Many
a times I make an attempt to sit in front of the TV to watch some
serials just out of curiosity. But believe me after a rigorous job of
watching these highly overrated soaps, I was left with nothing but
prefer to sit lazy than watching the most senseless thing that has ever
happened to Indian television. I can say today who don’t watch serials
at all, don’t feel they are missing anything in lives, and those who
watch it, don’t think they are adding anything meaningful to it.
Hindi
television serials lost their relevance to such an extent that nobody
is excited to get back home and switch on the TV .Whatever be the
reason, there is no denying that there aren’t any favorites left among
Hindi television serials. But there was a time before the Cable
Revolution arrived in India around 1991, we had the Doordarshan as a
only visual entertainment source and every person in a household had his
own favorite serial as per their choices and they all used to sit to
the small screen at their fixed times and week-days. When Hum Log, the
first soap for the middle class was aired for the first time, millions
of viewers across India sat glued to their sets sharing the joys and
heartbreaks of the characters and identifying with their middle class
attitude. This was the first serial which discussed issues of family
planning, freedom of choice to find a life partner or job and the role
of women in society. This was followed by other ‘identifiable’ serials
like ‘Buniyaad’, and mythological serials like ‘Ramayan’ and
‘Mahabharat’.. Impact of mythologies was such !, that, people would
hurry up with their morning chores and then sit glued to the television
sets, some even offering incense and flowers to the ‘godly’ characters
of Lord Krishna! When the people of a country can perform puja in front
of a T.V. set when serials like Ramayana are aired, then one can only
imagine the influence that this medium had over them. I remember a
serial on Doordarshan called Bharat Ek Khoj. It presented in dramatic
form, a depiction of the history for India for 5000 years till the year
1957, and was based on a book by Jawaharlal Nehru (first Indian Prime
Minister) called Discovery of India. This is a pretty famous book, and
the series was very gripping and was an excellent depiction of history.
One more series used to come “Tamas” by Govind Nihalani. All were worth
watching masterpieces.
India
is a country where relationships, whether good or bad, are given a lot
of importance. Today the much talked saas-bahu relationship is the hot
topic of discussion in many a woman gathering, and this aspect has very
cleverly been cashed by the makers of daily soaps, to keep the women
audience glued to the idiot box. Where we get to watch Doordarshan only
now there is a bouquet of channels offer exhausting, unlimited and
formula-tested soaps with some women oriented charecters (huge red
bindis, streams of vermilion and imitation mangalsutras and heavy worked
sari claded), as opposed to the vamps (with over makeup and a perpetual
evil look in eyes). And the stories revolve how to make the situation
complex. With the advent of soap factories like Balaji Telefilms, women
have started swearing by the characters of ‘Tulsi’ of Kunki Saas Bhi
Kabhi Bahu Thi… (The title itself making no sense and the story went to
haywire), or ‘Parvati’ of ‘Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki’. Such is the craze for
these women characters that advertisements for marriages have inserts
like, ‘the girl should be like Tulsi’! This is just an example to show the extent of psychological play soap can have on the mindset of the viewers.The
message is strong and clear, today’s mother-in-law wants a girl who
would be completely traditional, protect the family values of her in-
laws (does not matter if she is abused and berated by one and all –
misunderstandings are always cleared after six episodes of glycerin
tears and high family drama) and respect her in-laws no matter how
scheming they are. It would be a long debate to get into the
‘positivity and negativity’ of the women characters. Where on one hand
we are all trying to convince ourselves that India is shining and we, as
a country have come of age, we have serials where the leading character
is always at a disadvantage because of her dark skin what an outdated
idea sirji!! But worry not serial makers, for our audiences simply love
to lap up such outdated ideas! Moreover, by showing charecters as so
cunning and double faced, these serials play key roles in today’s life
to become more suspicious of other where belief has become less and ego
has taken the place. Coming to the so-called reality shows, they are
only battlefields for warring judges, and platforms for film stars to
promote their films, rather than any talent scouting that they claim to
be doing. Nobody asks what happened with the winners after the show?
They barely can be seen later. One can just conclude that the makers of
these serials are leaving no stone unturned to make the T.V. live up to
its name-the idiot box. Reality television, they say, breaks the
monotony by creating interesting concepts and innovative ideas that made
them stand out from the regular shows. But what they bring! TV show Big
Boss is like mixing drugs in Cold drinks without making anyone realize
and then defending themselves by saying that people are enjoying it even
more! Show is addictive because it has vulgarity, infidelity, lies,
abuses, back bashing and what else ! all negative, absolutely NO
positive qualities! Wonder what are they going to learn from all this?
So get real when you watch these reality TV shows.
Winding up:
I’m
not disregarding television and its merit. Television is meant to
inspire, but it can work both for and against viewers. It has become one
item of a family's existence to such an extent that, now it cannot be
brushed aside at this stage. There are also shows like a KBC or
a Sarabhai v/s Sarabhai, Tarak Mehta ka Ulta Chashma and recently ended
“Satyamev Jayate” which are rays of hope. But the list is less and we
need more to oxygenate our brain. So what to watch is depend on us and
what to make is depend on those makers. Only we can pray may god bless
these show makers little sensible.
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