A friend of mine recently started her blog with a post on a topic that has been on my mind for a while. On her tryst with the telly. She wonders through the post at the way educated, intelligent women soak up whatever trash is churned out in the form of popular entertainment. Very thought-provoking…..
As for me, personally, my K quotient* is pretty low as is my tolerance for all things soapy on television. However, ratings for such soaps show without doubt the popularity of serials which run on for years and years….. Without really going anywhere in terms of storylines…..
What makes people watch such soaps where people live in palatial, outlandishly garish houses, in joint families extending to over fifty people at times….. where everybody is forever plotting and planning for the downfall of the next member of the household…. Where the women especially are GOOD or BAD…. And man, are they GOOD when they are good….. Unsufferably and cloyingly so…. And when they are BAD, you can make out from just the size of her bindi and the weirdness of her eye make-up…..
Where the proceedings are so far far removed from real life and real people…..
Or are they? Is fact truly stranger than fiction? is that the reason for the popularity of such soaps?
Or as Ana says, is it about us seeking drama and excitement…. since drama in our lives consists of what to make for dinner and what to wear to work the next day…..
Or is it as my aunt says, it’s such good fun to see other people’s problems…. I know I am not the only one….
Escapism ? Those few minutes of thoughtless nirvana ?
Or just sheer relief….. Thank God it’s hapening to these strangers and not to me….. (I can quite understand this sentiment, especially in the context of these extended joint families!!)
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*For the uninitiated, the queen of Indian soaps is Ms. Ekta Kapoor with her fixation for soaps starting with the letter K.