It is pretty common to find that people now prefer to be home-bound in the evenings. Blame it on `serial' watching. I dont believe this is an isolated scene in one house. Come evenings, a rather large sub-set of the population in India commences its diligent and untiring vigil in front of TV sets, going through a few hours of `serial' watching. What seems to be a rather laborious endeavour, involves serially and seriously watching all the serials shown on the TV in the evenings, with short comfort breaks. The language of the offering might differ and the degree of seriousness with which the proceedings are followed might vary, but one must accept that this `serial' business has managed to keep this chunk of population away from real-life shenanigans as well as other minor/major concerns for those few hours. From time to time, as an entirely disinterested outsider, one tried to sit through a couple of `episodes' of serials to glean what the learning could be. Here are some observations, with particular reference to Tamil language serials.
-- The advertised time slot for an episode could be 30 minutes usually, but that does not mean you are going to get great insights into the lives of family members in the serial for the full time. About 4 minutes of earth-shaking events are followed by 2 minutes of advertisements. So, you are very fortunate if you get some 15-20 minutes of the tumultuous happenings in one episode. Some of us are likely to find the advertisements to be more entertaining and relieving, but this is not something I would admit in the presence of expert serial watchers. Apart from commercial compulsions, one reason for this rationed supply could be that the director probably thinks that no one can take more than 20 minutes of his potent stuff in one sitting.
-- But the masochists that the serial watchers are, they clamour for more of the stuff. That explains why they are willing to sit through 6 or more serials at one time. It helps that one serial does not vary much from the next. Actually, if they remove the titles and merge all the serials into one continuous show, punctuated by the immensely soothing advertisement breaks, no one will be worse off. This is primarily because about 80% of the serials seem to deal with the same theme of families riven by problems, with similar looking characters and the same bunch of actors. Unless you are a regular with the intuitive feel for the essence of the serials, it might be impossible to tell one serial from another most of the times.
-- It is sometimes so comical that even a seriously avid watcher is surprised by some occurrence. I have heard the watching-uncle, jolted out of his reverie by the entry of a character, blurting out, `I thought this guy died three episodes earlier and they cremated him; how can he come back phoenix-like'? The watching-auntie, blessed with enormous experience and superior intellect, gave the usual withering look that erring parties fully deserved and testily clarified that the death and cremation happened in serial ABC, but in this serial XYZ he was alive and kicking; with no intention to fade away before he inflicts the full quota of pain on the viewers, as allotted to him by the director. At another time, the watching-grandmother, afflicted with occasional memory lapses, was heard to wonder how the relationship between two people in a serial had changed suddenly from maternal uncle and nephew to father and son!! Watching-grandfather had to gently remind that the lady was confusing two different serials. This is the result of stereotyping, which has taken its toll and the same actors perform similar roles across serials. I guess, producers and directors are smelling savings in terms of make-up, rehearsals, production time etc, due to this convenience. Having to innovate can be quite a taxing exercise; why strain what little grey matter we have when captive audiences gobble up whatever is served??
-- Another fixed feature is the predictability of the next scene. When the daughter of the house elopes with a neighbourhood rowdie (all heroes inevitably emerge from this cluster, as you know), one does not have to be blessed with tremendous foresight to predict what would follow -- the shrill and sorrowless wailing of the mother, the high decibel declamation of the father, who delivers a couple of blows to the wife for not bringing up the daughter well (incidentally, women-beating is a permanent feature of all serials to such an extent that non practising men might feel deficient and unworthy of their status in life), the whimpering of the siblings hiding behind a bored grandmother (she had done the same scene in about thirty serials in the past) and the machete-wielding of the vengeful brothers -- these reactions seldom change. A good serial is expected to have at least a couple of scheming women (villainy is no longer the male preserve!), who want to sport expressions befitting Marlon Brando in Godfather, but end up going through 30 episodes with the same scowl creased into their faces, not yielding to any other expression that may be warranted by the changing situations.
