ENow Special: A Soapy affair

A bunch of garishly dressed people live in equally garish mansions. There is a bahu , there is a saas , and there is a sister-in-law who schemes and plots, and some ineffectual men. How do you tell who's who?

Well it is simple – depending on who is wearing more eye make up and uglier saris, you decide who the homemaker is and who the home breaker is. We are not terribly sure what they do for a living, but we know only too well how they live. You can run, but you can't escape the brain death of primetime television – the daily soap!

We decided to fix and bring the culprit – the television script writer - to task... and found that they are only too aware of their crime of mindless TV!

The same old froth

"I am very clear about the fact that television is not about recall," says scriptwriter Satyam Tripathi. "Television is not about making a program today, seeing it again or recalling it two years hence and feeling good about it."

In this, says Tripathi, TV soaps are no better than the bathing variety. "If a particular soap brand is good, it sells a certain number of cakes in a year. In another year a certain change will be made in the product, so you have the same soap with the extra 'HDPC' in it... no one will ask what 'HDPC' stands for, and the soap will become another hit!" he exclaims. Pretty sound logic to explain the glut of similar-looking soaps that infest our television.

The price of diversity

Scriptwriter Satyam Tripathi has kept away from typical 'saas bahu' serials in pursuit of new challenges but had to give up big money for it

Satyam Tripathi wrote the initial season of 'Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin' and is currently writing 'Left right Left' on Sab TV. Tripathi has kept away from the deluge of 'K-serials' – a choice which he says has not been easy on the pocket, but easy to make.

"If there is something I don't identify with, how can I write it with conviction? That's one reason, the second is that I don't believe in portraying it the way it is portrayed. So if I don't believe in it, I cannot write it," Tripathi says simply.

When a writer hits a wall

While most TV writers may share the same conviction as Tripathi, they need to give in to the compulsions of assembly line TV. Ask Kamlesh Kunti, a veteran script writer who has scripted for Balaji cult shows like 'Kasautii Zindagi Kii', 'Kyunki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' and 'Kanyadaan' on Star Plus - but recently parted ways with the production house.

Kunti says the endless storylines of soaps and the stock device of 'generation leaps' to stretch a story defy logic, but it seems to be what the audience wants!

Says Kunti, "When he realises that the story is over, no writer worth his salt – be it in literature or screen writing - would want to stretch it like a rubber band. Why should you lose the poignancy of the story?

"So what they do is, take a 'generation jump'. The characters are same, so is the protagonist, but the story is 'new'. And sadly the audience falls for it. The audience needs to stand up and say 'hello, you can't fool us, we know what's going on," says Kunti.

The 'high' versus the 'real'

Mrinal Jha is content with writing melodrama and believes writers may not forgotten the art of 'real' drama

And finally, it all boils down to the ratings – most channels start new soaps without a definite end in sight. If it doesn't deliver, it gets yanked off – if it connects, the story is stretched till kingdom come. Since only the high-decibel drama works, subtle drama and nuanced characterization are alien quantities.

Writer Mrinal Jha, who is currently scripting 'Dulan Banoo Mein Teri' on Zee TV, says melodrama is the need of the hour, and she takes it in her stride!

"Sure, there will be a viewership for 'real drama' in television, as opposed to 'high drama'," concedes Jha, but adds, "It's just that the market situation requires us to supply the (high) kind at this point of time... I've known even channel executives sit and discuss the possibility of doing new things – but unfortunately some attempts at real drama, or a different genre haven't really worked out," she says.

Not upto the mark?

The reasons for this, could be many – and not necessarily because the audience have rejected it. "It could even be that we as writers, or we as technical people, have forgotten how to do that kind of drama and we couldn't delivered it the way, say a 'Buniyaad' or a 'Malgudi Days' did."

So currently, there seems to be no end in sight to the endless soppy sagas on television – if you are addicted, that's good news fro you – if not, invest in a good collection of DVDs because this is one story that the script writer has no control over!

(Story by Entertainment NOW. For more, tune into TIMES NOW Weekend, Saturday at 9:30 pm and Sunday at 10:30 am)
http://www.timesnow.tv/articleshow/2232566.cms