Thoda Sa Aasman

THHODA SA AASMAAN
A Story about three women

Television Serial – 14 Parts - Doordarshan
1995

CAST
Nadira, Deepti Naval, Mona Ambegaonkar, Dr. Shreeram Lagoo,
Vinod Pandit, Rajiv Paul, Ashwin Kaushal, Asha Chandra, Dina Pathak

CREDITS
Producer – Deepti Naval Productions
Writer, Director – Deepti Naval
Camera – Hemant Chaturvedi
Music – Kuldeep Singh
Associate Writer – Neelima Goel

STORY
The story revolves around three women of different age groups, going through some crisis in their lives respectively. They come together at a certain point of time, interact with each other for a while, and finally head towards their individual destinations.

These three women are basically from ordinary middle class backgrounds. One is ‘Anu’, a young 19 year old girl who has completed her B.A. and wants to launch herself in a career. She wants to become an airhostess but the family dose not approve. She is in love with a boy called Vicky who is also averse to the idea of her working for the airlines. The girl finds herself at a point where she is torn between family, boyfriend and a world which she wants to reach out to.

Our second character is a young married woman called ‘Naashi’ she is a 33 year old house wife with a baby of one year, a boy called ‘Manu’. She is questioning the very institution of marriage. She has married ‘Mahesh’ some one of her choice, which had been arranged by the family. She had been a brilliant student and had given up a short exciting carrier in ‘theatre’ and ‘literature’ to settle down with a man who she thought was Mr. Right. Today she finds a total break down of communication between her and her husband. She resents being caught up in a situation where she is simply role playing, going through the technicalities of being wife and mother, minus any real feelings. She is looking for the romance which she dreamt would be there in marriage. She wants togetherness, warmth, sharing. She is looking for equality between man and woman.

The third character ‘Mrs. Joshi’ is a tender woman of 60, who has gone through the entire gamut of being a dutiful daughter, ideal wife and wonderful mother, all very effectively. She has a married daughter ‘Preeti’ with three kids, and an older son called ‘Bobby’ well settled in ‘Canada’. All her life she has tried to fit in perfectly into the images set for her by other people. Now at 60, she wants to know who she really is. Suddenly one day she discovers that her husband, for the past 40 years, has been involved with another woman. ‘Mrs. Joshi’ is shocked, humiliated, cheated, and broken down. She cannot reconcile with this. She doesn’t want to live with her husband anymore. Her grown up children try to persuade her not to take such a step, since a major part of her life has already been spent with her husband and moreover, the other woman is now dead. Burt ‘Mrs. Joshi’ cannot come to terms with the fact that all her life she dedicated to a marriage and home which was only a convenient arrangement. She shocks every one by leaving home, and starting her life all over again.

Through this serial, we will be able to explore many facets of Indian womanhood. It is our objective to convey an anti-male and a feminist view point. It will be essentially an honest human interaction, creating a lot of space for discussion and dialogue. Our motive is not to encourage rejection of tradition and convention, but to create a balance between independence and established social norms, for a harmonies living in today’s modern world.

As we proceed with these three characters coming to terms with there respective situations, we find that after a lot of conflict, the young girl ‘Anu’ chooses to forego the idea of getting married for the time being. She decides to pursue the carrier of her choice and become financially independent. She is able to convince her family that it is important for her to stand on her own feet, before she jumps into the arena of life.

‘Naashi’ the young house wife has moved away from her husband, leaving the child behind. Once she goes her husband Mahesh realizes what she had meant to him and his child. Now he goes all out to woo his wife back, and is willing to make all the necessary adjustments and also change his attitude towards her. ‘Naashi’ also realizes her shortcomings and now both are working towards making a stronger and more meaningful relationship between the two of them.

‘Mrs. Joshi’ who had been helpless women, always dependent on others, now shows great strength by walking out of the protection of a home and husband. She now wishes to do all those things that she had once dreamt of doing, but had forsaken for the sake of a home and children. ‘Mr. Joshi’ reaches out to his wife and towards the end the two of them are able to come close together as ‘real friends’ – a new equation with her husband.

The story revolves around the main pivot of a young married couple in which Mahesh (Vinod Pandit) and Naashi (Deepti Naval) try to cope with a marriage under strain. Thoda sa Aasmaan sensitively explores human relationships examining the ‘role playing’ in a stereotyped middle class setup in the light of dreams and ambitions of various characters. The husband comes through as a typical male even as the wife struggles to cope with the home and baby without getting even a few words of appreciation as reward. At the end of this episode a crisis point is reached as Naashi walks out suddenly in anger and tears leaving the man holding the baby. It is an interesting beginning