Disappointed *VB Note* Pg 16 - Page 8

POV means Point of view!!!!!!!:)

@Shounak: It was this article, right?? I laughed my head off when I read it.....LOLL.....especially cuz the bits in bold are soooooo true.....haha

[quote]Sleeping with the enemy
Mansi Choksi, TNN, Jun 7, 2010

In December last year, the front pages of leading English dailies were splashed with ads of a college-going girl from Allahabad slapping an eve-teaser. Pratigya, the girl in the pink salwar suit frowning into the camera, was then the latest symbol of television's ostensible obsession with social issues. Child marriage, female infanticide, farmers suicide, dowry and now, there was eve teasing.

A few episodes later, Pratigya was married to her eve teaser. His family's men went around beating their women with mojdis for scurrying over with saltless food, slapping them for standing around and kicking them for suggesting that the men take their drink outside the puja ghar. Now Pratigya and the eve teaser have been nominated for 'Favourite Jodi' at the Star Parivaar awards.

This brazen turnaround from purported social activism to regressiveness and domestic abuse of the worst kind isn't limited to Pratigya. Almost every show that went to town claiming it was going to declare war against social evils has done little than use them as yet another visual landscape. Balika Vadhu, a first of its kind that started off as a sermon to change attitudes towards child marriage, quickly displayed signs of selective amnesia. The role of the well-intentioned schoolteacher who spoke up against child marriage was phased out and the story became a sweet little tale about how the child couple were happy growing up together.

Similarly, Bairi Piya, Ekta Kapoor's tribute to the distressed farmers of Vidarbha, showed two drought-hit farmers commit suicide after being exploited by the local zamindar in the first few episodes. Now it is a horrifically perverse 'love story' between the same zamindar and a drought-hit farmer's daughter. Na Ana Is Des Lado too started off as a show about an educated urban woman trying to bring about change in a small Haryana hamlet where every girl child was drowned in a pot of milk. She calls the police and the local MP but then falls in love with the son of the antagonist, the perpetrator of female infanticide. Every 'issue-based' show suffers from a twisted Stockholm Syndrome, in psychology a paradoxical phenomenon where the hostage falls in love with the captor.

The channel heads of Star and Colors predictably refused to comment but Sharad Tripathi, writer for soaps Tere Mere Sapne and Jamuniya, says the Stockholm Syndrome is part of a certified formula of romance on television. "There are two kinds of romance on TV. One is love and the other is hate, but in both cases, passion is involved,'' he says. The love-hate formula has worked since the days of Balaji's Kahin To Hoga, says Tripathi.

"Sujal and Kashish hated each other and that was a huge hit,'' he says, forgetting to mention that Sujal and Kashish weren't the face of any kind of social issue.

According to television commentator Santosh Desai, to think that a television story will be about a cause in the first place is naivety. "It's the same story being played out in front of new backdrop curtains,'' he says. "Shows get jaded with one kind of setting and having an 'issue-based' storyline lets them explore newer visual landscapes. It is a great way to get press and ensure continued viewership.'' Desai adds that with the new crop of issue-based serials, the importance of the woman has been 'rescaled' but she is not permitted to engage radically with any issue. "Shows are directed towards mainstream audiences, and this rescaling is merely a cloak,'' he says.

Sadiya Siddiqui, who played the 15-episode role of the schoolteacher in Balika Vadhu, says that whenever a soap starts off trying to tackle an issue, TRP ratings demand something else. "They boil down to the same saas-bahu story simply because that's what the audiences want. This is evident from the TRP ratings,'' she says. What can channels, producers or actors do?'' Interestingly, however, Siddiqui says she was signed for just 15 episodes before the show even went on air, making the intentions of the channel and producer quite clear.

Shanti Bhushan, writer of Pratigya, claims realism as an alibi. "I simply portrayed what goes on in small town North India,'' he says. "No woman is asked what she wants; she always has to compromise. The story is about the irony of how an educated girl ends up with the man she hated. If the violence on the show irks someone, that is the idea. The fact is that this goes on in real life. I have not portrayed one incident that I have not personally witnessed myself.''

Tripathi too says that 'realistic' shows like these bring about awareness and making women assert their identity. "These shows are portraying a real scenario and asking people to realise their mistake,'' he says. "I am from Allahabad, and domestic violence is a reality in my own mama-mami's home. My 11-year-old niece came up to me and said that if she sees domestic violence now, she will simply report it to the police.''

