Of Mothers, Daughters and Marriages: These Ad Films Are Important

It's no wonder that most of us reach for the remote in a commercial break on TV, what with advertisers trying to sell us fairer skin (and, apparently, a better chance at happiness) or dishwashing liquid that works so efficiently it's guaranteed the women (never men) washing up will fall to their knees in thankful prayer. And so, you might have missed this tiny handful of commercials that stand apart. 

The message behind these ads, delivered with varying degrees of success, is fairly uniform - each features a mother and daughter relationship and deals with the empowerment of women. The impact of these ads might fluctuate - indeed they might have escaped you entirely - but together, they challenge conventions rooted in patriarchy and traditional notions of marriage and relationships.    

Never mind what products these commercials are advertising, what they are really doing - or hoping to do - is challenging the restrictions imposed on women by a society largely regulated by men. 

This ad film, called Tumhaari Amma, features a daughter persuading her widowed mother to marry again:



This one, released last month, stars Zarina Wahab and Margarita, With A Straw actress Sayani Gupta as a woman and her former daughter-in-law. This is a saas-bahu equation you won't be seeing in a Balaji soap any time soon:



Widow remarriage is a theme we've seen in more than one commercial so far. This ad, starring actress Minissha Lamba, is a few years old:



And then there was this - perhaps the most visible but least effective of these ads. Some months ago, this commercial featuring a young mother on her wedding day with her little daughter caused a certain amount of debate when it was released, with critics accusing it of reinforcing the sexist constructs it sought to dismantle.