Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Great Comedy in Indian Shows







India television has been marked with eras. People go along the flow, entertainment is the basic entity. It doesn’t matter what kind of entertaining is being piled. Since I am a child of 90’s, the decade where India finally met and wed the globalization. A decade when Chetan Bhaghat was just an engineering aspirant, a decade which was marked with the release of the movie Border, a decade in which neither Uday Chopra nor Abhishek Bachchan thought to debut as a newcomer. As the time progressed TV shows categorized themselves—

Era of एकता में अनेकता 


Ever since I gained my cautious for the television, one, and the only name making headlines was Ekta Kapoor. Her reel dramas soon turned into real dramas. Time was not far when Indian husbands got severely retarded with the buckets sitting along the sofas to catch their wife’s precious tears. Mihir made a benchmark and Tulsi was making a perfect brain wash. Wives calling husband as “Mihir” created a perfect name jeopardy. “Suspecting husband” aka The Fa Deodrant effect also made  its place in the household works. Along with it brought handful amount of daily soaps which constraint housewives from cleaning entire house to only sofa and television set.

She (एकता कपूर, Sister/of तुषार कपूर, Daughter/of जितेंदर) ruled the world of drama for a long reign and finally her episodes started dying and eventually died (Law of Nature – Something which is born is ought to die). Women showed their great dismal, husbands now were getting breakfast and dinner on time, sons and daughter’s school visits were no longer procrastinated. Everything came back to normal (Women shares a different perspective).


Era of The Talent Hunt – प्रतिभा की ख़ोज 

♫ Oonchi hai building; lift teri band hai ♫ Kaise mein aaun; dil rajamand hai!?!
There was a time when finding talent had become a way to earn bread for Anu Malik and his counterparts. Consecutive seasons of Indian Idol and SaReGaMa were ruling the channels at the same time. “If Sony is making a talent show to raise its TRP then how can we be behind? Lets launch a reality show”, said TV Channels. Thus, the era begins.

Laughter show on Star One which won million of hearts but soon contestants grew up and became big time pervert. Putting double meaning in to jokes and then calling it a family show was the “height of heinousness”. Archna Puran Singh’s hysterical laughs on the joke which goes “below the belt and ends up on the ground” makes me remind of a quote “log paiso k liye kya kya karte hain”

Then came the booty shaking competitions; dance reality show. Search for the talent; all around the country. Talent made me remind of India’s Got Talent- Khoj where people from around the town came and display their act of absurdity.

I am not sure where to place Bigg Boss. What the house inmates do was no less than a talent. Each endowed with the most stupendous trait of all. India’s #1 claimed youth channel—MTV in every few month’s launches a new remake of old shows. MTV Roadies and Splitsville. Auditions wrapped with abuses, no not the choti choti gaaliyan; moti moti gaaliyan gets in handy and lately are also going trendy. Can I call it a talent show?

Something similar with another low picture quality channel—UTV Bindass. They also claim themselves to be the India’s #1 youth channel and confuse me like hell. Their shows like Dadagiri, Emotional Attyachaar, Date Trap makes me puke and the host makes my puking a constant process. I could hardly recognize I am watching a TV show not an online dating website or browsing through Orkut.

Era of खबर हर कीमत पर —

Lately news channels while ransacking have found new ways to entertain people at हर कीमत पर. From night news on DD National, to aaj tak, to Zee News, to आँखों देखी, to CNN, to CBN, to Star News, to NDTV, to “India TV”. Wait, did I mention India TV? India TV marked its beginning with a dude whose mother named him Rajat and his father gave him the name Sharma, Rajat Sharma. The soul on whose shoulders India is running. His news provokes the people. He ensures a news dent in viewers mind. Whether it is a dhongi baba or Shahid-Priyanka’s love affair or it is Rakhi Sawant’s re-breast silicon surgery or Ashmit Patel and Veena Malik’s cozy footage. They never let any opportunity to go waste. They blow trumpet as hard as they could (until their lungs gets worn out). Defaming is their synonym. They make Indian Cricket Captain M.S.Dhoni a warrior after he wins a match and sit on his chest with a sword to murder him after he loses.
Talking about entertainment on news channel Star News (आपको रखे हर दम आगे) makes me realize that they are way ahead. Saas Bahu aur Sazish, a half an hour entertainment trauma which brings the synopsis of basically एकता आंटी’s left soaps which does not forms any lather now.

