the producers that the mythology genre would never get old in our country, thus giving birth to Seedhayin Raaman ( Siya Ke Raam in Hindi, Janaki Ramudu in Telugu and Seethayanam in Malayalam).
Seedhayin Raaman tells the Ramayana from Sita’s perspective. Many books have given a new lease of life to epics by narrating the story from the view point of a character who is usually sidelined in conventional retellings. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s excellent novel, The Palace of Illusions , for example, is the story of the Mahabharata as narrated by Draupadi. Randamoozham ( Bhima is the title of its English translation) by M.T. Vasudevan Nair is another classic novel that brings to life the Mahabharata through the eyes of Bhima. Naturally, I found it intriguing that a prime-time television show attempted to showcase a different idea of a beloved epic, and that was enough for me to see what the fuss was about.
Visually, the show is stunning. The sets are lavish, the make-up and costumes are beautiful, and the actors are very good-looking. The writers, though, have taken creative liberties with the story. Ram and Sita, according to Valmiki’s version of the Ramayana , are said to have met for the first time at her Swayamvaram (the ancient Indian practice where the princess chooses her husband among an assembly of potential suitors), but in the serial, they have a run-in much before. There are other changes in the story as well, but they’re minor, and it’s obvious that they’ve been made for the sole purpose of creating more dramatic television.
The Ramayana is very different from the Mahabharata — the former doesn’t possess the multitudes of characters or complexities that the latter does, but it does have its own intricacies. Seedhayin Raaman’s treatment of those intricacies, however, are not well done. The story of the Vaanara brothers, Sugriva and Vaali, for instance, is one of the few grey areas in an epic that is mostly black and white. Although Rama sides with Sugriva, both the monkey kings had virtues as well as flaws, but the show insists on showing Sugriva to be an incorruptible, virtuous king, and Vaali as a power-hungry villain who deserves to die. Seedhayin Raaman might be creative in its setting and clever in its style, but without the nuance — without the grey, there’s no colour in its story.
My wait for an original, bold, televised take on Indian mythology continues.
( Seedhayin Raaman is currently telecast on Star Vijay, and is also available on HotStar.)
