Mega Mega Serials

"Arasi is a woman with a prominent role in the society and also deeply cares for her family. Infact the nation and the family are her two eyes. The alias for self-confidence is Arasi. Every woman will start feeling strong and confident after seeing her. The serial is all about the innumerable number of problems that this woman faces and how she tackles them all" - Here here, but wait, isnt the last line the common theme of all mega serials these days? How many more hours and hours and hours of glycerine and 'men-are-all-morons' scenes gona be shot and played on the small screen? Quite understandably, the target audience is the common house maker who is constantly kept under the impression that women still suffer in the society.

How can all possible problems in this world come to one woman? And mostly, the problem creator will be another woman. Who else can cause problems anyway? If the trouble-makers for the noble heroine are men-morons, then, they will be villians! simple, they dont need a reason to be so. The fact they are born men is enough. But ladies who cause problems are still common women and they do it because they have a deep dark flash-back that justifies their deeds (well, acceptable, this is gona give us 15 more episodes). After all, they have also been good in their past and you know, the situation made them do it. You, men, are always bad.

It is high time these producers realize how much they are influencing the common (wo)man's mind and poisoning it with a wrong perception of things happening around them. "adiye kanaka, pona velli kezhamai kokila thookula thongita di. nekku heart-e nindhu pochu theriyumo? rendu naal sani nyayiru kaiyum odala kaalum odala. thinga kezhama anniku dhan therinjudhu idhu ellam agalya-voda kanavu nu. abba, appodhan enaku mooche vandhudhu" - tiz is a very common discussion these days. The simpler mortals around, who are not-so-(un)fortunate to get into the net of mega serials, are yet learning to differentiate between those dialogues that reflect reality and those that reflect the agalyas-selvis-kalkis.

Either way, these set of serials have ended up ruining my evenings with cricket matches and Nayanthara dances. "Nayanthara-va ennada pathutruka? Avale rendu kerchief-a kattitu aadra. Vaaya mooditu paaru, ee poida pordhu ulla. sari sari, sun TV mathu, inniku anandhi ava purushanuku vesham vekka pora, pakanum". Which is evil? But you see, Anandhi happens to be Abhi's sister and Abhi happens to be the lead role, so she has the rights - even to spoil my one-sided-assumed-date with Nayanthara! (this reminds me, hafta write a blog about Nayanthara - sema hot machi!)

All said and done, serials when I was a kid were interesting and good. Vizhudhugal, Ethanai Manidhargal, Yugam, Sea hawks (Niki Aneja .. am drooling!), Anniyan, Kanoon, Naya Nukkad and so on. And my favorite was Junoon. This is the java.lang.Object of all MegaSerial classes. (means the ancestor/parent of all the mega serials). It was, yeah, interesting and served to create one separate stream of Tamil - Junoon Tamil - "Vara mudiyuma inga konjam?", "Thara mudiyadhu unkitta indha book-a nan", "Kolladha enna nee pesi pesi", "Poitaru ticket vangitu un thatha, vaa seekiram nee kelambi" - Where else could we have heard these? WoW, hats off!

But the ones these days are mundane, but capturing just enough for the target audience. And the mass influence these create is beyond tell-tales, and it is definitely not on the positive side. I hope these serials are replaced with something beter, or atleast something that is not so drastically and so profusely boring.!

Anyone ok for a protest against these megaserials? Count me in.

Footnotes
1. Uma, I am happy you have stayed so long in TV and managed to stick with Pepsi ungal choice without diverging to serials. Please stay away from them, talk with people on the phone and make them happy.

2. Pavithra, you are gorgeous! Please do keep modelling for Alukkas and the other saree showrooms. Everytime I go below Anna flyover towards Nungambakkam, I cant help stare at the big hoarding of yours for some saree showroom (Never bothered to look which one, guez it is Manmandir). You are too good for serials, please dont venture into them. After Isha Gopikkar, you will be the best face they can find for jewellery ads, cant afford to see your eyes full of glycerine and tears pouring down that beautiful face. Megaserials are for lesser mortals ;)

3. Anyway, I do like some of the ladies who are regular-faces in these serials - Aishwarya, Pooja, Priyadarshini .. Always wanted to ask one question to u guyz - is the glycerine separate sponsor or a part of the pay package? nevertheless, if any of you happen to read this blog, feel free to comment. And do drop in a mail here: sravantaurus@yahoo.com :P