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Soap Operas to Reality Shows: The Absurdity of Indian Television

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indian TV shows

From the very first Indian soap ‘Hum Log’ to present day soaps and reality shows, Indian television has grown undoubtedly, but not always for the better.

 

 

Indian television witnesses some of the longest running daily soaps with over 2000 episodes of over–hyped rhetorical drama. Their scripts have so far not been successful enough to conjure up a healthy dose of daily entertainment — without sending their audiences the wrong message. As the story of one serial after the other unfolded on screen, to be the “perfect” woman on Indian television, one needed to be a docile housewife and sacrifice everything for the family’s happiness. Drama is when people skip their meals, when someone is reincarnated with the same face, when even after taking leaps of six to ten years, they use the same technology that they used earlier. Mythological and historical series are somewhat information-bound, but paranormal shows are as unconvincing as forced smiles. Stories often drift away from the main plot. Adding to this are the visual effects used in shows like ‘Sasural Simar Ka’ aired on ColorsTV, ‘Baalveer’ on SabTV, and the conventional ghastly figurines in paranormal shows like ‘Aahat’.

Indian TV sow

 

With their upward sloping graph of TRP, reality shows are no less. The first reality show on Indian Television was ‘Bournvita Quiz Contest (BQC)’ which gained popularity in the 1980s. Reality shows not only break the monotony of drama series, but also serve as the perfect tool to satisfy voyeurism and, for some others, the irrepressible temptation to get their 60 seconds of fame. Though various shows have various formats, some of them have had their fair share of controversies and their credibility has occasionally been questioned with allegations that they are not as real as they claim to be. Shows like ‘Love School’ and ‘Emotional Atyachar’ are some reality shows that have often reeked of pretension and orchestrated drama. Shows like ‘The Bachelorette India’, ‘Mere Khayalon Ki Mallika’, and ‘Rakhi Ka Swayamvar’ are indubitably bogus.

Indian television entertainment will seemingly never change, or revolt, but it certainly offends. Its limits will be set by the ‘Indian’ morality, which will internalise and proselytise. The smaller screen is constructed in a way that is antithetical to the urban or modern life which has always pandered to what social scientists call ‘the agenda’ – issues of concern to the viewing audience.

 

 

Image Caption: While Indian television continues to provide us with a wide array of shows, it fails to be logical and convincing in the least

Image Credits: Youthbuzz.com

 

 

Radhika Boruah

[email protected]

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DU Annual Fest Season

Multiple competitive events and an EDM night lend energy to Day 2 of Montage, JMC

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The second day of Montage at Jesus and Mary College started off slow but soon picked up with multiple events taking place simultaneously. The Nukkad Natak or street play competition and the western group dance and choreography events had the audience enthralled. The energy was high in the front lawns as well as the auditorium, with the spectators hooting and cheering for their favourite performances.

The street play event saw the participation of ten teams from colleges across the University of Delhi. From drawing the crowd with their boisterous voices and contagious energy, the teams charged up the atmosphere in the fest. Among these, the theatre societies of Sri Venkateswara College and Shaheed Bhagat Singh College emerged victorious. Anubhuti bagged the first prize while Natuve came second. DramaNomics of the College of Vocational Studies was awarded a consolation prize.

Swaying to the rhythmic moves and portraying the brilliance of artistic bodies, Mudra, the western dance society, organised the choreography competition and western dance competition. After a confluence of soulful songs, endearing moves, and heart-warming stories, Terpsi Chorean from Hans Raj College bagged the first prize, and Sensation from Kirori Mal College received the second prize in the choreography event. This was followed by the Western Dance Competition. Zeal, Maitreyi College’s dance society, Misba, of Shri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, and Enliven, of Gargi College, were awarded the first, second, and third positions respectively.

Infusing an element of earful endearance, Tarannum organised the Single and Group Classical Singing Competition. Gargi College’s Indian Music Society, Samranjini emerged as the winner, followed by Alahyaa of Daulat Ram College and Hindu College’s Alankar.

