The Safe Zone

This thought has been with me for a little while and a post chat I had with Suvika brought it to the forefront of my mind.

Humsafars for all the criticism we throw its way has a lot going for it. Let me see - Harshad Chopra, Shivya Pathania and a supporting cast that is pretty good. Esp... given the standard in some of the other shows I kind of skimmed through while channel surfing. A pretty decent story line though it is executed rather haphazardly.

The story... the one that we all signed up for... is still there... hanging by a thread I admit... but still there. A beautiful love story that all of us fans and then Myra named SaaZ. And the story is as full of beauty and poetry and music as the name indicates... primarily cause of the lead actors. Their characters have been butchered and then resurrected by the writers in a panic driven chase for TRPs... (I presume). Yet SaaZ has survived and continues to woo old and new fans.

In pursuit of above mentioned TRPs (I presume again) the genre of the story was shifted from romantic drama to thriller. We were up in arms worried that we are going to have another CID on hand. Fortunately for us SaaZ is still being kept alive... Could the makers do a better job? You bet! But still it is better than nothing and we all continue to watch for our own personal reasons.

Now I come to the thought that I was talking about in the beginning. When I turned the TV on for the Delhi election updates, I watched 5 min of this show called Hum Hain Na. Let me state at the outset... this is not my kind of show. I find it trite and silly but that is my personal opinion. Given that I thought Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is a silly film that is going to flop... I would suggest that you pay no attention to me. Anyways... this show was showing something silly which was light hearted and though the men and women in the show were having a fight... there were laughs. And I had one of those light bulb moments - I finally understood the TRP crowd! They watch stuff like this cause it doesn't keep them on the edge of the cliff 24/7. We all like drama and intense stuff but we need breaks!

Humsafars may have had a total of 5 light moments ever since that pregnancy track began. Earlier we had a nave Arzoo and a how-do-I-deal-with-this-girl-Sahir bringing their own brand of humour to the proceedings. But off late it has been so intense and dark and consistently stress filled that I for one often feel tired and stressed just thinking of it.

Now Humsafars can never do light moments the way a Hum Hain Na can, cause the story is on completely different lines. But I think it is time the writers went a bit slow for a few epis and give us something closer to normal... as opposed to murder attempts, floating comatose women, nimbu and black magic, suspicion and secrets, secrets and more secrets.

Sure they gave us a SaaZ filled epi with all those fruits! But it was done in such a disjointed manner that most of us were left wondering what happened! I am not saying that we have epis only devoted to Sahir and Arzoo. Please put in the other characters. But give an epi which gives us a moment to pause and absorb all that has happened in the last 2 to 3 months (AND A LOT HAS HAPPENED! Maybe somebody, more patient than I, can attempt to list them all down).

Give us epis where you see the characters discussing what is happening... give us SaaZ bonding as a couple (and no it doesn't mean they have to kiss or force feed fruits)... give us some Saiyarra scenes... show at least one phone call or meeting where Sahir gets another client and the deal is done. Surely that is not impossible and it will result in us respecting your story a lot more... give us some scenes of Sahir trying to reach out to Zaki... a few scenes of Sahir and Alvira...some scenes of Sahir thinking, questioning and probing to find out who is behind all this.

Sure keep your secrets... I have become so tired of them that I am beginning to lose interest in them and am dangerously close to not caring if you reveal them or not. But please stop jumping from one dramatic moment to another, interspersed with a Saaz moment... as though that is a lollipop to keep us cribbing fans quiet.

And please don't pack all those moments mentioned above in to one episode... try to spread it out over a few epis so that we can just sit back... take a breath and absorb the story, the plot and enjoy the leads. Please don't rush. Once in a while give us viewers and fans a safe zone to just sit back and soak it all in.

1. How did Zeenat get into comatose state?
2. What was the relation between Saahir and Zeenat? Good, Bad or Ugly?
3. What has happened to Saiyyara? What about the deal and promise to Zeenat?
4. Rehman and Samaira? Was Samaira really pregnant?
5. DNA report? When will Zaki find out? Whats the truth?
6. The maid who was found dead? What happened to that track?

