My dear Shruthi,
When I sit down to do a batch of responses, yours are the comments I keep for the last, for I know that it will take more time and attention than most.
First of all, thank you for loving my take on Daadi's swan song as much as I did myself. It was one from the heart, for a heart-rending sequence, to the showing of which I am still not reconciled, but it was soothing to read your reaction.
Yes, for all its gruesomeness, much of which was unnecessary, it was a triumph of writing, direction, and above all acting. And that not just when Daadi is standing up to Dansh. When she hears the moaning of her
bahu, and starts looking for her, the near panic and the anguish in her face, her eyes, and above all in her voice, were incredible.
As for the EHT parallel, my dear, I am gravely handicapped by the fact that I quit the show midway,and thus have no knowledge of most of the references that you have made here, like the one to a regressive father and an abusive husband. But still I have read it carefully, as I do with anything you write, whether I agree with it wholly, partially, or not at all.
One of the points I appreciated was your take on the Durga-Dev-Nitya triangle or seeming triangle. Yes, he falls in love with Durga for all the little things in her that remind him of Nitya, or to put it differently, he is falling in love with Nitya all over again. But then again, if Durga had NOT been Nitya, I do not see why a man cannot fall in love a second time, especially if the first love has been declared dead, though he clings stubbornly to his belief that this is not so).
I agree completely with what you have said about Mahishasurmardhani, and that does not subtract anything from the greatness of the Devi. She was the vital moving force behind his
samhara, though many others might have helped, just as Chandra, Surya, Agni et al helped Lord Shiva destroy the three sons of Tarakasur,
and become known as Tripurari.
Coming to our present show, the part
@blue is perfect, and I would agree with it cent per cent. The sad thing is that if Shiva had said and done the things you have mentioned here, that would have made him a better husband, father and son. For along with safeguarding the future of humanity, he would have safeguarded their future and their lives as well.
But there is one thing that does not jell here, Shruthi. Shivanand has always been shown as a rebel. So why this sudden need to make him look like an
adarsh pita/pati/beta? After all, not all the leading men in the saas bahu shows accept everything their wives and mothers want them to do, or not to do.
It is very clever, the way you have fitted the Maya
as
maaya thesis of yours into Rudra's supposed
amar prem katha. But if they had to conform to the dictates of the TRP syndrome, why not do it more convincingly? It would not have been too difficult; after all, every serial is about at least one couple falling in love. It was botched up, and the romance compressed like an accordion, making it all risible rather than appealing.
I am not sure about the italicised part. Why, Jalal in Jodha Akbar, till recently No.2 across all the channels. was always atoning for his real, and mostly imaginary faults and failings.And the TRPs soared, seeing him do
prayaschit again and again.
Lastly, the part in
bold. This will work only if niche shows are shown in a niche channel or channels, where the niche audience can relax and enjoy a soundly scripted show, unaffected by popular preferences. Just like the multiplexes for
hatke films.
But here, a
hatke serial is telecast in one of the standard GE channels, where the TRPs that determine the ad rates and thus the viability of the show depend on your standard GEC audience. The niche audience does not have the numbers to make themselves a factor in the economics of TV. Of course such a niche channel would have to be paid for separately, like the History channel and many others in the US.
The curious thing is that Mahakumbh, despite all the genuflections to the TRP aunty that you have described so graphically, still has dismal ratings that are worse than those of the Yashraj TV serials in 2010/11. Why do you suppose this is so?
Shyamala Di
Originally posted by: shruthiravi
Very beautiful take Shymaladi and when I read your take on dadi believe me I had tears in my eyes. Yes when I watched the scene it was horror, when I analyzed it I felt respect for Dadi, but when you wrote it , the scene was lifted to another realm, and I feel we do have to owe to script writer, director and of course the great Surekha Sikri for giving us that wonderful scene in which even in loss dadi wins hands down. Yes she realizes, and for once she accepts she was wrong, that scene was a beauty in all sense.
Now coming to other parts. Well I agree to you on everything else and coming to Maya you very well know I have written a long winding standalone post. But I hope you dont mind some blabberings of me here though it is not directly connected to the show, but I am trying in a way to explain the dumbing down of Shiva. Because I had not expected it this way, though I had known that his over emphasis on Amrit will land him in trouble, I had expected it to be a realization on his part through Ganga or Rudra and then he correcting it. Though I got what I wanted I mean Shiva ending up in captivity, his family murdered and less hope of Amrit getting saved it didnt satisfy me as a viewer. So I had to analyze where is the problem. Also I couldnt agree to the fact that UN didnt intend anything with Maya the way I have analyzed it. Because I felt strongly if he hadnt I wouldnt have able to analyze it also.
This thought process led me to compare MK with EHT and I understood where the fault lie. I had not put many of my analysis in EHT forum at that time though I was sure of the outcome, because for various reasons. I was not sure whether people will understand it or appreciate it as mention of certain things bashing would start there. So I played safe ground there with my analysis. I find this forum more mature, especially you Shymaladi who would atleast try to appreciate what I am trying to tell.
