Rangrasiya : Past Tense

I watched this show from Rudra's Vandemataram scene and later caught up with the episodes, randomly at first and then regularly. I liked the storyline, a theoretically DIFFERENT story of an army officer and his hostage's eternal love story. I came to love the cinematography, the soulful dialogues and the convincing performance of the actors portraying the characters.

I am just 3 shows old as a tele-soap viewer, to be precise 1 year viewership of the first show, three months viewership of the second and 52 weekends of mythology and of course SMJ seasons 1 and 2. The first three had been shows that had my favorite actor in the main role. With this, I find myself acquainted with the terminologies of tele-soaps, the most important being the TRP, the slow poison that eventually spreads across the belief system of the makers of the show to the extent that they go ahead and exterminate their storyline and almost slaughter their own long cherished dream of having one's dream project aired on television. And hence, I find myself mature enough to prepare for pre-closure of a show that had gradually begun to be part of my normal routine.

Storyline is the main USP of any show. I have of late realized, that stories without a good storyline do not appeal to me even if I have my favorite actor onscreen. It's the story that keeps me interested, here I am talking only about myself. However, I guess I have been always attracted towards shows that did not supposedly or incidentally fare well with the TRP churning audience. In other words, the stories that I loved did not appeal to the 8000+ homes that brings in the bread and butter of HIT shows. My thoughts on the television rating system can be found here:
http://gangasmarana.blogspot.in/

And hence, I realized that the mere namesake presence of my favorite actor; an extremely talented one at that, in a show that lacked storyline could not hold my interest as a viewer.

Having said that I am happy to have watched Rangrasiya, with a gripping storyline it had, the exquisiteness that it was, long before. However, the actors's professionalism is commendable.

Artistes

Ashish Sharma as Rudra was a revelation for me. I am happy I chanced upon his Vande Mataram scene. I have immense respect for him as a performing artiste, always rising above the script in each of his scenes, especially his portrayal of a troubled child within the grown up man, tough exterior and vulnerable at heart, pretense of an attitude under loads of insecurity, the diffidence as well as keenness to grasp the straws that life threw at him in the form of Paro's love when he was drowning in his own sorrows of abandonment and betrayal by his mother, the every moment struggle to let go of the demons of his past and embrace the beauty of a life full of love and togetherness.

The main factor in any form of creativeness is the life of a human spirit, that of the actor and his character, their joint feelings and subconscious creation. Have read somewhere that being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world, all alone with one's own concentration and imagination, and that's what probably made Rudra the character everlasting through Ashish. Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world. I wish this happens for real in television industry as well.

Ashish, do not wait and hope to be discovered through tailor-made roles, such roles are once in a life time occurrences, make yourself, so you cannot be denied.

Sanaya Irani's best role till date I would say is Paro. I have not watched her previous shows but did watch a couple of episodes to know the body of her previous work though I was aware she is one of most popular actors presently.

Coming to Paro's characterization, there were times, in fact most of the times she had her say, directly or indirectly forcing Rudra to accept situations the way she wanted. Now, if it was initially the idea of makers to kill Paro, and Paro knew it, it would have made sense for the fact that she had to mend and fix his broken heart within the limited period of time and hence the urgency. I would have loved for the script to play out more effectively. Yet, Paro has been one of the strong characterization of a female lead who was strong and tender at the same time, strong in her beliefs, clear in her needs, soft and full of love to good people as well as bold to declare her love; bold in terms of being a village bred, and bold to voice out her support to Mithili in the adoption scenario and against the wrong doings of Mohini.

Sanaya, best wishes for more such in-depth roles in future.


Edited by _Avatarana_ - 9 years ago

Logic Vs Literacy
I have been following the forum and hence the title. It's said that people never forget two things, their first love and the money they wasted watching a bad movie. Audience can live without a movie/show but a movie/show cannot live without an audience.


An author is similar to an actor. They play many characters in their lives"doctor, nurse, writer, entrepreneur, photographer, dancer, musician,, etc. As an author, one has to learn the craft, know each and every element to become that character one is writing, about to be able to live and breathe what they do. And the author of a story should place their trust in the characters being etched out to near perfection. This is the function of the creative team of a show.

The essence of the story was how Paro's positive outlook in life aided by her trust in her bholenath countered and alleviated his dark cynicism and how his rational nature altered her impracticality. They completed each other in every which way. It's the character's chemistry that drew people to watch the show. It's sad that the makers did not believe in their own product that they once created with so much conviction.

Paro was killed in flesh and blood, Rudra was killed in essence. The man let go of his first love; his opportunity to serve the nation with pride as he was engulfed by his inability to save his beloved. I have grown up in the army background and have practically seen that no amount of tragedy can shake a soldier's sincerity and belief system. Yet, I could still believe that enormous grief could have made Rudra behave the way he did, to sacrifice his uniform as he believed he was a failure who could not even save is own wife and hence the uncertainty about how he would save the country against militants(which was the essence of Rudra's characterization to begin with).

