As Sands had mentioned, the past melodrama continues even today in the shows, while character being natural would be much appreciated by the viewers of today.
In my previous post, I touched upon the issue at a superficial level, but will add a bit more to it now that Sands have shared her thoughts and made few important points. However, I would like to adhere to the dharma of this thread, and thereby stick to the rules laid down by the TM and also the CM. So, will not get into a detailed discussion of other shows here in this thread, but will restrict to minor mentions as examples.
Here's my take on historical shows and what bothers me just as many of my friends here. In the name of historical shows, the type of shows which may appeal to the viewers of anytime, a lot of liberties have been taken, to the extent of distortion of tall figures of history. A Channel Moderator in another forum had mentioned that masala may have to be added keeping in mind the current audience taste. Fair point and I respect that CM's view. And response to that from a foum-wasi was that in which case disclaimer' be added. Again, maybe, a fair suggestion. But what does not look fair to me is that great historical figures, who have EARNED their status and won the love and respect of the people of their times till date, by their character, achievements and much adored personality, cannot be tarnished, not even in a minor manner. How can this ever be fair? How can great ones character, for that matter anyone's character be played with as one may choose to? That is why to me even disclaimer may not be fair. If you are making a show on a great historical figure, you better stick to the truth in portraying his or her character, else do not even use his or her name in your show, let alone a disclaimer. Historical shows come with a responsibility! If the responsibility cannot be borne, don't venture would be my suggestion.
It is ok and yes required to add masala to the show. But just add them to the show, and not to these great characters is all am saying. The character need to be left intact. Even if the said historical figure had a bad, even sinful past, say it as is. Why paint them total white? Because of the unwritten rule that heroes and heroines always need to be white, not even a taint in the past? If that is the rule, then do shows of such historical figures who may comply with all your rules of the day. Or if you do not find any such, just stick to your fictional stories and do anything you want with the characters there, none can question you. But, why choose to distort a glorious historical character and history? On what right could it be done? Do the makers of the show realize that they are leaving their viewers painful in this process? I am sure this not what is aspired. Just as a forum friend (Coderlady) had suggested in her post, just do fictional stories if you are incapable of dealing with historical figures.
Yes, romance appeals to a majority of the viewers, so the masala added here with nice romantic moments of a Jodha-Jalal or a Pratap-Ajabde and am sure a Ashoka-Devi tomorrow, will be received with open hands and raving comments anytime. This is so, as the concept and such emotion appeals to the audience, and so you are fair in making it exciting to the viewers, especially as the history also talks of their love story. (Well, some may argue the historical evidence behind it. But to me it does not matter, as just as half questions the validity of the history, there is another half proving the history behind it as well. So, this may be fine still catering to one half atleast, as against nothing in history which happens quite liberally in these shows). Moving on, it is also appreciable that the key events in their lives are included in the shows. But how are they included - this is where the viewers have a problem. Recently in MP show, to show a turning point in his life, he was portrayed confused, which even as per the show character portrayed so far does not fit. Likewise, how much Akbar has been taken a royal ride for in JA, we all know. These tall figures are made buddharams, because the writers did not care about the damage they cause to their character or to be precise the writers in the name of pleasing the audience chose to damage their characters, while it has only left the audience miserable. It is heartbreaking to see great ones like these shown as stupid, brainless and need a wife to tell anything and everything in the world. Just because, yet again due to the unwritten rule that heroines are the intelligent ones, bhalidhaan-s always and to glorify them the husbands of them had to pay a huge price and be shown weak and stupid? Even if the heroine's unwritten rule cannot be compromised, it could still be portrayed without compromising on the hero, especially such all-time real heroes. Dear CVs, do what you want with your reel heroes, I do not care. It is entirely your creation. But the real heroes, being played with by zeroes is unbearable.
