Sujatha and Feminism

Sujatha is a very famous drama right now.  Of course this famousness is not going to last long without an engaging plotline. However I have to admit Sujatha was way more feminist than Wassane Premaya.

Sujatha is a strong minded woman with strong views. She believes that the world should be a good place and she bloody well does everything she could to make it so. She has this ability to do anything she wants and a very strong will.

Unlike in other dramas this story moves around Sujatha and her journey as a woman and her strength is shown through out the drama. Of course right now this drama is quite worthless as we see Sujatha just running around without doing much. Even though this drama has many male figures they never overshadowed Sujatha. Her father was her strength but even he didn’t control her. She was completely in control and had the ability to shape her own life as well as others.

Her Trishula work as an undercover journalist was quite empowering as it is usually thought that this kind of things can only be done by males. Of course there is love and romance in this drama but it didn’t make Sujatha much of a love slave. Shakya is never the Alpha male. He is a normal guy with very feminist views on life. He has no problem that his girlfriend is doing all this dangerous stuff. Instead Shakya lovingly helps Sujatha pursue her dream.

Recently of course Sujatha has just become another patriarchal drama. Sujatha is continuously being pushed around by her brothers and is about to be forced married to a guy she hates. I actually liked the time when Sujatha was more about Sujatha than the people around her. Sujatha is now just another helpless girl out there and I hope Sirasa make some good changes.

They could for example make her run away with Shakya and show how she becomes a stronger woman when faced with hardship. They could then make a few years fly by and bring in a new Sujatha (since Nehara is supposed to be leaving the country). Then they could add a kid to the list and voila we will have a very new story. Then this drama will be very much like Oshin, Sazuran or Carnation (Japanese dramas shown on Rupavahini). I just wish Sirasa will stop all this bad plot ideas from entering the drama.

However if we are speaking about the former Sujatha we grew to love I would say that it was just so feminist and empowering.  However recently the twists and turns of the drama has pulled down its feminist standards. Sujatha is no longer a single minded strong young woman but an always crying helpless woman. So let us hope Sirasa TV would raise its feminist standards on this drama and make it feel like Sujatha used to feel like about 6 months ago.