07-02-2008, 06:57 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-rajesh_g+Jul 2 2008, 09:37 AM-->QUOTE(rajesh_g @ Jul 2 2008, 09:37 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Balaji Productions is a major production house and not to be ignored - she made sarees, big bindi and mangalsutra fashionable again - a major player on small screen.
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What you say is true.
But what bothers me is the superficial aspect of all this. That is, people may be more open to these symbolic aspects and losing the essentials.
Family values shown in Ekta Kapoor's serials are abhorrent. Although she does fill in some soppy gooey stuff here and there. Women are always bedecked in most expensive clothing and jewelery, but a disturbingly large percentage are hard hearted or simply venomous. Even the best role models turn out to be rAjasik role models. I guess everyone has an idea of family based on his/her experiences. And everyone is not visionary to step outside their natural programming. For all her prolific output, Ekta Kapoor is in a well defined rut. Which IMHO doesn't represent Indian womanhood.
One more thing I notice in most of these serials is, none of the women are dark. Even Saloni which is claimed to be dark is shown nicely painted over.
Also there is consistent theme that evil people often are overtly religious and sport the biggest tilaks/bindis etc.
I think a lot of risky themes are getting propagated in a glittering, although an Indianized, manner.
<!--QuoteBegin-"Bodhi"+-->QUOTE("Bodhi")<!--QuoteEBegin-->Prithviraj is a yuk! nauseating treatment of history that even a common man knows so well, at least in north. No background into the context. No much coverage to the larget scenario of Muslim invasion. <b>Mostly a love-story type coverage to a teenage type Prithviraj.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That is good assessment. This "teenage" type characteristic runs through many such serials. Which also gels with the preponderance of the rAjasik trait.
A master story teller would include such "teenage" characteriscs, but only where appropriate. He would also provide a higher portrayal of the wisdom of age. Lord of the Rings' Frodo had Gandalf. This theme of a tempestuous youth guided by old wisdom, resonates with the human existential memory, and many a successful story have utilized this. But to do that kind of portrayal, a person should have temperamentally been a "teenager" and then also come to "wisdom" through knocks received in life. Many people, unfortunately, remain "teenagers" even in their ripe old years.
Many religious serials show even the Gods and Rishis as essentialy "teenagers", arguing, fighting in a rAjasik manner.
Serials involving divinities like Shri Rama or Shri Krishna, require even more wisdom in correct handling. Here the freshness of the youth, the wisdom of the ages, and the power of the divine all are supposed to inhabit the same frame at the same time. Very few would have the capacity to even comprehend and then portray that.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What you say is true.
But what bothers me is the superficial aspect of all this. That is, people may be more open to these symbolic aspects and losing the essentials.
Family values shown in Ekta Kapoor's serials are abhorrent. Although she does fill in some soppy gooey stuff here and there. Women are always bedecked in most expensive clothing and jewelery, but a disturbingly large percentage are hard hearted or simply venomous. Even the best role models turn out to be rAjasik role models. I guess everyone has an idea of family based on his/her experiences. And everyone is not visionary to step outside their natural programming. For all her prolific output, Ekta Kapoor is in a well defined rut. Which IMHO doesn't represent Indian womanhood.
One more thing I notice in most of these serials is, none of the women are dark. Even Saloni which is claimed to be dark is shown nicely painted over.
Also there is consistent theme that evil people often are overtly religious and sport the biggest tilaks/bindis etc.
I think a lot of risky themes are getting propagated in a glittering, although an Indianized, manner.
<!--QuoteBegin-"Bodhi"+-->QUOTE("Bodhi")<!--QuoteEBegin-->Prithviraj is a yuk! nauseating treatment of history that even a common man knows so well, at least in north. No background into the context. No much coverage to the larget scenario of Muslim invasion. <b>Mostly a love-story type coverage to a teenage type Prithviraj.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That is good assessment. This "teenage" type characteristic runs through many such serials. Which also gels with the preponderance of the rAjasik trait.
A master story teller would include such "teenage" characteriscs, but only where appropriate. He would also provide a higher portrayal of the wisdom of age. Lord of the Rings' Frodo had Gandalf. This theme of a tempestuous youth guided by old wisdom, resonates with the human existential memory, and many a successful story have utilized this. But to do that kind of portrayal, a person should have temperamentally been a "teenager" and then also come to "wisdom" through knocks received in life. Many people, unfortunately, remain "teenagers" even in their ripe old years.
Many religious serials show even the Gods and Rishis as essentialy "teenagers", arguing, fighting in a rAjasik manner.
Serials involving divinities like Shri Rama or Shri Krishna, require even more wisdom in correct handling. Here the freshness of the youth, the wisdom of the ages, and the power of the divine all are supposed to inhabit the same frame at the same time. Very few would have the capacity to even comprehend and then portray that.