Skip to main content

K-eediyot box

(Disclaimer - Please do not think that I don't know spellings ... my numerologist told to use the above spelling for eediyot and add a k before it, this will help generate more TRP and comments for the blog)

Time 7 : 30 - 8 PM, 8 - 8 : 30 PM .... 10 : 30 - 11 PM
Venue - Zee TV, Star Plus, Sony entertainment etc. etc.

Figure this -

A family drawing room belonging to an extremely rich business house occupied with a mixture of emotional and scheming characters - 1 saas, 2 bahus, 1 son (+1 who makes an entry unaware of what is happening), 2 random distant relatives, 3 random cousins, all mouthing dialogues that have earlier been said by actors ranging from Nirupa Roy to Rajesh Khanna, followed by a long silence, 13 camera angles for same scene (top view, side view, cross sectional view, lateral view, 45 degree elevation view), flashbacks and memories that last few episodes, good people becoming evil, evil people actually being un-evil, rebirths, amnesia, a background score that often is a popular track belonging to a recent Bollywood blockbuster and many other over exaggerated aspects.
Few days later they will all be celebrating some festival ( 4 days for preparation + 2 days of celebrations - Holi/ Diwali/ Janmashtami/ Durga Puja/ Dussehra / Ram Navmi/ Navratri/ Kali Puja etc. etc. ... year after year!).

... This continues year after year, show after show ... and continues to generate a high enough TRP to make producers make similar shows.

Welcome to the world of Indian soap operas, popularly known by their names (usually starting with K) or as 'Tulsi', 'Saloni' etc. (name of characters in them ... am not sure of spellings though) by the loyalists, and as K-serials, Ekta kapoor type shows by the rest. These often become lifeline of Indian families in late evening. Every alternate household with a TV set can be seen playing any one of these many possible cacophony! These are the things that somehow end up influencing knowingly or unknowingly different aspects of lives - be it fashion, thoughts and ideas, parties, pujas, culture, promoting superstitions, devising schemes to win brownie points etc etc. But these also become instruments that prevent people to look beyond the bounded rationality that these shows promote and be cynical about anything apart from the 'values' propagated in these shows.

Recent news about Afghanistan government banning Indian TV channels because they think it is un-Islamic may seem to be improper and unjustified, and an extreme form of thought control. Like most of us around here, I am also against any such ban. But aren't Ekta Kapoor shows and their million clones which invariably occupy the prime time slot on Zee, Sony Star Plus and other TV channels a form of thought control? They may or may not be intended to 'control thoughts' but more often than not they end up being so!
Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous9:56 AM, April 08, 2008

    Rightly said. I would like to add that the kids watching these show have started believing that every one around them is scheming and plotting. The children believe that what is shown in the serials is true in real life also. I believe that this is leading to lot of turmoil in the society as a whole.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous3:21 PM, April 08, 2008

    Looks like someone has been watching quite some serials now ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nikesh Rathi7:08 PM, April 08, 2008

    @ Aruna - Quite true ... and at an impressionable age, watching such shows can have detrimental effects!

    Jab discovery channel dekhna chahiye tab log saas bahu ki kahaaniyan dekhnege to desh ka kya hoga :)

    @ Nova - Watching 1 episode of such show is actually fun (... like watching a Mithunda movie ... u may end up enjoying it)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Arjun4:18 PM, April 12, 2008

    Very true....
    The cameras focussing on them from all directions with weird sounds... One can actually enjoy the humour....
    I watch it once in a while only to end up laughing while they r crying....
    Anyways, nice post...

    Cheers..!!
    Arjun

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nikesh Rathi6:50 PM, April 12, 2008

    @ Arjun
    Yeah ... it is often too much fun to watch (for 1-2 times)!

    @ Arjun, Aruna (First time visitors!)

    Thanks for visiting my blog :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. sharad shinde6:35 PM, April 17, 2008

    Nice article Nikesh.....But I always found it intersting that why people (mostly housewives) are addicted to it?...answer of this question lies in another question...what other options they have...AAJ Tak(showing all bakwas breaking news)..Zcinema(showing Rajshri Prod movie 100 times)..?.. i dont think they are left with better choise than daily soaps which keeps them guessing what might happen in next episode...
    .....
    PS: All MBA Grads u might want to replace this cliche market with something niche..

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nikesh Rathi8:00 PM, April 17, 2008

    @ Sharad

    Yeah ... I partly agree with you! (I still believe that there are other options ... but people don't like to see it) ... Or maybe they like to see only what fits in with their world view.

    And maybe this is the reason why these soaps have become a big tool of thought control!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Munmun3:23 PM, April 20, 2008

    I agree - Ekta Kapoor and the likes do need a ban anywhere, irrespective of the geography. In the name of women empowerment and liberation, this female is tarnishing the entire image of women (given that her serials are women-driven, so the villains are also women).
    The deeper question is, in how many of these series does she show a realistic career-focused straight-headed woman? Where does she show that a woman could rise from current social stature to earn something or her own (other than cheating her husband)? Even if she is showing a value-oriented woman like Tulsi, how realistic is a character like hers? I really don't see where the women empowerment she talks about is at all pictured !

