The Plight of Indian Tele'Vision'

Hi everyone,

I was discussing about this show Jodha Akbar with one of my friends, and as usual, lamenting about the sad state of affairs in this show, lately. During the said conversation, she forwarded me an article, which completely explained the plight of Indian TV Shows(majority of them) and also what keeps viewers engaged to it despite it's torturing story line..

Here is the article. All Credits to the original writer. :)

"

This is not about some lunatic out to give shape to his hideous designs, but about a silent predator that sneaks into our homes every evening and has the ladies in particular swooning over it. I am not sure if this one actually kills, but it is undoubtedly behind at least some of the domestic violence cases filed by men who dared to touch the TV remote between 7 and 10 at night. Of course I am talking about the Big B of Indian television, the TV serial.

I couldn't have even imagined writing this a few months back. A busy schedule meant I was blissfully unaware about the soap operas ruling the roost in many homes. Then the stork came calling, and six months at home gave me ample time to indulge in the sinful pleasures.

Eager to latch on, I sat beside mom as she watched yet another tear-jerker. I asked: "So, what's it about?" Mom began, "See, A & B were happily married. B dies in an accident ...". A heartbroken A is given pain relief by C and their happily ever after' story begins. B mysteriously reappears and reunites with A, leaving C to fend for himself. Turns out that C is the illegitimate son of B's father and C's mother is now married to ...".

"Mom, what is the bottom line?" She sniggered. I soon found out why. The beauty of the storyline is that it has no bottom line. It is like a meandering river, finding its way as it goes on. The only difference is that a river has a definite and glorious end in the sea. A serial ends when the lead escapes to star in the rival channel's prime time show, or the scriptwriter becomes suicidal due to sheer boredom.

Sometimes the writers are caught napping in a web of their own making. Years ago, a leading lady walked around pregnant for two whole years before the director ran out of ideas on how to make her give birth. The show went off air soon after.

But logic, or the lack of it, does not always dictate a serial's popularity. Recently, a much loved serial had the evil bahu leave her toddler locked up in a room full of electric wires. Ma-in-law took an entire episode to screech some heart-wrenching dialogues on how unfit a mother her bahu was. My hubby went away murmuring, "The child is still in there. Can't they rescue him first before this dialogue-baazi?"

Men, understand one thing. The serial won't run if we treat it as a point-to-point bus service. It is meant to slowly and solidly evoke your emotions (the sad background score is meant to aid you in that). As for women, the makers know it isn't just the emotions which give them a high. It's the thrill. Let the biggest twist simmer over the weekend. Show Monday episode's trailer on Friday, and leave women to fret over whether the evil bahu manages to add poison to her poor husband's kheer. Of course, come Monday and you find out that it was nothing but the ma-in-law's bad dream. She wakes up from her remarkable slumber to find the world just as it was when she went to sleep on Wednesday. (Shouldn't we be penalising the script-writers for all the tension their millions of viewers endured over the weekend?)

Then again, there's nothing as thrilling as having the lead catch amnesia. By the time they regain their memory two years later, there would be a whole new set of connections, permutations and combinations to work with. This is every screenwriter's dream (and viewer's nightmare).

All said and done, despite the theatrics and illogical turns, these soap operas survive and thrive. In Kerala, the airing of a popular serial at 7 p.m. meant guests coming at that time were not welcome.

Will this six-month break turn me into one such woman? Nah ... such stuff doesn't work for intellectuals like me. I would like to elaborate more on this point, but am running short of time. The 9 p.m. serial starts in a few minutes.

"

^^^

Well... Did, you notice the conflicting stand taken by the writer in the last paragraph.?. Though, the writer is fed up, but still the person goes to watch the show. ;-P

I am still laughing - this is such an endearing bit of reality 😆 Thanks for sharing and please thank your friend for sharing this 👏

This was a blockbuster article Abhay ! Thanks a lot for sharing !! It was just a side - slipper.🤣 I totally appreciate the writer for writing this 👏

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." ⭐️

Actually before keeping forth my views I would like to admit that my connection to TV is very 'ROOTHNA MANANA ' type 😕 ...

"Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye."

