For the record, I'm not into soap operas and definitely not the Indian brand ones. My mom (and even my 9 years old daughter) watch a select few of them. So, I end up catching those ones. And then, honestly, even if you end up watching an episode after days, or even weeks, the story has hardly moved forward. You don't really miss anything.
But, what I cannot fathom is how for weeks each new show is publicized about what 'novelty' it is bound to offer in terms of the storyline but then eventually end up being the same clichéd 'saas-bahu sagas' or family dramas where a couple of women, the quintessential vamps, are always scheming and plotting anything and everything including torture or even murder; and the other women, the typical good heroines, are always diverting these plots.
There are so many examples I can quote here. But the immediate ones I can remember right now are 'Swaragini' and 'Kehta hai dil... Jee le zara'. The former was supposed to be the story of Swara and Ragini, two friends / sisters belonging to two warring families in the backdrop of culturally rich Kolkata who end up bonding over music and then get together to bring their families together (even the tagline was 'Jode rishton ke sur'). Now a few months down the line, it is the same clichéd story of both girls married into the same family, marriages and divorces happening at the snap of fingers according to the whims and fancies of the characters; and where one of the two girls is now a vamp and the other can now consider a career as a detective as she's now a pro at solving man made mysteries. Even the tagline has been dropped now. The other soap, 'Kehta hai dil... Jee le zara', started just as promisingly as the story of a 34 year old girl who was so busy taking care of her responsibilities and the family all this while that she has had no time for love and marriage until a 25 year old carefree guy comes into her life. It ended up as a family drama again where the mother-in-law and co-sister (and the whole family in general) were not happy with the marriage and they not only try to break her marriage but even to kill her. Similarly, there are so many other serials that end up all looking similar like 'Kumkum Bhagya', 'Qubool Hai' (take a generation leap when you want to change the plot), 'Thapki pyaar ki', 'Pavitra Rishta', etc. However, none of these can beat 'Sasural Simar Ka'. The soap started with Simar, a girl who is crazy about TV but belongs to a family where TV viewing is limited, wondering what kind of family she will marry into. Now after numerous plot twists and turns, filled with teary episodes reeking of black magic, the same Simar is now the queen of 'Pataal Lok'. Can you even imagine that? Phew!
Even the historical sagas like 'Maharana Pratap' and 'Chakravartin Samrat Ashok' are abound with scheming mother-in-laws and co-wives. In fact, there was a time when even the sequence of events in the two serials were moving parallel - both had mysterious hidden characters trying to kill the king by sending 'Vishkanyas'. Now I am forced to seriously doubt whether any of this stupidity is related to any of the historical events in our past.
And yet, day after day after day, our Indian 'janta' watches these very shows - all similar but different actors - and still doesn't get bored. I wonder after watching so many conniving strategists, how come they still can't see through the Indian 'dramebaaz' Politicians.
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