And why I had to say zeroes? Let me say I still have regards for the CVs, and they have delivered some wonderful and brilliant tracks, like the recent Daman Singh track in MP, but the alignment to the standard TV shows beats me. Why only few brilliant tracks, which you are capable of, just here and there? Why can't it be a brilliant show totally? For instance, take a Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings, a different world was created and every book was gripping. That is where challenge lies in, talent lies in. Agreed, these are short term compared to serials, where again there is an unwritten rule that it has to be run for few years and extended as long as possible. So, maybe you are running out of themes. Still you can refer to many of the exceptional stories written by great authors around the world for inspiration than the standard kitchen politics. If you are going to argue, that the saas-bahu types is what is liked by the viewers and therefore became a rule, now, who created this rule or this interest in such types in the viewer's mind? PHs like you? Then I suppose, you can change it with your new themes now and create a history. Why not try different things? Especially, when the audience of these days want different, sensible and more natural stuff. So, why go by the grind?
When great historical characters are touched, in the name of NR, the impact is high. A wrong history is being conveyed to masses not aware of the complete history, also hatred or over attachment sets in which the character may not deserve also, as well as blind belief in the characters. How can this be justified? And each show shows a different version of the same characters, even such great, popular, well known icons of all ages. When one glorifies another may show the same personality dark, based on who the hero is (as he has to be totally white and anyone who opposes him needs to be black). I am surprised how no legal action is being taken against such shows, where the pride of the nation is taken for granted and played around with.
The period to which the show caters to, needs to be borne in mind always. But, there is a mix here, pushing in the views and beliefs of this century and hence the resultant mess. Showing Jodha, the royal queen as a sleuth, letting a criminal free etc. etc. - which queen of that age would have done that, even if the queen be the most adored by the king? When vachans, dharma etc. talked and shown as adhered to in line with that age which is dearth these days, then why mix some masala as per this century in to these old time shows? This is where the big issue is. None cribbed about the Ramayana show, which is soaked in dharma, because it stuck to the time period and what happened then, period. This mixing up of masala from various timelines, is leaving the characters contradicted and the viewers confused.
Lastly, I want to touch upon the bhaashan queens, as the heroines/ beloved queens of the great kings are referred to or to be precise bashed by some viewers. Now, what has been done to these queens getting them so much bashing? Maybe we do not have much information about the queen, take the example of Dharma. Does this mean she can be taken for granted, make her say insensible thing, contradict her own beliefs, inconsistency in her own projected character and portrayed as a TV soap heroine? If as per history she was so confused then portray so, else why send such a wrong message? Having no information does not justify that she can be shown anyway. Jodha - the Khaiber track or gifting Sheriffudin release to Bakshi - why make her look so stupid? I believe in the power and value of love and karuna, but it has to be a sensible one. In the name of karuna, all murderers cannot be left free. Dear Cvs, you are stabbing the same heroine you are trying to glorify, worse in the name of glorification. Be consistent in the portrayal of these characters, even of your own show version characters first.
The Jodha, Ajabde and now Dharma from the different shows have been bashed liberally, thanks to the CVs. As I had mentioned in the previous post and as Sandhya, my dear friend, has rightly said, the portrayal causes so much bitterness in one that it extends to the historical figure. That is the sad state of affairs. How, how at all is this fair? It could be argued that the viewers need to be matured to view this as the serial version and not impose this personality on the REAL one and start attacking the Real one. But how many viewers are going to be so matured? But Cvs, my question to you is thatt if you are expecting such a matured audience, then why you need a standard TV soap concept to run your show, it could have been a more intelligent dramatization? This negative or positive feeling extending to the real characters is bound to happen. Those viewers who are well aware of history, they know the truth anyway and they know for sure whom they are bashing. But what about the masses in general who may not be conversant with the history? Like, many of us in the forum know for sure what a Maharana or a Ashoka or a Akbar was and how muchever distortion is done, we know for sure that the original one is untainted by these, though we may feel miserable at such stupid portrayal. However, in the case of the queens, where such vast information may not be available, unless someone takes the trouble to dig them out, as my friend Abhay has tirelessly done, there is a possibility that the distorted version could be associated with the real one for lack of any other information. This is one of the reasons as I see as to why there is more queen bashing than a king bashing in these shows. And more importantly, the portrayal of these queens as standard TV noble bahu heroines. Is this fair to these queens, giving room for such liberal bashing of them? I recently read a post where Dharma is loathed. She is now becoming the next Jodha, unfortunately. But who is responsible for this? They or you writers?
