How Ekta Kapoor And Gang Are Secretly Killing You - Article

Depression is a grave issue, and not something to be taken for granted or flung around as a cry for special treatment. More often than not we tend to make light of the factors that can lead to depression. Depression, like the very many ailments of the mind & body, stems from the unavoidable experience of stress. And stress has more than just a handful of tricks up its sleeve to send you down a spiralling alley of depression riddled mood swings.

In this nation of nearly 1.3 Billion people, the possibilities are endless. But one such medium of depression is more harmful, addictive and widespread than Cigarettes. Enter the Saas-Bahu serials. Entertainment, though often spoken but rarely taken in close consideration, sponsors a variety of slowly propagating mental issues. This is not to say that Entertainment Industry itself is subjugating society into problems. But long-time exposure to certain streams of entertainment can make the said medium of entertainment into a catalyst of immense psychological disturbance.

Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, adapted from a novel of the same name, inspired several violent re-enactments of scenes and sequences from the film, prompting Kubrick to take the movie off sale himself.

To the intellectual mind, a crass piece of entertainment might seem mildly disturbing when exposed to for a short while, and to the simpleton a meaningless escape from issues. Which is why Bollywood films, in spite of their clichs and inspiring hoodlums, seldom have resounding impact on the society.

But Indian Television Shows are something else. They are the finest example of Programmingand Conditioning of the mind. The format of Television shows outside of the Indian Subcontinent is much different than in this nation.

A typical Television drama in the Americas, United Kingdom, Europe and even Pakistan airs an episode a week with each season comprising of either 3, 6, 10, 13, 16 or 22 episodes. The dramas are created with subtle background score, intricate use of light and dark, a stylised yet realistic composition of frames and scenes and an empowered yet not loud story. It can be gritty and rated strictly for adults, but still not be shot in a way that intends to condition the mind, except of course the plethora of American Police Procedurals wholly intending to convey propaganda.

Everybody in the entertainment industry has a dominating factor of earning profits, but India has an overtly blatant guile toward entertainment and their purpose to have it as a means of sheer entertainment and fodder to the numbed masses that consume them.

The Indian Television shows in this regard are at the lowest ebb of the shameless factory production for said profits.

What happens in a typical Indian Television Drama? To paraphrase the director of a famous Maharashtran drama that, at the time of our conversation, had been running for 16 years successfully, "Its all about TRPs. We don't create shows with an angle of storytelling. We need the shows to run for as long as possible, hence every scene is dissected into several sequences with slow motion and loud repetitive music to engage the viewers into a trance like state. The week we get the lowest TRP in a month, we decide to end it. The show is merely complimentary to the commercials that sponsor us."

What then can be expected of such a travesty?

And I say what again is conditioning?

Personally, these dramas have been to my creative detriment for as long as I remember and have been the culprits of severe emotional turmoil and confusion. The first thing most of us raised in this generation say in reaction to these dramas is, "Eww! Its disgusting and depressing!"

But the depression I speak of is not of our generation, rather the primary audience of these dramas: the mothers, fathers, grandmothers and their ilk. Especially the much older folk. It creates a certain subconscious and subliminal effect on their psyche which doesn't make itself loud and clear immediately, rather is like a slow burn or poison working its way through their system until the addiction makes them unintentionally agitated, opinionated and constricted in a bubble of devious scheming. They start relating the issues they see on television to their families and spiral into a loop of life imitates art and art imitates life without realizing that they do so.

What are these shows made of? The same plots repeating themselves over and over again everywhere on every channel. Its easier to break them down in points really:

Use a popular Bollywood song or one-liner as the title and vague premise for the story.

Exploit a social issue as a marketing and driving factor of the story. Ex: Oppression of Women, Female Foeticide, Mishandling of Orphanages, Economic Inequality.

Butcher the above mentioned social issues and put them entirely in a far distant backdrop to make the show a run of the mill stew of innumerable clichs and product placements.

Plastic surgery on one of the central characters that changes their face (and body) entirely after an accident.

Amnesia. I can't recall anything about this plot point.

Evil women. Evil, shallow, women everywhere.

Sudden injection of Horror/Supernatural element or plot driven by the antagonistic female, a vengeful spirit/ghoul and the heroic female.

Following the success of Bollywood films set in U.P, Bihar and Rajasthan, showcasing Havelis, Thakurs, Thugs and their crude behaviours.

A big set-piece that ends badly for the protagonist during the said protagonist's wedding.

Divorces and re-marriages and divorces again.

Characters dying and returning from the grave.

Doppelgangers of characters replacing the said dead characters and somehow later being the same character.

Daughters and grand-daughters looking exactly like their mothers/grandmothers, all played by the same actor.

A sudden timejump of 15 to 20 years every year of airing yet there is no difference in 1) the technology 2) environment 3) age 4) fashion 5) anything at all.

No mention of the year the show is set in.

Focusing on faces of every character during an elaborate and sequel-ific verbal showdown between the Mother-in-Law, Sister-In-Law and the protagonists where the entire family is gathered and present silently witnessing this Epic Crap Battle of History, their expressions of shock being focused on, freezes and plastered with Monochrome.

Sudden shift in motivations, sudden inclusion of entirely new plots, contrived relations going at it endlessly.

Background music loud enough to deafen the visual imagery, usually in the form of a rag or a bhajan with fast drums so depressing that they can send you in a trip much worse than a bad acid trip can and destroys your inner sanctum for long hours.

The most annoying title jingles one can ever come up with.

Mega crossover episodes between three or more shows in an out of the blue entirely coincidently.

Sponsoring a specific God through the devotion of their characters.

Characters knowing of their loved ones' accidents through reports on Television News Channels.

Episodes airing Monday to Friday, or sometimes Monday to Saturday every month for half or one decade.

Characters overtly sponsoring a new channel or drama during the episode.

Mind-numbing use of the most annoying trending Bollywood songs on a loop during scenes in every single episode.

Characters going to bed with heavy make-up and bejewelled saaris.

Elaborate dance numbers stalling the episodes.

A single sequence or act continuing for several weeks. Ex: the hero and heroine running away from villains in a jungle for the entirety of two months.

Slow-motion scenes with camera revolving around the protagonists with raag in the background.

And lastly, grandmothers that seem to live on for centuries.

In the end, Ekta Kapoor's dream has come true: to single-handedly destroy every notion of normalcy in three generations of Indians. When will this shit-storm end?

Not until we decide to unite against these scums and kick them right where they don't want us to.