[Reader-list] Genaralizations and Social cliche's in TV Soaps- Posting 5

[Indu Verma]

Generalizations & Social Clichés in TV Soaps: 
  5th Posting by INDU VERMA 
   
   
   
  Literally...If looks could kill.....  I bet you'll drop dead.  
   
  With red streaks in her hair, Grey eyes popping out of her glasses, wearing ultra modern outfit with greasy make-up she barged in the office searching for the assistant to attend her on priority basis. Of course, we all sitting in the lobby recognized her but she refused to share a look. All being television actors carry huge ego, so a similar reaction was justified in return. 
   
  Now starts the game where the assistants got to balance the situation, giving equal attention to everybody. One by one, actors including me, went in to meet the director. The director looked pretty confused, and my meeting finished pretty fast in comparison to others. Basically we were the selected lot and were there to sign the deal, just after the meeting. But I didn't or for that matter they did not choose me for the role.
   
  Reason? 
   
  He just could not decide whether I would carry a negative look which they were looking for. Believe me the only girl finalized was the one with Grey eyes , where the director knew she was wearing lenses, but he was too lazy to imagine others with the same look . That was a short-cut to his creative imagination where he did not even bother to strain his mind on creating an actor into a character.
   
  This is a generalized notion today where we all accept heavy make-up, Grey eyes and unbelievable hair style, an asset to a Grey shade character. Also a possible scenario is created in our soaps where these characters fit in perfectly against the main protagonist of the show. As per the demand, they  conveniently transform on episode to episode basis. Another regular feature is to opt for the in-laws of the “Bahu”(generally the main protagonist) to do the needful.
   
  I had the oppurtunity to play a Grey shade character in one of our famous dailies. I was lucky to look 'Myself' and yet play the shade. Of course some of the situations given were unbelievable, yet better in comparison to others. 
   
  But this was hillarious!  
   
  The main protagonist, at a particular point in the story, was supposed to slap me tight. She at first did not agree to do such a scene as she was shit scared to slap a co- actor. Every time she would rehearse and stop at a point where she was about to approach towards me. I had to really convince her, that I would not mind and she can slap me in reality and not cheat the action.
   
  Finally one fine shot, she managed to overcome her hesitation and slapped me hard, but as she hit me, before I could react, she immediately started crying and started apologizing and did not even wait  for director's call to cut the scene. We all burst out laughing as I was the one who was supposed to cry, and she was to go on yelling even after the slap. Finally we had to take the scene in separate  shots as in “close-ups” where she only cheated slapping someone and I had to separately react. 
   
  A contrast to the above shade is of course positive, but what we see on television is something, which the Indian audience falls in love with. A character, which is clean, humble, and someone, who is always a sympathy seeker. All female oriented shows (as the target audience is household women)  narrate the story of a woman who faces the hardships (all we have is SAAS or other in-laws) of life and struggle to change the negative characters into positive ones. Come what may she struggles  generation after generation and remains nice and loyal to the family. She in a way is the lifeline of the show. She is generally the most important ingredient to the TRP recipe.
   
  Wonder how the women in India manage to believe or for that matter identify with such characters?
   
  I think I know the answer. The visualization of their ideal character is somewhere close to the  television protagonist. She works as the emotional support for the household women and they in turn sympathize with her at every stage of her life. 
   
  I have heard my grandmother saying, “ Bichaari har pal marti rahti hai, phir bhi iski saas ko shanti nahi milti”. 
   
  But there is another angle to these positives and negatives. How do they survive?
   
  What do they do to earn their bread and butter?
   
  It is a shown fact that all of them always belong to high class well off families, but do the members ever go to work, or their office revolves around home and family matters?
   
  How come there is always a huge drawing-room in every house and everybody sits all dressed-up in a semi-circle?
   
  Such questions and many more will never find answers till the show has a story. 
   
  ........till there is a beginning and an end to a story.
   
  Shooting for a show, I by chance asked the director, Sir I enter the room and start searching for something. What is it that I'm searching? 
   
  He coolly replied, It hasn't been written as of now, when the revelation point comes later in the story, we'll think of something.
   
  The show ended but I still do not know what it was.
   
  We actors are now pretty used to playing scenes mechanically as the emotions are enacted by the camera, dialogue by the number of cuts, and motivation I guess is itself decided by the audience.
   
  Pardon me for saying the truth, but we all know the story of the show, we all know what will happen next even before it is shown on the screen.........
   
  because it is a regular feature in every episode, same in all the soaps, generalized version in all the stories featuring cliché characters
    
  ..........Yet we continue to WATCH!

				
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