Ghar Ki Lakshmi Betiyann

Infobox Television
show_name = Ghar Ki Lakshmi Betiyann


caption = The series first Promotional image of Ghar Ki Lakshmi Betiyann.
format = Drama
picture_format = 576i (SDTV),
runtime = 29 minutes approximately.
creator = Creative Eye Limited
director = Unknown
producer = Dheeraj Kumar & Zuby Kochhar
starring = see below
opentheme = "Ghar ki Lakshmi Betiyaan" by Sunidhi Chauhan
country = IND
network = Zee TV
first_aired = September 26, 2006
last_aired = present
num_seasons = 4
num_episodes = Predicted approximately 400 - 500+
website = http://www.zee-tv.com/Zee_Serial.aspx?zsid=71

Ghar ki Lakshmi Betiyann or better known as Betiyann, or sometimes known as Lakshmi Betiyann is a Zee TV drama which focuses on male dominance in India. Like most Zee TV dramas it uses harsh video effects to emphasize the drama.

Plot

Betiyaan is a story of a Gujarati family that depicts the mindset of most of the middle and upper middle class families of society. It shows the psychology of individuals who still believe that society can be run and governed by men only. The story is set in a town called Rajpipla.

Suryakant Garodia is one of such individuals. He is a known, respected businessman whose family indulges in the business of making traditional Gujarati 'bandhanis' and his family has been doing this for the past four generations. Because of this reason he is one of the most respected and richest individuals of the area. For him it is just not a business but matter of pride.

Suryakant worries if this honor and family business end with him and if there be someone from his next generation who will maintain the old family's pride and uphold the business?

After giving birth to three daughters, his wife Savitri once again is expecting a child and this time, Suryakant is very hopeful of having a son. In fact, his family priest has predicted that this time there are no chances of anything going wrong.

Finally the day comes. It’s Diwali. All are hoping that this Diwali will mark the entry of the heir to their family. Suryakant’s mother, too, is very hopeful and pressure is building up on Savitri. Savitri, however, gives birth to a baby girl and the family's dreams, expectations and hopes shatter for the last time.

The newly born baby girl is named ‘Laxmi'. With the exception of her mother and sisters, no one in the family welcomes the birth of Laxmi.

Suryakant always wished to have a son. As a man with orthodox thoughts he thinks that ‘ladkiyaan toh paraya dhan hotee hain’ and one day they have to move on. Things become more complicated when doctors declare that because of some biological problems Savitri will never be able to conceive in future.

His family’s priest suggests that he still has a ‘putr-yog’ and very soon will be blessed with it. The priest said, however, that for that to happen, something very drastic has to be done.

And as expected, worst hits the family and Savitri when, one fine day, Suryakant walks in the house with his second wife, Meneka. Savitri is shocked and helpless. Suryakant’s mother as well as sisters supports Suryakant’s act. Savitri is helpless and accepts Meneka in her life and family.

After a few days, Suryakant impregnates Meneka. On the next Diwali, much to the family’s delight, Meneka delivers a son by the name of Yuvraj.

Suryakant’s life changes and now he is the happiest man on the earth. Meneka becomes dominant in the house and Savitri and her daughters are pulled down. Suryakant & his family, who are the least concerned about the existence of his first wife and four daughters, are happy in their new world with Meneka and Yuvraj.

It’s in these circumstances that the children grow up under the same roof. A brother whose every wish becomes the command at home… & his four elder sisters, whose every wish is sidelined & sacrificed.

While the elder three sisters are too afraid of their father to raise their voice against this blatant injustice, it is Laxmi, the effervescent, bubbly youngest of the lot, who will stand up for herself… & her sisters… in fact, for all daughters & women… & stake claim to their rightful place in their family, society… & the world!

Years go by, and the children grow up. Yuvraj returns from London after completing his education whereas the girls are at home in a sheltered and orthodox environment. Saraswati's marriage is fixed with Bhavishya Kapadia. Laxmi happens to learn that Bhavishya isn't a good person, but her repeated warnings to the family falls on deaf ears and Saraswati gets married to Bhavishya, but secretly she is in love with Kshitij - the family's loyal employee and visa versa. Both keep their feelings hidden, although the Betiyaan are aware of it. Kshitij leaves town to Ahemdabad to forget Saraswati. Yuvraj isn’t the perfect son the family believes him to be, and they are unaware of his frequent visits to the kotha where he falls in love with the kothewaali - Kajri. When Kajri learns that Yuvraj is very rich, Kajri and her sidekick Rasili decide to trap Yuvraj and get all his property. Yuvraj falls right into her trap and introduces her to the family as the princess Pavitra. As usual the family believes his story, and agrees to his marriage to her. Eventually the betiyaan learn her truth and wonder how to reveal it.

