We have seen everything now on our TV shows.
Bahus turning into naagins and makhisi.
Evil saasuma poisoning the daal.
People dying and coming back to life.
If this isn’t imagination going wild, then what is?
Recently, Twitterati got hold of a clip of a woman falling off a staircase and a man saving her just in time.
But it isn’t as simple as it sounds.
The entire sequence is a slo-mo shot where the woman takes almost one whole minute to fall and the man, her ‘saviour’, slides in the most unnatural fashion from about a distance of 10 feet to catch her.
The clip is from the show Kaleerein on Zee TV and is the essence of Indian soap operas.
Here are a few more peculiarities that make Indian serials ‘truly original’. Dramatic special effects? Check. Evil villains? Check. But what about logic?
Mind = Blown
Leaving impractical storylines aside, let’s talk about the disturbing number of special effects that these soap operas have.
A scene from Kasam Se has been described by some people on social media as the most dramatic scene ever in the history of Indian serials.
Here’s what goes down: The saas slaps the bahu. The sound of the thappad resonates thrice. The camera records close-ups of the shocked family members. Someone drops a thaali. Cut!
Here’s another example of overused dramatic effects in Indian serials.
We Know Evil Exists, But... THIS Much?
Most shows are pegged around women helming family matters and the plotting and conspiring tends to get on one’s nerves.
Older shows like Balika Vadhu and Uttaran had antagonists who plotted to humiliate other members of their family. In Diya Aur Bati Hum too, a female antagonist was always heard scheming in her monologue.
And who doesn’t remember Komolikka from Kasauti Zindagi Kay?
Don’t these women have other things to do, one may wonder, like chasing a deadline at work, perhaps? Can we show some reality, please?
Strangest Things
The latest trend in shows is infusing a supernatural element, completely defying science, logic, death and sometimes even gravity.
Naagins, makkhis, telepathy, super speed, ghosts, resurrections, and many other elements contribute in making Indian soap operas the enigma they are.
Unfortunately, there are many takers for it. Turns out, the show Naagin is currently on the top slot of the TRP charts and Sasural Simar Ka is the ninth-longest running Indian TV show with 2,063 episodes in all.
Back to the Future
Another strange phenomenon in our daily soaps is the crazy time jumps. The moment the lead couple gets married and has a baby, the show often gets fast-forwarded to at least 20 years.
Their child is now 20 years old in the blink of an eye but the rest of the cast hasn’t aged a day! *slow claps*
In the show Saath Nibhaana Saathiya, for example, the mother looks like her daughter’s sister. Science definitely cannot come up with an anti-ageing treatment to match this phenomenon.
#IWokeUpLikeThis
I can understand going to sleep in casual clothes, but going to bed wearing heavily embroidered saris, huge jhumkas, and more than five necklaces is unique to Indian soap operas. To top it all... waking up with perfect makeup!
We can never achieve the #IWokeUpLikeThis goals that these serials set.
Shows that engage with social issues are also coming up now. Shakti-Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki, for example, is a show where the lead character is a transgender. But the regressive shows are not going away any time soon.
Reality takes a walk with most Indian soap operas as we are left to wonder, “Kaun banate hai ye sab, aur log kyun dekhte hai isse?” (“Who makes these shows and who watches them?”)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)