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nikesh Rathi10:29 PM, April 22, 2008

    @ Munmun

    Apart from the points you mentioned, I think that such shows create stereotypes - not only of females but of about different roles and people, and somewhere down the line they discourage us to think out of this kind of bounded rationality ... and kids watching these shows does no good either!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Reema9:52 PM, May 12, 2008

    I loved the title of the post...very witty....as for the topic I really don't know what is in these serials thats so addictive....even when women know these are pure crap still they cant stop watching...like my mom!!..its like an abusive relation or substance abuse u r in...u know its bad but u just cant get out of it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nikesh Rathi2:47 PM, June 05, 2008

    @ Reema

    Thanks.
    Nice analogy. Given a choice, I am tempted to prefer cocaine over these idiotic K- soaps!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Shop @ Amazon

Popular posts from this blog

Somewhere @ Nowhere - The Book

FINALLY .... After a tryst with so-called-creativity, I have come up with a book -  Somewhere @ Nowhere. You can have a sneak peek at the story & a few pages from the publisher's website and order the same & get it home delivered anywhere in India/ Abroad. Details as mentioned below- - Preview and get the book home delivered from HERE Also, you can join the following groups - - Orkut Community - Facebook Page Hope you like the work. Would appreciate a feedback. Till then ... Happy Reading!!! And yeah, please spread the word (relying on word of mouth & word of blog publicity) :-) ___ Update (18/02/2010) - Thanks for the initial response to the book :) Update2 (25/ 02/ 2010) - Thanks for the feedbacks on the book those who have read it. (hope to get a feedback by others soon). Encourages me to overcome inertia and write more! Meanwhile, those who ask for why is it currently not available in traditional retail outlets - well, I hope it wil...
15 comments
Read more

An area of darkness ?

The title of this post finds its origins in a novel with simlar name written by VS Naipaul. Set in India, some 40 years ago or so, this is a kind of travelogue of author's brief stay in India where he found it to be full of superstitions, ignorance and darkness! Many decades and many MNCs and malls later, few parts of India seemed to have chucked off that tag, but there are many places that haven't and continue to remain shrouded in ignorance. Move few hours away from a city, travel in a second class train compartment or a dilapidated state transport bus and you get to see the dark underbelly of India Shining. As one of the characters in the movie Rang De Basanti says "Yahan zinda rehne ki jung mein logo ki zindagiyan nikal jaati hai" . So true it seems! My day today was spent being kind of lost in similar thoughts. To start with, I when I boarded the ST bus, a woman was wailing. She may be in her 20s or something, but she was crying in some peculiar musical tone. At...
13 comments
Read more

The story behind credit card debts & personal loans

Any one with even an iota of interest in personal finance & its workings would probably know that credit card debts and personal loans are usually the worst kinds of debt traps that you can fall into. Yet many people fall into that trap again and again. Many people do come out of it eventually but some don't & this becomes a part of their "lifestyle". That you are eventually paying much more than you need to, if you default on credit card payments intentionally or unintentionally (probably @ 36 % per annum or something similar) or take a personal loan (say, @ 12% per annum or so) is not hard to fathom. However behind these numbers, there may be even a deeper story - that usually that of not having control over expenses or not having created a buffer amount. While there may be some pressing need like unplanned or recurring medical expenses which fuels sudden demand of money or an unexpected job loss, in many other cases this need may be fueled by lack of plani...
12 comments
Read more

Sarkaari Hospitals ka experience

One of my friends let us call him AK got admission into an IIM. Being a sarkari institute there are some conditions to be fulfilled. One of them is physical and mental fitness certificate (or sanity certificate!) from a civil surgeon or its equivalent. This entails rounds to one of the many sarkari hospitals, as the ones from private practitioner are not allowed. So began my not so long, yet a long journey through few government hospitals of the city for a work that was supposed to last few minutes. First was the Jaideva Institute of Cardiology. But there they declined stating that that is an autonomous institute. We left thinking that “Hadh hai … autonomous hua to kya hua … hai to sarkaari … and these stupid requirements of the Institute”. But we got the address of next location and continued our quest. Next location was Sanjay Gandhi hospital for accident. The doctor had gone for breakfast and we were told to wait for few minutes. We kept on bugging the receptionist/ nur...
Post a Comment
Read more

What if this is not 'this' ?

What if I suddenly realized that my life is going as per the script pre-decided by some novelist, and I actually don't have any control over it? What if my life is nothing but a non-stop uninterrupted TV show, running for 25th consecutive year with me unaware? Wat if I am actually living a century before, and am actually on my journey to know the future of the world? What if in reality ghosts are the only things that exist, and humans are merely an illusion ? What if time was actually not moving in forward direction? What if on one fine day I find that they are about to demolish the earth to build the inter-galactic superhighway? What if trees and animals suddenly interchange their roles and vegetarian plants eating only animals, while non vegetarian plants eating both plants and animals? What if I am suddenly arrested just for imagining these all as I am committing a thoughtcrime ? Seems like an overdose of fiction and movies! Am I getting, rather sinking deeper and deeper into th...
8 comments
Read more