MAA EXCHANGE - THE LATEST FAD. Review on Maa Exchange

In olden times, I mean 20 to 30 years back, when a new movie released, the director and the producer, kept their fingers crossed that the film be able to incur the fancy of the audience and become a “jubilee” hit sans controversy. A controversy surrounding a movie meant doom at the box office and social ire and criticism too. The actors and actresses, the heroes and the heroines especially, led an-away-from-the-limelight life which deepened the mystique around them substantially tickling the curiosity of the masses at the same time.

Today the scene is diametrically opposite. The audience thrives on controversies, scams, sensationalism, bare-all-sting-operations, bedroom dramas and the likes. Simply because they are fed the “gourmet” day in and day out, like shots of morphine to dull the brain, so that attention from more serious issues can be distracted. The “delicacy” converts into an addiction. The daily dose becomes a must. Watching such reality shows the mindset catapults into a perpetually disbelieving mode. Consequently, nothing is taken on face value. Success of a show lies in how best the ulterior behind the façade can be scooped out. If a visibly mortified SRK extends his apologies to Salman Khan (in absentia) for his erstwhile bad behaviour, in Koffee with Karan, it is straightaway scoffed at as another TRP gimmick.

In a country where parliamentary brawl draws maximum viewer ship, it is not surprising that Endemol gathered a group of out-laws and lesser known starlets with sleazy antecedents in the house of Big Boss Season 4 to titillate the audience. After much mud slinging, litigation and fatwah from across the border alleging non-Islamic behaviour by a certain inmate, the show serenaded to its grand finale of course after necessary pruning by Court’s order. But the foul-mouthed-inmate-bashing that went on episode by episode was proof enough of the extent to which the residents were ready to stoop in order to monopolize the 30 minutes fame!

Nevertheless, this is the genre of entertainment which is in vogue. Therefore, as the screen dropped on BB4 the curtain raised to another show called Maa Exchange on Sony TV Mondays and Tuesdays 9.00 to 10.00PM. The format of this show is unusual served as hot cake to the sponsors. The matriarchs of two extremely opposite households (read lifestyles) are selected and swapped. The mothers have to spend eight days in each other’s house gauge the new environ and jell with the new family as per the Rule Book of the opponent while simultaneously nitpicking into the camera. In the next phase, the new entrant tries to set her own rules and run the household as deemed beneficial, nay, reformative, for the family. And herein the troubles begin coupled with resistance by the family to the malicious delight of the viewers. At the end of the “exile”, the mothers confront each other with/without their worse halves, and behold the sparks flying as each try to convince the other where she has gone wrong in household management. In the last episode, the word warfare had gone out of hand. Abuses were slung like missiles with the chime of the beeps and fists of fury brandished while the camera relished the brouhaha!

Reasons why I don’t like the format - For mothers (read women), howsoever novice and naïve in the ways of the world, their homestead is their very, very personal domain – their heaven- which they found, nurture and cherish with love, care and devotion, every moment of their lives. Intrusion of a third person in that private world is akin to trespass on personal property and infringement of emotional freedom.

Every woman has her own model dream-home in the lines of which she grooms her household. She is the best judge of her creation. She knows best what she wants. To preach or teach her how to manage her homestead is foolishness unparalleled. No woman on this earth will agree that she does not know how to run her own house, look after her children and manage her husband.

The time span of eight days is too short a time to resurrect or bring forth positive change of any kind ( if at all required) be it home or outside. It is too short a time to understand a family and appreciate their emotional quotient and physical, financial and psychological make up and constraints, if any.

On two occasion (read episode) celebs were pitted against non-celebs (wives of celebrities who have never faced the camera). The match obviously was on unequal footing. While a celeb mother knew exactly how to take the most/best advantage of the camera and the limelight, her non-celeb counterpart, though acting in good faith, seemed sadly lacking. On these occasion, the tilt of the show appeared to be in favour of the celebrities who were given more footage and opportunities to justify themselves (their actions and behaviour).

While the camera is in search of spicy treats, the economics of the situation is completely ignored. When Pooja Bedi at the end of the inaugural episode tells the wife of stand-up-comedian, Rajeev Nigam, that an additional helping hand in the household is a must, the fact whether the purse of the provider allows the luxury or not, is completely overlooked.

The class disparity becomes all the more apparent when a woman used to elegant lifestyle is compelled to adjust to a typically middle class environment and vice versa. In case of the former, the disparaging looks, though veiled, are more than conspicuous through the lens. In case of the latter, the cold shouldering by the family and misbehavior of the servants is demeaning and in plain language, just unpardonable. The question that pops up in mind is: “Is it a healthy comparison or competition?”

It is not known how much of the show is scripted and how much extempore. But when we talk of homestead, it is not only the kitchen but the entire family including children and aged members, are getting exposed to the entire world. Especially, in the introductory episode the mothers leaving their young children behind for a week seems cruel.

And last but not the least, the moot question:”What do we learn from this show?” To be judgmental, pick flaws invading someone’s privacy, one-up-man-ship in the name of helpfulness, emotional trespass and rubbing salt in the other woman’s wounds. I can’t sense any positive vibes there!

In the final analysis, is there nothing that is likeable about the show? Hai na! My middle class appetite for mindless excitement and the indomitable urge of prying into somebody’s bedroom gets amply satiated.

While on the subject, I will be candid enough to confess that I am more curious to know what happens after the curtain falls. When the woman comes back to her hearth after having tasted an alternate life and “the other world” - Is her pride in her home and husband reinstated? Or the lacunae in her life stare back at her mimicking her incompetence and emptiness which she had chosen to ignore so far? Does she secretly crave for that other life now? Does not a gleam of suspicion lurk in her lashes when she glances at her husband (after seeing the footage of what went on behind her back!)

Oh! There, there! My fiend of an imagination goes ballistic over those thoughts!!!