For me Television is not just about entertainment or information.
It is not just my bread and butter, literally I mean.
For me Television is something and a lot more. It is my way of looking at a society, understanding it, and maybe even a way to escape from the same.
Who can ever forget Overlook Hotel? The snow covered Hotel, that was built on a site of an Indian burial ground, that unleashed a psychological terror complete with gory murders and scary visions. How about a chance to revisit the place once more? That is what Warner Bros. are quietly planning. They are exploring the possibilities of a prequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1980 psychological horror The Shinning.
The Shining is regarded as one of the scariest Hollywood film of all time. The prequel of the film will delve into the backstory of what happened at the Overlook Hotel before Jack Torrence (played by Jack Nicholson) and his family moved in. The prequel will take you into the dark story of the hotel and what exactly made it haunted, filled with violent ghosts. But other than that almost everything else is being kept under careful wraps. According to the reports, a WB spokeswoman cautioned that any "Shining" prequel was in a very early stage and not even formally in development.
Only information that has been revealed is that The Shining prequel will be involving Hollywood writer-producer Laeta Kalogridis and her partners Bradley Fischer and James Vanderbilt. The team's earlier fests include films like Zodiac, Black Swan and Shutter Island. Well the team selected so far seems well-equipped to handle the genre of psychological thrillers and horror films. The fans of The Shining would also certainly like to see return of Jack Torrence as well in the prequel. So here is to hoping that "Here's Johnny".
(This article was first written for www.popcracker.com. To read more article and interesting pieces on pop-culture, visit www.popcracker.com)
There is a lot of excitement in the wonderful world of television. So much adventure, so many stories, so many colors and so many dramatic moments; what a journey it is in the world of television.
But other than a few very much observable things such as saas-bahu fights, devrani-jethani rivalries, when there is no twist left then killing off one of the central characters, and all. I'm talking of lesser-observed-taken-for-granted stuff.
Here are a few that I find really exciting:
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How is it that when there is a 10-15 year leap in a show, characters change or well their looks do; but their city always remains same. Why do the cities never change in 10yrs?? Take for example the recent leap I have observed in the show 'pavitra rishta' on Zee TV. The show has just shown a huge leap, I guess between 18-20yrs. So if before the leap the show, that is set in mumbai, showed the city as the year 2011 after the leap the show's time stream should be 2021. But no nothing has changed. Entire look and feel of the city is just the same.
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How easy it is on a show to either come back from dead or to find a 'judwa/ humsakal' i.e. a doppelganger. Especially In two situations;
A) When the vamp in the show is planning to get rid of d good bahu/beta of the family, by replacing them with their own puppet.
B) When the good bahu/ beta have died in an accident and suddenly voila! They are back. But behold is it really them??
Oh! And not just that, also I have rarely seen two ‘judwa’ (twin) siblings growing up together in the same house. The second one is always brought into the plot when the plot is lacking enough masala courtesy the vamps and villains.
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Another situation that gives me an LOL moment is that in almost every show, one crorepati family will definitely be going bankrupt and moving out of their mansion into a chawl. Because it’s so easy to go bankrupt on a show, all the time, esp. since all the men do in these shows are show involvement in either kitchen politics or romance.
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Oh! What is with the people who are supposed to represent middle class society, how do they get their hands on wearing different clothes everyday? I mean that. One day one dress, no repetitions. Wish I had a wardrobe so huge. Also when the previously rich family members move to a chawl, how come they still have such rich clothes to don, when at the time of their arrival they came empty handed. Alas! Hail the servant.....wait a second didn't they got fired already??
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And well my favorite out of all, the sisters who get married in same family to brothers, 4 out of 5 times elder sister will get married to the younger brother and younger one will be getting married to the elder brother.
And well 4 out of 4 times those sisters are bound to have conflict that would break their bond momentarily. And well 3 out of 4 times that series of conflict will begin when the elder sister is asked to touch her younger sister's feet as in the new family younger one is the elder, as per the Indian traditions. Well you can get so much of drama out of one formula itself.
