TV belles and wedding bells:ELAS

I returned from the frostbitten frigidity of DD shows to the mind-numbing warmth of satellite channel soaps to discover the marriage season on in full swing this week.

These were shows that started with a 'different' premise and held out the promise of staying different. It seems they have succumbed to the commercial lure of the 'grand wedding' phenomenon that seems to strike the average soap once every six months. Never mind if the last big such event on Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin left a very bad taste in the mouth when the wedding never materialised after reels of marriage preparations.

This time, the ones that have bitten the marriage bait are India Calling, Ek Ladki Anjaani Si and even Jab Love Hua! Both India Calling and Ek Ladki.... have turned up the marketing hype on the grand weddings that will actually take place next week. Star One's India Calling had started out on a very different note, with its take on the call centre scenario in metropolises and the journey of a young girl through them.

Its degeneration (is transmutation a better politically correct term here?) into just another family drama has taken all the wind out of it, although the channel insists it's been better for the TRPs. Chandni, who was slated to marry Dilawar in an arranged match, will now marry her sweetheart Adi instead. Dilawar is even helping in the wedding preparations.

In Ek Ladki..., long suffering Anu who got impregnated by accident, will marry the man of her dreams Nikhil instead of the good doctor who saved her life, nursed her back to health, and who fell in love with her in the process. The good doc in fact, in now instrumental in setting up the wedding, which unfolds on screen on Monday.

In Zee's Jab Love Hua, the delightful capers of Raghu and Aanya get a twist with Aanya now poised to marry Rahul, the scion of a wealthy urban family. And yes - it's heartbroken Raghu who's helping with the preparations.

So, just as the many Balaji soaps ape their siblings in plot and track, now we have disparate soaps with different themes all converging on one event, and handling it in more or less a similar fashion. Coincidence?