Watching the serials, between the lines

Can anyone guess which is the one most commonly discussed topic these days, among college students and womens' kitty parties, letters addressed to editors in newspapers and at social gatherings? Criticism of Ekta Kapoor, and her serials all based on the saas-bahu rivalry within homes.

But then the story doesn't end here. If Star Plus has become home to her trend of saas-bahu sagas, so have Sony and Sahara, to their respective trends. The only exception here is that of Zee, which doesn't seem to be following any particular trend. This is because the only common phenomenon about all soaps aired on Zee is that they do not have anything in common.

If one carefully analyses the ongoing trends visible across TV channels, it becomes very much evident that there is a common factor binding all serials telecast on Sony, Sahara and Star Plus. If at one end, Sony aims at creating star material out of ordinary characters, at the other end, Sahara makes use of star material to portray ordinary television characters. As far as Star Plus is concerned, it seems as if it hasn't yet had its share of family dramas.

Now for some real life examples from the 'reel – world'. Beginning with Sony, look at four of its prime time soap operas. Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin, Ayushman, Yeh Meri Life Hain and Kkusum. All of these serials portray normal, middle-class persons as their prime characters. Making a star out of a non-entity definitely does help the channel witness a rise in the TRP rates.

But too much of anything is bad. Hence, overdoing this practice will not have the desired effect and neither will it yield the estimated results. People may love watching the girl-next-door type Jassi winning over her Armaan Sir or maybe an 'aam ladki' like Kkusum getting married to Prince Charming Abhay Kapoor.

But what about latter entrants, Ayushman or Pooja of 'Yeh Meri Life Hai'? They are exactly similar types, believing in the same value systems and belonging to the same category as their counterparts, Jassi or Kkusum.

Watching every second television character indulging in the same acts, possessing the same virtues and behaving in the same manner is bound to get on audiences' nerves.

Speaking of Sahara, look at the number of film stars the channel roped in till date to don the likes of Malini Iyer (Sridevi), Karishma-the miracles of destiny (Karishma Kapoor) , Sahib Biwi aur Gulam (Raveena Tandon).etc. The channel is obviously pushing too far with the trend of transplanting actors from the golden to the silver screen? How long can you keep viewers glued to your channel by giving them an incentive of watching their favourite film stars on the small screen?
Now, coming to the universal target, Star Plus, which hosts maximum number of 'K-shows' has any viewer ever tried to sit down and analyse the number of similarities between the different shows on Star? The daughters in both of its prime time shows, Shruti and Shobha (Kahani … and Kyunki…respectively) tied the knots with sons of their families' arch rivals, Aryan and Vishal.

On-screen couples who could never happily unite, thanks to Ms Kapoor's genius (Note: if ever they did unite, scheming mom-in-laws, jealous ex-flings and possessive siblings more than ensured that there would be no dearth of problems in their marital life) Instances: Prerna and Anurag (Kasauti..)
Rudr and Kesar (Kesar) Sujal and Kashish (Kahiin to hoga)

There can be no end to these examples as all these serials are based on the same old foundation. After a few glimpses, one can easily predict what will be the outcome of each and every situation. If ever Ms Kapoor lauds herself on raising beyond limit issues like infidelity and marital rape, then she must also expect reactions for propagating Sita's Agni Pariksha and Draupadi being thrown open for a bet through her serials.

As a concrete conclusion to the above scenario, please note the number of innovations Zee brought in to cater to audiences of all categories, and not only retain them but attract newer soap-watchers too.

As a solution to the prime complaint against soaps of other channels, i.e. that they keep dragging on endlessly, Zee introduced a concept of 'Chausatth Panne', a soap that will end within 64 weeks/ 4 months. In this series, Zee came up with diverse conceptualised story lines like Dil Na Jaane Kyon, Mansha,etc,

Another innovation came in the form of beginning their serials at 8:25 instead of 8:30, so that by the time serials unfold in other channels,people are already watching Zee serials.

The most recent innovation is the launch of the 'Zee Woman' series in the afternoon sessions. More than this, if we observe the quality and content of Zee serials, we find that it does not follow any particular trend or set of formulae. Just to get into the details, lets look at five of its prime time serials: Pancham, Tumhari Disha, Reth, Tum Bin Jaoon Kahan, and Astitva.

Each of them caters to a different class of audience and follows varied storylines. Unlike Star, where anything and everything in terms of negativity and violence is possible, Zee promotes positivity through its characters and sets before the audience good ideals through its artistes.

Pancham is the story wherein the prime character is shown having a strong value system and keeps away from human emotions like bondage, anger, envy etc to avert problems in life. Disha is the story of an adopted girl who sacrifices her self-respect for the betterment of her foster family. Reth portrays Jia as a woman who throws herself in front of people intending to rape her unmarried S-I-L. Yet she isnt wholeheartedly accepted by her family (So true of our society!).

Astitva speaks of Dr Simran, who only listens to her inner voice while deciding among her priorities. Another highlight for this soap is the number of social issues it has managed to encompass in its wake i.e. female foeticide, rape, prostitution in jails, hormone replacement therapy for women etc.

Tum Bin has a spiritualistic bent to it and talks of reincarnation and its harmful effects.

To add up to the new trends, Zee came up with 'Kareena Kareena' and 'Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa' to include an element of humour in its kitty. The hallmark of Zee's serials is that characters are portrayed as they are, with an equal amount of strengths and weaknesses. The characters in serials telecast on other channels are either portrayed as paragons of virtue or else icons of vices. That there could be shades of grey is a fact never acknowledged by many serial makers.

Thus, merely introducing a trend and blindly following it until eternity will definitely not suffice for a channel to keep watchers glued to its shows. Rather moving with the pulse of the audience and adopting newer strategies is the way to retain existing audiences as also pulling in those fed up of other channels.

Another important responsibility that rests on the channels' shoulders is that of modifying and moulding public opinion in favour of changing times, modernisation of society and preservation of culture simultaneously.

BY PREETI