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In almost 8 out of 10, the vamps of the show are the lalchi mammi’s or taiji’s (greedy aunts) or the insecure nand or devrani or jaithani of the central character (which I’m very causally assuming to be a female in all cases because that is how it is always.) Evil begins at home. Home is where all the politics of one’s life always lie.
P.S. over here I really should have said 10 out 10, but my terribly-shattered-but-undying faith in the changing face of Indian soap operas stopped me for a bit.
Well these are just few so-often-there-but-so-rarely-observed-facts from Indian television serials. Will keep adding to the list.
I recently chanced upon the show called Haar Jeet that airs on NDTV Imagine. My bad I didnt see this one before, due to its odd timings and my other favorites taking over the precedence.
Haar Jeet is a show about child actors. It is story of two cousins Mihika and Ishita. The former lives in a Sharanpur and nurses the dream to become a famous dancer but her over dominating father who himself swindles around in his business has no time to support dreams of his daughter until it shows any potential to be in his favour; while the former is already an established child star/actor in Mumbai. Ishita yearns for a normal childhood, going to school, playing with friends, etc. but her parents (esp. her mother) who are living a life in luxury with their daughter's earning are just concerned about shooting and payments.
About 2 years ago this trend of child stars/actors started in television industry in full vogue. I think I date it majorly back to Balika Badhu's popularity, where child actor Avika Gor's character Anandi create a huge fan following for her. This was followed by many other shows (mostly which I found to be historical in content) take on the Indian television serials with full vigor. Now kids were not just the 'natkhat' 'shaitan' bacche of colony to give comic respite, or just 'munna' 'munni' to complete a family in a family drama. Now theses Kids were protagonists, the central characters. This did give rise to a new talent base in the industry as kids performed wonders on small screen; but not only that it gave rise to a lot of new controversies and Human Rights issues as well.
Now the kids dominate the small screen, enjoying an equal space and respect as their elder counterparts, whether it is in reality shows, talent shows, or serials.
Coming back to Haar Jeet. The show is bit of a break from the old saas bahu tear jerking dramas. Yes I know many soaps say that they have grown away from the 'formula' but the truth is not so. This different story arc just lasts about 2-3 weeks, or 1 month, max to max 2 months; but after that everything comes back to square one girls shedding tears at their fates and fighting at home, the bitching, the vamp, the dramatic slaps and quick camera pans and tilts, etc etc.
Haar Jeet's protagonist is about two different sets of aspirations of two different kids; one who wishes to be famous due to her talent and other who is famous but yearns for a normal childhood. What is interesting is to watch the journey of kids and their rise and fall and friendship. It is sure to see a story from the point of view of child actor, literally. How they cope up to parents' expectations, parent's greed for money and fame, longing to get a normal childhood, their own dreams of becoming famous, etc.
Not that it is a perfect plot. No. Many a times the story slackens into bits of family drama, saas bahu arguments, disagreeing brothers, greedy parents, and cliches such as speaking broken English to maintain a social status of being from high class, etc.
I'm still waiting to see how long the child actors are able to stay both in the story and in the show, because for our television creatives 'time' is a very complex subject, sometimes it takes weeks for a single day to pass by and sometimes it just takes hours for decades to come and go.
But then thats our Television Industry. I'm yet to find a show that says that it is 'different' and then manages to stay true to its word for atlest even 6months to an year, if not any longer. But then so is sadly what the audience finds interesting and amusing, I think any change is not too much of a welcome, at lest that is what TRP charts tell me.
Oh ya, btw I really liked the Promo of the show as well.
This one should have been my first post for this blog....but the last one was more timely based and so couldn't have delayed it....So here goes the post that was supposed to be my first post of this blog
I just love TV....that is it. It’s as simple as that. I'm a TV Addict. Someone who can watch TV 24x7, I mean that literally 24x7. Night and day, day and night I can watch TV.
I think I understand this medium best. I live it; I breathe it and I work for it. Yes it is my bread and butter.
I will be using this blog to write everything that I feel about the small screen, lovingly referred to as an idiot box as well. But yes this is one Idiot box that often turns into a boss....commanding so much power as to bind the entire nation together in any sort of frenzy.
