Ishti Kutum

Ishti Kutum is a Bengali TV serial aired on Star Jalsha every week from Monday to Saturday from 6:30PM to 7:00PM (IST). The show started with little popularity from October 2011 but and it is one of the most controversial serial of recent times because of its storyline where leading characters play negative role.

Plot

The story consists of an unusual plot. It revolves around the life of a tribal girl Bahamoni Soren from a secluded region called Palashboni West Bengal. She plays the lead female role in the drama who turns out to be a prostitute & her own sister's home breaker from a simple girl. Bahamoni was brought up by her mother Konka and stepfather Satyakaam who is also a tribal activist and leader. She is a brilliant student with an urge to study and make her own identity.

It so happens that a city journalist of a famous Kolkata newspaper, Archisman Mukherjee, visits Polashboni to interview Satyakam. He saves Satyakam from the police. He also meets Bahamoni.Inspite of having a girl friend in city, he is attracted to her physically. One stormy night Baha has to spend the night in the Tourist Lodge, in Archisman's room. Though both are innocent, the tribals are angry with the city man because previously city men have exploited tribal women, in fact, Baha's mother Konkamoni was left pregnant by one such painter from the city,though it was revealed later that Kanka was well aware of the fact that the man was already married and has a small daughter, still she agrees to mate with him. Tribals force Archisman to marry Bahamoni. Baha then comes to Kolkata with Archisman as a maid servant. She begins to study in the city. Initially she finds it difficult to adjust to the city lifestyle but gradually becomes comfortable and happy, living with Mukherjee family, who also begin to love her cheerful fun-loving ways. The Mukherjees are a loving joint family. Their elder son Dhritiman went abroad twelve years back. The second son of the family is the struggling journalist Archisman Mukherjee. Initially Archisman does not like Bahamoni, and thinks her as a nuisance in his life, and hence tortures and threatens Bahamoni now and then. He hides his marriage with Baha, and moves on to marry his long seen girlfriend Kamalika Majumdar, a college Professor, whose family consists of her Mother, Grandmother, an widowed aunt and her father Dibyojoti Majumder, who happens to be the biological father of Baha.Baha vows to keep their forced fake marriage as a secret.

Archisman slowly gets attracted towards Baha,and felt sympathy for her, as baha constantly tried to blackmail him emotionally for her poor childhood and forced marriage.Later Archi & Baha started sharing bed in absence of Archi's wife Kamalika. Finally Archi wanted to establish her as his wife, so distances himself from Kamalika. Kamalika attempts suicide for getting cheated & devastated by Archisman ,her husband & his behavior.Kamalika leaves mukherjee house, giving a reason that she loves some one else called Dhrubo just to save Archisman from social humiliation and legal trouble.Devastated Kamalika finally divorces Archi,so that Archi and Baha can marry happily,and also arranges everything for Archi-Baha's marriage. Archi marries Baha according to city customs. Baha's mission of replacing Kamalika was now accomplished finally, and she is now the daughter-in-law of the Mukherjee family. She continues her studies and performs brilliantly.After Archi-Baha's marriage relationship between Kamalika & Baha became bitter as Baha's true face started coming out.Baha, by her default subtle crooked nature, pays no gratitude to kamalika for granting her a smooth life, & out of jealousy started creating misunderstanding between archi & kamalika so that they cannot remain friends. Kamalika's mother is very possessive about her daughter and after the divorce creates trouble in her own family as well as in mukherjee family with her harsh words and insults. She even attempts to murder Baha out of rage, as Baha's mother is the reason for her distress, whereas Baha was the reason for her daughter's plight & attempt to suicide. She is also aware of the fact that her husband is Baha's father which makes her more angry and vicious. However Kamalika forces her father Dibyojoyti to accept Baha as his child as it was his fault. Dibyojoti regrets his past behavior and to attain salvation tries to keep a good relation with Baha to which Baha agrees. Meanwhile the elder son of the Mukherjees Dhritiman returns home, it becomes known that he is suffering from leukemia and that is why didn't marry his fiance Sanjbati who is a gifted singer, but had never sung after Dhriti left her. With Baha's help, Dhriti and Sanjbati resolve their differences and marry.

