Monday 7 March 2011

Serial- killers!

They arrive at your living room every day, night after night after night for years. They make our poor menfolk sob and weep and wail for mercy. Our women sit glued to the idiot box shedding tears, laughing and gritting their teeth, depicting all emotions that we might have never seen, looking at these killers- soaps. My animosity towards soaps has a long history, dating back to the 90s when SunTv forayed into serial making. Doordarshan's serials were funny, the characters would be seriously discussing an issue in the sets caked in compact powder and with rivulets of sweat rolling down the sides of their faces! Rolling my eyes in apprehension is all that i could do, i knew Mother would even trade our dinner time with her favorite soaps. I had some reprieve when KB's entry into small screen was a thumping success with "Rayil Sneham"- I fell in love with Jesudas' rendition of the title song.

Yeah...there is the brown handbag! Devyani as Abhi
Image courtesy- chakpak.com
Then came Sun Tv and its bandwagon- its TRP boosting serials of primetime, featuring the two loooooooooongest featured leading ladies- Radan fame Radhika and Abi@ Devyani. Mother switched from DD to Sun then, hooked onto Radika's serials, starting from Chithie, Annamalai, Selvi....running 3 to 4 years each, the characters crying, cursing, fighting, sobbing, yelling in fits of hysteria...But there was a bit fun watching Speaker Poo famous Devadarshini and her serial husband Ponvannan. If not for the duo, i would have choked on the serials. Why do serial villains always hurt and hurt and hurt the heroine so much that we almost feel like falling on their feet asking them not to do so. And why are the heroines so submissive and silent, bearing the brunt of everyone else's foolishness? Special mention to Abi @ Devyani in the serial Kolangal, who had the energy to fight and fight and fight against Adhi for 6 years. In the meantime, i got married, two kids- me and Devyani infact had our deliveries at the same time, as per soap she was in Mumbai and US conferences respectively during those deliveries. She must have carried that blue folder and handbag more than her babies at home! And probably director Thiruselvam liked the serial to be an antique one he named his character 'Thol'kappiyan! When the serial finally ended, i felt so relieved that i felt like someone back from the loo!


Oh....Mr Selvam, i do pity you! And the women watching you
tsk...tsk...tsk...

I vowed no more serials again, but oh...you know average Indian housewives, we always like serial heroines so much...sob....sob....sob....But this time, for a change i became a huge fan of Thirumathi Selvam- the serial named after the missus, but the sobs this time are exclusively reserved for the mistuh! haaaaa....Tragedy! The male lead character is so miserable i feel like patting his shoulder and saying, " Don't worry brother! I'll give you some money to buy a toolsbox". God knows how many years the poor guy is to put up with his step mother, step brother, step brother's fatherinlaw, sisterinlaw, sisterinlaw's sisterinlaw...Oh my! I am certainly going to pass out thinking his hardships, friendships and realtionships- chuck the ships mannnnn...After many disinterested views, i found Thangam serial thought provoking, especially the parts played by Kaveri. Her antics are really funny, but funnier more are the "Chilly Grinding" episodes. Why such a hue and cry for grinding red chillies, director sir? We do it everyday in our kitchens! And the character Rama...oh...sob sob sob...why must she sob in every episode director? Is her payment overdue, huh?

Still i am forced to watch the stupid soap because- well you know the reasons- I am a housewife and i already have loads of problems. But watching my darling serial heroines' problems larger than the Mt Everest, my molehills look simple! There, i said it! And a small request for the all the Thiruchelvams, Thirumurugans and Thiruvaalathaans- Please KISS and save your viewers....Oh...no, no hasty thoughts...Keep It Short Soapers!

8 comments:

  1. Hello Cloud nine..

    Another nice one from you! You know my parents have become such addicts to these Sun TV serials! My father who used to be an intellectual now just sits with Amma watching this shit! Poor man .. I am sure he would have never thought that he would become like this in his old age. I remember the serials from my childhood- they had some message and were about simple people and stories. But these serials are real killers!!! The sad thing is that with the GoTN distributing free TVs in the villages the village women have also become addicts. It has introduced some kind of value system that is so alien to the village society and culture..!