The fest closed with a power packed performance by DJ Kerano, one of the biggest DJs and music producers in the country, where the crowd grooved to the beats, mixing up some amazing tunes such as ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ and ‘Yellow’!

Feature Image: Gerush Bahal for DU Beat

Anagha Rakta ([email protected])

Vineeta Rana ([email protected])

Nikhil Kumar ([email protected])

Saumya Kalia ([email protected])

Priyal Mahtta ([email protected])

 

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Uncategorized

Five Reasons Why Riverdale is the New Gossip girl

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riverdale tv series

 

It’s been only four years since one of our favourite dramas; Gossip Girl wrapped up its last season and left us wanting more. Luckily, the lord has mercy and with the emergence of Riverdale, a dark take on Archie and his crew, our weekly quota of gossip and glamour promises to be satisfied.

The leading ladies – honey and coal: Betty and Veronica remind us a lot of another iconic blonde and brunette duo, well yes Serena and Blair. Just like their hate-love relationship that survived through all odds, Betty and Veronica seem to share the same passionate dynamic.

The mogul mom -Veronica’s mother, Hermione Lodge, reminds us of a certain fashion mogul mother from Gossip Girl. Although she isn’t the founder of a successful fashion line like Eleanor Waldorf, she happens to be a newly single mom finding her way through.

The Manhattan Wardrobe – Veronica Lodge and Blair Waldorf seem to share the same outfits with their very prim and proper demeanor.

The writer – Jughead is clearly 2017’s version of lonely boy. Just like Dan Humphrey, Jughead is already painted as the moody, tortured writer who has an interesting past with the main characters. He’s also interestingly the narrator of the show so far, which is giving us major Gossip Girl vibes (XOXO).

The psychotic interjection – Cheryl Blossom, sister of the late Jason Blossom, gives off major Georgina Sparks flashbacks.. Just like Georgina’s scandalous friendship with Serena on Gossip Girl, there’s clearly some sort of history between Cheryl and Betty, and we’re intrigued to find out more. If this character is anything like Georgina, there’s only a matter of time before epic stuff goes down.

 

Anahita Sahu

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Arts & Culture

An Ode: 20 years of Harry Potter

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Harry Potter is a series of fantasy novels written by J.K Rowling which first appeared in 26th June, 1997 after being rejected by several publication houses. The books have found immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide. The series has now been translated into multiple languages including French, Irish, Spanish, German and Swedish to name a few. They have attracted a wide adult audience as well as younger readers, and are often considered cornerstones of modern young adult literature. As of May 2013, the books have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, making them the best-selling book series in history, and have been translated into seventy-three languages. The last four books consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history, with the final instalment selling roughly eleven million copies in the United States within twenty-four hours of its release.

The plot of the story needs no introduction, it seems that almost every young adult in this generation is familiar with Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, studying at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Their struggle against Lord Voldemort, the dark wizard who killed Harry’s parents has become an urban legend. Even after 20 years of Harry Potter’s first appearance, the hype created around this magical tale has persisted over time. As our generation grew, we saw parts of us and our lives reflected in the character’s laughter, tears, struggles and determination. A part of us waited with bated breath for our Hogwarts letter to arrive as we yearned to be a part of their magical world. We fantasized about being on Platform 9 ¾ , using Floo Powder, disappearing into the Room of Requirement, exploring Hogsmeade and Honeydukes, eating our hearts out at the grand feasts, possessing a Marauders Map, fighting in the resistance against Lord Voldemort and hoping for a love as deep as Severus had for Lily.

Harry Potter and his story lives amongst us and our hearts. It is a story we grew up with and we hope our future generations would grow up with as well. Today, we celebrate 20 years of Harry Potter in our lives, and here’s hoping we celebrate this momentous occasion again in another 20 years from today.

Till then, I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!

