Sadia Jabbar Productions’ new web series Shameless Proposals has spread fire to the digital world with its brilliant take on arranged marriages in the desi society. The satirical fourth episode was aired recently and has already garnered quite a lot of views.
Aptly named as #ForeignRishta, the episode focuses on the proposal of a guy living abroad. Where he lives, how he lives, or in what condition he lives really doesn’t matter as long as it’s a ‘bahar ka rishta’. How many of us can actually relate to this? The episode is a very dramatic and sarcastic portrayal of an extremely biased and genuine mindset of our society, where a potential groom living in a foreign country is treated like absolute ROYALTY. The ‘prince’ himself might have no sense of fashion, nor an education, he might be on the run for a heinous crime, or might just be of questionable character in general; but just because he’s a #ForeignRishta, he’s exempted from all other societal standards, is absolutely perfect, and is entitled to a girl who should look like a total babe, but happily act like a maid – you know, the perfect ‘gol roti’ types? All hail the foreign boy!
What would blow your mind is the one eye-opening flaw in our mindsets that the girl points out – we love speaking out about how we should be more accepting of our original selves, instead of dunking our heads into tubs of fairness creams; yet we bring up our children telling them fairy tales about beautiful, gorgeous princesses who always end up with a prince charming and live happily ever after. We wouldn’t bother telling them stories of a girl who might not be fair-skinned, but is still strong and accomplished, and definitely finds happiness. The bias is deeply ingrained, yet we fail to recognize it.
Every episode of Shameless Proposals genuinely leaves you in a bittersweet situation – you laugh at the hilarity of how the scene is depicted, yet you feel extremely sad at how close it is to reality. It really is a wonder when we would be able to actually bring forth this change in our mindsets. Maybe in the next century or two?
