So it's a Monday once again. And time for me to blog. I've decided to do it once a week. And since on Mondays I'm fresh after the weekend break it becomes my mind- day most of the time except for the rare occasion when I come up against a block. So today my topic is the idiot box- T.V. With my advancing years I've turned into a real couch potato- literally and figuratively. Physically I'm a zero size-all round like a zero and mentally I'm like a potato -loathe to exercise frantically like I should be doing. So like I was saying I watch a lot of T.V. these days. A lot, meaning a lot. And not the educational channels like Discovery and National Geographic but our daily sitcoms. Our Hindi serials and our English ones too. And I've rapidly discovered there is a formula for most things. Especially, especially Romance. Universally romance has a language of flowers and candles peppered by frequent"I love yous"flying around whether it be English American or desi serials.
Let's tackle our good old desi formula first. The way I see it every time it is necessary, no mandatory to make the heroine slip inadvertently and skid into the arms of the hero and remain in that suspended pose with her leg stuck in the air looking into his eyes for an interminable five to six minutes. And when you figure they've been frozen to death they move with the heroine casting her eyes down coyly and smiling. Draping the heroine over his arm in the classic RK banner pose is what heroes are required to do today.
The next time it is usually the dupatta or the sari of the heroine which gets caught in the hero's watch or button while the heroine stands in frozen horror wondering who is at the other end of her dupatta only to discover it is caught. That is supposed to signify some bond if you please. If that was not enough you have songs from popular or new films being mouthed by our heroes and heroines in the most absurd dance sequences. The recent dance form endorsed by our Romance gurus is Salsa. I've nothing against it really but it becomes slightly too much to see the heroines being universally thrown into the air like a sack of potatoes(!) -pardon my obsession with potatoes. We watch enough absurd Bollywood movies please. Why not play the songs in the background? Better still have instrumental.
It is marvelous really the way both Bollywood and Tollywood pay homage to each other. Before every movie launch you have the actors featuring in serials to promote their forthcoming films while Tollywood actors enact scenes from popular movies. But could we please have some innovation in Romance? Instead of the hero or heroine chasing after one another for declarations of love and doing absurd ridiculous things can we have some change please? Instead of red balloons candles pink teddy bears and silk cushions something else please? Instead of a flying dupatta landing on the hero's head and covering his face like a veil something like the scene from Swades perhaps where the heroine steps up to the hero and says in plain unadorned language that she loves him? Or the other way around? Something more natural? Less absurd? More credible? T.V has more scope for development of plot and character than a movie which is restricted by three hours max. So why not take advantage of that to insert more credibility? Stop using a hashed formula and start doing your own thing. It might not work. Then again it might. TRPs might drop or not. Take a chance. Step out of the box. Stop being an idiot. We are here. Your audience- for you to make that change. So go ahead and make it. We're waiting.
About Videshi serials in my next blog next Monday.
By the way Kudos to Yudh. So far Good! Keep it up!
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