Wicked, Wicked all the time - Well for one, she is either wicked in a bad way or is wicked in a nice way. But she is wicked. Home is where the TRP is - Most of the stories are set in the homes, and the woman is usually at home (most of the times, except for Kitu from Kitu sab jaanti hai, who is bringing about social change journo who covers Page 3 weddings.
Huh! ), Which is why she is the center of all attention. That time of the day again - Of course you can t make out from the way she looks/ or the way the house looks, what part of the day it is, because she and the house, always looks the same.
What is your style number - She is usually carrying a mobile phone; all of the times and that is her modus operandi. She is ensuring another 100 weeks for the serial by one mere phone conversation (that we can hear only one side of!) - She is very well preserved.
Except for Ba, everyone looks like they are from the same generation. If you watch Sahara One and Zee TV, the ma-in-law looks way hotter than the daughter-in-law! - They all have names that must begin with K Kamolika, Kavita, Kumkum, Kkusum, Kitu, Komal, Klah Look Mama, I am a bad girl - The bad girls will have one overwhelming visible indicator - either a permanently raised eyebrow, dangling earrings that dangle longer than vapid heroine, or a bindi that is almost a work of art.
What comes up, come down - so the bad girls, don t always remain bad. Eventually they become good, only to become bad again. like the goody-two-shoes, intensely boring, terribly smug and superior heroine.
Little wonder, that husband moves to greener pastures. They always remain good, unless they happen to suffer from amnesia. Now this is interesting because if one were to draw a link between the largest number of Hindi speaking audience and the region that these protagonists come from there is no clear link.
Rarely are the stories about MP/UP/ Bihar people. They are usually Gujratis, Marwaris or Rajasthanis (at least some of the important sounding names would suggest that). The accents are usually neutral and they are never really true to identity.
As in, there will be arranged marriage situations in which Sharma boy will marry Kejriwala girl and so on. Sometimes they will dress all Gujarati (you know the way the sari pallu is draped on the wrong side/ or the right side if you so prefer) but will have a Punjabi name. In contrast to all of this, is our Southie heroine especially Tamil soaps.
First of all, most of our problems happen because of, lack of money . It is all about genteel poverty, horrible men, and horrible ma-in-law and excruciating amount of suffering. The heroine lives in a Spartan sort of home (mostly semi-urban), with no furniture, two plastic chairs and is always wearing rather simple, cotton saris.
Her modus operandi is not the mobile phone but sheer endurance. She takes all the woes of the world, for the longest time, till some other fellow sister sufferer beats her to it (read rival soap protagonist) and then the misery ends (for the audience as well). So what is the Heroine doing in all of this?
And who is she? Black or White They are either painfully nice-sacrificial-lamb like or terribly mean-dictatorial like. No shades of gray here.
The bad people become worse and the good get more woes. Yes, the more the contrast, more the suffering. More the suffering, the more are the TRP s.
Most of the times the women are working, not in that oooh-posh-business-tycoon way, but regular middle class kind of stuff in banks, as typists, as computer operators. The men are usually drunk, or are truckers or work in the textile industry! The women if not at work, will be cooking; one can forever see them chopping brinjals and ladies-fingers.
Can t really understand the connection, except that both potentially have worms in them and may be that symbolizes further amounts of pain that she will go through. We love our stereotypes And you should have no problems in knowing who the m-I-l and the d-I-l are. Complete like - Dummies Guide to knowing Who-is-Who?
! Oh and the m-I-l is always the hunter and the d-I-l the hunted. Usually the conflict is around broken promises of money that was never given, of grandsons that were never born.
Ya, I know! Oh and coy girls still bite their nails and Immaculate Conception could well be a reality, if the makers of these serials are to be believed. Yes sir, we shall bring the God person.
Here there is a huge emphasis on identity. Boss, it s a serious issue. The accents are all authentic, and caste, sub-caste, gothram, dialect all become very important.
Great care is taken on marriage and the like. And caste is directly linked to affluence. This might have something to do with the fact that the two most popular channels here are the mouthpieces of two opposing Dravidian political parties.
So anyway, I can go on forever but visually I can see, this is turning into one of those unwieldy posts. What is new?!
(Rhetoric) But stretching the sisterhood argument of, , I think the sisterhood must gang up and must learn from each other. We need Pan-Indian women, now and take on drunken men, wicked mothers-in-law and the epidemic like greed among humans. Oh after all that, I am left with the pertinent question what is the future of IW?
May be I must analyze other art forms after all. Blogs, may be? Though given the current state of women in Television, it is reassuring in some ways.
After all there is only one way to go from here. Up, up to infinity and beyond. Long live the Sisterhood!
Posted by Primalsoup at 9:15 PM Hehe, TV is art allright. Never let people think you otherwise! :) I think to get away from this - "Privileged" kind of notion, you ought to consider joining the anti Bush protest march that is happening!
Your fave person is also part of it!
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