I had no cable connection till my 9th standard and thanks to my parents that I felt it's always so much more fun to be with people than it ever was to be with a television. Teenage, the age in which we tend to experiment new things a lot , just urged me to try watching daily soaps...along with my regular dose of TV... I started watching shows earlier in my intermediate days , some xyz show for some time say a month and got bored due to the same old cheap stuff ...Again I used to get started with a new one hopefully, which gave me a whammy again Alas ! much to my disappointment I found not even a single serial satisfying the QUALITY principle... Now which show exactly nowadays is following the Q factor that too for the specified time limit of mine?(Actually I watch television for just an hour, everyday ) 🥱...But what I got in return was ZILCH !!😒

Strictly speaking, a student must not in my view, tend to watch these daily soaps... A student, must watch that things which are useful to her in her knowledge gaining process! (Even my parents are always in search of the Q principle 😆 ... pathetically they also things countable in number... hence we watch only genre specific channels and educative ones regularly...)But sometimes it happens that people crave for something entertaining, something new, for timepass or something which is so much nearer to their life have that tendency of watching some stories, closer to their heart, which they love to watch again and again...for which they see their clocks n' number of times and curiously wait for the show to air...

I was again going back to the MUTE STUDENT mode when I came across JA , and seriously I fell in love with it head over heels ❤️. In spite of the MATURE Lasya telling me that you should not once more get attached to them, the EXPLORER Lasya told me to just watch it...I got addicted and attached to it and as Radhika said, I even joined the forum 😳...But, what happened at last was that our lovely serial has been mercilessly converted into a daily soap...Our JA is no more different than the other shows 😲...It is perished 😭...It is rather a serial with just a royal setup...Again whom should I blame here for the destruction of a MAGNUM OPUS, either the CVs for just spoiling the beauty of it or myself for taking the risk of watching for past 1 and 1/2 years? 😵

"People are sheep. TV is the shepherd."

TV is that powerful tool through which the masses can be effected...it certainly leaves it's mark on the people...I don't know why this horrendous tracks are always introduced in the serials...I just wonder that these people I mean the CVs simply claim that their shows are larger than life, some claim that their shows are much closer to reality...I don't know about the latter case but I can say that this TV is just ruining us in many ways...🥺

"Most people gaze neither into the past nor the future; they explore neither truth nor lies. They gaze at the television."

This quote exactly reminds me of the TRP gainers, high voltage drama serials...in which all sorts of cheap stuff is shown... The heroine always patiently bears the torture, from the hero, the bad guy when falls in love with the girl, changes for good or the love story of a rich spoilt brat and a poor girl...or the same story and scenes being repeated for generations together under the same banner for years...the returning of the villain who changed for good years ago or the sudden comeback of the vanished old characters on demand of a grey shade ... I just don't know what nonsense we people are watching in the name of entertainment...All these things practically happen in fiction only ! not in reality.. How can a man just separate himself from his woman for a simple MU? Or just not to harm her? Illogical and senseless things...🤢

But when I came across this quote --- I just realised that may be it would be unfair to curse the idiotic box and the TRP gainer serials...

"If you believe that your thoughts originate inside your brain, do you also believe that television shows are made inside your television set?"

There are always better things in the TV to watch...It just depends upon us...Anyway such beautiful shows are countable in number...it may be rather easier to choose from them...And if you want to see those serials...I would like to warn you that the mentality of CVs is something like this,"People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy." they may just take a sadistic pleasure out of it, some sort of atleast !😡

In conclusion I would say that --

"I'm the idiot box. I'm the TV. I'm the all-seeing eye and the world of the cathode ray. I'm the little shrine the family gathers to adore.'

'You're the television? Or someone in the television?'

'The TV's the altar. I'm what people are sacrificing to.'

'What do they sacrifice?' asked Shadow.

'Their time, mostly,' said Lucy. 'Sometimes each other.' She raised two fingers, blew imaginary gunsmoke from the tips. Then she winked, a big old I Love Lucy wink.

'You're a God?' said Shadow.

Lucy smirked, and took a ladylike puff of her cigarette. 'You could say that,' she said." 🤓

So what say folks?😃 Why torture ourselves like this? It's better to find ALTERNATIVES...😉

P.S : The content of the post is just a mere expression of my views . No offences to anyone...If it is boring, then sorry I can't help you in this aspect because this may sound a weird autobiography for you...but the fact is that these shows have always left a sour taste in my mouth. 😳

Res😳

Ok this iss tooo good hillarious but a sad truth of Indian tv though norms are changing slowly but acceptance is nil
abhay thanks for sharing
I cant control my laugh

Abhay TFS
Bang on comment & hilarious, esp the ending 😆
What is shocking is TV industry most makers seem to have given up a pretense also of it being an art form! TV industry is just a business now

I have successfully managed to de-addict myself from JA. Hopefully won't face this kind of addiction again - as before JA it was always 1 month for new serial at the most then bye!
Exception was BV which I watched lot more!

