Hey Friends:
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am on vacation staying with friends with irregular access to the computer - so I will respond to all of you in one post. I hope that is fine.
Thank you so much for your reasonable comments - of both appreciation and critique! I like both for moving a conversation forward.
I am glad many of you appreciated my humor! Thank you Chemistrymajor for reminding of puchkas. Oh, I love them too, Who doesn't? That is a great idea. If along with rain, there are frequent puchka stall visits, it will make the viewers' (you, Pallavi, and me being prime examples) mouths water and they will rush out looking for them too ! Good for puchka vendors' families!
@ soapwatcher1,See, we are actually in agreement, mostly. I requested the split exactly for this reason. But as I said in the post, my request is to make "All" PR viewers happy. So, even though there may be a large viewership of PR1, many of us would be very interested in PR2, which PR1 viewers do not have to watch. And the CVs can make their decision about the future of these shows after a few months.
Pallavi, if the CVs accept my request, I am also planning to watch PR1 once in a while. As you know, I like Arvi too - they are adorable. I just find an overdose of their romance boring! Plus I have to check how my little niece Pari is growing too! I have to make sure that her nanny is doing a good job! You may also visit PR2 when tracks on the characters you like are going on! (WUs are always available to see if you want to watch an episode or not. That is what I do)
As for aspects of good drama, as a student of comp.lit (English and Indian) with a focus on drama, I am very much in favor of following a good model like Shakespeare. But as you know, in a good play or novel, along with the main plot (which of course gets central place), there are sub-plots (thank you so much Thapelo for your comments with regard to this) that also need attention. And the characters in those subplots play a major role in moving the narration forward. My comment was regarding all the posts remarking that Ovi and Onir should be nowhere near Arvi.
I am also in agreement with Pandorasbox with regard to the nature of characters and drama - cliche romance and all. Some of my friends comment on how Indians only like weeping women - as reflected in their literature or romancing around trees or in rain as reflected in their movies (I am in the US). It irks me. But when we read the Mahabharata, people were so full of praise - with Kunti being an unwed mother and Draupadi having five husbands and each character having both strengths and flaws. A student actually stood up in appreciation on reading the part where Gandhari (Duryodhan's mother) curses Krishna for letting the war happen! She could not believe that this ancient poet had the maturity to have even a character considered divine chided by an old woman who had lost all her sons! That was great to see.
For me, Indian soaps are like stories the bards used to tell in ancient days moving from town to town, reaching large audiences. The Mahabharata was circulated in this way too. I am watching PR from that perspective - a popular story reaching wide audiences. So, my question is if Indian audiences could take complex stories earlier, what has happened now? As I mentioned in an earlier post, I tried a couple of soaps because I wanted to see a contemporary popular story. I found those soaps boring because of the fix-it-all-by-myself attitude of the heroines. PR was so good having a large number of characters but each subplot (with the main plot of Manav-Archana) and character getting due attention. It was using the opportunity a daily soap has with hundreds of hours at disposal to make an epic like drama very well. Then it slipped miserably after the leap, actually after the deal between Ovi and Purvi. I feel that if the CVs are trying to clean up the mess with Ovi and Onir playing important roles and getting their due back, that is good treatment of the story. But some viewers seem to not like that. So, I requested the split.
As for humor, I like it the best as a device in literature. I think it is very effective in throwing light on human folly in various situations. As humans, everyone acts foolish at times. I will put myself first on the list. As you know there are many types of humor. Of these, the dark or stinging type is effective for some purposes, but I prefer not to use it in conversations. I like the light-hearted humor that serves the purpose without hurting. It is often self-deprecating. If this kind of humor had no place in public conversations, all cartoonists would be out of business. I am only making fun of the show and the forum (both of which I enjoy very much) in a light-hearted way. My purpose is of course not to hurt anyone.
Now, someone may say, if you are so stuck up on your comp.lit background, why do you even watch an Indian soap? True. May be I shouldn't. (that is why I did not mention it earlier). But my hope is that may be the CVs and production houses are keeping an eye on the conversations on forums like this and getting cues to make their next projects better! India is doing great in terms of the amount of production of television and film dramas! If our conversations help them improve quality, why not?
At times, I feel that there could be a serial on forums like this with all participants as characters - can you imagine how hilarious it would be!
May be I am a fool hoping that the CVs are looking at any of this! But fools have a place in the world too. Without them, the wise would not look wise! So, I don't mind being a fool!
Any way, see you sometime when I get a chance to wander around in the IF land!
Edited by muse10 - 12 years ago
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
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