Kumkum -Rishto ka Bandhan

By: Arya Aiyappan
Tuesday, January 09, 2007

"Kumkum - Ek Pyaara Sa Bandhan" a saga of love, familial bonds, relationships, impending danger and survival has been alluring audience for over many years. Kumkum - Sumit are common household names, the ideal couple, and the perfect paradigm to be emulated in our daily lives. The jodi has won rave reviews for their perfect on-screen chemistry and energy they exude.

"Kumkum" revolves the central protagonist Kumkum who is virtually the backbone of the family. She performs many roles juggled into one - wife, daughter-in-law, mother, and mother-in-law - the perfect homemaker. Kumkum, the daughter-in-law of the Wadhwa family, married to Jatin Wadhwa upon his demise tied the knot with his younger brother, Sumit. Sumit the doting husband lovingly fostered his brother's son Dhruv as his own. The relationship of convenience and compromise slowly flowered into love. Going through many a turbulent phase, courting many challenges and braving the opposing storms of conflicts the couple has always come out of every problem with their deep-rooted love and understanding for one another be it Renuka, Abhay Chauhan, Shanti Mausi, Abha or for the matter fate which plays its tricks on them.

Hurdles follow them one after the other in a succession - Jatin's death, Renuka's evil tantrums, Abhay's malicious motives, family feuds, business intricacies, etc. The story goes through many ups and downs but inevitably the connecting link is Kumkum. She is the one who resolves the tensions in the family and entrusted with the duty of uniting the whole family in one bond of love.

Like any other daily soap even Kumkum has not been spared of the time leaps. The next generation in "Kumkum" brought forth a host of new characters entering the serial as Dhruv, Sharman and Aashka, twins born to Sumit and Kumkum, Siya and many others. Keeping one's sense at bay it has to be digested with a pinch of salt that the children can look as old as the parents, if not even older to them, thanks to the latest style statements and fashion techniques.

Lately "Kumkum" is centered on the conflicts that ensue between Kumkum and her daughter-in-law, Antara (Dhruv's wife). Taking cue from the hindi masala movies which perpetrate the saas-bahu politics, the story is taking a new angle though much alike its initial stages of minor skirmishes between Kumkum and her mother-in-law, Veena. Generation gap and difference in perspectives are the prime causes for the entire scuffle.

Kumkum in toto deals with family relations, love for one another and reverence towards the Indian traditions and customs, which have been handed over from one generation to other. The saga will go on and on as long as there is love for family soaps and the hit pair Hussain and Juhi shares the screen space.