Feature Image Credits: YouTube

Joyee Bhattacharya

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DU Annual Fest Season

Montage’17 at JMC: Battle of Bands and Jasleen Royal steal the show on Day 1

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The first day at Montage 2017 – the Annual Cultural fest of Jesus and Mary College – began with Sister Rosily T.L. r.j.m, the officiating Principal of the college declaring the fest open which was followed by melodious gospels sung by the students of the college.

 

This was followed by ‘Adaah’- an event organised by Nrityanjali, the Indian Dance Society of JMC, which included the Indian Classical Solo competition and the Group Folk Dance competition. The competition was judged by Radhika Kathal and Hemant Pandey. The Indian Classical Solo saw energetic performances from the participants and Aishwariya and Raghav from Sri Venkateswara College won the first and second prizes, respectively. The third prize was won by Nimisha from Janki Devi Memorial College while Neha from Gargi College won a special prize.

In the Group folk dance competition, the participants filled the auditorium which tunes and energetic beats from across India. The competition, in which a total of nine teams participated, the first prize was won by Nupur, the folk dance society of Kamala Nehru College. The second and third prizes were won by Nrityakriti of Maitreyi College and Nazaakat of Gargi College, while the singer of the SGTB Khalsa’s team won a special mention for his exceptional performance.

Nupur, the folk dance society of Kamala Nehru College bagged the first spot in the Group Folk Dance competition

Echo, the western music society of JMC organised ‘Madrigal’ which included western group singing competition where students of the Western Music Society of Lady Shri Ram College bagged the first position followed by Sound Machine of St. Stephen’s College winning the second position and Aria of Hindu College securing the third position. In the event of ‘I like to duet x2’, Sparsh and Alankrita of LSR bagged the first position. For the event ‘Tap That Treble’, which was the western solo singing competition, Sparsh from LSR won the first prize and the second prize was bagged by David from St. Stephen’s College while the third position was jointly won by Sumer from Venky and Zachariah from Ansal University. ‘Battle of Bands’ was judged by Siby Mathew and Roshan Roy, with a total of seven participating bands and Tantrik Steve of Hansraj College gave the award winning performance.

LSR bagged top spot in the Western A capella 

The English Theatre Competition which was organised by the dramatics society was a patience testing game. The champion prize was bagged by Hindu College whereas the Runners Up was bagged by Shahid Bhagat Singh College. Zoya from DCAC won the best actor award.

With the competitive events calling it up a day, the enthusiastic crowd gathered to enjoy the concert by Jasleen Royal. The singer enthralled the audience with popular tracks like Kabira and Iktara along with her popular tracks from the film ‘Dear Zindagi’.

Featured image credits: Sahil Chauhan

Photography team: 

Prateek Singh ([email protected] )

Alex Arthur  ([email protected])

Sahil Chauhan ([email protected])

Correspondents: 

Anagha Rakta ([email protected])

Radhika Boruah ([email protected])

Baani Kasyap ([email protected])

Srivedant Kar ([email protected])

 

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DUB News

A pledge for misogyny? St.Stephen’s ANGA comes under fire for V-Day oath promoting misogyny

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ST Stphen

The latest video, showing the members of St. Stephen’s College’s ANGA taking a pledge on Valentine’s Day to promote misogyny, has caused a furore on the internet.

 

A video making the rounds of social media since 14th February, showing the members of St. Stephen’s College’s Alnutt North Gentlemen’s Association (ANGA) taking a pledge, has been grabbing a lot of eyeballs lately. The oath is taken in the Alnutt North men’s residence block alongside the block tutor every year, and has been a part of ANGA’s V-Day tradition for quite some time now. It is a ritual not unlike Hindu College’s Damdami Mayi Puja of the Virgin Tree on every Valentine’s Day. An eyebrow-raising aspect of it, however, lies in the fact that the men, in the name of “Liberty” and building a “paramount egalitarian fellowship”, simultaneously pledge “to philander exclusively with men” and to “promote among them all misogyny”.