We need to understand one thing as far as TV industry goes. TRP aunty rules it. Whether we like it or not. All shows are dependant on TRP aunty ki mehrabaani for their profit and long running. So a script writer always want to play safe ground so that TRP aunty or her ideas are not offended. But when they try to satisfy TRP aunty they only imply certain things and gloss over certain other things to keep up the image of adarsh beta, bahu etc. TRP aunty will be happy, but the niche audience will feel cheated if they are not able to crack the symbolisms or miss one dialogue here and there. Here I will do a comparison of EHT and MK and since EHT is over I can say with surety the script implied things, but then it played on the safe cards also. Then I will come to MK and Shiva
One of the major criticism of EHT was in many discussions was Durga needed a man to come and fight. She couldnt do it alone and why CVs called it women empowerement. Truth of the matter was if people know Mahisasura Mardanam Durga is a beautiful woman who promises to marry the demon if he can defeat her. In other words she plays on his ego and appears fragile enough so that he feels she can be easily defeated. By the time he understands who she is, she takes him down. Also the 10 hands of Durga has weapons and powers given to her by other Gods/ Goddess. So in other words she is not alone. She is carrying the combined powers of all Gods. Everyone is acting as a defence for her.
In other words the show also needed the leading lady to appear fragile in front of the antagonist. She had to feed over his ego , make him feel he can take her down easily and draw him in her trap. And if you observe the show it is the men who help her to carry out this deception especially the 2 men one who plays her father and other who plays her friend/husband. Interesting point that needs to be noted that both these men know who she is , what she wants, what she does and supports her with free will and no compulsion. If the script at any point had highlighted that defense mechanism people would have appreciated it more. But the makers didnt do that. Because for TRP sake they glossed over that part and made her look like victim of circumstances with a regressive father and abusive husband which TRP aunty love. To be true the leading man was not abusing her, he was just venting out his frustration on her. Why I told the script had that in mind was as I had expected it is the abla nari act that finally extracts the confession from the antagonist.
Now coming to male protoganist Dev. He was told Architect of a project and Sakshi the antagonist the captain of the ship. It was clear for me at that point that symbolically he is gonna create the design in such a way that the ship sinks even before Sakshi knows it. I was correct also, because Sakshi assumes this guy is trying to find the truth about Payal rape case and can easily be manipulated. Whereas the truth was his priority was finding his love Nithya, yes he was for punishing the culprit, but his actions were driven by the need to find Nithya. Now it would have been good if CVs had put this across neatly. I guess it came out quite a bit, but even in forums the rage flowed. How Dev can be selfish when he has a battered victim in front of him, why he wants to find his love. But believe me I had loved that grey shade, I had loved that selfishness and that was the reason I loved his characterization also. Because sometimes you are personal, you are selfish. But then CVs did try to make adarsh beta by glossing over this part. They didnt want to show him disobeying his mother for his love, second best option was to show him finding justice. This adarsh beta trap messed up that entire track as the male protoganist was dumbed down whereas it could have looked beautiful with that greyish shade accepted. Again this analysis of me was correct because as I expected this miscalculation of his real motive makes Sakshi give Durga her defense in gold platter and starts the beginning of her fall.
Point number 2 was the male protoganist Dev actually falls for the beautiful lady Durga from first sight. I would have loved him mouth the dialogue that he has fallen for Durga. But CVs again glossed it over, because TRP aunty does not like a man falling for a strong woman like Durga, so they conveniently made him mouth those dialogues post she is made his wife and he knows Durga is Nithya. Leave TRP aunty even in forum many people were appalled that Dev has feelings for Durga with a slight indication of it. They claimed his love is not true. But for me his falling for Durga was the indication he truly loved Nithya. Because a face and mannerism change does not change the person as a whole. But alas they stuck to stereotype.
Ok now ending EHT and coming to MK. Again the glossing over takes place. See I would have loved Shiva to tell to Ganga he understands her love for her son, but then she needs to understand the larger good of the humanity. I would have loved Shiva musing in that library over Rudra's obsession on Maya and the time that is running out. I would have loved him tell Dadi that Mritunjaya homa can be done later, but he has something more important to do. But alas nothing of this comes out because as I said CVs dont like grey for protoganists, they want adarsh beta, adarsh pita, pati etc. So when they try to gloss over such things the only other option left in front of them to carry out the story is making them dumb much to the annoyance of thinking crowd.
Again coming to Rudra and Maya. Why the audience feel no connect between them. Simple because Rudra's amar prem katha is an illusion in his mind. He just believes he has fallen truly madly, deeply in love with this girl which in every sense is just an infatuation due to various circumstances. But again the adarsh lover of TV cannot be shown like that. His love cannot be shown illusion as grey is not accepted. So gloss over it telling Amar Prem Katha.
One more thing TV scripts does not love their male protoganists accepting accountability for their actions. Deep regret and deep pain are glossed over. Even in EHT, they didnt make Dev deeply repent, they didnt show the deep pain of loss, it was glossed over in one or 2 dialogues. Same with Rudra, I am not seeing any deep regret, deep pain not able to protect his loved ones. Again TRP aunty does not like finger pointing at boys. As the saying goes Boys only make mistakes, girls need to pardon them.
In a nutshell I would like to conclude this telling TV world has a long way to go in accepting gray shades. To rise above what TRP aunty wants and give a solid script. Because anyways TRP aunty loves her daily dose of kitchen politics, so why cant the niche audience get the proper content in a way they can enjoy than the one watered down to cater the TRP aunty so as to have a safe ground.
But one thing I am happy is that atleast glossed over shows are coming now, which couldnt be thought of some 5 years back. I never went near TV those times. So hopefully things will change for better and we can get some nice interesting shows in future.
Anupamaa
Current Affairs