During Saraswati's wedding, Laxmi grows closer to Satyakaam, Bhavishya younger brother, whom she had met, accidentally at a railway station. With this marriage, Saraswati enters into a world of torture at her in-laws. Constantly she is physically and mentally abused and tortured by her husband. Laxmi suspects something wrong and shares it with Satyakaam and he becomes the protective devar to Saraswati. Dhara (Bhavishya and Satyakaam’s mother) warns Bhavishya to be wary of the clever Laxmi, and urges him to take Saraswati on a honeymoon to clear suspicions. There, things go sour when Saraswati comes face to face with Kshitij, which Bhavishya witnesses and sets him off. Saraswati is badly beaten by Bhavishya at the hotel, and is arrested when Kshitij calls the cops on him. But the sweet person she is, Saraswati forgives him and takes the complaint back and Bhavishya is set free.

The Garodia family learns about this and takes Saraswati back home. On Dhara's persuasion, Bhavishya fakes having changed and manages to convince Suryakant to let Saraswati come back to their house. After she returns back to her in-laws, she sees a completely changed and improved Bhavishya who has actually not changed at all. She begins noticing Bhavishya going to their outhouse every night with clothes and sometimes even food. During a Kapadia house party, when all are busy, Saraswati sneaks into the outhouse and is blown away when she sees a skeleton dressed as a bride and she realizes that Bhavishya used to come here to meet it. Things take a drastic turn when Bhavishya catches her there, and she accidentally breaks the skeleton, which angered Bhavishya. He explains to her that the skeleton was of the love of his life, Preeti, whom he killed when she refused to marry him due to his mental condition. He sets the place on fire with her Saraswati in it. She is burned severely but Kshitij saves her at the right time and she is taken to the hospital.