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  2. Dear Meerasrajan, Thanks a lot for your comment. I have to certainly agree with you when you say about the values that these soaps inculcate in rural areas, totally alien to them- the villainy depicted is just beyond comprehension of some inncoent people- like me;)And reg TN gov- they want to keep us all fools concentrating on the idiot box and forget the issues around us:(

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  3. hi nive, atlast u have touched the 'ultimate' frontier. in TV serials villians and 'villis' think more and more innovatively to trouble the leading ladies. most of the characters have extra marital relations.every day in evenings the characters cry cry and cry........they undergo all sorts of sufferings and bonus if any death scene comes the director will have a field day. he will show the ceremonies in a detailed manner...MY GOD...the time u are suppose to be peaceful and energetic , u will hear all sorts of 'amangala' words..is there any end to such nonsense???

    TV serial is a multi crore business where ex and retd heroines are the best bets for producers.achieving high TRP is the ultimate aim. even renowned producers like AVM and vikatan etc entered the business and reap rich harvests. the problem is with our viewers(mostly women..home makers and some retd men too) patronise such serials. tv directors say since ppl want to c such things we take such serials.ppl say since we dont have any other entertainment we watch this.i wud like to remind u that in yester years we had discourses in temples ,theru kuthu etc from our epics inculcated morality,self confidence, righteousness etc and children played kitti,kabbaddi in evenings rather than glued to idiot box. u have to highlight the new trend'of reality shows' were children are asked to dance in a adult way and some 'idiotic' experts will assess these dance moves. the parents rejoice and encourage such things. what a shame?????

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  4. Dear Ramnath, Thanks a lot for your comment. What you say is absolutely right, TRP matters- nothing else. We are forced to watch the idiot box, no other way to spend a fresh evening. Our parents played kittipul, bambaram, pallanguzhi, kazhachikka...We played cricket and with waste tyres. Our children play with TV remote and joysticks in Play Stations. How i hate evolution here! Its a shame we do not give our young proper exposure of our native games and art forms. Especially children in uran areas lack enthusiasm even to get up and fetch a glass of water. We have a generation of retarded children grown as couch potatoes....Sad! And reality shows- another separate post ensured for them....wait;)

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  5. great post...infact a true post.......
    these serials are so terible..i always need to watch my favourite show and there is my mom who keeps the remote in her custody...
    I have to wait for those ads to catch a glimpse of my show..
    BUT SOMETIMES THESE SOAPS DO TURN USEFUL IN KILLING BOREDOM

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  6. Dear Madrasi...Thanks a lot for your comments on my post:) Hope someday you steal the remote from your mom;)You can sure understand why they are omnipotent and omnipresent in every household when you get married:P

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  7. Hw did u forget mention "METTI OLI"..During Later 80 s and early 90s i happended to watch at VIDEO CASSETTE LIBRARY ( whic industry itself is no more alive)..there was a spl fans club(or niche markt) for films of
    1.T.Rajendar
    2.K. Bagyaraj
    3.V . Sekar (NOT SV SEKAR)
    4.Visu
    all these wer women centric films and speaks a lot of problems of eve's world. and KB is an exception ".
    who speaks of Women LIBeration".
    Now connect it wit entertainmnt wrld of 2000s... now they wer all replaced wit
    1.RADIKA and her team
    2.DEVAYANI and her team
    3.thiruselvam
    4.thirumurugan
    may be i hav nt mentioned exact. how ever the ppl had changed but the things remain un-altered aft decades...
    whatdo u think?
    Rgds

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  8. Dear Anonymous! You always give me so many ideas;) Now that you have mentioned about KB, Bhagyaraj, Visu, V sekar and TR, i am inspired to write a post on such women-centric movies. Of course you are right as always- women simply switched over from KB, TR & Co to Thiruchelvam, Thirumurugan and Radhika & Co:)

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