At first i thought..where do i start? But i made the right choice by having a look at the BBC website where i stumbled across heaps of reviews with.. controversial and contrasing views. It's been amazingly useful to get my head around the whole representation issue and here are some following comments which to me really stood out...

above Tania (Laila Rouass)


"I'm not Asian but I really don't think that mattered...It was very moving but ultimately encouraging. It does make you realise how fickle things are and how powerful the emotion of motherhood is too."

"It was a stereotypical Indian story and it lacked depth. Unfortunately it was void of any moral message, had no class or taste and gave the impression that Indian lives are based on immorality, broken relationships, and sex."

"I am of African origin and I loved the programme. We watched it as a family and we identified with the whole show...The depth of each main character I thought was well portrayed by all the actors, that when it finished, I really thought I had lost some friends."

" Meera seems to be able to look into our society, and the Asian community in this country, and really show, with all honesty, what it is like for an Asian Brit woman, living and growing up in this country."

"A fabulous, cliché-free end to a stunning drama. Entertaining in every way from comedy to sadness and back again. As a white man dating an Indian woman, it has been an additional benefit to see many of the barriers and issues we experience in our relationship being dispelled in public. Please use this drama as a benchmark for all future commissioning."

"This isn't about just Asian women. This is about women and the situations and dilemmas they could face regardless of their race."

"To me it doesn't say anything about the Asian community as the story seemed contrived and totally unrealistic"

"Why do people think that if there is an Asian story it is meant to represent Asians on a whole. Surely not all white people are like the Millers from EastEnders."

"What a contrivance! A string of cliches, Spice Girls' feminism, unconvincing 2D characters, trite dialogue, predictable plotting..It completely lacked any subtlety or sophistication in its desperation to get every possible "issue" in the story."


"I found the community issue particularly interesting: the women trying to escape pigeonholing as "Asian" as if that was the only category that could describe them."

"It's a shame to see British Asian stereotypes portrayed and rehashed in this manner..lets show more balanced South Asian identities, more pluralities. We need something fresh not Syal's tried and tested formulas."

"We are indian, not aliens. Most Indian women have the depth of character to be English and Indian in a healthy balance. This series undermines British Indian women greatly, and as there are very few representatives of our culture in the media I feel let down."

My comment

Clearly there's a vast mixture of opinion from members of public who posted reviews on the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/hahaheehee/yourreviews.shtml) which range from a celebration of "accurate representation" or contrastingly an absolute disgust and often disappoint in another "cliche ridden" drama series. Just from reading a few reviews it has made me realise just how complicated this debate is and it's not even coming from an academic perspective..it's sure been insightful!