TOI ARticle !!!

Cardboard cutouts and screen perfect characters define the way the lead protagonists are in daily soaps. Whatever happened to real characters like us?

In the 80s and 90s Indian telly soaps almost seemed real. The lead characters were not larger than life figures, or they holier than thou, pristine souls, too perfect to be true, but flesh and blood human beings who made mistakes, and were people like us. Cut to the 21 ^stcentury and the advent (and success) of saas-bahu sagas brought in the unexpected - pious and long suffering bahus who spent an inordinate amount of time using their lachryimal glands, while the men got reduced to being props. Entertainmenttelevision shows now take pride in being OTT caricatures. And surprise, surprise, sometimes it even works. At least the TRPs of these shows are indicative of how the audiences' taste has changed over the years and caricatures and unreal characters are now acceptable.

In the technicolour world of daily soaps, you encounter only caricatures - heroines who are painfully passive people, pooja thali in hand, they are draped in mile long ghunghatsthat never slip off their heads (Gopi Bahu in Saath NibhanaSaathiya, Akshara in Yeh Rishta Kya KehlataHai, Saroj of Shubh Vivaah, the bahu brigade of Mrs Kaushik Ki Paanch Bahuein,Aarti of Punar Vivah,Jeevika of Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri Behna Hai,Radhikaof Chhoti Bahu), the ambitious young girl who wants to carve out a career for herself (Krishna in Afsar Bitiya, Sanchi in RukJana Nahin, Megha in Naa Bole Tum Na Maine KuchKaha, Sandhya of Diya Aur Baati Hum). Somewhere tucked in between are a handful of perky young Women who are not quite towing the typical bahu line and are self-respecting middle-class girl married to a rich and arrogant men who have to educate the hero to her ways of right and wrong (Khushi in Iss Pyaar Ko KyaNaam Doon?, Pratigyaof MannKe Awaaz Pratigya, Indira of Hitler Didi, Priya of Bade AchcheLagte Hain, Manyata of Dekha Ek Khwab,Manviof Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri Behna Hai)

And the heroes? Well, they are almost conveniently carved out too. He could either be supportive (Suraj of Diya Aur Baati Hum, Mohan of Naa Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha, Dev of ChhotiBahu, Naitik of Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hain, Viren of Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri BehnaHai,LuckySinghAhluwalia of Parvarish - Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi), or the plain arrogant, insufferable tycoon who will be eventually tamed and reformed by the lady he unwittingly and unwillingly falls in love (Ram of Bade AchcheLagte Hai, Arnav of Iss Pyaar Ko Kya NaamDoon?, Yash of Punar Vivaah, Virat of Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri Behna Hai). There's a third type too! The cheating and adulterous spouses, (Pradeep of Kya HuaTera Wada, Amrit of Shubh Vivaah, Jagya of BalikaVadhu).

Is it any wonder then that cardboard cutouts such as these don't get to experience real lives? The protagonists even go through the same situations, irrespective of the soaps, and channels. Almost all marriages of the couples are forced, very few are consummated until weeks and months of airtime and keeping the audience on tenterhooks, romantic scenes are restricted to heroines falling in the hero's waiting and strong arms, followed by an intense eyelock and flying dupattas that always end on the hero's hand or gets attached to his shirt buttons. In a 20-minute episode, interspersed with TV commercials, the protagonists of the daily soaps have no choice but to be mere puppets whose characters undergo changes as and when the TRPs demands. No wonder than TV dramas symbolise the suspension of disbelief mode. For the non-believers who question the verity of these characters, the remote's a pretty handy device!