Split Screen

Indian television is home to two extremes ' regressive social dramas and progressive reality shows.POOJA PILLAIexamines their divergent appeals

Social Dramas
Drama quotient :A typical storyline will see a mix of murder, kidnapping, conspiracy to destroy family, a sad-eyed-heroine in a bridal outfit and plastic surgery. "Why don't people on these shows have normal concerns?" complains Abhigyan Jha, founder and CEO of Undercover Productions. Jha points to his own show Kali- Ek Agnipariksha on Star Plus, co-created with actress Mrinal Kulkarni. "In the opening sequence, we showed one of the main characters reading a newspaper. How many times have you seen characters reading on these other shows?"

Cause celebre:Shows like Balika Vadhu, Na Aana Is Des Lado and Bhagyavidhaata were started with the purpose of addressing certain serious social ills. But after the first few episodes, they usually descend into kitchen politics. Jha points out, "The reason this happens is because the makers are only interested in generating TRPs. If they seriously wanted to address these issues, they would show solutions and have people discussing it, instead of merely showing the suffering of people."

Target audience:There's great emphasis on weddings ' where something inauspicious will happen, like the breaking of bangles or the smudging of mehendi. The idea seems to be the one where the writers want to draw in the female audiences since, clearly, more intelligent topics won't attract them. However, even men have increasingly been drawn into the glittery web of dramas. TV host Aaliya Khan points out, "I know of men who even discuss that so-and-so character's clothes did not match her jewellery. It's a myth that only women watch these shows."

Viewer safety:Most of these shows run on primetime, so one assumes that they're safe for family viewing. And indeed, there isn't much danger in watching these dramas 'no vulgarity and profane language here ' apart from the incipient danger of suffering from softening of the brain.

Culture vultures:Fiction shows have to be rooted in Indian culture. As Vivek Bahl, executive creative director of Star India Pvt. Ltd points out, "Shows not culturally rooted in today's scenario, will be quickly rejected as fake or irrelevant by today's demanding viewers." However, the definition of 'Indian culture' remains amorphous at best and it still begs the question: Why is Indian culture on television largely limited to that of northern and western India? How about a culturally-rooted show about a Catholic family in Goa struggling against real estate developers?