Maati ki Banno is the story of Avanti... the story of an orphaned girl whose entire life has been a struggle to belong to a people and a land that she can call her own. At the heart of the narrative is Avanti's determination to overcome the feeling of isolation and loneliness that resulted from a dispossession of all the loved ones that she once had and a deep yearning to have a family and a place she can call Home.
The show takes off from the point when Avanti, now eighteen years old, relates to the viewer her journey from when she was a pampered child of her parents in Muzaffarpur to how she was orphaned and banished to being an extremely ill-treated housemaid (in her own bua's house)in the faraway alien land of Mauritius. However, in spite of spending the best part of her life amongst people who subjected her to abject destitution and in a country which only served to enhance her feeling of up rootedness, Avanti never gave up on the one thing that eventually made her life turn around-humanness.
Avanti's simplicity and charm wins the heart of the suave sophisticated Vikram. What follows is a classic fairytale where Avanti's prince charming rescues her from the drudgery of her life as maid. Avanti and Vikram get married in the picturesque country of any girl's dreams- Mauritius. Avanti finally is convinced that after all destiny did have a plan for her.
But soon, the happily ever after phase gets interrupted when to her shock Avanti realises that the cornerstone of her perfect world- her husband Vikram is not what he had promised to be. Infact he has a secret past that till now he has hidden from Avanti with a bunch of lies which if exposed will shatter the two forever. When Avanti confront Vikram abt his past he tells her that he comes from a rich ,powerful political family in Chappra Bihar and that the reason he hid this from her is that they are unruly, uncivilised, uncouth and ruthless in their ways and beliefs which is why even he has disassociated from them. However, being the positivist that she is, Avanti looks for the silver lining in the grim situation and instead of giving up on fate, decides to use the opportunity to belong to a large joint family that she always longed for. In her need for a family and love she has been yearning for all these years she does not realise that Vikram has not told her the real story and like a good Indian bahu decides to reunite vikram with his family in Chhappra.
Avanti,s remaining defences are shattered when she comes to Chappra with Vikram and realises that like the rest of the men in her sasural, her husband was also not immune to the corruptible ways of an outlawed life. She witnesses in shock how gradually the loving, responsible Vikram morphs into someone totally alien to her once he is in Chappra. Avanti realizes in horror how in a bid to reunite Vikram with his family she has unknowingly stepped into an abyss of lies ,deceit and a trap from which she can never escape. Will Avanti be able to win back the love of the man she had walked into the sunset with? Will her goodness be able to transform the evil in the family that she longs to belong? What is this dark secret Vikram and his family hiding from Avanti? Will Avanti be able to transform this family and change their regressive ways or will she also become one of them?
Maati ki banno is the story of a girl in search for her land, her family .Who enters a world at once savage and alien to her. It is the story of vulnerable Avanti ,katchi maati ki gudiyan ,who has to find the courage within herself to fight for her love and for justice. Maati ki Banno is a show that would validate the traditional Indian belief that no matter how vulnerable or fragile one believes one is or how perilous and insurmountable the obstacle...to overcome the most arduous of climbs all you need is a strong will and a good heart.
