Posted:
It really isn't. It's not as easy as just switching on your TV, turning to the channel and show of your choice and immersing yourself in a beautifully spun, engrossing story.
No, first you need to sacrifice a few things, or at least suspend them for a while:
- Sense
- Logic
- Belief
- Any knowledge or experience of human behaviour
- Expectation of consistency
You know what they say. You can give the best possible ingredients to a cook, but what the cook does with those ingredients is a totally different ball game.
Here, you have a mostly great ensemble cast (barring a few people; Hint: the actress playing the expressionless Mala), an interesting premise, an enticing and intriguing story idea...and what do we get?
We get:
- A cheerful Paro. A girl who has just been through ( a bare few hours earlier) one of possibly the most traumatic experiences one can imagine going through. Someone threw acid at her. Go on. Say the following words aloud. "Someone threw acid at me!" Just saying the words sends a shiver of terror through one. It takes months if not longer to get over an ordeal like that. Yes, I know. That kind of luxury is not available in a daily soap. Fair enough. But some evidence of trauma? Some shock? Maybe terror at sudden noises? Some dread? A nightmare? Something?
But no. Let's have a chirpy giggling female lead instead.
Sensitivity, you say? What's that?
- Out of sight, Out of mind Maithli and Mala. Let's see now. Let me read a letter threatening to do immense harm to someone I love deeply; like a daughter or a sister. Let me show shock and worry for five minutes. Then let me have an attack of amnesia and have a flirty conversation with my husband about my upcoming holiday!
Or better yet, let me make laddoos and thread garlands, while continuing with my pretense along with my daughter-in-law (whose life is under serious threat) to win over my son.
One has to prioritize after all.
Death threats, you say? What's the harm in that? Let's giggle about not breaking fasts instead!
- Taking the horse to the well Mohini. It's easy, you know. All I need to do is not let my son say the words that he's married. After that, all will fall into place. He will never know that he's meeting a girl for the purpose of marriage. The families will finalize the proposal, and then I will somehow trick my son to wear wedding finery on the wedding day and lead him to the mandap and he'll go along with it.
Brainless scheme, you say? Well what do you know? Have you ever tried it!
- Romantic Rudra: Aaah yes. I'll probably find the least amount of takers for this point, I have a feeling :-) Let's see now. Someone threw acid at my wife. Someone made a threatening call to do worse. Someone CAME INTO my room, STOOD next to my wife, and took her doll. I think what I'll do is distract her with a kiss (a fake one at that to add insult to injury!), I'll carry swings in, and decorate them with flowers, then I'll smile at her innuendoes of not having sex for 108 years, then I'll flirt with her a little in a husky voice, then I'll show some irritation at being interrupted by a phone call from work, and then I'll leave reluctantly for work because... well I'm sure Aman can handle finding out who is trying to kill my wife on his own. Oh wait a second... I think I'll leave the task of keeping my wife safe in the hands of my sister in law, who after all is great at ummm let's see... cooking!
Setting up some BSD guards/security around my haveli, you say? How dare you mistrust Maithli's capabilities!
- And now, the piece de resistance: The Cameras! Who would have thought that installing cameras - please note the plural - in the room of the fiercest BSD officer of all would have been so easy! Behind the bed, on top of the wardrobe, on the pillars, outside the bathroom (which is outside the room, so essentially the camera work has been spread out quite diligently, and with great anticipation of human need!). Not inside the loo though...no, no...that would be too cheap!
There's no avoiding it, so I'm just going to say it.
One: Rudra and his family must be some of the dumbest people on this planet if people can come into his room and their house, install multiple cameras at various locations without detection!
Two: How can the CVs insult the audience's intelligence to such an extent as to expect them to swallow with good grace that it is just THAT easy to enter someone's house/room and undertake such a technical, time consuming, and noisy task in a matter of mere minutes possibly?
And in any case, Mr Hegde seems to be running out of ideas at an enviable pace! What is this fascination he has with installing cameras in people's rooms? Freud would have a great time with him!
All I can do in the mean time is shake my head in disappointment. And lower my expectations even more. (I really didn't think that was possible.)
Many of you might say, wait a while. After all RR has given us some great episodes too. And you'd be right. They have given some great scenes and moments. But why should these great episodes be interspersed by such mediocre writing and scripting?
To take an analogy probably close to Rudra's heart, it's like saying, oh so what if you have to eat burnt aloo ki sabzi fifteen days of the month? You might get one tasty meal on the sixteenth day.
It's really not that hard to be consistent, you know. We've seen some good, tight scripting, writing and pacing. Which means that the talent is there. Unfortunately, the intention is weak. Very weak. And respect for the audience, weaker still. Till the time, our show makers keep on treating the audience like brainless entities, we will continue eating burnt aloo sabzi.
And because, after this long rant, I'm feeling quite spent of my ire and irritation, I'll end on a somewhat frivolous note.
What in God's name is wrong with the editor? Did he really just ruthlessly cut out the romantic scenes we had been looking forward to since seeing the behind-the-scenes footage? The kiss, the falling on the bed, and the leaning in and picking up of the garlands? Does he have any idea of what the hard core fans of RR are looking forward to?
As if the director's penchant for blurry shots and ridiculous angles wasn't bad enough!
Personal Finance
Current Affairs