We're not sure if everyone is reacting to the subliminal messages of these regressive stories the same way as the 11-year-old. "Children and teens, who form a big chunk of the viewership of soaps, could grow up deadened to serious issues like domestic violence and female infanticide,'' says a viewer, who relates how her 10-year-old giggled away while updating her mother on Geet Huii Sabse Parayi, in which a brother wants to kill his pregnant sister for carrying the child of her husband who dumped her. A South Mumbai MBA and Balika Vadhu fan says earnestly that she believes early marriage is the best solution to 'adjust' to a family. Viewers of Pratigya post messages on a fan page saying that Pratigya and her eve teaser Krishna are made for each other, some even enthusiastically referring to them as 'Kriya' (Krishna and Pratigya, Brangelina style). Well, so much for 'social activism', TV-style.

Originally posted by: anu rulz

lets not get into a fight here guys..as far as pratigya is concerned,i dnt follow it,so will not comment on the actors..tho frm the promos and ads,i can defo say tht krishna and his dad sharing a 'khubsoorat rishta' is a laugh..tht is my POV..and apparently sajjan singh got mazedaar sadasya..the one time when by mistake my mother had changed to star at 10.30,there was a scene wid the most vulgar dialogues ever uttered...by sajjan singh..mazedaar indeed...

and i agree wid laxmi..the awards are to be based on the characters..how on earth are these awards justified??ishaan is a soft spoken guy so tht makes him less masculine or respectful thn a character of a gunda??is this how men are categorised???in tht case,am glad suhana and ishaan dint get these awards...the funniest thng is tht the couple of krishna and pratigya got the best jodi award..this is the level of awareness aor audience has..am sorry if i am offending anyone,bt i had to vent..the shows of today are the worst kind of shows..they pretend to be progressive and end up promoting all kinds of social evils..not just star..any entertainment channel u switch on to,ther are serials abt "women empowerment"..and they can give lessons on how to torture women more..and people love them..in this scenatio,obviously SGP wil not win any awards..coz people dnt like the concept of a family wid no1 scheming or any woman being tortured or treated as a doormat..

@bold: So very true....sad state of affairs on Indian TV currently indeed *sigh* Anyways, to hell with the awards.....SGP is a very special kind of show and may it always remain so.....it doesn't need validation from lame award shows like SPA for that to be proven....it's a fact.....SGP is in a whole another league....there is no other show like it on TV right now. While some shows just CLAIM to be "different" and all about "empowerment"....SGP actually shows us relationships in the most beautiful manner possible.....and that is what I cherish about it.

thank you so much for this article nureat...LMAO...the girl and her eve-teaser bcame the fav jodi🤣🤣

Originally posted by: amotlymileo

thank you so much for this article nureat...LMAO...the girl and her eve-teaser bcame the fav jodi🤣🤣

LOL you're most welcome, amotymileo....exactly....I also can't stop laughing over the irony of the girl and her eve teaser being nominated AND winning for fav. jodi🤣.....

Originally posted by: nureat01

LOL you're most welcome, amotymileo....exactly....I also can't stop laughing over the irony of the girl and her eve teaser being nominated AND winning for fav. jodi🤣.....

Originally posted by: amotlymileo

yeah...it seems the show has completely deviated from the initial storyline...all in the name of mighty TRP's😆😆

ps:pls call me leo dear...

Alright, Leo it is :-) And please call me Anu too :-)

LOL arey yaar I believe this was their storyline all along....that is how most shows are.....the whole forced marriage funda and all😆....but what's hilarious in this case was how they were making all these tall claims in the beginning of the show about the girl being such a 'strong' character who'd stand up for her rights and all....oh yeah, she stood up for them sooooooooo well by marrying the very guy who stalked her creepily and has the crassest family on record....but then all will be well cuz she will 'reform' this mahaan family and hubby dearest.....hit soap formula👏😆

Originally posted by: nureat01

Hmmm.....I should have guessed....another show that is hyped up for no deserving reason.

Anyways, I hope Ragini gets her due at the ITAs or other awards later on.

Because Pratigya is the show which hold SP in the first place in GEC... Within 6 months of period it has achieved to the top . ....


But i also got hurt a little when they gave the award to Pratigya over Suhana, since she is my favourite TV actress.. But pratigya deserves it too....

Pratigya is a wonderful show so it is important to highlight it , and if SGP will do good with TRP they ' ll highlight in the next SPA :)

Originally posted by: amotlymileo

thank you so much for this article nureat...LMAO...the girl and her eve-teaser bcame the fav jodi🤣🤣