After all this unanswered questions, we hav new mysteries :

1. Who is the target for the killer? Aarzoo or Saahir?
2. Who is after Alriva? Is she also a target?
3. Is Zeenat out of Coma? Why is she pretending?
4. What is Saahir's past? What is he hiding?

If 'Rebecca' is the inspiration here, then Saahir could hav threatened to kill Zeenat for her wayward ways, which was probably overheard and was used against him. 😃😃 The accident must hav been a deliberate attempt to blackmail Saahir. Besides, if Zeenat was pregnant with someone else's child, we hav a new protagonist coming up!!!! 😉

Originally posted by: Danseuse

There is a beautiful Malayalam movie titled, "Katha Parayumbol" meaning "When you tell a story...!" remake in Hindi starring SRK and Irrfan Khan. Its a simple story of Krishna and HIs best friend Sudama. It went on to break records for the superb acting of the two lead male protagonists, Srinivasan and Manmmotty. Or watch "Lunchbox". Brilliant in its storytelling. Its not only the story /screenplay that plays a role for garnering TRPs, its how you say it that gains prominence.

Rekha I have watched the Malayalam and the Hindi version and loved them. And it is a perfect example along with Lunchbox about how a movie doesn't have to be choc-a-bloc full of plot points to be interesting. Some stories can be about the characters and about how the story is told.

I saw 'Rebecca' happening the moment Kurti Appa entered and it was declared that Saahir was a married man. So did many of us in this forum and they were so right.👍🏼 With the new spoiler about Aarzoo being provoked to dress like Zeenat, what more do you want?

I have been seeng Rebecca in it too. I feel that the writers and makers are not sure... one month or week they think that they will go this route and then they look at TRPs or maybe their is pressure from the channel or they have a light bulb moment and decide ... No we will go this way. Story gets butchered cause of this. Arzoo dressing like Zeenat could just be a one-off thing for all you know. This is a Swedish smorgasbord with the writers being 'inspired' by a platter full of stories.

Even if you take inspiration from fiction evergreen novels, you should know what the viewers want. You may twist and turn it but do you know your plot well? I don't think so.

I watched this serial because I found the character of Saahir very interesting. Brooding, intense, arrogant, ruthless, mysterious air around him, but a family man. As the months passed, the Creatives didn't know what to write, so they took us for a ride. We were foolish to hav hung around. I decided to call it quits this week and took a break and read the posts here to keep myself updated. Just a few mins of Saahir and Aarzoo is not good enough for wasting 30 mins of my time. But I intend to come back, once the story and direction are on track.

I am still watching.. but off late I am feeling a bit tired of it cause they are not revealing any secrets and I feel that every day we have a new drama happening but the story is still stuck in the same place. You know what I mean?

Havent we asked these questions to ourselves as viewers :

1. How did Zeenat get into comatose state?
2. What was the relation between Saahir and Zeenat? Good, Bad or Ugly?
3. What has happened to Saiyyara? What about the deal and promise to Zeenat?
4. Rehman and Samaira? Was Samaira really pregnant?
5. DNA report? When will Zaki find out? Whats the truth?
6. The maid who was found dead? What happened to that track?

After all this unanswered questions, we hav new mysteries :

1. Who is the target for the killer? Aarzoo or Saahir?
2. Who is after Alriva? Is she also a target?
3. Is Zeenat out of Coma? Why is she pretending?
4. What is Saahir's past? What is he hiding?

I know! The old questions are not answered and we have new ones! A viewer gets tired you know!

If 'Rebecca' is the inspiration here, then Saahir could hav threatened to kill Zeenat for her wayward ways, which was probably overheard and was used against him. 😃😃 The accident must hav been a deliberate attempt to blackmail Saahir. Besides, if Zeenat was pregnant with someone else's child, we hav a new protagonist coming up!!!! 😉

THat is a possibility... that his words are being used against him. But it is also possible that he was the intended victim (so that Zeenat gets control of Saiyarra) and yeah I think another new protagonist will definitely come in... someone who Zeenat is in love with. and who along with her is after Sahir's money. Anyway there I go again trying to analyze! Why? 😕😆

So the bottom line is viewers hav a lot of patience. But its time for the Creatives to understand that you cant put it to test any longer...😊😊

Amen!

-Rekha

Originally posted by: Suvika.

