I can distinctly recall in 2001, at my friend’s place who had organized a ‘Havan’, a holy ritual in Hindus. It was the occasion of her nephew’s first birthday and the whole family had gathered for the same. But I was greatly shocked, when I heard a few of my aunts talking about a lady who had unfortunately lost her husband in an accident. Even I felt very sorry for her. I nodded a deeply felt yes when they said , ’God has not been kind.’
Would you believe me, if I tell you the truth? To my utter surprise, its only towards the end of the pooja that I realized that the lady was none other than just a character from ‘KSBKBT’ , then a very famous Ekta kapoor television series being aired on star plus.
Gosh! That was pretty exasperating. People, and I mean not just them but every woman in the neighborhood, was talking about it as if the misfortune had actually taken place. Just imagine the extent of it that persons like me who were not religious followers of the soap were misled to believe that it was a reality.
This narration may sound exaggerated but I can assure you that it was not just me who felt it, a lot of other people did. I have seen my own mom trying to wind up her routine work quickly to be relaxed to watch one of these melodramatic soaps or my grand mom skipping to go out for any other commitment just coz there is a maha-episode of some serial. This is strange but a fact.
Should I be happy that such action packed, enthralling and beguiling series entertains all the house wives and keeps them busy besides giving them a spanking topic for their ever-droning kitty parties? Or should I just pity their indolent and slack lifestyle?
Ekta Kapoor who started this trend must, in fact be appreciated. She as a business woman with a good business sense, perceived the need of such idle people. And making work-shy women her special target, she exploited the opportunity to her business advantage. She revolutionized the whole concept of television soaps. It is claimed that until date, no serial has ever got as high TRP ratings as her first serial ‘KSBKBT’. Very enterprising I must say.
But what happened to us. Why are we even watching any silly irrational serial like this and devotedly following it too. Did anyone force us? Or are we just doing it because we have nothing better to do. Like Ann Landers said,’ Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.’
Like a non- loyal television viewer, I have never managed to follow a particular soap daily. And I have a very interesting suggestion. It would be sufficient If you just watch it once a week, considering the deliberated slow pace of each storyline. Thanks to the suspenseful special effects and melodrama that takes about eighty percent of the episode.
Unfortunately, though there are brilliant artists in those serials and excellent innovative ideas involved but all are dawdled just to get more number of episodes, sponsorships and higher returns for the channels and production houses. It seems, the objective of entertainment has been long forgotten. The idea should be to make us laugh and present to the audience things which are good-humoured and fun-loving. After all, one watches movies and television for pleasure and not for something totally mind-numbing.
Next time if someone catches you red-handed watching one of these, don’t make a lame excuse that you do not usually watch it but just flipping through the channels. Choose not to see any such nuisance at all because you have to decide what needs to be rejected totally and help re-define th meaning of entertainment.
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