‘Star Jalsha’ or it is within us?

Tanviruzzaman Tonay:

 Recently several liberal activists and concern Bangladeshis demanded to scrap of airing Indian Bengali Channels in Bangladesh. The smoke of this demand surrounded the mind of general (majority) Bangladeshis who also demanded to keep airing these channels in Bangladesh.  A writ petition has been filed in this connection where the court rejected the fear of liberal mind and ordered to proceed on with airing the TV Channels in the country. Now the question arouses the impact of airing Indian Bengali channel in Bangladesh.

In overall point of view, the impact of this channel airing in Bangladesh is quite thunderous on the mind of general people of Bangladesh. There was an incident occurred in Sylhet where two parties were engaged in the serious fight over watching drama series ‘Kiron Mala’ in Television. The conflict ended in mass causalities. I am not the torch bearer for the heritage of Bangladesh but can easily say that our elderly women (Mother, Auntie, and Grandmother) are closely attached to such serials which allowed them to practice situations which are not real.

For instance, the nuclear Bangladeshi families are hoping for a joint family where the women are portrayed in a regressive manner. Free will be hindered by the custom is quite common in these sort of serials. Most of the serials ended with a working independent girl activated in household chores. But, our women society is reluctant to see this impact and bestowed their favor on behalf of these serials.

Now, the point is what the impact of it on the children is. In my point of view, it has a severe impact as Napoleon said ‘If you give me an educated mother, I will return an educated society to you.’ The mothers of our country are engaged in malpractices and dominate the free will of their children by doing some unnecessary activities. These dubious activates are allowing the children of taking some grievous attempt.

Now the point is what content do this channel provides to attract our women. They came with the flamboyant portrayal of a joint family in their serials. To hit upon the sentiment, they aired the serials in the evening to early nights. Most of the Bangladeshi Housewife’s are in leisure in this period. To overlook their reality in a nuclear family, they are attached to the mentality of these female protagonists appeared in such serials. They distort their reality in this period of time and make them as the protagonist who is lovable and has an extravagant life. Women like their dresses and wanted to be like them which is not real.  

The second point here is the pseudo-check of the masculinity. The masculine characters in these serials are just like a pawn. They are getting pissed in the hand of either their wives or their mothers. Here, I think the women characters are showing the patriarchy instead of the male characters.

The subcontinent is in the déjà vu created by such channels. We have to keep in mind that the owner of these channels is no other than media Mughal Rupert Murdoch. In Several interviews, he said that he has no attachment to the South Asian Sub-continent. But, the paradox is that the sub-continent is providing most of his revenue through ‘Cultural Dominance.’ He is businessmen who knew how to exploit the mind of normal class people and doing best to do it. But, it is ‘we’ who can vandalize the system where reality does not exist and save our mothers and sisters from watching such fake programs.