| Runtime: | 24 minutes |
| Director: | Waseem Sabir Imtiaz Punjabi Iqbal Rizvi Khalid Akhtar |
| Creative Director: | Raaj Shetty Damini Kanwal Shetty Manjari Mukul Pooja Tiwari |
| Producer: | Tony Singh Deeya Singh |
| Starring: | Raqesh Bapat Riddhi Dogra Kamya Panjabi |
| Network: | Star Plus |
| Country: | India |
| Company: | DJ's a Creative Unit |
| Language: | Hindi |
| Num Episodes: | 396 |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
Maryada...Lekin Kab Tak? is an Indian television drama that premiered on 18 October 2010 and ended on 13 April 2012 on Star Plus.[1] [2] The show is produced by Tony and Deeya Singh of DJ's a Creative Unit.
The show centers on the lives of four women from the same family: Priya, Devyani (eventually Priya's mother-in-law), Uttara (Devyani's sister) and Vidya. Initially, it focuses on the character of Uttara and the trials she faces in her abusive marriage to her drunkard husband. The show later revolves around Brahmanand Jakhar, Uttara's brother-in-law, and Uttara's betrayal to her sister by marrying Brahmanand religiously.
Uttara Bindra is married to Rishabh Raheja, and has a teenage daughter Tara. Rishabh gets mad after an accident and starts beating Uttara, that leads her to send Tara to hostel to prevent her from seeing Rishabh's abuse. Still in danger, Uttara is consoled and saved by her elder sister Devyani, and ends up killing Rishabh. She is freed of all charges by Devyani's corrupt and immoral husband SSP Brahmanand Jakhar, who also takes bribes.
Uttara is welcomed in Jakhar house, against Tara's wish. Everyone is aware of Brahma's cheating and womanizing sins except his and Devyani's son, Aditya. In past, Brahma had also tried to molest Priya Pradhan, that caused a major change in her personality. However, Aditya had fallen in love with Priya and made her smile again, and both of them got married. Priya also decides to fight against Brahma's evil actions & rile Devyani against him. Things go haywire when Uttara and Brahma start falling in love and begin an affair. Meanwhile, Aditya's brother, Gaurav, who is married to Vidya, comes out as gay, causing a rift in the family.
Devyani finally learns about Uttara and Bramha's affair. Both of them illegally marry and consummate their marriage; Uttara then takes Devyani's place. She disbelieves when Uttara warns her of Brahma's corrupt practices and womanizing tendencies. Brahma threatens to divorce Devyani and wed Uttara, to control her, but Devyani makes Brahma enraged as she goes ahead with the divorce, revealing all of his crimes in court due to which the CM gives a suspension threat.
Later, Uttara, who regrets marrying Bramha, decides to leave him when it is revealed that Brahma's crimes will be taken to a criminal court of law. Shocked and finally, Aditya realizes Brahma's evil truth and disowns him. Blaming Priya for all this, Brahma kidnaps and tries to rape her but gets arrested. The family and Tara forgive Uttara for her deeds but later the whole family finds out that Uttara is pregnant with Brahma's child, though Tara is still unaware of the pregnancy. Broken and mentally disabled, Brahma comes back. He kidnaps Vidya but Uttara and Devyani save her. Bramha escapes but drives off a cliff and dies.
Devyani, Aditya and Priya are living peacefully. Aditya is a hugely successful party leader of his political party. Pregnant, Priya is a successful lawyer. Uttara, who plans to become the DIG of Haryana, has delivered Shravan, her and Brahma's son who becomes heir to Brahma's fortune.
The series is remembered as the first show on Indian television to have a gay storyline shown crucial screenspace.[5] [6]
Kshama Rao of The Indian Express quoted the series as 'Bold and edgy', writing, "What works for the story is each episode is reasonably fast paced and has tension writ all over it. The performances especially by the four women are good. The men put in decent performances. It shows you a different side to women who are probably in every other family carrying their own crosses!"[7]
The series which was aired initially at a late night slot of 11:30 pm and shifted to 11:00 pm (IST) in March 2011, had a good viewership in its slot.[8] [9] In its first month of telecast, the series garnered 1 TVR. In May 2011 it rose to 1.2 TVR after the introduction of homosexuality track while during July in week 29 of 2011, it spiked to 1.8 TVR and in November 2011 it was garnering 1.6 TVR.[10]