Tyranny of the family serials

IT IS indeed gratifying that the Madhya Pradesh State Women’s Commission has decided to take up cudgels against the producers of the so-called family serials on television.  Kudos to Hindustan Times (MPSWC gears up… —23/6/06))
One wonders what is so great of about these serials that have come to be known as the ‘K—Series’ — of the Ekta Kapoor fame! 

They have gone on and on for years, trotting out the same morbid themes of family drama. They have not only portrayed women as  ‘conspirators and villains’, demeaning the dignity of the fair sex, but have also wilfully done their worst in jeopardising family life, as the Commission rightly feels.

Name any of the sickly serials —  Kasauti, Kyunki Sas Bhi Bahu Thi, Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki or quite a few others of many other producers. One gets the same staple diet: Fomenting domestic discord, disrupting families, extolling promiscuity and infidelity, glorifying murder and mayhem, credulously reviving the  ‘dead’ characters of the story; forlorn melancholy

memories ad nauseam; tireless repetition of gory scenes of accidents, police stations, court rooms, unseemly luxurious partying on the pretext of performing poojas and celebrating festivals, with a generous sprinkling of semi-nude females; parading fleets of limousines and flaunting an endless supply of  money. All topped by sterile, pretentious, stereotype dialogues.

Each episode gives the impression that the producer is groping in the dark to prolong the agony not only of the characters in the story but also of the viewers. 

The number of episodes is a legion and the longevity of the serials infinite. Unfortunately some tend to gloss over the need to agitate against such serials and find fault with the MPSWC’s campaign against their production.

It is a pity that they try to ridicule its move to serve a notice on Ekta Kapoor, the producer of the so-called K- Serials—(and hopefully against others of her genre too) — on the specious argument that the Commission has ignored or done precious little to curb the daily occurrence of incidents of atrocities on women..

There is no doubt that the Commission must also take up the issues relating to such atrocities. But that should not preclude it from raising its voice against the plethora of profane, profligate TV serials proffered in the name of family drama. 

They are as harmful and have a deleterious, addictive effect, and also constitute a factor in indirectly encouraging, if not promoting, the gory happenings on the streets. There is undoubtedly a linkage between them and both have to be confronted together as also separately. To deny the existence of such a linkage, as most of the crass commercial interests do, is not a realistic appraisal of the problem.