Kyonki Ma bhi kabhi Behan thi ?
As I was walking back home from office I saw a huge bill board with the line, “ Kya bahu bhi kabhi beti ban sakti hai?” “9090 par SMS karen”. For a moment I thought, at the end of what I would categorise, a hard day at work, I was seeing things. But as I got near the billboard, I realised, that my eyes in spite of all its problems were still seeing the right thing. The question reminded me of the social dramas that Mumbai cinema used to churn out in the
Some entertainment in my mother tongue of hindi is what I look forward to at the end of a hard day. And so I made the mistake of switching on the television ( having bought a new tata sky DTH connection). The first serial I came across was “ Ghar ki laxmi - Betiyaan” ( or was it Betiayaan - apna ya paraya dhan?) which my mother tells me is the biggest thing to happen on Indian tv after Kyonki Ma bhi kabhi Behan thi (oops you all know what I mean).
Some channel surfing told me that at the same time one could also watch “ Kittu Sab Jaanti hai”, “ thodi si zameen thoda sa aasman” ( which has Smriti Irani trying to encash some popularity she has gained as Tulsi) and “Desh main nikla hoga chaand”. If you have the patience to sit through all of these you can then catch “ Kahani Ghar Ghar ki” and “Kya hoga Nimmo Ka” also. Now don’t ask me which channel plays what.
If you still haven’t realised, one thing common to all these serials is the fact that the main character in all these serials is a woman. A woman who has been taking all the crap her family and other women have been dishing out all these years. Men in these serials are just props in the background. If you take them out, it wouldn’t really make a difference. So one field were women clearly dominate is television serials, they are of the women, made largely by one wo-man ( Ekta Kapoor) and on the face of it, for the women.
Does that mean men really do not form a part of the target audience? Are television channels ignoring what remains the major part of the population? A very difficult question to answer. I really do not have any research to answer the above question, but there is some very interesting anecdotal evidence.
My father is a big soap opera watcher. In fact he was the one in the family who started the trend, by watching“ Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki” regularly, a few years back. And since then my mother tells me she has been hooked on to the soap bandwagon. Though my logic for this is different: When your husband controls the remote, you better watch, what he is watching. And there is no point in watching and not enjoying what you are watching.
My father’s logic for watching these serials is that they potray the right values (though that remains debatable, as they say, one man‘s martyr is another man‘s terrorist). Ma watches it obviously because Dad does. And of course, when other women discuss there favourite characters when they meet, she wouldn’t want to feel left out. More than that what both of them don’t tell, is that they relate to the drudgery of the characters at some level. And then like most of us do, indulge in self pity.
Being a journalist I take the liberty to generalise ( that’s another advantage of being a journalist, you have two examples and you have a trend story ready) and come to the conclusion, that men watch soap operas as much as women do and that’s why television channels have them all over the place. That’s how any free market operates, we get what the large majority wants, which necessarily may not be good all the time (oops here I had just one example, but as you would appreciate if there can be trend with two examples, there can surely be a trend with one as well. After all the difference between two and one, is just one).
Now that brings me back to the original problem. How do I entertain myself? Guess the only way out is to start watching these serials. With the slow pace at which they proceed, hope to get involved with the daily lives of the characters. And then hope, it makes a difference to my life, when the next 20 year leap on Kyonki Ma Bhi Kabhi Behan Thi, happens. It’s always comfortable to be with the herd.
Some entertainment in my mother tongue of hindi is what I look forward to at the end of a hard day. And so I made the mistake of switching on the television ( having bought a new tata sky DTH connection). The first serial I came across was “ Ghar ki laxmi - Betiyaan” ( or was it Betiayaan - apna ya paraya dhan?) which my mother tells me is the biggest thing to happen on Indian tv after Kyonki Ma bhi kabhi Behan thi (oops you all know what I mean).
Some channel surfing told me that at the same time one could also watch “ Kittu Sab Jaanti hai”, “ thodi si zameen thoda sa aasman” ( which has Smriti Irani trying to encash some popularity she has gained as Tulsi) and “Desh main nikla hoga chaand”. If you have the patience to sit through all of these you can then catch “ Kahani Ghar Ghar ki” and “Kya hoga Nimmo Ka” also. Now don’t ask me which channel plays what.
If you still haven’t realised, one thing common to all these serials is the fact that the main character in all these serials is a woman. A woman who has been taking all the crap her family and other women have been dishing out all these years. Men in these serials are just props in the background. If you take them out, it wouldn’t really make a difference. So one field were women clearly dominate is television serials, they are of the women, made largely by one wo-man ( Ekta Kapoor) and on the face of it, for the women.
Does that mean men really do not form a part of the target audience? Are television channels ignoring what remains the major part of the population? A very difficult question to answer. I really do not have any research to answer the above question, but there is some very interesting anecdotal evidence.
My father is a big soap opera watcher. In fact he was the one in the family who started the trend, by watching“ Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki” regularly, a few years back. And since then my mother tells me she has been hooked on to the soap bandwagon. Though my logic for this is different: When your husband controls the remote, you better watch, what he is watching. And there is no point in watching and not enjoying what you are watching.
My father’s logic for watching these serials is that they potray the right values (though that remains debatable, as they say, one man‘s martyr is another man‘s terrorist). Ma watches it obviously because Dad does. And of course, when other women discuss there favourite characters when they meet, she wouldn’t want to feel left out. More than that what both of them don’t tell, is that they relate to the drudgery of the characters at some level. And then like most of us do, indulge in self pity.
Being a journalist I take the liberty to generalise ( that’s another advantage of being a journalist, you have two examples and you have a trend story ready) and come to the conclusion, that men watch soap operas as much as women do and that’s why television channels have them all over the place. That’s how any free market operates, we get what the large majority wants, which necessarily may not be good all the time (oops here I had just one example, but as you would appreciate if there can be trend with two examples, there can surely be a trend with one as well. After all the difference between two and one, is just one).
Now that brings me back to the original problem. How do I entertain myself? Guess the only way out is to start watching these serials. With the slow pace at which they proceed, hope to get involved with the daily lives of the characters. And then hope, it makes a difference to my life, when the next 20 year leap on Kyonki Ma Bhi Kabhi Behan Thi, happens. It’s always comfortable to be with the herd.
posted by Vivek at 1:39 AM
3 Comments:
The worst and the most regressive of the lot is Thodi Khushi, Thodi Gum, which I am forced to watch each day. It's pure torture.
Hi Vivek. This is Dharmendra from TMF.
Interesting observation that our TVs are full of chics.
Now tell me, isn't that the best formula to get men glued on to the idiot box.
I think it is a perfect strategy to get the men ( mass junta ) to look at gorgeous women during prime time and as you have observed, the women have to toe the line. What a smart way to make the trps rip through the roof and wait for the moolah to flood the coffers.
This wo-man has truly foxed both wo and the man.
Hi Vivek. This is Dharmendra from TMF.
Interesting observation that our TVs are full of chics.
Now tell me, isn't that the best formula to get men glued on to the idiot box.
I think it is a perfect strategy to get the men ( mass junta ) to look at gorgeous women during prime time and as you have observed, the women have to toe the line. What a smart way to make the trps rip through the roof and wait for the moolah to flood the coffers.
This wo-man has truly foxed both wo and the man.
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