| Lavish sets. Garish costumes. Stilted, formal dialogues. Little wonder that none of the characters ever seem to belong to any of the palatial bungalows they occupy in our soaps, nor to the implausible plots they tread. While Indian television would love to brag that it's come a long way since Hum Log in the 1980s, its soaps, even the latest entrants, adopt a pace, style and setting more appropriate to Hindi films of the 1950s. Women and men wear incongruously ridiculous clothes even when lounging at home, the women sport jewelry like there's no tomorrow, and hardly a dialogue seems spontaneous. Take Sahara One's newest baby, Solhah Singaar, for instance. In its entirety, it's as impeccable and as boring as any of its predecessors. Pretty, mournful mothers laden with baubles, a stern white silk clad granny, an adulterous father with a seductive vamp in his closet, it has all the ingredients that would hook any housewife.
All it lacks is spontaneity. Loud sound effects help where subtle dramatics could have shown grief, and the father, played by Anuj Saxena, died a noisome death in a hospital, complete with garish music to denote grief, surrounded by mother, wife, mistress et al. | Constrast this with even a mediocre show like Sons and Daughters that runs on Star World. It's a regular family drama, but its camera angles, the apparent spontaneity of actors' movements and subtle expression of emotions makes it an easy view. Just like in Friends, where the characters indulge in routine activities like slamming a fridge door, or pouring coffee or just sniffling into a tissue - all while the story continues uninterrupted. Or a Desperate Housewives, where the leads routinely come out of their houses to empty garbage cans or trip over misplaced baggage in the corridors. These may not be key to the success of a soap, but they lend a distinct air of naturalness that's so absent in our soaps, forever grappling with the bigger business of adultery and domestic hostility. When was the last time you saw Parvati pouring herself a glass of water in the kitchen or Prerna doing, or even supervising, her laundry? One show that comes close to being spontaneous is Zee's Jab Love Hua. The screenplay flows naturally, the leads have gotten into the skin of playing villagers, and you can actually spot them feeding cattle and washing their hands with copper tumblers after meals, even when the conversations are on. Sweet n sour
One had hoped for more of this spontaneity to creep into the new Kadvi, Khatti, Meethi (the sequel to Tu Tu Main Main) on Star One. True, the leads have their timing just right and look like they never stopped playing the roles of canny mother-in-law and cannier daughter-in-law. The stories unfortunately will continue to revolve around domestic mishaps and ownership over the grandson/son/husband and one wonders whether this track will be as successful as it was in the late 1990s. The new bahu of the household will have a hard time matching the effortless
histrionics of Reema and Supriya, but to her credit, she's a good choice. The only weak link in this show is Ali Asgar, who plays the hapless grandson/son/husband, who's completely lost in the flow of events. Perhaps it's not his mistake, he has to contend with some pretty strong female protagonists!
Well, all's well that ends well..
**** | Both Sony's Jhalak Dikkhla Jaa and Zee's Sa Re Ga Ma Li'l Champs culminated
last weekend, and I followed a thumb rule I have set for all TV finales, from experience. Switched to each only during the last half hour of the two hour episodes, and believe me, hardly missed much except for some perfunctory performances and nervous, stricken faces of the finalists. Mona Singh was an expected win, and one suspects that the very real tears that Shveta Salve shed were more anguish at the realisation that it isn't just talent that wins at such talent shows. As for Lil Champs, the chaos during the live declaration of the winners told on Sanchita. The poor girl didn't realise she had been crowned the winner as Shaan grandly announced the name of the runner-up, and the rest of his announcement was drowned in a blaze of firecrackers! Judge Alka Yagnik had to bring up the shaking girl from the end of the stage and make public her predicament. And second runner-up Sameer was adolescent charm itself when he staunchly maintained in a choked voice, "Main naheen rouunga!"(I won't cry!") It may have been a grand end to a good show, but it was a trifle unsettling to have to watch kids grapple with so much stress in front of a national audience and a massive, cacophonic live audience. Oughtn't we to wait till they are mature enough to handle the fickle fame and fortune that such TV talent shows can bring? Or perhaps not. **** Couch potato's let-down of the week- The Bigg Boss participants as published in a calculated leak to the media. None sound exciting enough for one to watch them sleep, eat, gossip, whatever. Or is the channel hiding some star participants as a surprise? |
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