Monotonous का एरा(still running thankfully)—

Since Word Cup fever and IPL are making people bankrupt. People are no more glued to Star or Sony. They are now exposed to the world of cricket; which is something different and cheerleaders; who are something different. Everything goes hand in hand now which I think is better than addictive but look at the brighter side- now you are no longer a part of The Great Comedy in Indian Show.

| This post was first published here for News That Matters Not – India's leading Satire Humour Website and has been selected as a Spicy Saturday Pick by Blogadda .

20 comments:

  1. Well i am still haunted by the Ekta era. thank god i went to a boarding where i did not have to bear all her shows and the nonsense drama where people would sleep as if they are getting ready for a wedding..

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  2. nice portrayal of the different seasons and moods of what the viewers have been addicted to all these years on the Indian Television. Long gone are those lovely days of DD Dharavaahik and now everyone calls me either soaps or serials. An enjoyable read!

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  3. I dont know if all will agree but i find the indian serials to be pathetic and at best you can call them a waste of space ...
    How people are so glued ot them icant understand .. You see a serial after missing a few weeks of episodes the story is still there and the hero turn around in a million moves ...

    it was much better when it was DoorDarshan.. but then this is what we indians do best.. we moan and we crib and say this is bad or that is wrong and what do we DO.. We sit and still WATCh it day in and day out :)
    Thankfully I had the mentality of not subsctibing to ANY indian channel here in uk, What pay for being bored too :)

    Bikram's

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  4. True, Indian media is (d)evolving for sure. The NEWS channels specially. Its a relief that Ekta Kapoor has started making soaps that don't start with a 'K'... well something has definitely changed for sure. :P

    Nice post.

    Cheers,
    Blasphemous Aesthete

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  5. Watching animes and 15 to 25 episodes of J or K-dramas are better options, aren't they? I gave up watching tv long ago. In case if i do watch then it's only movies.

    By the way, nice post! You spoke my mind. I hate these kind'a shows too.

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  6. Hehehe..Fun post!You surely included most of the things that happened then on television. Wowww...brings back so many memories aswell!

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  7. Great minds think alike or should I say Leos think alike?

    Comedy is all about men dressing up as women with stuffed boobs and jiggling hairy stomachs....
    I doubt if Bindaas appeals to the youth.

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  8. If all the TV shows became sensible - especially India TV, then who do we take pot shots at?

    I want weepy bahus, scheming saas, Archana Puran Singh and Maut Kaa saudagar series to liven up my evenings.

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  9. Perception Exactly.

    Slice of My Life DD is still aired but no one is ready to become the audience.

    Bikram Sir, humari toh majboori hai. :P

    BA So true. Thanks.

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  10. Nethra Did I heard "anime", all day I can do it. :P

    Magiceye :)

    UB Yayy!! Cartoons.

    Alka Ma'am Haha! Ma'am you can say great minds of Leos think alike.

    Purba Ma'am Yes, you got a point, but a little less insanity than present will do less harm and will keep the subject (India TV) intact.

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  11. prateek beleive it or not my dad loves watching india tv and aaj tak. during the osama drama we were tuned on times now and he kept saying aaj tak is far better :)

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  12. Don't even get me started on reality shows. I feel like hurling a big boulder at the tv everytime something lame comes up. XD Worst lot are probably the MTv shows...which are targeted at the 'youth'. Awesome post btw.

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  13. lol.. reality shows are the worst in the lot... mtv shows are even lowly...

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  14. Sulagna I can understand. My mom got too attach to these shows.

    Sammy Also Bindas, it is also "India's" #1 youth channel. :P Thanks!!

    Harish :)

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  15. ...And the successors of Ekta's Era continue to 'entertain' housewives and the retired uncles :P

    These unpalatable recipes of Indian television has got some serious effects on its audience... sadly enough sucha great medium is being used so inappropriately! Audiences are served rubbish and they, so willingly, have it.

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  16. This is nice blog.
    And if you are looking the Comedy Shows London then. You can book your Comedy London online with us and enjoy your weekend in various cities of UK.

    ReplyDelete

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