A source, not wishing to be named, clarifies that though most of the boys participate in the ritual and head out for an ice-cream afterwards, it is nota compulsory oath. They are even told in advance, ‘supposedly’, that the pledge is all in good fun. It is not meant to be taken seriously under any circumstance, and the issue was never given such publicity or brought under the limelight before. With social media providing instant access these days and the video going viral, however, ANGA has come under direct attack from various student groups, some of which even claim to have been protesting in vain against the ritual for quite some time.

Responding to the immense backlash, ANGA states, “We as members of the ANGA family and the larger Stephanian family have always upheld its values actively, supporting the ideas of gender equality. The ANGA oath has traditionally been a mockery meant to take a dig at the institutionalised inequality that exists in our society. It was a clear expression of sarcasm… we believe that it is not right to exaggerate it to such a large extent… at the end of the day, we all belong to the larger Stephanian family. We will, in the future, continue to fight for issues of gender inequality. We are extremely saddened by this kind of misinterpretation of our intentions… [This was] never intended to start a war against the other gender.”

Caught between a battle of interpretations by DU’s various feminist students and women’s groups, and a round of clarifications by ANGA itself, the ritual stands contested. Whether this, or even the rituals like the one followed by Hindu College, ought to be followed or not, is an entirely separate debate altogether. As of now, the spotlight is on ANGA.

 

Deepannita Misra

[email protected]

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DUB Speak

From Masala to Content- a changing paradigm in audiences’ theatrical choices

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Indian films audience choices

The Bollywood film industry has been the largest producer of drama, action,comedy and romance for over a century now. Owing to its growing popularity, there’s hardly someone who hasn’t watched a Bollywood flick in all its “masala” glory at least once in their life. Creating its own genre, our country’s film industry has served masala in all its possible mix that has been received “with love” by the audience.

 

The genre, which is like an overdone assortment of all the four major genres, whilst sewing the fabric of the main plot of the film, serves to the Indian audience a fool-proof entertainment formula. A “macho” do-it-all hero, a pretty sidekick whose role is to display her beauty and incompetence to the hero, a villain in a constant tussle with the invincible “Bhai”, these masala flicks never fail to take home bags full of earnings and applause from the audiences. With the increased love for this genre, Bollywood’s filmmakers and audience have found their comfort zone here and do not seem too inclined to be taking a turn from serving the cinemas with this overused yet lucrative recipe.

 

It would, however, be unfair to not acknowledge the emergence of a more meaningful and content based cinema in the recent times. It is in fact, heartening to know that a certain section of the audience regards and immensely appreciates the presence of such cinema. This paradigm shift has been visible only in the past few years, beginning with box office success of movies like Rang de basanti, Lage Raho Munna Bhai and Taare Zameen Par to name a few.

 

Although, the demand for “masala” still fares high due to the diversity of interests and expectations of the audiences. People from all backgrounds look up to cinema with their own expectations of it. Interestingly, a large chunk looks up to it as a respite from their daily struggles where Shahrukh Khan’s romance or Salman “Bhai”’s effortless action pulls them away from the stresses they’ve burdening themselves with, albeit temporarily, thus creating a constant demand for masala. Despite this, there has been a remarkable shift in the audience’s choice of cinema. This shift can be observed from their increased inclination to Hollywood in the recent times. Primarily observed among the youth, viewers may not always be as excited to watch the latest SRK or Salman Bhai release, but they might be inclined towards picking the latest Hollywood flick. Moreover, the very rise in the supply of content based movies like Udta Punjab, Masaan or Dangal proves the changing demand of the Indian audiences.

 

This shift, must make us Indians proud of our evolution from an escapist towards an enlightened audience.