Though I'm not too old to be saying this, but yes, my relationship too with TV is as old as I can remember Doordarshan. I'm a proud part of the generation, which in fact did grow up on DD and its shows. I'm not one of those, who hides behind the cable TV lines of Dish TV antennas and say sh#@ things about DD. I love DD and still whenever I get time, I do make an effort to catch reruns of my favorite shows there.
I'm part of the generation that I guess might be one of the last ones to say that, 'yes, I remember the time when everything stood still in the country on Sunday mornings, with telecast of Ramayana and Mahabharata.' Buniyad, Nukaad, Virasaat, Fauji, Circus, Byomkesh Bakshi, Shri Krishna, Vikram Betaal, Flop Show, sea Hawks, Waagle ki duniya, Malgudi Days, He Man, Jungle Book, Ducktales, Shaktimaan, Zabaan Sambhal Ke, Shriman Shrimati, Alif Laila, chandrakanta, Captain vyom, Mulla Naseeruddin, Shanti, Swabhiman, Tales Spin……aur na jaane kitne shows yaad hain abhi bhi jaise ki ek dum taaza ho unka ehsaas.
TV is my life and my life line, my career and my passion, my heart and my heartbeat, my escape and my reality.
Simply put TV is my 1st LOVE!!!!!!!
So here it goes, this blog dedicated to TV, idiot box, small screen....what ever names you might call it with.
Well when you think you have seen it all, and you can guess about any show and its plot, still sometimes something might just throw you a bit of....
So today Sony Tv started with two new shows....one of them is 'Dekha Ek Khawaab'. The promos show that the story is about a young lower class girl, Muniya, who loves to dreams, big or small don’t matter for her. But one dream she holds is to be a princess, and what would happen if this dream were to actually come true. That is what this show is about.
Now I was expecting things like a long lost grandchild of a royal family, loads of unsatisfied demands, and Muniya's restlessness with her current social status.
What I found in the first episode did surprise me a bit. The girl Muniya is introduced on the show, with the dream of becoming a cleaner in a mall. Muniya is showing pleading her father to give her a chance to fulfill her dreams of working in a mall and that too as a cleaner. Now that is too much of an aspiration, I shall say.
By the last line I mean that the shows have an aspiration value to them always. It is always about an underdog rising in social and economic status. Pick any show that is what is common. A girl from a middle class family becomes bahu of a rich business family, a village girl aspires to study and become an officer, a girl from slums wishes to rise and become a boxer. Everything is about aspirations, as shows with aspirations have a bigger audience connect. The TV viewers, no matter what class they belong from, always have aspirations to rise above their own current standing; and that is the demand that the content creators are catering too.
But here is a show, which starts with a girl aspiring to be a cleaner in the mall. She is shown so happy wearing a cleaner's uniform, posing happily with the broom, and commenting on how she will make even a cleaner's job something that every girl will seek, once they see her (actual lines from the show, believe me).
Yes I am sure all that will change soon. As in the next day episode teaser, the girl is shown praying to become a princess and to be treated like royalty.
But still I found this particular introduction to the character quite interesting. It was a relief from my pre-conceived notions of what to expect from such a show after watching its promos; even though I know this relief will not last beyond the first week.
But till the time the plot goes back to cliches, I'm gonna surely see how long this girl's dream of aspiring to be a 'cleaner' in a mall will last. Hopefully praying for a change that aspirations are not always about going from slum to a palace.....
Here is a bit on the show that I found on a facebook page of the show. Now well I'm sure why my fear of cliches never leaves:
“Monia, a young girl lives in a chawl and like every other girl of her age a dream transports her into a fantasy world. However, one in a billion dreams does come true and Monia is the chosen one! But, what happens when dreams come true overnight? They bring with them a set of challenges, complexities and difficult decisions. Monia’s dream of turning into a princess has come true but like everything else it comes with a price. Fate listens to her and in an incredible twist of destiny, Monia suddenly finds herself to be the long lost daughter from the royal family of Devgarh. Thus begins the extraordinary journey of Monia as Princess which takes her to a dreamland.
Produced by Rose Movies, Dekha Ek Khwab promises to bring back the romance in storytelling with lavishly mounted sets, a powerful ensemble cast and an interesting storyline set against the backdrop of Indian Royalty.”
