Our Needs, Our Wants....

Dear Creatives,

This is a plea from all us viewers to reconsider the path you have currently set off on. You have aimed the show at the youth and the thinking audience of this country and our Diaspora spread all over the world!! And yet you disrespect and disregard our intelligence.

We have looked towards you with great hope for our salvation from the shows currently on air. We are a generation that has had the good fortune of being exposed to world culture and yet we thirst for something from our world, something that we can identify with. We recognize and understand cultures across the world but we can never hope to empathize with some situations as shown on shows because they are so alien to our culture. A very simple illustration would be the fact that we do not leave our parents' homes unless our jobs force us to or till we have a family of our own. So the concept of living away from parents, once you come into your own, is something that merely intrigues us, but one that we will never fully grasp.

It is that thirst which drew us all to your show titled Dill Mill Gayye, because for the first few weeks you seemed fairly faithful to the premise you had set out on. After the saturating dose of family sagas, of the ill treated bahu and the scheming saas, of women in fine clothes and jewellery, of death and resurrection and plastic surgery, of property running into astronomical figures, we were thrilled that we were finally about to feast on a tale about youngsters like us, professionals we can all identify with, stories that could be our own and people who could be our neighbours. Our alienation from Indian television was about to end and nothing gave us greater pride and joy.

In the last month or so, however, the show is slowly degenerating into one of those several mindless ones currently on TV. For one, a show with doctors, supposedly India's answer to Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy has little on medicine. We would like to bring to your attention that there are several ailments available apart from hypertension and cancer, which seem to be your favorite. Minnie, Sumit and Harsh all suffer from various forms of cancer and I am sure you could have assigned some other deadly terminal disease or chronic ailment to at least one these characters. Hospitals are generally very well organized places. A gynecologist will never be called upon to attend to a pediatric cancer patient or a cardiac patient irrespective of the enormity of the emergency.

But we are ready to tolerate even the medical (or the lack of) storylines in the show, assuming that medicine is just a backdrop to the whole story of youth you set to narrate. We will even forgive you the insensitive humour tracks that anger us more than tickle our funny bone. What's more we are ready to put up with any number of silly errors in continuity or facts.

We have but one request. We would like characters we can identify with. Sacrifice and profession are anomalous to our generation. We cannot identify with Ridhima's compulsions however sincere they may be. Whether you intend it that way, whether we, as a generation, are perverse; we seem to identify with the character of Anjali more as she seems real and palpable to us. We do not comprehend Ridhima's vacillating attitude towards Armaan and we feel you have done us women great injustice by portraying your protagonist in a manner that is most reprehensible. Isn't the protagonist supposed to be representative of the target audience?

If you truly intend for the youth to watch and enjoy your show, we believe that you need to research the minds of the young. We are a thinking, ambitious, yet sensitive group of people. We are aware of pertinent issues, we value our independence and the intelligence that our environment has blessed us with. We are not asking you for a show that is staid. We welcome the light hearted moments as they do transport us into a make believe world after a hard days work. But we do demand sense and sensibility (pardon the pun) in your efforts.

As faithful and concerned viewers, we plead you to redeem Ridhima from this vortex of sacrifice and indecision. Liberate her from the stereotypical concept that a woman is born to sacrifice. Deliver us from the incredulity that has been DMG this past month.

Thank you for your patience.

The DMG forum

India-forums

Aarti: You've said it all , but I would like to add in a bit , that I have observed and what better than her ein this post!

Will get my thoughts together and edit the post in a bit!

Thank you for the post Aarti, much needed!

@ sareeta...i have left several bits, for others to chip in. if we want this letter to bear any weight we need to creatives to see the extent of our msigivings!! so more the worthwhile contributions, the better it is for our cause!!

TOO GUD MASSI 👏 👏 👏

I second ur thoughts massi, really for first few weeks, i thought itz gonna be different n characters will be much more real n practical than we usually see in saas bahu saagas..... n we will have a new story to wach n relate with, as our generation is focussed towards itz goal n very practical so also our DMG interns were seemed to be like this ...... 😕
But as massi mentioned........ DMG characters are also turning to be dramatic n ''sacrificing concept'' is coming into it like we see in other K shows..... Ridhima is losing her track, i mean she is a doctor n her one n the only motive shud be '' TO GIVE LIFE TO HER PATIENTS'' n in medical profession blunders like angi committed are not tolerable coz one blunder can cost some one's death, n so was the same case with angi...... but ridhima saved her........ i dunno why.... wen it was angi's fault she shud be punished......it was her mistake that she was too busy with her personal problems during her duty that she injected wrong medicine without looking into the chart........ then why ridhima took the blame?????? Simple only to pay back GUPTA FAMILY for everything they did for ridz n her mom........ so so so so so dramatic n so unlike initial DMG.......... 😕

More over itz only Ridz's character that is being ruined, coz look at angi, she is so practical n like a normal human being..... wat i mean to say is after ridz took that blame on her she became normal n worked as normal as ever, if u will notice real HUMANS behave like this only....... just like angi, n so it is a human nature watz wrong, when sum one else is taking ur blame..........why shud u bother n ruin ur life...... but on the other hand ridz is behaving like SATI SAVITRI n trying to prover herself mahaan......

