Maryada: Lekin Kab Tak?

Maryada...Lekin Kab Tak? (Keeping our limits...but until when?) was an Indian television drama series that premiered on 18 October 2010, on STAR Plus. The show is produced by Tony and Deeya Singh of DJ’s a Creative Unit. It was scheduled to broadcast its series finale on 25 January 2012 and be replaced by Sajda Tere Pyaar Mein on the 11:00 p.m. slot.^[1] This was changed later, with Sajda Tere Pyaar Mein replacing Navya on the 10:00 p.m. slot instead.^[2] Navya, in turn, moved to the 6:00 p.m. slot.^[3] The show got an extension of six months in January, but in March, the producers and cast decided to end it. The last telecast was on 13 April. The series is remembered as the first show on Indian television to have a gay storyline.

The show centered on the lives of four women from the same family: Priya, Devyani, Uttara and Vidya. Initially, it focused on the character of Uttara and the trials she faced in her abusive marriage to her drunkard husband. The show later revolved around Brahmanand Jakhar, Uttara's brother-in-law, and Uttara's betrayal to her sister by marrying Brahma religiously.

Plot

Uttara is a beautiful woman and has an elder sister Devyani. She is happily married to Rishabh and has a teenage daughter with him. Rishabh gets into an accident, becomes an alcoholic, and starts beating his wife. Uttara sends her daughter to hostel so as to not let the violent environment at home hinder her education. Rishabh then starts pimping Uttara for money, which she resists but ultimately gives in. She could not handle Rishab's tormenting anymore and ends up killing him. She is consoled by her sister Devyani's family, the Jakhars. She is freed from all her charges by Devyani's corrupt and immoral husband, the deputy inspector general (DIG) of police, Brahmanand Jakhar (or Brahma). She is welcomed into their house and is given a space to live, though at first she does not feel fully welcomed into the family.

Brahma is a corrupt, cheating, womanizing person who also takes bribes. Everybody in his family is aware of his sins, except his son Aditya. His son values him as God and the one thing Brahma fears is his son finding out his truth. On top of that, Brahma also raped Aditya's to be wife Priya, which causes a major change in her personality. Because of his evilness, Priya's previous marriage breaks up on the wedding day. But, all thanks to Aditya, who fell in love with her at first sight. He gave her confidence, made her smile again, saved her life numerous times, and finally married her. Despite possible consequences, Brahma to starts another affair, with Uttara. After marriage, Priya decides to fight against Brahma's evil actions and attempts to rile his wife Devyani against him. After a while, Uttara feels welcomed into Brahma's family and begins to fall in love with him; eventually the two share a passionate kiss on the balcony of Brahma's manor. Uttara later regrets the notion. Made aware by Priya, Devynai is not oblivious to his advances. Brahma manages to convince her that nothing is going between him and Uttara and that he is just consoling her as she does not feel accepted into their family gun no.

After Brahma leaves on office business, Uttara begins to think about Brahma. She realizes that she is in love with him and thinks that he is in love with her as well. When Brahma returns, Uttara expresses her love, and Brahma marries her religiously, not legally. They consummate their relationship, and Uttara then slowly starts taking control of Devyani's household activities. Uttara and Brahma are also having sex repeatedly around the house, also unnoticed by the rest of the family members. By the time she is fully in charge of the household, no family members realize any difference, except Priya and Devyani. Devyani then tries to warn Uttara of Brahma's corrupt practices in office and his womanizing tendencies. Uttara, in her love, refuses to understand. When Devyani starts talking against Brahma, he reveals on Karuva Chauth that he will divorce her and wed Uttara, actually a plot to get Devyani in control. Priya takes this as an opportunity for Aditya to learn of his father and Devyani goes along with the plan.

After Uttara gets heavily drunk and seduces him, Brahma starts having second thoughts for her. Brahma then confronts Uttara on how she is going to approach her thirteen-year-old daughter, Tara, on the topic. Uttara explains that she will make Tara understand who in turn will begin to call Brahma father instead of uncle. This causes Brahma to eventually get enraged as Devyani has gone ahead with the divorce and in court is revealing all of his crimes as DIG, causing the Chief Minister to give a suspension threat. To celebrate the New Year's Eve 2012, Uttara hosts a party in which she had planned for Brahma to reveal that the two would marry. Brahma calls the wedding off, but pulling her onto the bed, and telling her that she is only worth a few weeks of sex. The two decide that he will wed Uttara if Devyani successfully divorces him. As Brahma's crimes come into play at the court one by one, Uttara then decides that she too will leave Brahma, after a final night in which they once again sensually have sex. It is then revealed that Brahma's crimes will be taken to a criminal court of law and Aditya finally realizes his father's evil actions after initially refusing to believe it.

Blaming his downfall on Priya, Brahma tries to kill her, causing Aditya to beat him badly before he is dragged away by the police. Priya then leaves the household as Brahma is suspended and thrown in jail.She stays in a lodge and starts searching for a job but manager of lodge becomes interested in her and tries to misbehave with her. Uttara is then forgiven for her mistakes by the whole family and for the first time she feels fully accepted. Uttara then travels to Tara's hostel where her child forgives her, but on the way back Uttara begins to have back cramps. Stopping at the hospital, Uttara discovers that she is pregnant with Brahma's child. After a while, the whole family, minus Tara finds out about the pregnancy and when Aditya finds out about her pregnancy and gets angry at her for being pregnant with his half-sibling, who is also to be his cousin Tara's half-sibling. Uttara decides not to tell Tara, but decides on keeping her next child. Brahma then returns to the house after his police car crashed, but he is broken and mentally disabled. Uttara sees through his disguise and takes down his plan to become the DIG of Haryana once more, this causes Brahma to get frustrated and running a car off a bridge and dying.

Devyani finally experiences peace one year later with Brahma dead. Aditya becomes the party leader of his political party which is a huge success. Priya is a successful lawyer who is pregnant with Aditya's child. Aditya and Priya are living a happily married life together. Uttara experiences peace and ends up giving birth to Brahma's child, who is named Sharvan, who everyone ends up accepting. Sharvan ends up becoming the heir to Brahma's fortune.

Cast and characters

• Raqesh Vashisth as Aditya Jakhar (male protagonist)
• Riddhi Dogra as Priya Aditya Jakhar (female protagonist)
• Indrani Halder as Devyani Jakhar
• Kamya Punjabi as Uttara
• Sushil Parashar as Prabhat Pradhan
• Vishwajeet Pradhan as Brahmanand Jakhar
• Vindhya Tiwari as Vidya Jakhar
• Dakssh Ajit Singh as Gaurav Jakhar
• Nivin Ramani as Cheenu/Gagan pradhan
• Arun Bali as Baauji
• Navika Kotia as Tara
• Shashwita Sharma as Imli
• Fenil Umrigar as Sweety

References