To run a serial successfully for 2-3 years, the important ingredients are:
1. Make all the evil people smart and the good people and not so evil people dumb. Innocence and niceness equates no street smartness. Eg. Mrin and Chacha have figured out that Radhika is the ideal CB, but not Vaishali. Shastriji can never figure out the evilnesss of his mother. Dev can not think of checking his phone log and putting two and two together. Radhika can not think that Dev's Vikram and Vishaka's Vikram may be the same person especially if he is calling both at the same time.
2. People can only overhear or see at times convenient for the episode. For example, Shastriji met Vikram but nobody else did. Now only Amma can spot him and talk to him. Rest of the family members become blind.
3. When you need something, there is somebody always around. When it is important for an evil person to be alone, they can get the whole place free of people. Eg. Vishaka is unable to use the phone for even a single minute as there is always somebody around. On the other hand, Amma could lock Radhika in a room, took her wedding dress and then burnt her down in two separate time periods without anybody spotting her or smelling gasoline on her in a house full of guests.
4. The two main characters share everything but conversation. Nobody bothers to tell the other person. Radhika has never told Dev any important thing. So, here too she wouldn't tell him about her mid-night rendezvous that will come to haunt her later as Vikram will recognize her as Dev's wife and will flaunt that in Dev's face at some later time. This guy loves her to death and she can not tell him a single thing.
5. The evil people can shout and scream and nobody can hear their conversation and other people can't even make a phone call. Amma has come to Radhika twice in the same day to ask her one favor or the other. None of her parents can hear that. Similarly, Amma screamed at Radhika and kicked her out of the house and her parents did not wake up. Vishaka was able to run away without anybody noticing anything. Now, poor girl can't make a simple phone call. Also, evil people can hear from a long distance. Eg. Mrin hearing Dev and Radhika's conversation 2-3 times from a really long distance.
6. Cell phones work at strange times. They can work in a remote area or can not even work in a same city. So, even if you have cell phone there is no guarantee that you can finish two sentences despite it being an expensive phone, calm day and same city.
7. People would know minute details about something, but will not know a big one. For example, Vikram knows that Dev is now married twice , but doesn't know his first wife was Vishaka.
I could go on and on, but will limit to these 7 for now.
Edited by why3 - 16 years ago