-- An intermittent or inadvertent watcher of the serial may be excused for the blasphemous comparison of the pace of the serials to a snail's progress. Even if you watch a serial after 10 weeks, you may find that there has been very little movement in the story and you can fully grasp the goings-on. A couple of characters have moved a few yards away from their previous position, but most of them are still rooted where they were, still dealing with the same sliver of a problem they were grappling with earlier. I guess this is how the smart director keeps occasional watchers also involved in the drama that keeps threatening to unfold.
-- All over South India, the traditional take is that evening (around 6 pm) is a very auspicious time, when prayers are offered at homes after lighting up lamps. Times were when in a lot of homes, elders did not encourage uttering anything inauspicious during this time. What are the same elders doing today at that auspicious time?? Sitting in front of TV and watching/hearing copious and non-stop wailing/crying of women in various stages of distress in different family dramas. And the background music is so gallingly mournful. This happens every single day, as if serials reserve the choicest of such scenes for this time-slot. When I diffidently raised the matter with elders at home, all I extracted in response were baleful glares. And that reminds me - there is precious little comedy in the serials, as if it is banished by design - the direct opposite of what happens in American TV, where sitcoms prevail. I guess making people cry is far easier!
I probably aired my views once too often. I even made fun of people when they were not watching TV, asking them to return forthwith since the channel is holding up the serial, after seeing that some people have taken a break!! I had a vague feeling I would face the consequences. I did. One day, my mother walked in to the other TV on which we were watching a cricket test match. She just glowered at me and said `isn't it the same ball, same bat, same bunkum that you are watching for the past few decades?? So what if the serials look the same. To me all cricket games look the same too'. With that, she triumphantly marched out, not even waiting to see the impact that statement had made on the gaping gentlemen in the room!!
-- The advertised time slot for an episode could be 30 minutes usually, but that does not mean you are going to get great insights into the lives of family members in the serial for the full time. About 4 minutes of earth-shaking events are followed by 2 minutes of advertisements. So, you are very fortunate if you get some 15-20 minutes of the tumultuous happenings in one episode. Some of us are likely to find the advertisements to be more entertaining and relieving, but this is not something I would admit in the presence of expert serial watchers. Apart from commercial compulsions, one reason for this rationed supply could be that the director probably thinks that no one can take more than 20 minutes of his potent stuff in one sitting.
-- But the masochists that the serial watchers are, they clamour for more of the stuff. That explains why they are willing to sit through 6 or more serials at one time. It helps that one serial does not vary much from the next. Actually, if they remove the titles and merge all the serials into one continuous show, punctuated by the immensely soothing advertisement breaks, no one will be worse off. This is primarily because about 80% of the serials seem to deal with the same theme of families riven by problems, with similar looking characters and the same bunch of actors. Unless you are a regular with the intuitive feel for the essence of the serials, it might be impossible to tell one serial from another most of the times.
-- It is sometimes so comical that even a seriously avid watcher is surprised by some occurrence. I have heard the watching-uncle, jolted out of his reverie by the entry of a character, blurting out, `I thought this guy died three episodes earlier and they cremated him; how can he come back phoenix-like'? The watching-auntie, blessed with enormous experience and superior intellect, gave the usual withering look that erring parties fully deserved and testily clarified that the death and cremation happened in serial ABC, but in this serial XYZ he was alive and kicking; with no intention to fade away before he inflicts the full quota of pain on the viewers, as allotted to him by the director. At another time, the watching-grandmother, afflicted with occasional memory lapses, was heard to wonder how the relationship between two people in a serial had changed suddenly from maternal uncle and nephew to father and son!! Watching-grandfather had to gently remind that the lady was confusing two different serials. This is the result of stereotyping, which has taken its toll and the same actors perform similar roles across serials. I guess, producers and directors are smelling savings in terms of make-up, rehearsals, production time etc, due to this convenience. Having to innovate can be quite a taxing exercise; why strain what little grey matter we have when captive audiences gobble up whatever is served??