Then again Ashoka is starting soon & I sincerely hope it is so good that I become addicted to it like JA 😉😆😃
I have already become a fan of the young Sidhharth Nigam 😃

Abhay wonderful post too hilarious & so true...

Originally posted by: RadhikaS0

I am still laughing - this is such an endearing bit of reality 😆 Thanks for sharing and please thank your friend for sharing this 👏

Agree totally about the tongue-firmly-in-cheek description of the state of Indian serials. There would be some shows that I would watch with my mom but when she would start watching Tamil/Telugu tearjerkers (thankfully, she only watched sensible (?) ones in Hindi) where the heroine would always be crying, I would pester her to switch it off till she finally stopped watching such shows. My poor mom! I didn't know then that retribution was in store for me, for after marriage, my husband would pester me not to watch such "senseless" shows till I stopped watching them.

Till JA happened accidentally through my mom-in-law. She is a firm TV fan and no matter what, where, when, she must complete her daily quota of shows. I remember when my bro-in-law was engaged and there would be frequent meetings for "talks" - both parties would stop talking and watch the evening shows they were addicted to before resuming the talks again!

There cannot be a bigger JA fan than my mom-in-law who watches the Hindi version which she cannot understand well but doesn't want to miss and the Telugu version, which is a few episodes behind, for better understanding. If someone who knows Hindi is around, she catches hold of her to translate the program for her. There was a time when I used to give her the commentary on phone, much to my sister's shock and amusement!

This is where the intellectual part from the article comes in. We are an educated, middle class family where the focus has always been on studies and intellectual pursuits and while one may watch TV shows and movies, one doesn't "discuss" them. 😆 (My mamu and his cousin were rare exceptions - they would fill pages with the complete storyline of the latest movie they had seen, complete with dialogs and mail each other!! It was totally unprecedented in our family and still remains a source of wonder, to be narrated to new generations as something extraordinary. 😆) And I very sincerely stuck to this till JA came along.

Like I mentioned on Maddy's thread recently, JA possessed me so much (or rather, the characters of Jodha and Akbar, as seen in 2013 and early 2014) that I did something I never thought I would - join a discussion forum 😆 And discuss / read about the show at odd hours, much to my family's disbelief and disapproval (?) and my own puzzlement. Does this mean I am no longer an "intellectual" now that I am reduced to a "TRP lady" category? Please don't laugh at this because it is most definitely a guilt that I carried till I was watching JA.

Fortunately for me, Ekta has pulled the plug on the addictive element of the show and I was able to bid adieu to addictive TV shows and get back in control of my life again. Which now gives me a higher moral ground to stand on when I admonish my kid not to get addicted to TV and to use the medium only as a source of timepass entertainment when he has no loftier pursuits (read studies / outdoor games). 😛

Sorry if I bored you, but again, if you guys can watch JA (presently) or any other TV show, for that matter, this post wouldn't kill you. 😛 Keep watching TV and enjoy cursing the CVs and the evil mother-in-law and the sadistic husband and sympathising with the tragic heroine. 😊

Oh Radhika so wonderful 😆 My mom & aunt also watch JA in Telugu version, infact my aunt watches most dubbed serials madubala, chinnari pelli kuturu, Jodha akbar, punar vivaham, Dabh in telugu 😆 she refers serial which is good to mom & then my mom will start watching it 😉.. Their schedule is full with 6 to 9 , same case with in laws also 6 to 9 serials with not only mom & sasumaa, but dad & sasurji also watches TV serial with running commentary why they did it 😆... My hubby will always praise me you are much better watch only 2 or 3 shows seeing them...

I remember the episode after tiger attack on Jalaal Ruqu slaps JO that episode I was in maaika & my aunt came to see me but start watching JA serial & comments what will happen when Jalaal woke up he will not leave her, poor JO... I told them nothing happen, infact they will go to Sukanya wedding, from then on my aunt will ask me what will happen next , especially benazir & sujamal track we used to talk in the phone 😆... All my memories came back , now watching only MK at 8 pm hoping to watch Ashoka as promo is good 😃

I updated my post Abhay ..😆