+* Portrayal of Krishna's wives *+

I thought I will open a new thread so that we can discuss about Krishna's wives under one thread... 

Thanks for opening this thread, vaarali.  It is convenient to have all discussions about the wives under one 'roof'

First the actresses.  Initially, Priya's look didn't seem right for it, but after some episodes, she did get the 'softness' touch to her.  Last night, as Lakshmi, while complaining about Narakasura, she did look angry for the first time.  This looks realistic, putting aside one's disbelief @ Lakshmi-Narayan being in Vaikuntha while Rukmini-Krishna were on Bhulok.  However, while Priya improved in the 'softness' department, her lack of knowledge about how people were addressed in those times is pathetic. For instance, she once addressed Revathy as Bhabi-shree.  Now, the trend of a Hindu woman addressing her Jethani as Bhabi is only recent: my younger cousin's wife addresses my wife as 'Didi', not Bhabi/Boudi, although my sister is addressed by her devrani as boudi. So yeah, milages do vary now, but in those times, it was universal that a Jethani was addressed as a 'Didi'.

It's one thing for Priya and the new Satyabhama actress not to know it, but it's appalling that the directors of the show don't, or chose to put up w/ it.  What makes it worse are the directors making Rukmini both insensitive (when her father was kicked by Rukmi, she didn't even yell @ him in anger) and lacking any faith in Krishna, time after time (starting w/ when Rukmi showed her 'Krishna's' ashes to when they were getting reports of Krishna being stuck in the cave.  In doing so, they've so destroyed her character that when Satyabhama came in, it's a relief to see Krishna w/ her, than w/ Rukmini.

As some people commented yesterday, Satyabhama looks like a girl pulled out of college and forced to marry, and in the serial, she looks like a very reluctant wife of Krishna.  The real Krishna would never have married someone like that, who constantly doubts him.  And as Tan observed, where on earth did she get those pants? Also, if she's such a fantastic swordswoman, why doesn't she pick a male warrior from Krishna's army and fight him?  I do slightly disagree w/ vaarali that they should have just shown her taking refuge in him, particularly if they plan to show her as killing Narakasura.  I do agree that the manner in which she talks to Krishna is particularly grating, almost like how modern wives in the real world talk to their husbands.  Particularly ugly was her accusing him of lying, or being more attentive to Rukmini or Satyabhama.  The actress would have been more suited for some future role, such as Uttara or Usha.

One thing that I did like about Satyabhama is her lack of superstition (and personally, I liked her haughty and flamboyant attitude as well).  In Rukmini's case, when all those apshakuns were happening during that Ganesh puja, she reacted like Mandodari reacted to every apshakun that happened to Ravan, which was irritating to watch.  But last night, when an empty plate of Krishna's, which Satyabhama was holding, fell to the ground while she was handing it over to her maid, the maid was apshakun struck, but not our Satyabhama - she just coolly asked the maid to pick it up   Guess this serial's Rukmini could learn some things from her   Maybe Krishna should do future yagnas w/ her.

If one found Rukmini's addressing of Krishna as Giridhar or Murlidhar as insufferable, Satyabhama is even worse - only addresses him as her 'Kanha'.  Hello, this is not Yashoda-maiya!!!  Last night, after she saw clones of Krishna in the other rooms, she returned to her room and fell @ Krishna's feet.  For a change, it was refreshing to watch, before Krishna this time spoiled it.  If he was willing to show his vishwa-roop to Muchkund and Jambavan, why not at least concede that Satyabhama was right about his divinity, instead of denying it and making lame excuses about her servants seeing him everywhere b'cos they loved him? After all, everyone knows (unlike in Rama's original case) that he's Narayan, so why pretend otherwise?  And his explanation was so complicated and convoluted that even I didn't understand it, so I don't blame Satyabhama for telling him that he's going around in circles, but is happy that he's hers.

I've never read about whether there was any inter-wife rivalry or not, so can't tell.  But I do agree that jealous or not, Satyabhama wouldn't have been disrespectful to either Rukmini or Jambavati.  Particularly ugly was her wishing that Rukmini was crying @ Krishna's absence.  Only thing I don't understand - now that Krishna has revealed to her his divinity and that he can be everywhere, would it even make sense if they were to, at some point, show the Tulabharam incident?

