Thursday, September 24, 2009

Indian TV soaps VS American

Okay lets face it...
Quickly think of 5 hindi tv serials...

The names may depend on your age and gender such as I would have thought:
Roadies, Khatron ke khiladi, rock on, Splitsvila, Stunt Mania.
Someone older would have choosen:
Balika Vadhu, Bidaai, Kyunki Saas Bhi kabhi bahu thi types etc. (I don’t even know the names)

lets have a mix of these as follows:
Roadies
Rakhi ka swaymvar
Khatron ke khiladi
Balika Vadhu
Indian IDOL

Now lets think of 5 English programs you watch:
Friends (All time favorite)
How I met your mother
The Big Bang Theory
Two and a half men
Moment of truth.

May differ as per individuals choice such as some may like Thats so raven, hannah montana etc.

Now lets compare these soaps (hindi and the english ones).
If we look at what we are producing and what those guys there are producing the results will be just too shameful.
In our basket we have soaps like Rakhi ka Swyamwar just ridiculous and cheap enough to make you think what the hell are we watching... a cheap play of marriage , mind here that marriage is supposed to be one of the most sacred bandhans of all in India.
Then we have something like Balika Vadhu OR typical saas bahu soaps where the bahus are always clad in tons of jewellery's and are shown as either the best women of all time or the worst (villain) with those arrow eyed makeup and three times Nahii nahii nahii etc.
Finally we have the typical MTV programs which try to show today’s India’s youth, the go getter, the aggressive, the I M D BEST attitude guys n gals, who are shown as fighting with each other with all those F*** words and planning against each other cunningly.
Now lets talk of some of those American programs; the so called culture spoilers and bad bad programs.
Lets take for example “How I met your mother”, here we have a guy Barny always ready to hit on gals , also taking his friends in it, then we have ”The big bang theory” were a gal lives by herself opposite to an apartment of geeks and she eventually has sex with one of them. Then we have “Two and a half men” here too the Uncle Charlie is a dude who makes out with new gals every time. Ohh so bad....
But is this the only thing shown in these series... no dear I won't agree, see them till they end , see the presentation...see how those geeks though deserted from the society are shown as best friends, see how it also includes an Indian who can't talk to gals but still is their best friend and hangs out with them. See how well it’s presented in how I met your mother, how Ted and Barny do it all to help Marshall come out of his financial crisis. How well they bond together. The Bro code from Barny.
The best part I say is the presentation , it’s just so real. No nahiii nahii nahii type scenes no planned controversies for cheap publicity.
These programs are just too classic.
The point I am trying to make here is though there may be some things which we as Indians may not like but overall if we see the way they are presented, the originality they bring in, the fresh treatment they give to each episode. More over they are daring to show their society (if it is so), not like Indian soaps which just show Ekta's dream society.
Also, it’s not that all American programs are as above for example I grew up watching: Small wonder, Different strokes, I dream of Gennie, Ghost buster etc etc (God I miss those days of excitement).
And then saw their hindi version or should I say Indian version: Karishma ka karishma YUCK... what was that... atleast copy it properly guys, if you can't bring in the novelty yourself then just don’t ruin the thing which is there already.
There was a time when we too had sensible programs, nukkad , Hum log, circus, raju ki udantashtri, I really miss those programs which even today look great.
I am writing this with just a hope that Indian TV soaps will improve their standard, and we will see the shows as good as “Different strokes”, “ How I met your mother”, “ Silver spoons” etc.

Again I say it’s about presentation.

1 comment:

  1. I am a big fan of Rodies and Khatron ke khiladi. I guess Indian Tv Serials got huge audience. As television is biggest medium of entertainment in India. People in India are crazy behind serials. Specially reality shows like rodies got huge youth audience.

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