Crisp Bytes SC - 23rd Oct 13 - Page 7

Thank you friends, for all the concern and for missing me 🤗... I am absolutely fine, just had some personal commitments come up that caused me to forego CB for a while. Plus a tiny part of me is relieved I won't need to catch up on epi's of the status quo 😃

Nandy ji - Sahi baat ki. Nothing to analyse. My suspension of disbelief meter has been given such a merciless workout that it has quit on me. And bereft of requisite defences, I've quit watching SC 😉

Hgg Bhai... This is all quite interesting, really. Kumud & Saras ka identikit todna padha mujhe, but SC off-screen ka ik zabardast identikit bana hai... The building blocks for what we are seeing now, were laid even before the first epi aired. This is purely from an industry perspective so please indulge. And waise bhi, show khatam hone ke baad, SLB ko jab Ram-Leela se fursat mile tab toh ye sab bahar aane hi wala hai =)

Disclaimer: Reader discretion is advised/requested 😳

To start with the overarching SC narrative... The structure was 'traditional'... This was SLB's adaptation to have Saras-Kumud meet and for romance to bloom. The 'source' had none of this, and was shown 'going-back'... This 'romance period' IMHO, should have been the most painstakingly laid building block and also should have been the most prolonged part... The tagline touted but three and it was a simple but brilliant narrative strategy:

(1) Muqammal Mohabbat ki (2) Adhoori Dastaan... Jald (3) Hogi poori.

Alas, they faltered and stumbled badly on the very first part. Full blame rests with SLB for his tunnel vision. He should have seen the warning signs there and then. Not to undermine married artists in the least, but Jennifer came 'shackled' into the project. To give her credit, she did walk out at first and the primordial mistake was to get her back and to concede to the demands of her no intimacy contract, when the brief was all about emotional intimacy. Anyone would have ballooned with the thought: See, they came running back to me. Jennifer may be the best Kumud, but IMHO Kumud needed to be an actress without such obvious limitations in the romance department or preferably with a less insecure hubby. To add to that, let's face it, our leads don't get along with each other. According to 'source' in the beginning days of SC, J took the tag of a "married woman" extremely seriously, there was no trace of even comradeship from her side. And when the male is warned that his very fingers are being kept a watch at, of course those digits will shake when they reach out for contact. So part one, was wrecked, the chemistry stagnated. The touch me not romance, turned many viewers off, and the off-screen tantrums didn't help either. SLB decided (over the objections of SP) that he had to cut his losses on the 'Muqammal Mohabbat' front... He knew there was a lot that was still to be shown and he damn well could have beautifully illustrated Muqammal Mohabbat, drawing on subtleties and making Saras-Kumud equation even stronger and poignant, remember this was the man who had orchestrated the amazingly soulful romance of Khamoshi, but Jennifer was not willing to play ball... Not with Gautam. And after being relentlessly mocked and thoughtlessly dragged into someone else's marital drama, even GR put his foot down. That is when SLB started contemplating a Kumud replacement but SP stepped in, tightened the purse strings and told him, no dice. To look for a replacement was a headache they were not willing to cut slack for. And thus, the second part was unceremoniously ushered in, with SLB's exit stage left.

This was the most botched-up phase. The production shifted hands and slowly, from one banal epi to the next... SC turned from being a prestigious Adaptation, into just another on the SP assembly line. I will still maintain that SO are merely caretakers... And this gesture of helming SC is going to earn them an absurd amount of goodwill from Star. Also note that SLB still shines in the 'Created and Adapted by" bit... This is very clever. The buck still stops with SLB. But the show now resembles something straight outta his very worst nightmares. Let's also address Aanshul here... Jennifer does not have any issues with him... He can touch without counting fingers and can post pictures online without fear of someone throwing a hissy fit. Why? Does this mean GR is infact the one who has problems and not Jennifer? Most definitely not. Apparently AT was a part of the DMG team and as such he is 'kosher'. Because Pati Parmeshwar has deemed so, Jennifer has no problems with Kumud bearing the brunt of Pramad's atrocities. Woh chahe maare, pite, ya jalaye... Bas Saras rehna chahiye chaar kadam ki doori par. Aur Saras (GR) 100 miles door hi khush hai 😉

This phase thus, can never be adequately realised... Jennifer's contract still stands. Any romance is even suggested and the 100 crore whale is gonna walk out on another vacation to cool her jets down. How can SP have that when the show revolves like a puppy around Kumud's heels? And now, GR's not the least bit interested in touching her either. Another feature of 'adaptation' has come to bite the powers-that-be on their 'tooh's'... Sanyasi ko bana diya Romeo. Now Saras cannot exist without Kumud in the show. His love for her has been made his raison d etre. Utterly and completely. And they cannot 'linger' upon a culmination of that love, forget even a re-start, because of off-screen tensions. So what's left? Mindless nautanki's by Pramad, whom they are using as a desperate measure to provide what they believe passes for 'nail-biting' drama. And with that, Kusum... And a 100% revert to the source OR Kusum now, to spike our blood pressures till we are comatose and then a hurried half-baked, Saras-Kumud reunion with curtains down on the show. For its pedestrian and 'appealing' TRP factor, my bet is tentatively on the latter. Even though the former, I regret to say, cannot be considered out-of-hand. Any End is possible. Only given is that, the End is scarily near.

...& in the midst of the trainwreck of SC a possibility has emerged, a spin-off Saraswatichandra, with sanyasi as sanyasi, a story of unfettered love and the saga of an inspirational MAN can even be attempted at a later date. If someone in Indian telly has the guts for it, that is.