The idiot box is likely to remain so as long as the daily family sob sagas exist.
Cut to the producer who is high on the K factor. She claims her serials depict the daily lives of the middle class and deal with middle class values; (umm..read middle class as in huge gaudy bungalows, murders, and unthinkable scandals).
Switch to any of the Hindi television channels (the regional channels are not far behind) at prime time. Audiences gets a dose of:
Spiteful mothers-in-law (even 4 generations of them).
Tulsi leaves, purity (pavitra), 104 yr old grandmother.
Adarsh (bosom heaving) decked up bahus with 3 kgs of sindoor trying to keep in with the sanskar of the parivaar (never mind the strappy fashionable blouses).
Vamp aunts, bhabis and cousins – supposedly visiting but stay on for a couple of years to make life hell for the seeda-saada types.
Same vamps standing behind doors/windows eves dropping.
Gullible grandparents who get tricked by scheming bahus or nieces time and again (guess they’ll never learn-that too in old age).
Convenient remarriages each time a bahu is widowed.
Bigamy – one wife in jail one wife at home and the next one…?
Accidents-plastic surgery; enter brand new face and character.
New borns getting stolen, adoption.
Murders and scandals.
30 minutes of ‘ram nam satya hai’ etc etc etc…(dead person emerges in the next episode; a la after 30 years from ‘ganga ke kinare’ – matted hair, torn saree and shoddily made up wrinkles).
Bucket and buckets of (crocodile?) tears.
Spineless husbands.
Whew….I can go on!
Will Indian television ever grow up? Even serials that start on a sensible note land up going the K way…
Idiot Box? Definitely!
6 comments:
Neega Solradhu ellam Correct.... Kyunki Saas Bhi kabhi bahu thi!
this is the "saans mein kabhi badbooo thi" phase ;-)
this is the "saans mein kabhi badbooo thi" phase ;-)
To add to your excellent post, everything moves soooooooooo slow! If someone says something bitchy/of importance/whatever, the reaction on recipient's face is repeated at least thrice. GRRRRRR.
Add you dont even need to watch the serials. You can catch up on stuff while channel surfing ;-)
My worries are for kids and youngsters who watch these soaps regulary and are actually influenced by it. A collegue of mine once told me taht a frind of hers want a vampish ma-in-law so that she can emulate the characters she sees on the TV. Ho hum!
Among the most basic puzzles when I hit on any of these accidentaly is who is the mom, the son or the moms mom; there's hardly any difference in their age; I wonder why people so hog onto it, but then when the idiot box has nothing better thats the closest they get of seeing their life hyperventilated; like we have that "kahani mein twist"; people are curious how much more twisty can the producer make it!
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