 

Priyal Mahtta

[email protected]

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DU Annual Fest Season

Day 3 at Reverie’17 : Shalmali Kholgade and Sanya Malhotra enthral the audience at Gargi

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Day 3 at Reverie, the annual cultural fest of Gargi College, kicked off with enthralling performances in the Western Acapella competition by various groups. A total of eleven colleges performed at the event which was judged by Sherry Matthews and Clayton Dubbeam. Echo, the Western Music Society of Jesus and Mary College, emerged as winners, and the first runner-ups and the second runner-ups were Kamla Nehru College and Shiv Nadar University respectively. 

Check out a glimpse of the Western Acapella

The day continued with the Western Duet Competition and the Western Solo Competition. For the Duets, Kishore and Riya from Amity University, Noida were declared winners. The runner-ups were Kislaya Rishiraj from Sri Venkateswara College and Piya Podder from Kamla Nehru College. In the Solos, the winner was Isha from Gargi, the first runner-up was Kishore from Amity and the second runner-up was Anurag from Delhi Technological University.

RJ Khurafati Nitin from Fever 104 also came to the fest as a speaker at the event. He promoted his new talk show At Fever 104 and made the audience laugh with his sketch. Q.E.D. the Debating Competition saw the participation of many colleges. Anmol from Sri Venkateswara College secured the first position and Aditya from P.G.D.A.V. College secured the second position, while Saumya Verma from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College stood third.

The next event was Cursive-iti, which was the Western Choreography Competition, which saw nine participating groups from various colleges. Gargi College came first for their performance on the lines of Alice in Wonderland. The first runner-ups were Hansraj College and the second runner-ups were Lady Shri Ram College.

Sanya Malhotra, who played Babita Phogat in the Aamir Khan starer Dangal, and an alumnus of Gargi College, graced the stage of her alma mater with co-star Aparshakti Khurana. The two actors danced to hits like Dhaakad and London Thumakda and answered some questions from their fans.

 

 

Reverie ended with an electrifying closing performance by popular Bollywood singer Shalmali Kholgade. She charmed the audience with her melodious voice and super hit tracks like Pareshaan, Raabta and Agar Tum Saath Ho among other popular Bollywood tracks. Reverie, the annual cultural fest of Gargi College wrapped up with a powerful performance, which shall be cherished until next year!

 

Feature Image credits: Jasmine Chahal for DU Beat 

Joyee Bhattacharya

([email protected])

Anagha Rakta
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Nikhil Kumar
[email protected]

Srivedant Kar

[email protected] 

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Events

WDC Miranda House in collaboration, hosts The South Asian Young Women Leadership Conclave

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The High Commission of Canada in India, in association with the Women’s Development Cell of Miranda House, National Commission for Women and Women’s Feature Service, organised a dialogue on Women leadership and empowerment, from 8-10 February at the India Habitat Centre.

Over the 3 days, the South Asian Young Women Leadership Conclave saw participation of people from different walks of life- with only one aim in mind, to discuss women’s issues and development.
Unlike the event in 2016 when women members of the Parliament participated in the regional dialogue, this year, the High Commission of Canada invited 7 delegates from South Asian countries, all young women leaders, to represent women’s issues from their cultures, religions and countries.

The session was opened by Jess Dutton, The Deputy High Commissioner as he welcomed the young women from India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

The day spanned out with four sessions on women in Leadership, women in politics, women as agents of change in the society and ended with a panel discussion on the regional perspective of the 7 delegates.

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Numerous eminent speakers from different spheres of society spoke on the issue during the session, including Shehla Rashid; Youth Activist from JNU, Karuna Nundy; Senior Advocate- Supreme Court, Kamla Bhasin; Activist and founder of South Asian Feminist Network, Sangat and many more.
The only man in the panel, Jay Panda, National Spokesperson of Biju Janata Dal, debarred the common notion of feminism only being a female’s movement. “You don’t need to be a female to be a feminist.” he said. “Feminism never taught us to hate men, but to hate patriarchy.” Shehla Rashid added later on.

Throughout the three days, issues like the concept of Sarpanchpati, elitism in the feminist movement, laws governing women’s rights were taken up.

