When the clock strikes seven in the evening, it triggers a chain reaction across households in the city. Women all over Chennai, abandon whatever they were doing, and reach for the TV remote control. Its time for the Tamil soap operas on Sun TV!! Starting at seven in the evening, they go on till eleven in the night, with the exception of the half hour of news from eight to eight thirty. It has become a way of life for people now.
Soap operas or “soaps” are called so, because when they were first started, they were sponsored by soap companies. The name stuck, and in due course, it became a television genre by itself. These soaps are normally stories which have very intricate storylines, which usually involve a large joint family and the problems the family suffers. It beats me. How can a family only have problems?? Can good things never happen to a family? It’s always the scheming woman who tries to break up the family because she is in love with her sister’s husband, or pre-marital affairs, murder, evil business tycoons...the works! All this is tightly packed into one neat little package, called a mega -serial. But what beats me more is how people can actually sit down and watch seven mega-serials in one day! I just don’t get how people like to watch women bawling away, testing the capacity of their tear glands! Maybe they should be called sob operas! But wait, there’s more. The average mega-serial runs for more than 400 episodes. And with each episode ending on a cliffhanger, it keeps people coming back for more crying sessions.
Most serials on TV (read Tamil soaps) are female-centric. Not only are women the target audience, but the stories normally revolve around one or two women. The woman plays the protagonist in these serials. While one of them is the evil, scheming daughter-in-law (since they are both in the same family), the other is the good girl, who is portrayed as the traditional, holy and pious girl who is made of sugar, spice and everything nice and has every other good virtue one can think of. This is why women like to watch these serials so much. And these serials can do strange things to people. Women get so involved in these stories and sometimes think that they are part of the scene itself. I have seen women talking to the characters in the serial. Imagine, you walk in home and you find someone talking to the TV set! But wait, it gets better. If they miss a show, there’s no end of cribbing and they make it a point to find out what happened to the girl who ran away with her boyfriend. I’ve heard people saying, “What happened to Selvi?”, “What did Padmini do to Ravi?” or “That horrible man deserved to go to prison! But he got away scot-free!”
Now, soaps are ok, since they have loads of entertainment value and are interesting to watch. But I still don’t know why these soaps have to show only tears, and no laughter. I don’t get it. I, for one, would rather watch Tom and Jerry!
Soap operas or “soaps” are called so, because when they were first started, they were sponsored by soap companies. The name stuck, and in due course, it became a television genre by itself. These soaps are normally stories which have very intricate storylines, which usually involve a large joint family and the problems the family suffers. It beats me. How can a family only have problems?? Can good things never happen to a family? It’s always the scheming woman who tries to break up the family because she is in love with her sister’s husband, or pre-marital affairs, murder, evil business tycoons...the works! All this is tightly packed into one neat little package, called a mega -serial. But what beats me more is how people can actually sit down and watch seven mega-serials in one day! I just don’t get how people like to watch women bawling away, testing the capacity of their tear glands! Maybe they should be called sob operas! But wait, there’s more. The average mega-serial runs for more than 400 episodes. And with each episode ending on a cliffhanger, it keeps people coming back for more crying sessions.
Most serials on TV (read Tamil soaps) are female-centric. Not only are women the target audience, but the stories normally revolve around one or two women. The woman plays the protagonist in these serials. While one of them is the evil, scheming daughter-in-law (since they are both in the same family), the other is the good girl, who is portrayed as the traditional, holy and pious girl who is made of sugar, spice and everything nice and has every other good virtue one can think of. This is why women like to watch these serials so much. And these serials can do strange things to people. Women get so involved in these stories and sometimes think that they are part of the scene itself. I have seen women talking to the characters in the serial. Imagine, you walk in home and you find someone talking to the TV set! But wait, it gets better. If they miss a show, there’s no end of cribbing and they make it a point to find out what happened to the girl who ran away with her boyfriend. I’ve heard people saying, “What happened to Selvi?”, “What did Padmini do to Ravi?” or “That horrible man deserved to go to prison! But he got away scot-free!”
Now, soaps are ok, since they have loads of entertainment value and are interesting to watch. But I still don’t know why these soaps have to show only tears, and no laughter. I don’t get it. I, for one, would rather watch Tom and Jerry!
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