Regarding the bhaashan-s per say, in this century where values are much deteriorated, even mention of dharm is a taboo or a subject of ridicule, will such bhaashan-s sell to the current day audience? Wonder, as you want to cater to the audience interests. The next generation, in the name of forward thinking, will even question Lord Ram or His adherence to dharm, which was revered by the previous generation and discussed by the current generation. This is how it is, the current age. I am not saying it is right or wrong. It is just an observation. With this observation as the backing, how will such bhaashan-s be viewed? A total bore, and even insensible. How many of us would have told our parents not to give bhaashan-s, though we very well know that what they are saying is for our good. But just because, they do not say what we want to hear or what we believe in, they are viewed as giving bhaashan-s. With all due respect to a post of a friend of mine in another forum, where she had referred to the adherence of the promise by the hero at the cost of his life as a stinking promise'. I understand her sentiment well. I am only drawing your attention to the point stinking promise', which is what a promise maybe viewed in this century, based on how inconvenient it could be to one today, while the shows we are watching are from a period, where a promise is valued more than one's life. So, how will such values sell to the present day audience? Only like this, where it is not viewed worthy. In today's world, telling a lie is no big deal. We (in general) tell so many lies each day, still it never even strikes us that we have said a lie in fact. It has become a part of our life, to the extent, we casually lie to joke around. This is the worth of truth today. I remember a great one, asking a friend once so it costed you a lie to do this?'. When I heard this, it just blew me away for a moment. How much we have taken it for granted. We all know saying a lie is a sin and it does cost us - the Garuda Purana may enlighten us on how we are going to pay for it. Still, we indulge, without any qualms. This is the worth of dharma today. In such a selfish, worldy, forward-thinking world as today, one will be mocked at for practicing dharma, being truthful, being compassionate, being respectful to elders etc. etc., more so, when they put these values before their own interests. Simple, I remember a friend of mine laughing at me for following the traffic rules and waiting for the signal sincerely. If one does a beach walk for physical health not bothering about earning money in that one hour, we call him wise. But if one does spiritual practices for one's own mental health, we ridicule him. I remember when one person said that he is retiring from work for spiritual practices people around were shocked, but if he had said he is retiring to enjoy life sitting in his farm house, people would have understood and appreciated his wise decision! But let me also tell you, we are still truly awed also by the one who stands the ground of dharma even in trying times, that too in this trying age where belief in the system is gone with the wind - as it is something that is not possible by us. This is why, I suppose, these shows make the heros and heroines white, an ideal person.
Friends, if you are wondering why I am saying all this is, in today's context where dharma has lost its value, it may not sell and may be viewed impractical also by the viewers. While, dharma applies to all ages, really speaking. It is just a matter of faith and the grit to follow. So, coming to the shows, in my view, the person who preaches such dharma may not sell as well, which happen to be the heroines in most of these shows. Being one who has great regards for dharma, I am fine with the bhaashan-s per say, as they say the dharma which is the truth anyway, but I am not fine when they say irrelevant things or make others do insensible things in the name of dharma or any distorted perception of dharma.
As always, this also turned out to be a long post. But you should have been used to it by now. Thanks again for your patient hearing. Just wanted to share what I have been thinking. If it does not align with your views, please feel free to ignore it.
Note: A sincere request to anyone who may want to respond to this post to not bash any historical character as part of their response to respect the sentiments of all and adhering to the forum guidelines.
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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