Saraswati confides in her family about what really happened in the outhouse. Laxmi thinks up of a plan to get Bhavishya to confess his crime of murdering Preeti and get him in jail. And Savitri and the daughters agree on it. One fine day Laxmi comes home married to Satyakaam, although she is not really married to him since it is part of her plan. Laxmi convinces Suryakant to let Saraswati go back to the Kapadia house with her, since this time she will be there to protect her. Somehow he agrees, and all 3 go to live in the Kapadia house - much to Dhara, Nekchand, and Bhavishya's displeasure. Laxmi's plan goes into action, and Saraswati begins to act like Preeti and convinces Bhavishya that she is Preeti. Bhavishya begins to behave with Saraswati the way he would with Preeti. Saraswati-Laxmi-Satyakaam creates a scene similar to the night Preeti was murdered and things go as planned and he confesses everything which is witnessed by the cops. Finally he is arrested and so are Dhara and Nekchand. Laxmi clears the truth to the family that she and Satyakaam aren't really married, but Suryakant forgives them since Satyakaam helped in getting Bhavishya arrested and the family gets Satyakaam and Laxmi engaged. Later the family get a bitter news when they find out that Saraswati is pregnant with Bhavishya's child. Kshitij comes back to town and agrees to marry Saraswati and the whole family is overjoyed. Everything is happy when suddenly comes the entry of a mysterious man who stalks Laxmi and Satyakaam. The day of Saraswati-Kshitij and Laxmi-Satyakaam marriage arrives, Satyakaam goes to meet his parents in jail. While returning, his car is tailgated by the mystery man's car all the way to a cliff. Satyakaam gets out in time, but not before he is pushed down to his death by the man and Satyakaam's death remains a mystery. This tragedy shakes the Garodia’s, especially Laxmi, who is completely shattered. Months pass by, but Laxmi still hasn’t overcome the grief of his death. The family decides to send her to her uncle's house, and there several times she meets Karan who tries to befriend her and ends up winning everyone's hearts, except Laxmi's. She comes back to Rajpipla and he follows her there. He meets Suryakant and creates scene where he gets the chance to help him out, thus befriending Suryakant as well. Karan asks Laxmi's hand in marriage, and Suryakant enthusiastically agrees. After a lot of convincing, Laxmi agrees to the marriage too and they get married. The betiyaan share with Karan what they found out about Kajri and he helps them to expose her to the family. Finally the whole family catches her red-handed and realizes her and Yuvraj's truth; both are kicked out. Yuvraj emotionally blackmails the family and they forgive him. Kajri manages to sweet-talk Yuvraj into forgiving her; he secretly meets her in the kotha. Meneka and her brother, Rasik plot to get the property into Yuvraj's name, and they succeed. But things don’t turn out as they plan when Yuvraj kicks the whole family out and brings Kajri back. Homeless, the Garodias go to live with Kshitij and Saraswati. After Laxmi's marriage to Karan, she learns that Karan married her only to avenge his father's death which he blames Suryakant for. He vows to destroy her family, and humiliate her father. Laxmi is tightlipped about the whole thing because she doesn’t want to add on to her father's worries. Karan succeeds in his plan and Suryakant is framed for fraud. But on the same night, Karan's comatose mother reveals the truth that Rasik was the one responsible for her husband’s death, not Suryakant. But it was too late, since Suryakant leaves home and is hit by a car. He is presumed dead, but Savitri believes he's not. Karan who repents what he did to the Garodias decides to look for Suryakant and finds him in a village in a coma. He brings him home and gains the forgiveness of the whole family - except Laxmi. To pay for Suryakant's surgery, the family starts accumulating money by opening a small business and Laxmi gets a job. During this time, they meet Ranbir - the look-alike of Bhavishya. He offers a dance teacher’s job to Durga and both fall in love with each other. He suggests her to join a dance competition where the prize money is enough to pay for the surgery. Kajri learns of this and sabotages the rehearsals and Durga ends up breaking her leg. In place of Durga, Laxmi enters the competition which is held in Mumbai and wins. There she faces a scary encounter but is rescued by Karan who is trying his best to win Laxmi's heart. Meanwhile, the betiyaan hire a theater artist to pose as a prince and fool Kajri into divorcing Yuvraj and marrying him. The greedy person Kajri is, she falls for the trap and Yuvraj learns her true colors. The family gets their house back and after Suryakant's surgery they all go live there and are happy like old days. But their happiness doesn’t last long when Kajri reveals that Yuvraj signed over half the property to her, and she begins living there as well and makes the Garodias lives miserable in the hopes of driving them away and getting the whole house to herself.

