Yawn! Same old, same old
Three of Ekta Kapoor's K-series have the same storyline
Reena Thapar Kapoor
It seems like Ekta Kapoor's soap factory has started mass-producing serials – which don't differ very much from each other. We wonder if Ekta is aware that her top three saas-bahu shows – Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki, Kahiin To Hoga and Kavyanjali have been running on the same track for some time now?
In Kahani… Parvati ties the knot with business associate Suyash Mehra to seek revenge. She believes he is responsible for the death of her first husband Om Agarwal, and she harbours sadistic plans of becoming his wife from hell. Then there is Anjali from Kavyanjali, who flaunts her fake marriage only to trap the real killer of her husband, Kavya. Third in line is Kashish of Kahiin…, who marries an older Bauji to help her find the murderer of her sister, Charu.
Is 'marriage for murder' the flavour of the month at Balaji, or is this simply a coincidence, where all their scriptwriters are thinking along similar lines?
"It's just a coincidence," says actress Saakshi Tanwar. The actress insists that all the three shows have been getting high TRPs. "There might be some similarity in the story but the treatment given to them is completely different." Even the Kahiin… writer Rekkha Modi says, "Look, it doesn't matter if the storyline is the same. Nothing succeeds like success. All three shows are doing well. I admit that the story is based on the main protagonist of each show, who happens to be a widow seeking revenge. But it's not a conscious move… and even if it is, it only shows women in a much stronger light." Maybe coincidence sells these days!
With an increasing number of soap writers falling prey to monotony, one feels that they are running out of ideas. "It's unfair to blame the writers," says a Balaji writer, on condition of annonymity. "Our audience has become so used to this kind of drama that we, as writers, have to give in to their demands. The shock and suspense works, and we only follow instructions. At the end of the day, it's Ekta who calls the shots."
Apparently the innumerable re-marriages in the shows seem to have irked a large number of the women. What is Anjali, alias Anita Hassandani's, take on the issue? "I find it difficult to believe that our audience is so backward. The idea of showing remarriages in soaps is to talk about women's empowerment. The intention isn't to ridicule them," she states.
As far as the common track in the three shows is concerned, Anita says, "We're just actors who follow the script. It is the production house that can explain this situation best."
While Balaji does nothing to explain the coincidence, other production houses snigger at Balaji's writers, saying that it is their sheer lack of motivation that has led to this huge error.
* Is 'marriage for murder' the flavour of the month at Balaji, or is this simply a coincidence, where all their scriptwriters are thinking along similar lines?
Arjun
Cricket