Such a man (Rudra) is incapable of moving on. I am not against people having a second chance in love. In fact, I have supported the concept in the show that I had previously watched that the female lead who was mourning the death of her husband for the last 10 years should move on and find love in the man who loved her more than she could ever imagine. But the story needs to be executed convincingly for viewers to support or reject the concept. And hence, Rudra initially portrayed, the one I saw in the first seven months of the show could simply NEVER move on.

I should not be suggesting to the creative team of a show how they must present their characters. Its called creative liberty when new tracks are being introduced to check the pulse of the 8000 homes that the channel and PH is catering to. So it's just as easy as giving oneself enough room to trail back to the initial plot if the 8000 homes are not providing the necessary response. It's simple to leave out enough loopholes to be able to crawl back to the safe zone. Simple levels of creative thinking would have just been enough to bring back Paro whom Rudra has lost and it would have been logical to prove that Paro had fulfilled her promise to bholenath to go away and give up on her relationship and that Bholenath, the God himself is not so ruthless and is in fact the benevolent one like Rudra believed would want his children(Rudra and Paro) to live a happy life together. What was just required was some creative and logical thinking on the part of creative team.

Talking about logic in Rangrasiya would in fact be a sham. If logic had been followed, Paro will not be admitted to a private hospital and instead be in the military base hospital when she is being held hostage as a prime suspect, , the prime witnesses( Laila and Mala) in Tejawat's case could not get away without being interrogated, Laila will not be brought to Major Rudra's residence until he passes orders stating his acceptance and permission to his subordinate, she cannot escape the high walled security of military office, Mala cannot just walk in to Major Rudra's chamber, she would be asked for her ID to be even standing close to guards at the main entrance to an army base, an army senior would not visit his subordinate's home to deliver advise or orders, the speedy 3 day pregnancy positivity and the list goes on. Was this creative liberty or just plain lack of research?

Is it creative liberty to show that look-alikes exist, Myrah and Rudra's meeting and various life events is same as that of Rudra and Paro, is it that Bholenath copy-pasted life events of Paro in that of Myra or is it sheer laziness on part of the logical, literate creative writing team. Who are they deceiving, the TRP delivering audience of 8000+ homes who refused them the expected ratings or the non-TRP providing ones who seemed to care about the quality of the product the makers themselves had lost faith in? If the team had dared to show anyone other than Sanaya Irani playing Myra, I would have still applauded their guts. So Sanaya has to play Myra, Myra's and Paro's life events with Rudra are just a rinse and repeat, Myra has the same goodness of Paro, then what made the team think that KILLING Paro would give them the ratings they have been chasing to stay on air. Myra is just in Paro's essence, so was it Paro's traditional clothes that kept the viewers away?

So show must go on without its original essence for the sake of whom? Don't tell me about show's sustenance being the bread and butter of several families involved. If the makers and the channel really cared for them, they should be working 24x7 to first fix the rigged, biased system overnight before planning to air another new show.

If such unsound writing could be ignored by the 8000+ homes, some basic level of creativity could convince the same audience of the eternal love story of Rudra and Paro along with the non -TRP churning online audience who have been mourning Paro's loss ever since spoilers have been reported on Paro's untimely demise.

If channel intervened at every step, it would have been wiser on the creative team to get creative and give the desired end to the viewers or rather if not for others (viewers), at least to give oneself the original end to gain some creative satisfaction, if ever there was one. Or if it were the Production house's decision, it's sad that there was never a vision about and faith in their own creation to begin with.

The least expected of them (decision makers who bowed down to TRP pressure) is to own up and admit gracefully without divulging details, that yes they have failed in their promise.

I wish the Rangrasiya team could have bowed out with dignity: the creators, actors/artistes and the viewers alike.

Exactly my thoughts.  You wrote better than me.

Originally posted by: _Avatarana_

Logic Vs Literacy
I have been following the forum and hence the title. It's said that people never forget two things, their first love and the money they wasted watching a bad movie. Audience can live without a movie/show but a movie/show cannot live without an audience.


An author is similar to an actor. They play many characters in their lives"doctor, nurse, writer, entrepreneur, photographer, dancer, musician,, etc. As an author, one has to learn the craft, know each and every element to become that character one is writing, about to be able to live and breathe what they do. And the author of a story should place their trust in the characters being etched out to near perfection. This is the function of the creative team of a show.

The essence of the story was how Paro's positive outlook in life aided by her trust in her bholenath countered and alleviated his dark cynicism and how his rational nature altered her impracticality. They completed each other in every which way. It's the character's chemistry that drew people to watch the show. It's sad that the makers did not believe in their own product that they once created with so much conviction.