Ranbir and Durga's marriage is fixed. Saraswati believes Ranbir is Bhavishya. Suryakant divides the house into 2, with Kajri-Rasili on one side and the Garodias on the other. Meneka is kept out of all the wedding preparations and Kajri decides to use her to create further problems for the Garodias. Laxmi-Karan grow closer. Saraswati's endless pleas that Ranbir is Bhavishya falls into deaf ears, except for Karan, who at the moment before the marriage happens exposes that Saraswati's pleas were not for nothing... but all are shocked when he reveals it was Kajri behind it all. Durga and Ranbir get married, and Laxmi forgives Karan. All 4 of them go to Goa. Kajri plans on winning over Yuvraj again. Meneka turns back to her old ways and tries to commit suicide, and Suryakant forgives her. Kajri worries seeing Yuvraj grow closer to Niyati, Ranbir’s close friend. During Karan-Laxmi and Durga-Ranbir's honeymoon in Goa, Bhavishya kidnaps Ranbir and switch places with him. Durga, Laxmi and Karan remain unaware of it. In order to get back to Rajpipla, Bhavishya drugs Durga and seeing her unwell, all return to Rajpipla. Everyone is unaware that it’s Bhavishya in Ranbir's place. Bhavishya continues drugging her and Suryakant suggests they come live with the Garodias, which is exactly what Bhavishya wanted. Saraswati gets suspicious when Bhavishya mentions Preeti but is calm when she sees Bhavishya at the asylum not realizing its Ranbir there. Laxmi worries that Yuvraj has gotten in bad company again when actually he is spending all his time with Niyati at the orphanage. Meneka and Kajri conspire to get rid of Savitri. Karan reveals Yuvraj's truth to Laxmi who is delighted to see this positive change. Kajri threatens Niyati and tells her that she is Yuvraj’s wife. Bhavishya continues to haunt Saraswati by making her relive all her experiences with Bhavishya like the night she acted like Preeti, and the bridal skeleton. Durga is upset with Saraswati for taking Ranbir as Bhavishya, but they make up again.... although Saraswati still feels wary of him. At the mahapuja when the havan blows out, Savitri is warned that her daughter's life is in danger. Back at Rajpipla Bhavishya plans to kill Durga in only several more days. Seeing Durga's worsening health the doctor prescribes a blood test. Bhavishya switches the reports and the family remains unaware of Durga being slow-poisoned. Laxmi-Karan confront Kajri and warn her to stay away from Yuvraj-Niyati. Kajri threatens to expose Meneka if she doesn't get Yuvraj to fall in love with her again. Meneka opposes Yuvraj-Niyati marriage leaving everyone confused. Ranbir escapes from the asylum and arrives at the Garodias, but they believe that he is Bhavishya and he is taken back to the asylum, although Saraswati is suspicious. Bhavishya lures Saraswati to the lal ordi where he almost sets her on fire but lets her go after scaring her. He vows to land her in an asylum. Yuvraj and Niyati get engaged. During their engagement party Kajri attempts to expose Meneka, fails, and she challenges to destroy Meneka, and vise versa. Kajri vows to stop the wedding. Bhavishya creates more situations to prove Saraswati's mental unstability and the family fall for it. Saraswati again fails to expose Bhavishya. Kajri kidnaps Niyati and takes her place in the mandap, but Niyati gets there in time and exposes her. Kajri is kicked out, and she vows to come back one day to ruin the Garodias. Yuvraj-Niyati get married. At the wedding party when Durga faints, Saraswati accuses Bhavishya of murdering her. When all accuse Saraswati of going crazy, Savitri stands up for her. She vows never to worship God again if He fails to help her daughters through all this. When Savitri refuses to let Saraswati be sent to the asylum, Bhavishya targets Kiran to push Saraswati further over the edge and he succeeds. On her way out, Saraswati swears to Karan on her daughter that she is saying the truth. Karan begins to suspect Bhavishya and vows to expose him. Menka is upset at Niyati's closeness with Savitri and decides to show her that she's the boss. Karan realizes Bhavishya's truth and so he kidnaps Durga to keep her safe. He learns that Bhavishya has been slow poisoning her and gets a doctor to get her back to health. Laxmi finds out the truth from Karan and both decide to make him pay for this. Under Bhavishya's orders, Saraswati is given shock treatments. Bhavishya finds out that Laxmi-Karan have Durga hidden and he decides to kill her. Karan, Savitri, and the betiyaan conduct a plan to expose and murder Bhavishya, and are able to get Saraswati released from the asylum. They lure him to the Durga Mandir and Saraswati burns him alive. Saraswati is arrested and Surya hires a lawyer, Damini, to fight her case. Kshitij is not sure abt her cuz of her past similar to Saraswati's and has left a case halfway before. Damini takes up Saras's case and faces off with Kapil Singhania, her abusive ex-husband. Thru all odds Damini wins the case when Laxmi brings to court a video recording of Bhav confessing to his crimes. Kajri learns that she is pregnant and decides to use this to regain her position back into the family. Saraswati is back home free of all charges. Kajri fumes in jealousy when she learns that Niyati is pregnant too and is further annoyed seeing her pampered by the family, so she gets Niyati hit by a car and just like she wanted Niyati loses her child. Surya goes out of town and gives Menka 10 lacs to take care of until he's back. Menka continues to get mysterious phone calls from a man who knows an age old secret of hers. Karan is suspicious when he sees her coming out of the police station. Surya is heartbroken when he comes back to learn abt Niyati's accident.

