Soap duds

That Ms Ansal, Ms Dalmia and Ms Kothari have joined voices with filmmakers Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Dipti Naval and others, shows that the revulsion against these absurdly foolish dramas is hardly restricted to the usual suspects of ‘professional protestors’.

The ‘K’ serials are profoundly condescending to viewers. They try and propagate the belief that every Indian household is a tacky, ostentatious cesspool crawling with shockingly evil women or stupidly good ones who constantly engage in ridiculous domestic wranglings. Bejewelled fatties with lipstick-stained teeth barrel through brutally tasteless sets mouthing lines from Amar Chitra Katha and echoing the values of the stone age. Now, there’s nothing wrong whatsoever in a cracking good family melodrama, nor in a deliciously gossipy soap opera, but these extremely passe stereotypes of Indian women severely underestimate the intelligence of viewers and are nothing but a cynical bid for TRPs and advertising revenues. Sure, western soaps like Dynasty and Dallas also create escapist consumerist havens where blow-dried people loiter in ski resorts indulging in different combinations of illicit relationships. But in the ‘K’ serials all that bharatiya naris seem to do is bang on about sindoor, karva chauth, don’t-eat-before-your-husband-comes-home and shaadi and more shaadi.

Why can an Indian soap opera not take place within the parameters of day-to-day reality? In Saans, for example, the relationships were believable, the setting realistic. Not that there’s anything wrong with glossy settings but there is no reason why the kahani of every Indian ghar should be set in a Vedic Disneyland. Soap operas are supposed to be good entertainment, not shows of caricature and condescension.