Let it be aside now......... she shud behave behave properly n understand armaan's love also..... armaan is so caring n loving,even when ridz was suspened he was like '' DYING FOR HE TOLD THE TRUTH''...... n was guilty though he just told wat he saw..... then also he was so sorry, but even ridz is not at all caring for armaan....... well well well i don't understanfd wht ridz's mind keep on fluctuating so much? i mean when they were in lonavala she started feeling sumthing for armaan, armaan even supported her when she has to face this bitter truth of her adoption, he helped her whenver she is depressed with her patient's treatment....... then also she went mad at armaan for not telling her that she is adopted,even after she forgave her dad n mum n nani, she is still angry with armaan..........
OH god wat irritates me most is '' yesterday they were together, being very romantic,talking easily n all, today ridz behave as if nothing happened yeaterday........ GOD wat is this??????'' 😕




I dunno if i have done justice replying to this post or not...... 😕

@ mehak...thanks for ur input. between sareeta and i, we have sourced a way to try and get this across to the creative team at cinevistaas. trust me, your inputs will be incorporated!!!!

truly well said as always!! 👏 👏
u neatly covered all d high points....
wud just lik to add to yer list of unrelatable characters.....
angie....even thgh i've started to grasp her pschy it still baffles me hw she behaves wid such regular contradictions.her character shws integrity as displayed by her willingness to act on her mistakes,at d same time by allowing her 'younger' sister to take her blame on such a grevious matter really casts aspersions on dat integrity.for d sake of arguement i might be persuaded to understand her reasoning behind it but in view of the condemnation dat ridhima suffers,i feel she has no excuse but sheer cowardice which again is a trait that we would expect her to posses.
nw to my nxt character,armaan.for cryin out loud hw many guys actually take this kinda attitude huh?agreed dat dis is a serial nd all bt hello!!i feel dat ar. seriously needs to rethink his strategy,he's being so blatantly manipulated.his comes across as a person with supreme confidence,pizaz,honesty,responsibility all packed in wid a devil may care kinda attitude.if nothing then for self-respect he shd start givin ridhima a hard time.
maybe den,i would actualy be able to make sense of where dis story is taking me.
m willing to overlook a lot but plz hw abt a little down to earth ratio here.

i see d last couple of episodes and wonder where is the salvation dey promised??

@ pixie...thank you for this...salient points will be added to the this mail going out for real to the creative team. whether we get a response or some changes in the show is something to be seen, but no harm trying, else we wouldn't live up to our self claimed reputation of a thinking audience!!!

Originally posted by: vaarti

@ pixie...thank you for this...salient points will be added to the this mail going out for real to the creative team. whether we get a response or some changes in the show is something to be seen, but no harm trying, else we wouldn't live up to our self claimed reputation of a thinking audience!!!

hey no prob lol.....d least i cud do after all dat effort u put in.😉

just hope,v get a positive response!!

Very well said and you have covered all the issues.

The creatives gave us a lot of hope with realistic potrayal of characters, young cast, and the lack of the usual run of the mill story lines.

I wish they concentrate more on the medical aspect of the show and show more varied and interesting cases and how they are solved and also keep in mind to keep it as authentic and real as possible.

They could also develop the characters in the show like Anjali, Shubhankar, Keerti, Atul, Sapna and give their characters more meaty roles and better characterizations. They all seem to be great actors but seem marginalized with all the focus being on KSG and Shilpa. They can do so much more with these characters and make the show interesting and multidimensional and they will never run out of ideas or story lines to keep the show fresh, interesting, and fun.

Stop showing Dr. Atul as a Champu in their own words. Comic timing is fun but if overdone and insensitive it loses its sheen. They had initially protrayed him as a sensitive person, enviromentalist as Sareeta so rightly pointed out and then lost track of him. They can elaborate on those aspects and also make his track with Anjali if there is serious one more believable and real.

The threesome triangular love story and the self sacrificing heroine who is good and empathetic to everyone except her lover had been done to death in other serials and is very unrealistic and please please please dont take Ridhima down that lane and spoil it all.

I am no expert on these issues and dont know if I have a right to comment but as a viewer, encourage Shilpa to take classes in diction and voice modulation. It must be difficult for her as a newcomer on TV, the hectic schedule and the style of working etc but it is to help her improve herself.

All in all please do not let us down and keep it nice, realistic, original, and fun. Do appreciate your efforts in coming up with this serial and the concept but please dont lose track do resist the temptation to slide back into the same old rut.

Thanks again Aarti for this post and hope the creatives or the concerned people are listening.

aaah! gina...thank you for chipping in. all very relevant issues!!