-- Another fixed feature is the predictability of the next scene. When the daughter of the house elopes with a neighbourhood rowdie (all heroes inevitably emerge from this cluster, as you know), one does not have to be blessed with tremendous foresight to predict what would follow -- the shrill and sorrowless wailing of the mother, the high decibel declamation of the father, who delivers a couple of blows to the wife for not bringing up the daughter well (incidentally, women-beating is a permanent feature of all serials to such an extent that non practising men might feel deficient and unworthy of their status in life), the whimpering of the siblings hiding behind a bored grandmother (she had done the same scene in about thirty serials in the past) and the machete-wielding of the vengeful brothers -- these reactions seldom change. A good serial is expected to have at least a couple of scheming women (villainy is no longer the male preserve!), who want to sport expressions befitting Marlon Brando in Godfather, but end up going through 30 episodes with the same scowl creased into their faces, not yielding to any other expression that may be warranted by the changing situations.
-- An intermittent or inadvertent watcher of the serial may be excused for the blasphemous comparison of the pace of the serials to a snail's progress. Even if you watch a serial after 10 weeks, you may find that there has been very little movement in the story and you can fully grasp the goings-on. A couple of characters have moved a few yards away from their previous position, but most of them are still rooted where they were, still dealing with the same sliver of a problem they were grappling with earlier. I guess this is how the smart director keeps occasional watchers also involved in the drama that keeps threatening to unfold.
-- All over South India, the traditional take is that evening (around 6 pm) is a very auspicious time, when prayers are offered at homes after lighting up lamps. Times were when in a lot of homes, elders did not encourage uttering anything inauspicious during this time. What are the same elders doing today at that auspicious time?? Sitting in front of TV and watching/hearing copious and non-stop wailing/crying of women in various stages of distress in different family dramas. And the background music is so gallingly mournful. This happens every single day, as if serials reserve the choicest of such scenes for this time-slot. When I diffidently raised the matter with elders at home, all I extracted in response were baleful glares. And that reminds me - there is precious little comedy in the serials, as if it is banished by design - the direct opposite of what happens in American TV, where sitcoms prevail. I guess making people cry is far easier!
I probably aired my views once too often. I even made fun of people when they were not watching TV, asking them to return forthwith since the channel is holding up the serial, after seeing that some people have taken a break!! I had a vague feeling I would face the consequences. I did. One day, my mother walked in to the other TV on which we were watching a cricket test match. She just glowered at me and said `isn't it the same ball, same bat, same bunkum that you are watching for the past few decades?? So what if the serials look the same. To me all cricket games look the same too'. With that, she triumphantly marched out, not even waiting to see the impact that statement had made on the gaping gentlemen in the room!!
3 comments:
I wiah, people reading this blog take it seriously and do a little bit of thinking, rather than treating it as one of Varad's usual witty outbursts. I would particularly refer to the bit about watching wailing, or worse, scenes during Sandhyakalam.
Hello Varad,
Very good post.I enjoyed it.Wish I had something to contest.
I have heard one story no matter how apocryphal..... let me share.
When new folks are entering these kind of dramas/serials as an actor (akin to campus induction except here the number is one or just a few) first shot they make is ... guess what? They act dead. May be their photo with garland or some accident (it is a matter of detail). So, if producers witness any pay hike demands or other non-cooperative stuff, simply they are replaced over night.Performance is not a matter of concern since as you remarked audience can take almost anything.
So, they simply put a new photo and say for this role from now onwards this new person would take over and the show goes on.
People are de-risked from the project's stand point - they have mastered that art well.
For that, I would give them a great applause.
regards,madhu
Hilarious as usual! Completely relate to it - I am a my parents place now. I visit every 6 months or so and can pick up the serials where I left off :-)
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