After learning that Niyati doesnt have santaan yog, Menka tells Yuv to get remarried, but Yuv refuses. Kajri exposes to the family abt her pregnancy, which leaves them all confused what to do. After a challenge from Laxmi, Kajri hands over all her part of the property back to Surya and leaves to the kotha. Niyati, not wanting the Garodia waaris to grow up in the kotha, brings Kajri back home. Surya agrees to let her stay if she promises to leave after the babys birth. Kajri creates a sitn that brings her closer to Yuv, which is walked in on by Niyati. We learn Yuvraj was Rasik's child all along, and he switched kids with Menka when she gave birth to a girl. Rasik tells Menka that her daughter is now grown up and is in college, and shows her a pic of her. Menka agrees to keep giving him $ as long as her truth is not revealed. Karan finds out Menka's secret when he meets the old lady (the midwife who switched Menka's daughter with Rasik's son). Rasik finds out Karan is aware of everything and determined to get him out of the way, he gets him run over by a truck. But when Karan survives it, Rasik unplugs his oxygen tube and kills him. The midwife dies (under natural causes) but not b4 she sents a letter with the truth to Karan's house which creates another road block in Rasik's plan. He and menka work together to retrieve the letter but in vain. The family mourn Karan's death, and Laxmi is shattered. Kajri manages to create misunderstandings b/w Niyati-Yuv, and schemes further to get her out of Yuv's life for good. Laxmi is brought home to the Garodia Nivas, and Karan's mom leaves Rajpipla to go live with her sister in Jalandhar. B4 she leaves she tells Laxmi abt how disturbed Karan was abt something regarding her family. The police makes a shocking revelation that Karan's death was not an accident but murder and breaks this news to the family. All this leaves Laxmi wondering who cud've done it. Her suspicions turns towards Rasik-Menka when she overhears them talking abt a secret and she shares this with Saras-Shitij. The trio team together to find the truth and end up exposing Rasik. He's sent to jail, but not before revealing Menka's secret. She's kicked out of Garodia house, but Sav brings her back for Yuv's sake even though nobody in the family including Sav are ready to forgive her. Lakshmi goes to live with Durga. On the way she finds a boy named Rohan about her age, but mentally ill who has the brain of a 5 year old. Finds out he is the son of the woman who helped her take Karan to the hospital when he got into the accident. She has an evil brother and her son is scared of his whip. Recently, Surykant and Kshitij go to Bombay to find out where Meneka's daughter is. There they see her in a dark alley where all the nauch girls are and sees that she is a nautch girl. She tells Surykant that her uncle named Raski sold her to the owner of a kotha and that she is now used to working for the woman in the kotha.

Characters

Gayatri (age 92)

Gayatri Baa is Suryankant mother, Meneka mother-in-law, Halki and Phulki's mother and Yuvraj's grandmother.

uryakant (age 68)

avitri (age 58)

Menka (age 51)

araswati (age 29)

Gauri (age 28)

Durga (age 27)

Lakshmi (age 25)

Yuvraj (age 24)

Karan (age 26)

Kshitij (age 31)

Chanchal (age 27)

Kajri (age 22)

Rasili Bai (age 55)

Jhumki (age 24)

Halki (age 45)

Phulki (age 39)

Hasmukh (age 52)

Rasik (age 71)

Ranvir (previous Bhavishya age 35)

Cast

*Rohini Hatangadi / Nayan Bhatt - Gayatri Baa, (the matriach of the Garodia family; Suryakant, Halki and Pulki's mother; mother-in-law of Savatri and Menaka. All 4 daughter', Halki and Hasmukh's daughter's and Yuvraj's grandmother; Kiran's great grandmother, now protagonist)

*Yatin Karyekar - Suryakant Garodia (Baa's eldest child; the patriarch of the family; Savitri's husband, Meneka's ex-husband, the father of all 4 daughters and Yuvraj's adoptive dad; father-in-law of Karan, Kshitij and Ranbeer; brother of Halki and Phulki and brother-in-law of Hasmukh)

*Aishwarya Narkar - Savitri Garodia (mother of all four daughters and Yuvraj's step-mother; first wife of Suryakant Garodia; Ba's elder daughter-in-law; mother-in-law of Karan, Kshitij, Ranbeer, and Niyati; Kiran's grandmother, protagonist)
*Tanushree Kaushal - Menka Garodia (second wife of Suryakant Garodia; now Suryakant's ex-wife, Jhumki's mom, but raised Yuvraj; jealous of Savitri; Niyati's mother-in-law, main antagonist)

*Kshitee Jog - Saraswati Garodia / Gandhi (eldest daughter of Savitri and Suryakant; ex-wife of Bhavishya, now Kshitij's wife; has one daughter (Kiran) with Bhavishya, but Bhavishya was in mental asylum so now Kshitij's daughter)