The only positive thing I'll say about the Rukmini & Satyabhama actresses being so unappealing - people will be less focused on the jodis, and more on the story.  Looks like the scope of this serial to have appealing actresses is gone, since Draupadi is more likely than not to have some Devaki like appearances.  There were stories earlier in the media about this being a male centric show, which any Krishna show (not about his childhood) would be.  However, that would have been the case even if they had picked the best possible actresses for roles like Rukmini & Satyabhama, and kept Devaki, Rohini, introduced Subhadra early and so on.  Speaking of which, I'm guessing that even Balarama & Revathy are from now on likely to be cameo appearances, since Balarama pretty much did his own things for much of Krishna's life, while here, he'd be busy ruling Dwarka.


Edited by _Vrish_ - 25 August 2011 at 12:51am

Thanks for opening this thread.

Edited by varaali - 25 August 2011 at 2:50am

^^^ That's b'cos the jethani/devrani are both the DILs of the family, and both address their FIL & MIL as their husbands do i.e. as parents.  Since both the bahus would address the same people as their own parents (since they both belong to their husbands' family), the relationship b/w them is that of sisters.  For a married woman therefore, her bhabi would only be her own brother's wife, not her husband's bhabi.

That's how it's traditionally been, but nowadays, different women use either, like the example I gave above.  Even if we were discussing the last century, it'd look strange.  And we're discussing her the Dwapar Yuga, where it's downright inconceivable.  If you see some of the older serials, Kunti would address Gandhari as Didi, and that's about right.  I can't think of too many other such examples except Revathy vs Krishna's wives: in most cases, you have co-wives, and in Sita's case, her devranis happened to be her sisters as well, so that would be a bad example to use.


Edited by _Vrish_ - 25 August 2011 at 3:36am

i dun find Rukmani that bad but Satyabhama is annoying...not the character but the way this actress is made to play Satyabhama...firstly i find her very disrespectful towards Krishna..specially after she fell to his feet and said realization has dawned on her ke Shri Krishna is an avtar...her tone is too harsh always...she's most of the time ordering Krishna...dun know how Lord is loving all this, as if he's pampering a nursery child who doesn't know what he's speaking  even after knowing that he's God, she again talks back in the same tone  tdy ordering him to teach her dhanurvidya...the lady must be shown to have sum basic manners and courtesy...her language is like gaon ki gawar types...she cannot pronounce simple hindi words...like "saadharan"..she needs to take a chill pill.

Edited by _charu_ - 25 August 2011 at 11:11am

i actually like the way the serial i going..n i dont think we hould compare the way how sita was with Ram .that is completely diffrent n it was said that yes Sathyabhama was the one who wanted Krishna alot to her self. the way they are depicting the wives is fine. Enjoying the serial very much. i think we should stop comparing. no offence.  The quality of the work is soo  good a few mistakes do happen. hope no1 feels bad n stuf..

In today's episode, having accepted that this serial is going to distort both characters & messages, I decided that I liked the one Satyabhama gave Krishna - that her job is not just to romance him, but also be @ his side in battle.  Almost like a Kaikeyi.  The back & forth argument b/w Krishna & her about whether she'll need to go to the battlefield was somewhat cute, but if she's that determined, why was she staring @ him, rather than her target? I'd have liked them to show her using that bow, which incidentally, is a bit odd shaped at the ends.  But all in all, I loved Satyabhama being a Dwapar Yuga Vanessa Williams (in Erasure) or Angelina Jolie (in Mr & Mrs Smith) - now just show her taking Narakasura for a spin

But even for that, I think the actor chosen could have been better, although I must admit that Satyabhama is somewhat growing on me.  At any rate, I like the appearance of Rukmini being 'replaced' by her (even though it didn't happen, but had Rukmini actually been subjected to this, she might have regretted not marrying Sishupala).  Also, today, Satyabhama addressed Krishna as Dwarkadheesh, which is a lot more palatable than Kanha (I've stopped expecting Aryaputra from any of them)


Edited by _Vrish_ - 25 August 2011 at 11:14pm