What I Know about TV Dramas

I rarely watch sitcoms, soaps, TV dramas and the like. Not for any particular reason other than being scatty and impatient when it comes to anything that requires prolonged attention.  That and the direness of most of them. Sometimes though they come seeking you as in the case of the three serials that my father watches (the rest of the time luckily its just cricket and the news).  These occur in the time slot of 8-9:30 when simply being sociable and in the living room will result in deep knowledge of the tedious details of all three. This is particularly awful because even in the tedious world of TV, Indian TV achieves new depths of tediousness. 

Of the three, the serial my father is most devoted to is Jhansi Ki Rani. He assures me it was "very good in the beginning", in which case its deterioration is spectacular.  The only history in it lies in the barest details, the rest is wish fulfillment of a kind that is supremely absurd and surreal.  Today, for e.g. a shouting sort gave a speech on the besting of Queen V by the home grown version. One need not be a fan of Victoria to know that a Queen who presided over an empire cannot strictly be compared to a naive, albeit brave, Queen of a small Indian kingdom.  Other sorts preen and parade through this travesty. The Indians are always brave, the English are always rascals.  Horrifyingly some English folk are played by Indians in bad wigs and  white paint. Mysteriously some have a modern American twang. Its all about as accurate as a work by Frank Miller  - but stripped off his inventiveness and layered with the verbosity of Indian historicals.

This is followed by a soap so ludicrous that I can't be bothered to set down any details except to note the abundance of over dressed women and the abundance of very slow episodes.

Things get down scaled a bit in Pavitra Rishta, the kind of chawl drama that was popular way back when television was quite different. Beneath its updated facade beats the heart of the Indian social drama.-it is in fact based on a Tamil serial, Thirumati Selvam. I can understand how it might hook people in, its like an Indian Packed to the Rafters replete with actors from the 80s/90s in older roles.  But one tires fairly quickly, the novelty of a simpler soap wears off pretty fast.

At which point it all ends and normal programming resumes. Thankfully.