*Neeta Shetty / Aleeza Khan - Gauri Garodia (second eldest daughter of Suryakant and Savitri, unmarried)

*Smriti Mohan - Durga Garodia/Dhaavan (third daughter of Suryakant and Savitri, Ranbir's wife)

*Twinkle Bajpal / Gunjan Walia - Lakshmi Garodia/Mathur (youngest daughter of Suryakant and Savitri; has the same birthday as Yuvraj; was engaged to Satyakam; Karan's widow)

*Romit Raj - Yuvraj Garodia (adopted son of Suryakant and Menka; actual child of Rasik; ex-husband of Kajri/Pavitra; now Niyati's husband, protagonist)

*Vikrant Rai / Hemant Thatte - Kshitij Gandhi (Saraswati's first love before marrying Bhavishiya; now Saraswati's second husband; step-father of Saraswati's daughter (Kiran), protagonist)

*Yuvraj Mehra - Punit Gandhi (Kshitij's brother)

*Yuvraj Malhotra - Karan Mathur (Lakshmi's husband; Kavita and Rahul's brother; antagonist, now protagonist; murdered by Rasik, dead)

*Manini Dey - Chanchal (Savitri's sister, protagonist)

*Kartik Sabharwal - Bhavishya Kapadia (eldest son of Dhara and Nekchand; Saraswati's ex-husband; Kiran's real father, main antagonist; use to be in mental asylum; murdered by Saraswati, dead/Ranbir Dhaavan (Durga's husband; is identical to Bhavishya; protagonist)

*Shishir Sharma - Nekchand Kapadia (Dhara's husband, Bhavishya and Satyakam's father, antagonist, was in jail with his wife, bailed out by Kajri)

*Natasha Rana - Dhara Kapadia (The wife of Neckhand Kapadia, Bhavishya and Satyakam's mother, antagonist, was in jail with her husband, has been bailed out by Kajri.)

*Sid Makkar - Satyakam Kapadia (Bhavishya's younger brother, son of Dhara and Nekchand, Lakshmi's first love, murdered by a mystery person on wedding day,dead)

*Chhavi Mittal - Preeti (Bhavishya's old-girlfriend, protagonist, murdered by Bhavishiya, dead)

*Jasveer Kaur - Kajri Bai (Pavitra is her fake name, Yuvraj's ex-wife, main antagonist 2, now pregnant with Yuvraj's child)

*Gulfam Ali - Rasili Bai (Kajri's boss / partner, antagonist)

*Nupur Alankar - Halki Bhen (eldest daughter of Gayatri Baa, wife of Hasmukh)

*Suchitra Bandrekar - Phulki Garodia (youngest child of Gayatri Baa, Halki's unmarried sister, antagonist)

*Shekhar Shukla - Hasmukh Bhai (Halki's husband, protagonist)

*Rajendra Chawla - Rasik Bai (Meneka's brother, Yuvraj's real dad, murderer of Karan and his dad, in jail, antagonist)

* ???? - Kiran (Saraswati and Bhavishya 's daughter, Kshitij's step daughter)

* ???? - Mrs Mathur (Karan, Kavita and Rahul's mother, widow of Raman Mathur, protagonist)

*Amit Dolawat - Prince / Dev (A helper and a friend to the Garodia family, protagonist)

*Niyati Joshi - Niyati (Orphan, grew up with Ranbir, Yuvraj's second wife, had a miscarraige, Protagonist)

*Narayani Shastri - Damini Verma (Saraswati's Lawyer in the case of buring Bhavishya alive, protagonist)

*Gaurav Chopra - Kapil Singhania (Damini's ex-husband and opponent)

*Alka Shlesha - Mrs. Verma (Damini's mother)

*Soni Singh - Jhumki Rani (Meneka's and Suryakant's actual daughter, raised by Rasik, has same birthday as Yuvraj and Lakshmi, a prostitute Rasik sold her to a brothel, antagonist)

References

* [http://www.zee-tv.com/Zee_Serial.aspx?zsid=71 Official Site]
* [http://www.glutv.com/Shows/Glu%20Youth/Zee%20TV/Ghar%20Ki%20Laxmi%20Betiyann Online Ghar Ki Laxmi Betiyann Videos]