Icche Dana

Icche Dana was a Bengali television serial which used to air on Star Jalsha.

Significance

It was the first feminist show of the channel.^[1]

Plot

This is the first feminist soap of Bengali Television. This is a story of four contemporary women of Kolkata who learn to balance their individual wishes, desires and their family responsibilities. It’s a story of choices and compromises they make for a successful and stable life. Paroma / Shreya / Nandini / Bibs all stay in the same housing society. While Paroma and Bibs have grown up there, Shreya and Nandini are outsiders who have come and settled down. Shreya is like Paroma’s didi and Nandini is like Bibs’ role model of independence. And Bibs is extremely jealous of Paroma. These four women, the four main protagonists of this new series, live at a middle class housing complex named ‘Ashirbad’. In the beginning, they are not at all close to each other, excepting the vague acquaintance of being neighbors. Their social identities are such that they could easily be related to any section of this channel’s ideal viewership. In a way, they all are the same. They all belong to a middle class set up, hailed from almost identical urban upbringing; educated at decent academic institutes; and all of them wanted to set their lives on a chord of family peace and happiness. But there are contrasts too. There is a marked difference in looks, attitude, way of life and viewpoints_ which resultantly sketch their individual traits within commonality. The common chord is survival and lust for life. The common portrayal is flaring aspiration of them all. The common dream is an utopia called ‘Love’. But destiny had planned it otherwise.

Cast

• Paroma
• Shreya
• Nandini
• Saikat Das ^[2]
• Samrat Mukherjee

References