The Soap Opera Conundrum

Originally posted by: SriB

Hi Gita, nice seeing you here after a long time . Understand what you are trying to say. Anyway Ekta maa will milk the matter of RAm and Priya meeting as she didn't do it the long way the first time around so she is making up for the lost stretching episodes the first time around.

Originally posted by: maris08

Gita well explained points. Its exactly as you have said.. The thrill of such hits and miss happening at regular intervals only dampen whatever little excitement that is left for Raya on coming to face to face. As it is the leap and part 2 dosent seem much gripping or of addictive interest(atleast to me)..

The only bright spot is Pihu who, though is shown as more matured and precocious for a 4-5 year old, is still adorable..

A few more episodes of the Vamp Ayesha, the dud shipra and the devdas Rajjo bhaiya; will only make BALH less fun to watch..

BTW long time.. How are things with you?..Somehow the old gang of ours seem to have broken away and moved on..Glad to respond to your post..

Originally posted by: mem1

I agree with you about the "lack of addictive interest". I feel the same way. I see you haven't been writing too many poems either. Just a while ago was thinking I should write a Diary of Rajat Kapur 🤣. That would certainly invite some brickbats my way! 😆 ...and you should come up with a "Ayesha's Diary" . 🤣

Originally posted by: ramsakshiroxxx

geeta di after a long time i have seen ur post😃

this is wat i feel:

raya fell in love with each other after 6 months of der mrg n they actually lived like a couple only for 2 months n everything shattered...u said u vil feel bad for rajat den wat abt ram n priya.both of dem lived der entire life for der siblings but wen dey finally got a chance to live for demselves destiny separated dem.clearly none of dem are happy currently ram has gone back to square 1 living fr others n priya all alone n living a hard life to fulfill her daughter's simple wishes..

n wat abt pihu doesnt she deserve all the happiness from both the parents???

n leave abt ayesha she doesnt deserve priya's sacrifice coz she doesnt hav any true feelings fr ram

so i think its better rajat himself reunite raya dats the better option den no one vil suffer

Originally posted by: mem1

I used to watch "Days of Our Lives" , a US soap that has been going on for years. At one point I was pretty addicted and would read DOOL forums. But that addiction was cured very quickly, and here's why:
You start liking a couple , and get really involved in their story and want them to get together. You bite your finger nails every time there is a near-miss situation. You cry when there is a set back, and rejoice when they seem to be coming closer. But then there are so many twists introduced, so much goes wrong, that by the time they finally do come together, the charm is lost. No one really cares anymore.

This is exactly what I see happening in BALH. All through season one we went through the roller coaster ride that culminated in Ram and Priya finally finding true love. But then they had to break them apart, cause otherwise there would be no thrill left in the serial.

They could have shown many things, IMO. A late pregnancy track and the complications, their fear, their insecurities, their relationships with other characters, the dynamics of their relationship WRT other relationships. They could have shown so much - they could have shown having misunderstandings like the DV track (which was badly handled, though). They had so much things to show, but they chose the easy way out. But during all this, Ram and Priya could have been shown together, coz them being together was the BASE of audience's addiction to this show. The makers forgot that audience wanted to watch the leads together ib BALH because that's what defined BALH. But they miscalculated and messed up, BIG time!!

Now , if Ram and Priya meet, right at this moment, then everything will be one big happy ending. The keyword here being "Ending". cause what else could hold our attention. How much longer could they show us a happy family living happily ever after.
So they have to introduce twists and heartbreaks. Which they are! They have to wait until Ram and Ayesha have a deeper relationship than they currently do. They have to wait until Rajat and Priya have a deeper relationship than they currently do. Then at that point, there will be enough complications to keep the story going, even if Ram and Priya meet.

But the irony is that at that point, we may not care anymore. If Rajat gets too deeply in love with Priya, then I for one would hate to see his heart broken. Cause really, he already has a sad story. He seems to be a nice guy, and how can we blame him for falling in love with a "single" woman as lovable as Priya/Pooja. Did we not all want Ram to fall in love with this same woman ? So here is a guy, with a sad past, who is finally finding love and happiness, and is showing us glimpses of his really pure heart, and doing nothing wrong in falling for a single woman. In fact, in normal circumstances , he would be lauded as noble, cause he would be giving much needed support to a single mom.

Agree, this is such a vicious vortex of emotions for us audience. I don't want to hate the character of Rajat, but then, he is too blatantly projected as the 'THIRD' angle. And the actor's lack of initiative (with due respect to Sameer Kochhar's acting capabilities) in making audience sympathise with the character is negligible. So, all the anger for the makers is directed towards this 'third' angle. Coz, as you said, we all have formed a bond with Ram and Priya and want to see them together. And this subconsciously leads to hate any person/ character trying to come in between their love.

And Priya could never truly be happy with Ram, if she had to get that happiness at the cost of her little sister, however wrong that sister might be.

Same here. they are preparing to make Ayesha the main vamp, by the looks of her so far. They needn't. They could have used this character much more effectively by keeping her as grey, if they handled things efficiently. But they took the predictable, tried and tested path and killed the creativity, as a result, killing the maturity. They are just looking for extreme reactions from audience, forgetting that they can't take us for granted for too long, whether 2% or 98%.

Now, after all these stories have played out, how many of us would want to see Priya and Ram unite, breaking Rajat's heart, and kicking Priya's sister out of the house (which is a bad situation,even though we all know she is wrong).

I want to see them together because they belong to each other but honestly, it won't be the same. It definitely won't. I'll always have that nagging at the back of my mind post re-union that Ram was married to Ayesha (even if only on papers) and that Priya found solace in Rajat's friendship/ relationship (I am sure the Cvs are thinking of Priya say a yes to Rajat's proposal). The 'Taint' will always be there. And that, my dear, will always mar the experience called RaYa.

In my opinion, soaps that want to go on for a long time, have to face this problem always. They should plan on taking a good story and running for a finite number of episodes. BALH would have been great if they ended with Niharika's reform, her death and Priya's charges getting dropped, and they all "lived happily ever after"! They could have prolonged the court drama , Niharika's reforming , Ram-KK reunion and Sid's exposure for several more episodes and somehow managed another 1/2 year or more. Then a respectable goodbye would have left us fans satisfied.

They should have, as you said, made a good track out of court case and should have shown the evil being punished and reformed by the goodness. THAT would have been mature and different too. Instead they got greedy and chose to rake in the moolah by 'leaping'... which could have been TOTALLY avoided.

Oh well, if you reached this part of the post, then thanks for going through my rather long ranting! I had to let it out! I would love to see what everyone else thinks about this, so please do leave some comments with your views on the matter.