Indian TV Show's Love for Melodrama

What is Melodrama??

     - Melodrama is a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting          events intended to appeal to the emotions.

When I was a kid, I used to love the TV shows back then. There were shows like Hum Paanch, Tu Tu Main Main, Family #1, Just Mohobbat, Hip Hip Hurray, etc. They were genuinely funny and I could relate myself to the characters. Today, the quality of the  TV shows have deteriorated drastically. The actors don't know how to act, the situations are surreal and whatnot. These TV shows can be categorized on the basis of their genre. Let's take up each genre one by one.

I'm going to start with comedy. We all remember the classics, right!? Hum Paanch, Tu Tu Main Main, Family #1, Hadd Kar di, Mrs. Madhuri Dixit, Chutki Baja Ke, and the list is never ending. I mean it, I can go on for hours. One thing you may notice is that most of these shows were telecasted on the ZEE Network. Honestly, I can't relate to today's comedy TV shows at all. One thing that was common among all the older comedy shows was that the story revolved around a middle class family, just like mine. The quality of writing was amazing. Today, no comedy show can survive without the fake applause and laughter added during the editing. A few comedy shows, that I believe, have stood out in these modern times are Sarabhai VS Sarabhai and Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashma. Sarabhai VS Sarabhai is, without a single doubt, the best Indian comedy I've ever seen. The writing was hilarious, the cast was awesome and these guys knew how to act since they were all established actors. This show has set a standard so high, that it can be matched by no other. The characters were so well defined and the situations that were created were also believable. But let's talk about Tarak Mehta. The show is filled with Melodrama. The show runs for 30 minutes but almost half of the time, all you can see is close-ups of all the members of Gokul Dham Society, with juvenile music playing in the background specific to each character. But such melodramatic techniques may be acceptable in a comedy. This is true for every single TV show that is telecasted on the SAB TV Network. The TV shows on SAB TV are the very definition of Melodrama. But Sarabhai VS Sarabhai goes to show that good comedy doesn't need fake laughter in the background. If the writing is good, the audience will remember the comedy for a life time.

Sarabhai vs Sarabhai

Hum Paanch

Family #1

MTV and Channel V currently telecast a number of High School Dramas. Ask yourself, have you ever seen a high school where all students look like they're 22 years old supermodels, or a high school where all the walls of a classroom are used for graffiti? The students dress up like they're going out for a party and the principal is the coolest guy in the world because he's okay with all these shenanigans going around the school. The cast is filled with good looking guys and girls who don't know how to act. They've been casted in the show only for one reason, i.e., their good looks. None of them know how to act. And I'm saying this because they don't make their conversation or the situation seem real at all. When they act, it's like watching a kinder garden play, filled with exaggerated reactions and one feels like that they're just reciting lines they've mugged up.  When I was young, I used to watch a show called Hip Hip Hurray( I'm gonna wait for some applause ). That show had a great cast. It was a stepping stone for many successful actors we know today - Suchrita Pillai-Malik, Purab Kohli, Shweta Salve, Shabir Sebastian Ahluwalia, Vishal Malhotra, Vinay Pathak, Kishwer Merchant, Mohan Kapoor, Sanjai Mishra. I could relate to that show so much. The Students were always in full uniform, the teachers used to take classes, their conversations were believable. And the best part was that their acting was very believable and you couldn't make out the difference. There was melodrama in this show too but it wasn't so much that you'd feel annoyed and you'd stop watching this show.

Finally, I would like to discuss the Indian Soap Operas. Melodrama has always been part of the Indian TV industry. But the TV show that really raised the bar for melodrama in India was( Drum Roll please............. ) Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. The credit goes to Ekta Kapoor of course. That BI*** !!! Ruined Indian Television for all of us. That's the show that pioneered the " Khai Mein Girna ; Then Plastic Surgery Kara Ke Wapas Ana " move. This move has been used by many TV shows over the years and the most recent use was in the show "Ek Mutthi Aasmaan" on the ZEE Network. It was also one of the first show to start the " Family Close-Ups " move whenever something shocking happened in the family. Since that show ended almost 6 years ago, other TV shows have come a long way. Now, no episode of any Indian Soap Opera is complete without some woman crying a river. Every single Soap Opera, today, has a number of beautiful new faces, none of whom know how how to act. I mean, I can put up with all the melodrama, if I see some good acting and a decent story. But I think I'm out of luck.

Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi

But why do we love TV Melodrama?

Wrong question. Who said we loved melodrama !? We're being forced to watch it. The majority Indian audience watches these shows because they don't have a choice. Every month a new TV show is launched on some new TV Network. And, you guessed it right, the show is filled with melodramatic shit. But why do the producers of these shows choose to launch a melodramatic show? Let me explain why. Ultimately, they are here to do business. They analyse the history of TV shows aired in India. They find that the most watched TV shows in India are highly melodramatic and, therefore, they place their safest bet by going for another typical melodramatic TV show. I blame Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi for all this. I think it's the mother of all these new over-the-top melodramatic TV shows. Before this show was launched, we had better Soap Operas( You may remember some of these ) like Kora Kagaz, Saas, Kabhi Sautan Kabhi Saheli, etc. Ask you mother about these shows. She'll agree that these shows had content and did not depend on beautiful faces and exaggerated acting. These shows casts included some of the biggest names in Indian TV industry. One of the main reasons the producers today make such melodramatic shit is because of lack of content. To compensate for the lack of content, they cast fresh new faces who look like supermodels. It usually works. To prove my point, how many of you guys watched "Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai" for Heena Khan( Akshara )?

This is how is works. The producers launch a show with a predetermined story. It takes a few months for the show to tell the story to the audience. After the main story ends, there's no turning back. They create another situation / turn in the story and stretch the show for another year. During the "stretch period", the show get's low on ratings and finally they cancel the show. This cycle repeats itself with some other show. This is how our TV Industry works.

The most Fu***d part is that people watch all these shitty TV shows because they don't have any other option. The Indian Television industry forces us to watch melodrama. It's not a cultural thing. We're being forced to watch it !!!