Twilight of the TV stars

The K serials have gone,and their actors try miserably to fill new roles

The K serials have gone,and their actors try miserably to fill new roles
Saw Mr Bajaj last week. He was wearing a chefs hat and looking pretty silly at that. Mr Bajaj and Tulsi,Parvati and Gautam,the characters who filled the TV screen with their exaggerated presence as the protagonists of the K serials,are still there for all to see. Just barely. Tulsi (Smriti Irani) has become something of a joke on Maniben.com (Sab TV). Last seen,Parvati (Sakshi Tanwar) was on Crime Patrol duty (Sony) introducing us to some of the most unattractive criminals of recent times. She is also playing Teepri,a woman of unstable emotions and of rolling eyes (to convey her instability?) in Balika Vadhu (Colors). Gautam or Gomzi of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Sumeet Sachdeva in real life,has bit parts here and there,most recently in Bandini (Imagine) where he looks as sour as Gomzi used to. As for Mr Bajaj,the salt and pepper heartthrob from Kasauti Zindagi Kay,hes the star of Bandini and looking host a cookery talent show a little more appetising than playing the ageing thakur married to a much younger woman? As for old friend Ketaki Aa ra ra ra Dave ( Kyunki..),shes become the manipulative and ruthless family elder in Behenein (Star Plus),and looking very much the part with a streak of white hair across the front of her wig.

And so the mighty have fallen. Perhaps not on bad days but certainly theyve landed poor roles. From being the characters viewers idolised,emulated,and loved,they have been consigned to a corner of the box and would go almost unnoticed,most of the time,but for that streak of white hair. Theyre no longer larger than life characters,just characters like hundreds of others on the box.

Interestingly,not one of the actors now plays a character who can match the ones they played in the K serials. In fact,they seem to have chosen roles that do everything to destroy their earlier personas imagine Tulsi,the paragon of all virtues,reduced to an overweight,bumbling middle-aged wife who is perpetually embroiled in the machinations of her silly neighbours? The soul shudders.
And Ronit Roy can take off his shirt,develop a fine range of muscles. He can colour his hair,he can don dhoti-kurta and shortly a chefs cap,but no matter what he does,he will always and forever be only Mr Bajaj,in suit and boot.

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Entertainment television altered rapidly while the K serials were on the wane. We went from the highly stylised hamara parivar in the magnificent mansions of Kyunki… to the highly stylised hamara parivar in the idlyllic village settings of Bairi Piya both,by the way,produced by the one and only Balaji Telefilms. Not much has changed other than the settings,you might say,but Tulsi or Parvati and Prerna could not make the transition. The actors became typecast,they were too old to play young heroines about to suffer the misfortunes of class,caste and marriage. Besides,they would never be as popular as they once were. Television has changed so much in the decade since the K serials were first aired so many more channels,so many more genres of channels with so many more shows that viewership has fragmented and no single series will ever achieve the kind of audience the Ks did in their glory days. Alas.

Meanwhile,todays serials do what they can to keep the grand K traditions alive. In Sabki Laadli Bebo (Star Plus),the entire family gathers around the mandir (as they did in the Ks) and prays to save a little child and lo and behold,the child lets out a joyous cry of life. To have faith is fine,but modern medicine had something to do with saving the child too. However,the doctor and his oxygen mask play a subordinate role. Prayer is the saviour. If only survival and living were that easy.

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