Kyunki Saas...
Okay, I swear this happens only when I have literally nothing else to do. Once in a while, at night, I catch a few minutes of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. Let it be known: I DO NOT ENJOY IT! (At least not as much as my mom). I honestly, honsetly, find them stupid.
A lot of people I know have a similar aversion to Hindi soaps. They're so surreal. Too surreal for anyone's good. The stupid effects, the climaxes, the overdose of sentimentality. Everything is blown out of proportion. If I were to show a Western audience a sample of Indian television, I would have serious issues including shows like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. In fact, I would omit much of what is shown on Indian television today.
But I've always wondered how serials like this manage to run. In April 2005, the show celebrated it's 1000th episode. Quite an achievement! However, the Indian media is highly critical, if not downright bitchy, about such television. How do such shows manage to keep running?
One of the primary driving forces behind such television is Ekta Kapoor. Variously referred to as the Queen of Soaps, a diety of Indian television etc, etc, it's people like Ekta Kapoor that are to blame for shows like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. She was on a interview with Karan Johar on Star World the other day (and I watch that also only when I'm utterly bored!). To start with let me say that I was utterly taken aback by her maturity and overall elegance. Uptil then she was just some evil witch that gave us Indians television that we were ashamed of. But she carried herself on like the Queen she is claimed to be. And secondly, she said something that really made sense and explained to me how people like me can scorn and critisize her work like we do (and more importantly, how the Indian media can unforgivingly attack her work) and how she can still maintain such a massive fanbase.
"The people that are actually watching and the people that are talking are two different sets of people" she said.
I think it's clear which group of people I feature in. The point she made was that there are millions that can somehow relate to the exaggerated lives of these soap stars, follow their pains, their sorrows. There are people that live lives that I can't even imagine living.
Honestly, what right do I, do they, have in criticizing a show that can do that. A truer test of a piece of art's value is it's audience.
Until I'm the audience, until you're the audience, I think we better shut up.
A lot of people I know have a similar aversion to Hindi soaps. They're so surreal. Too surreal for anyone's good. The stupid effects, the climaxes, the overdose of sentimentality. Everything is blown out of proportion. If I were to show a Western audience a sample of Indian television, I would have serious issues including shows like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. In fact, I would omit much of what is shown on Indian television today.
But I've always wondered how serials like this manage to run. In April 2005, the show celebrated it's 1000th episode. Quite an achievement! However, the Indian media is highly critical, if not downright bitchy, about such television. How do such shows manage to keep running?
One of the primary driving forces behind such television is Ekta Kapoor. Variously referred to as the Queen of Soaps, a diety of Indian television etc, etc, it's people like Ekta Kapoor that are to blame for shows like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. She was on a interview with Karan Johar on Star World the other day (and I watch that also only when I'm utterly bored!). To start with let me say that I was utterly taken aback by her maturity and overall elegance. Uptil then she was just some evil witch that gave us Indians television that we were ashamed of. But she carried herself on like the Queen she is claimed to be. And secondly, she said something that really made sense and explained to me how people like me can scorn and critisize her work like we do (and more importantly, how the Indian media can unforgivingly attack her work) and how she can still maintain such a massive fanbase.
"The people that are actually watching and the people that are talking are two different sets of people" she said.
I think it's clear which group of people I feature in. The point she made was that there are millions that can somehow relate to the exaggerated lives of these soap stars, follow their pains, their sorrows. There are people that live lives that I can't even imagine living.
Honestly, what right do I, do they, have in criticizing a show that can do that. A truer test of a piece of art's value is it's audience.
Until I'm the audience, until you're the audience, I think we better shut up.
1 comment:
sensible. which is why i too have stopped bitching about soaps, himmesh and etc
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