Paro was killed in flesh and blood, Rudra was killed in essence. The man let go of his first love; his opportunity to serve the nation with pride as he was engulfed by his inability to save his beloved. I have grown up in the army background and have practically seen that no amount of tragedy can shake a soldier's sincerity and belief system. Yet, I could still believe that enormous grief could have made Rudra behave the way he did, to sacrifice his uniform as he believed he was a failure who could not even save is own wife and hence the uncertainty about how he would save the country against militants(which was the essence of Rudra's characterization to begin with).

Such a man (Rudra) is incapable of moving on. I am not against people having a second chance in love. In fact, I have supported the concept in the show that I had previously watched that the female lead who was mourning the death of her husband for the last 10 years should move on and find love in the man who loved her more than she could ever imagine. But the story needs to be executed convincingly for viewers to support or reject the concept. And hence, Rudra initially portrayed, the one I saw in the first seven months of the show could simply NEVER move on.

I should not be suggesting to the creative team of a show how they must present their characters. Its called creative liberty when new tracks are being introduced to check the pulse of the 8000 homes that the channel and PH is catering to. So it's just as easy as giving oneself enough room to trail back to the initial plot if the 8000 homes are not providing the necessary response. It's simple to leave out enough loopholes to be able to crawl back to the safe zone. Simple levels of creative thinking would have just been enough to bring back Paro whom Rudra has lost and it would have been logical to prove that Paro had fulfilled her promise to bholenath to go away and give up on her relationship and that Bholenath, the God himself is not so ruthless and is in fact the benevolent one like Rudra believed would want his children(Rudra and Paro) to live a happy life together. What was just required was some creative and logical thinking on the part of creative team.

Talking about logic in Rangrasiya would in fact be a sham. If logic had been followed, Paro will not be admitted to a private hospital and instead be in the military base hospital when she is being held hostage as a prime suspect, , the prime witnesses( Laila and Mala) in Tejawat's case could not get away without being interrogated, Laila will not be brought to Major Rudra's residence until he passes orders stating his acceptance and permission to his subordinate, she cannot escape the high walled security of military office, Mala cannot just walk in to Major Rudra's chamber, she would be asked for her ID to be even standing close to guards at the main entrance to an army base, an army senior would not visit his subordinate's home to deliver advise or orders, the speedy 3 day pregnancy positivity and the list goes on. Was this creative liberty or just plain lack of research?

Is it creative liberty to show that look-alikes exist, Myrah and Rudra's meeting and various life events is same as that of Rudra and Paro, is it that Bholenath copy-pasted life events of Paro in that of Myra or is it sheer laziness on part of the logical, literate creative writing team. Who are they deceiving, the TRP delivering audience of 8000+ homes who refused them the expected ratings or the non-TRP providing ones who seemed to care about the quality of the product the makers themselves had lost faith in? If the team had dared to show anyone other than Sanaya Irani playing Myra, I would have still applauded their guts. So Sanaya has to play Myra, Myra's and Paro's life events with Rudra are just a rinse and repeat, Myra has the same goodness of Paro, then what made the team think that KILLING Paro would give them the ratings they have been chasing to stay on air. Myra is just in Paro's essence, so was it Paro's traditional clothes that kept the viewers away?

So show must go on without its original essence for the sake of whom? Don't tell me about show's sustenance being the bread and butter of several families involved. If the makers and the channel really cared for them, they should be working 24x7 to first fix the rigged, biased system overnight before planning to air another new show.

If such unsound writing could be ignored by the 8000+ homes, some basic level of creativity could convince the same audience of the eternal love story of Rudra and Paro along with the non -TRP churning online audience who have been mourning Paro's loss ever since spoilers have been reported on Paro's untimely demise.

If channel intervened at every step, it would have been wiser on the creative team to get creative and give the desired end to the viewers or rather if not for others (viewers), at least to give oneself the original end to gain some creative satisfaction, if ever there was one. Or if it were the Production house's decision, it's sad that there was never a vision about and faith in their own creation to begin with.

The least expected of them (decision makers who bowed down to TRP pressure) is to own up and admit gracefully without divulging details, that yes they have failed in their promise.

I wish the Rangrasiya team could have bowed out with dignity: the creators, actors/artistes and the viewers alike.

Edited by kate_austen - 9 years ago

Great post very well written.
I blame makers and channel both fr ruining subh unique show bt i thouht makers hand is more in destroying thier own creation.
Rangrasiya got get killed that day wen they showd paro death.

Wonderful Post...totally agree specially about Rudra being killed in essence and the Rudra we know would never have been able to move on...

Wonderful post ... very well written. You echo the views of the majority of the loyal fans of RR ... which does not include the 8000 TRP audience.