Tear-jerkers lose steam

Filmmaker Vinta Nanda, who has directed White Noise on the hypocritical world of Indian television, says the age of family tear-a-minute soaps is over.

"The age of the ‘saas-bahu’ serials is ending," says Nanda, who wrote Tara, one of the most successful soaps ever on Indian television.

"For some years, people just stopped making progressive serials. Every character was tremendously traditional and all old stereotypes were being reinforced". This is what White Noise starring Rahul Bose and Koel Purie portrays.

Purie plays a script writer for a TV soap who is forced to write a picture-perfect storyline that is far removed from the reality she sees around her, even in her own life.

"There is huge hypocrisy in what these serials portray," said Nanda. "The lives that people lead are very different. The parts the actors play are desperately removed from reality. So you have a woman who plays a religious mother-in-law but calls for a cigarette the moment her shot is over. It’s something that would never happen in the world of the male-dominated themes of these serials. But that’s the reality."

Rahul Bose plays a sound engineer who comes from abroad to work in the serial Purie’s character is writing. "He was amused and astounded by what he sees, by the lives that are being portrayed in these serials. And he constantly points out the difference in Koel’s life and the life she is writing about. In the process, there are some demons he fights too."

The tale is largely drawn from her own experience, said Nanda, about the film.

"When these family soaps came, I was thrown out of job. There were no takers for the stories I wanted to tell. The whole marketing machine was geared towards promoting the popularity of such films. I didn’t know what to do." She blames it a bit on the politics of the country.

"When the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power and Sushma Swaraj the information minister — everything became about women always in saris, always sacrificing and obedient.

"No one wanted strong, rebellious women." But now, she said, things are getting better. "Of late, the demand for my type of stories is growing again. The mother-in-law versus daughter-in-law kitchen politics stories are on their way out. No more saas-bahu."

Her next projects are a love story and one on a child widow in Rajasthan. "I want to explore every storyline possible," said Nanda. — IANS

HOME