Very nice post Jun...👏

@Rekha... Awesome continuation of thoughts 👍🏼

I was talking to one of my friends this morning... she said she likes suspense. I said so do I but this is putting needless pressure on my mind. Its a different thing if its a movie. We can sit on the edge of the seat for those 120-180 mins and be done with it. But this is a show. A daily show. So the suspense element should be handled in a different way. One can't keep adding the suspense and thriller element without giving equal amount of de-stressing scenes.

Exactly! Suvi I don't know if you feel this way... but I am feeling a bit tired of it all 😕. Don't get me wrong. I love Saaz to bits and Sahir is just 😉

But the story... I sometimes miss whole dialogues and am not even bothered to figure out what they were about. I am like 'yeah I will find out from the posts tomorrow'! It has happened a couple of times already. :/

Most of the viewers at the end of the day... or rather at the end of those 20 mins want a smile on their face. TV shows are a way of unwinding for a lot of people. You slog for some 12 hours, come home and you don't want more stress. Suspense is OK. Mystery is OK. But amidst all those there should also be something that would make the viewer sigh and smile.

BTW... I didn't like KKHH either. Saw it once and not even been tempted to watch it again. Irrespective of the fact that I like Kajol. 😆

😆 Oh thank God! I almost walked out at half time cause I couldn't take the nonsense anymore! But my friends were enjoying it so much that I had to sit through it. 😆

Originally posted by: pearly14

Jun 😊 Lovely post !

Thanks S 😃

I have said this before and I say it again , the show has a lot of positives but it is clearly lacking in pace and balance. Let me be honest, I haven't watched a daily soap in 10 years, but the moment I saw the promo's of HS , I was sure I wanted to watch it. There is something about it that touches your heart right away , be it Sahir's pain or Aarzoo's headstrong nature , this show was unique. It is not so unique anymore , but it is as far as I know one of the best story lines.

My mother watches a lot of soaps , regional ones and now she sits and watches this with me and her opinion is that most of the shows she watches don't have a story at all. There will be episodes and episodes of people going for a party for example. How excited they are , how they dress up etc and finally the party or the pooja or whatever , spreads over at least 3 episodes and then there is a conflict in the fourth one , people discuss it in the 5th and some twist for the friday. Thats how daily soaps run for years. But we have a twist here almost everyday, it is difficult to catch up. She had missed a few episodes and I told her last night that Alvira is not Sahir's mother and she said ... in 2 days it all changed 😆

My second soap! The first one (Junoon - so the IF name) I quit after 2 to 3 months cause I could not take the nonsense. Then Rangrasiya for a few weeks but again everything was so cliched that I quit in a matter of weeks. Humsafars has managed to keep me hooked for this long cause of Harshad Chopra... to be absolutely honest. Shivya Pathania also keeps me interested most of the time. The male lead is so interesting - not just an angry young man... but a man with a serious emotional baggage... a comatose woman! And the female lead is spunky and loving and so warm hearted. But nowadays I am just tired keeping up. And now I read that Zeenat will get hit by the car Arzoo is driving and Sahir will take the blame... can't they go on a date without some drama! cause now more questions - how did Zeenat get there!!!

There has to be detailing, that is extremely important.Here leave alone the details , we are asking CV's what happened to the bullet ... no answer , how were SaAz rescued ... no answer.CV's have to understand that there is no magic bullet , no shortcut . Copy from others by all means or as they say get inspired by others, read the classics , but there is no substitute for a good screen play. Thats what holds it all together.

I know! interesting plot points are of no use if details are not fleshed out where needed. So many unanswered questions... that they have all become a confused buzz in the background.

End of the day, most of us are already tired. You don't want to think anymore. Be it a thriller or romance we want to be able to follow it easily. Call me dumb because I don't want to think, it really doesn't matter to me. I keep telling myself that had I thought so hard while studying I would have gone places

😉 , instead we all think so much about this show , but the CVs seem to be ignoring us again and again ! Whatever !

LOL... PhD toh definitely mill jaathi 😆😆

Originally posted by: VD927

Hey Jun! How are you?

ok, so nice to see this post. I have been wanting to post something on sort of similar lines but haven't been able to get my thoughts together clearly enough on it. I will think a little and respond to you! 😊