Start Date:	1 March, 2010
End Date:	4 July, 2016
Total Episodes	573
Creator	Ravi Ojha Productions
Genre	Comedy, Romance
Channel	Star Plus
Lead Cast	Jay Soni, Ragini Khanna
Supporting Cast	Supriya Pilgaonkar, Mahesh Thakur, Vaishnavi Mahant, Sudhir Pandey, Anita Kanwal, Bhairavi Raichura

We all have seen the evil Mother-in-Law and the ‘bechari’ (Helpless) Daughter-in-Law stories since our childhood. With our mothers and grandmothers we all have seen Mihir dying innumerable times. But to our surprise, he was always found alive. Women were always portrayed as the enemies of each other. And Men, Men of the house had nothing to do except contribute to their family drama. (They still lived in giant bungalow, where did they get money for its maintenance?)

India’s first longest daily soap was ‘Hum Log’ which was terminated after 154 episodes; It was also the first daily soap to be aired in 1984. We had great daily soaps like ‘Son Pari’, ‘Malgudi Days’, ‘Karishma ka Karishma’, ‘Sarabhi vs. Sarabhai’ and many more. But then arrived Ekta Kapoor with her shows like ‘Kyuki Saas bhi Kabhi bahu thi’ in 2000 and after that the scenario of Indian daily soaps changed completely.

Every show presented the rich joint family and the indifferences the family members had. Every female actor was decked up with jewelry from head to toe. Amid all these cliche, arrived ‘Sasural Genda Phool’, a show which broke many stereotypes of Indian television.

Unlike rich families, this show presented a middle class family. It did not have an evil Mother-in-Laws or jealous Sister-in-Laws, instead it presented the bond of a joint family and the beauty of various relationships. This show introduced us to a romantic story of a rich girl Suhana (Ragini Khanna) married to a middle-class boy Ishaan (Jay Soni). A typical love story is plotted between Suhaana & Ishaan to which many married couples relate to. Ishaan is a caring husband. Suhana falls in an unexpected love with Ishaan after so many years of their marriage. Apart from Ishaan’s loving nature, what makes Suhaana fall for him is his big joint family which Suhaana lacks in her past life. Being a single child of a single parent, she was unaware of family’s love & affection. Also, Women are not tortured to wear heavy jewelry the whole day.

It also aimed towards breaking the stereotypes of Indian society who always portrayed the evil side of In-Laws relationship with their Daughter-in-Laws. It showed how a father (Ambarnath Kashyap) chose his Daughter-in-Law Shailaja (Badi maa) over his son. It deals with the trauma of a rape-child (Deepak) and his mother (Radha bua). While every other show was busy portraying ‘Woman is a woman’s worst enemy’, this show brings out the different essence of this incomplete phrase which is ‘A Woman is a woman’s best friend’.

It presented a real image of the Indian households i.e., financial issues, everyone contributing their pay in the household, Women working together in the kitchen, small fights with the neighbors, Husband-Wife fights, and many more.

Here is the picture of its full cast:

It is also having a comedy element in it which you can enjoy when you feel stressed. It shows how the family can choose to stay together in every difficult times. Instead of pulling the relationships down it aimed towards building them up together. Isn’t it a show worth watching? It indeed is.

So if your mother and grandmother are still looking for an answer to ‘Yeh Rishta kya Kehlata hai’ (What is this relationship known as), give them a relief by diverting them to this show.