With different points of view coming in, all intertwined in one conclusion of gender sensitisation being important at every level of the society. “Be an undercover gender activist at all levels” Shazia Ilmi, Vice President of BJP Delhi Unit advised.

Image Credits- Azfar Ahmed

Vibhana Kanwar
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DUB Speak

The Great Indian Budget 2017

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Widely seen as an optimistic panacea to the aftermath of demonetisation and the precursor to the GST Bill coming in July this year, we analyse what all Mr. Arun Jaitley’s attaché case has in store for the nation.  We will also tell what the student community can take away from the Budget.

 

On the 1st of February this year, the world watched as the 2nd fastest growing economy of the world came with its economic report card for the previous financial year and its economic aspirations, hence the resource allocation for the next term. In every way a far lesser populist with more fundamental and less big-ticket reforms, long term results driven, this minimalist and fiscally prudent budget can well be seen as being the better one of the NDA regime. Finance supremo Jaitley has presented this fourth budget with acute attention on distinct areas concerning, inter alia, agriculture, rural India, infrastructure, education, youth and, most importantly, digital economy.

On the face of it, Budget 2017 is aimed to the reduction of tax burden on the endangered section of the population and aims at more wealth creation from the richer section of the society, given the expectations of higher tax compliance post demonetisation. With the deduction in tax rate of the Rs. 2,50,000 – 5,00,000 income category from 10% to 5%, the purchasing power of the lower middle class is bound to increase, mitigating the pains of the class worst hit by demonetisation. The fiscal deficit, which is the difference between the total revenue and the total expenditure of the government, is projected to come down to 3.2%, much in compliance to the 3%, as laid down in the economic survey of India. Pushing forward to its commitment to digital economy, a mission has been set up with a target of 2,500 crore digital transactions for 2017-18 through UPI, USSD, Aadhaar Pay, IMPS and debit cards. The fund for NABARD (Rs. 35k crore) and MNREGA (Rs. 48k crore) has been increased, further making room for direct investment in agriculture and dairy giving a much needed impetus to the rural development. Affordable housing is the cherry on the cake as the government has granted it an infrastructure status, thereby enabling housing developers to avail benefits granted to infrastructure sector, along with tax relaxation and other incentives.

On the objective side of things, the prices of generic medicines, railways tickets among other things will be slashed. Cost of undergoing non-residential courses at IIM’s is set to become cheaper to an extent after the proposed exemption of service tax. Prices of mobile-phones, in lieu of the hike of the price of circuit boards, currently unavailable indigenously, and tobacco products are slated to increase.

Fuelled by the reduction in income tax rates for smaller companies with annual turnover up to INR 50 crore from 30% to 25% and hence granting more flexibility on loss carry forward and liberalisation of tax holiday regime for start-ups, announcements of further liberalisation and abolition of Foreign Investment Promotion Board to increase FDI and ease of doing business, extension of the sunset clause of the 5% concession tax rate on qualifying foreign debt from June 2017 to June 2020 and the extension of profit-linked deductions to 3 out of 7 years and timeline to claim MAT credit to 15 years, government has made its intention clear that more start- ups shall mean more efficient employment.

Criticisms also surrounded the budget citing the less capital allotment to education, healthcare and PSUs. Sure, capital investment has always been considered extremely important for the long-run growth of any modern economy. But current capacity utilization across sectors in India is around 67%. This means that there is substantial spare capacity and any move to artificially force investments into the system will lead to the kind of capital inefficiency that has brought China to its knees. Of course, as per the budget, overall capital expenditure is up 25.4% but most of that should be on infrastructure to support the theme of bringing the markets to the under-served.

With its agenda of Transform, Energise and Clean India and thrashing the Universal Basic Income, a message resounding clear is that this government has no plans of distributing freebies and unearned largesse. As the government paves way to the minimisation of its role in the economy, it consolidates its vision of a different route to development, not doles and all-appeasing benevolence.

Image credits- Businesstoday.in

Nikhil Kumar

[email protected]

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