A new character Dhruba Sen, a lawyer, is introduced. He falls in love with Kamalika.Kamalika takes Dhrubo's help in getting bail for Satyakam who is Baha's step father & a fighter of tribes.Kamalika gets a good friend in Dhrubo, and in search of happiness and new life agrees to marry him. But Dhruba too has another wife Rusha, who had run away from their marriage and was missing for many years, but suddenly returns. Complications develop as Rusha has become involved in a smuggling racket. She threatens Dhruba and family for marrying Kamalika without divorce from her. Helpless Kamalika stressed with her life attempts suicide again. Eventually is saved by Archisman, but loses mental balance temporarily. Baha agrees to nurse her,though in actual archi and baha started torturing kamalika physically & mentally.After Kamalika goes back to Dhrubo sen after recovery, Baha & Archi tries to fight for Rusha's (the criminal drug deal) justice with help from Dhrubo, though they knew it will disrupt Kamalika's life again.But when Rusha became good friend with Archi, Baha started showing jealousy.Rusha then leaves Archi's house & goes back to Dhrubo.Kamalika leaves Dhrubo's house after this,so that Dhrubo can marry Rusha & live happily. Later on, Bahamoni travels abroad for higher studies with the financial help from Tamojit. Kamalika conceives from Dhrubo. But Dhrubo marries Rusha again , so Kamalika decides not to reveal Dhrubo about the baby and stay a single mother to the baby. Eventually, Kamalika happens to meet Bikram, her colleague's brother from USA, who falls in love with Kamalika, and takes the responsibility of the child. Kamalika feels Bikram might be the right person, and decides to be with him. Meanwhile, Archi discovers the truth, that Bikram is his cousin brother and shares the same with Kamalika.Kamalika finally decides to marry Bikram as Bikram was the only person who understands Kamalika well. The show explores relationships & prostitution & special tricks of cheating women.

Cast

• Ronita Das/Sudipta Chakraborty as Bahamoni Soren / Baha
• Rishi Kaushik as Archishman Mukherjee/ Archi
• Ankita Chakraborty as Kamalika Majumdar/Mun
• Koushik Roy as Bickram
• Madhabi Mukherjee as Kamalika's grandmother
• Rita Koiral as Bickram's mother
• Santu Mukherjee as Archi's uncle
• Saswati Guha Thakurta as Archi's Aunt
• Badshah Maitra as Dhritiman Mukherjee
• Bidipta Chakraborty as Sanjhbaati
• Bhaswar Chatterjee as Dhruba Sen
• Shankar Chakraborty as Dibyojoti Majumdar
• Suchismita Chowdhury as Anushree Majumdar
• Chaitali Dasgupta as Dhruba Sen's Mother
• Basudeb Mukherjee as Dhruba Sen's father
• Shahana Sen as Rupanjana / Rupu
• Suman Mukherjee as Arjyo
• Manjusree Ganguly as Doyel
• Goutam De as Archi's Father
• Tanuka Bhattacharya as Archi's Mother
• Anushree Das as Kanka
• Chandan Sen
• Sandip Chakraborty
• Sourav Chakraborty

Awards and Honors

Telly Samman 2012- Best Actress Ranita Das as Baha

Telly Samman 2013- Best Actress Ankita Chakraborty as Kamalika/Mun

Star Parivaar Award 2013- Best daughter Ranita Das as Baha

Star Parivaar Award 2013- Best Sister Ankita Chakraborty as Kamalika/Mun

Controversy

This show has been highly controversial , because of its poor and misleading content. This has also enraged Tribal community of West Bengal for hurting their sentiments and portraying tribal characters very poorly. A lawsuit has been filed by the Tribal community on July 2014 in Kolkata High Court against the channel for portraying tribal woman's character and in poor light as well as ridiculing their language and culture. Though the channel authority denied all but a huge uproar from audience was there due to the negative contents of serial like cheating women,torturing and domestic violence,provocation of suicide etc by the leading character Archi and Baha.

References

• http://www.starjalsha.com/show/ishti-kutum Star Jalsha Ishti Kutum website

• http://zeenews.india.com/bengali/entertainment/ishtikutum-may-facing-ban_119014.html