At the end of each episode, it poses a question or makes a statement about the nature of conflict being represented in the episode. The question or statement is read out and also appears in text form at the bottom of the screen. The use of text to articulate the conflict interested me because it made me wonder what kind of complex conflict was being represented that could not be communicated through the usual entertainment format of an episodic serial. The whole point of the televised episodic story is to play on the audience’s emotions rather than intellect. The serial is an emotional ventilator that operates more or less in a binary format where there are the proverbial two sides of the coin - one good, the other bad. Was it just a device to make the serial seem ‘intellectual’? And yet, here was a serial that presented text at the end of each episode, thereby offering several perspectives to an issue. I see the serial in the context of two media-related phenomena. One is that almost all mass media content is dominated by the entertainment platform even news and current affairs are beginning to look like reality shows. On the other hand, serials are becoming more frivolous. Yet here was a serial articulating Indian social realities both in drama as well as in literary text at the end of every episode. The other phenomenon is the use of traditional drama to convey serious and modern messages to audiences that are essentially looking for pure entertainment. Two programmes in Marathi stand out here. One is Tickle Te Political and the other Daar Ughada Na Gade. The use of text, as much as of folk media formats in entertainment programmes that deal with serious and modern conflicts, and the acceptance of these formats by audiences is, to my mind, an indication that audiences want to intellectually engage with social conflicts, albeit on an entertainment platform.īalika Vadhu uses the traditional drama format very effectively what is interesting is the textual input.īoth use the traditional vag and tamasha formats of entertainment to present serious and complex social and political issues. Our values, morals and ethics were handed down to us by storytellers more than philosophers and thinkers.
What is significant is that the mass media is now making adjustments in format to deal with Indian realities.Īs I write, a teenager in the family (in the serial) has stolen money to fund the little pleasures of a computer game. He is influenced by another teenager who has been sent back to the village from the city because of his vagabond ways. Statement: ‘It often happens that a teenager is unable to determine what is right or wrong’. One might say that is stating the obvious.
However, what is significant is that the statement, in so many words, articulates the cause of the conflict that is to follow. Once such a statement is made, it is a challenging task to keep the balance between the serial’s entertainment value and its educative potential. Any wrong move could make the story didactic and lose audiences. Moral endings are nice to watch early in the morning when the children have gone to school, teenagers are still asleep, and the husband is reading the newspaper over a cup of tea. But at 8 pm, when the husband has returned from work, the pressure cooker is being put on the gas, and the dough is ready to be made into rotis, nobody wants doses of ethics and morality. So, are only women watching this serial? It would appear that the dominant majority does comprise women.
I have heard many teenage girls discussing the serial.
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