Disturbing Indian TV trends

Do you want to know the secret of my sanity? No TV at home!

Why even bother? What is there to watch?

Story of two sisters – Older one prefers to go for a dance competition on her wedding day (huh!) and gets late for the pheras so her fiancé marries the younger sister who is covered in ghoongat. And nobody knows! Wow! Then when main heroine comes back from her dance, she resumes the remaining wedding rituals like nobody’s business (Hey Ram!). Later in the show, older sister gets possessed by chudail. Younger sister’s memory gets wiped and she gets replaced by nagin. As if that was not enough, recently the older sister has been cursed and turned into —– A HOUSEFLY!!

People actually watch this. Why?

Then there are the ones which start off well. The story of a single father who finds a second chance at love in their pretty neighbour. Did I just hear you go “Awww, how sweet!” Yeah well, wait for the twist. His ex-wife commits suicide and possesses new wife so that the new couple gets divorced, too. Facepalm!

Characters die and come back to life. Plastic surgery is so cheap, anybody could afford it. Certain grandmothers keep “staying alive! staying alive! oh oh oh” even when their great grandchildren are dying like flies (no pun intended at flies.)
And the judwas. These people manage to find their twin/lookalike so easily!

Have you seen them work for a living, unless the plot really requires it? They are always at home – men, women, old and young. They live in freaking palaces with servants scattered around but the women are always cooking and cleaning. Why? These people are rich and privileged but their lifestyles are middle class. How? Their women are always dressed in designer sarees with perfect hair and makeup at all times. Even when they wake up from sudden nightmares or when someone screams in the house.

In real life, the rich people zip off to foreign lands for shopping or vacations. They have already been to most places in India. But in TV serials, a Delhi couple goes to Mumbai for honeymoon and the bride acts like a loony because she saw the sea for the first time. Yeah, that is so believable.

Also, I love it when anything shocking happens. This is when we get to know the true purpose of brothers, sisters, aunts, cousins etc. The camera has to capture and freeze on every single one of their shocked faces 3 times, that is why! And they also turn black and white with gradient effect when shocked!

And the vamp! Her life’s goal is to seduce the main guy and torment his all-sacrificing wife. Well, at least her wardrobe is trendy. The serial may take many years leap and the main couple would now have teenage kids, but the vamp will always stay single. What a loser!

Point is, these daily soaps show adultery, murder, rape, gender bias, domestic violence and objectification of women. They promote superstitions like nagin and chudail and evil spirits.

Look at the rising number of crimes in India. Think of the society’s expectations about women, especially with regards to marriage. My mother’s generation had more freedom in their marital homes compared to women now. These serials are influencing society’s psyche. Watching so much negativity all day in the name of entertainment is unhealthy! Even the current run of comedy is so slapstick and lacking any brains. All things on TV are making zombies out of us. They have neither logic nor sense.

This is the same TV which used to air serials like Shanti and Rajni. Stories that promoted empowerment of women and awareness of public rights; we had Sarabhais giving us intelligent humour. We had Ulta Pulta providing a sarcastic view at politics, current affairs and the daily struggles of viewers of the time. We need to bring substance and intelligent content back into TV. Constant exposure to a particular type of content does influence a society’s thinking and we need to make a decision NOW. Which influence is better?