Monday, July 7, 2008

Yet another epic on the small screen..

Kahani Hamari Mahabharat Ki started to be aired on 9X Channel, …special thanks to TV Baron Ekta Kapoor. In this era of multimedia and animated films, where our children are glued to the TV sets to watch their favourite cartoon characters (Doreamon, Sinchan, Kitretchu etc.) swing in from every corner under the sky or yet blindly admire their cricket idols all throughout the year, it is indeed a boon to enhance their knowledge in these epics…..Ramayan & Mahabharat. It is also a relief for the people of our generation who are exhausted to watch the never ending Saas Bahu saga or the so called reality shows or even the much more pathetic 24 hours NEWS CHANNELS on the idiot box…...ooops I mean TV.

Todays’ children are not in the habit of reading books outside their school syllabus; thanks to our education system and the socio cultural fabric of our society. They are either burdened with unit tests every week or to fulfil their parents’ dreams to be the No 1. As if these were not enough, we find that our children seldom finds a place to play any outdoor games. They relax by engaging themselves in computer / video games, grab the mobile phones from the elder members of the family or even we parents do not mind taking our children to multiplexes and buy them a membership card for play station etc., as it satisfies our belongingness needs or self esteem requirements…I still remember, we used to exchange the Enid Blyton’s or Shidney Sheldon’s books or even Tintin or Amar Chitra Katha comics. Thus, it is only the small screen which can acquaint our children with the rich and strong cultural heritage of our country. This prerequisite has been timely identified by the small screen producers as well as media houses and therefore, keep their set of target audience cemented to the idiot box. In the age of nuclear families where parents are tied up with taut job schedule and find it very difficult to share their little knowledge on Indian mythology, it is only the television with such offering that can bring a sigh of relief……of course the senior generation would compare the scripts, cast and other technicalities with the previous screening of Mahabharat by the legendary B.R.Chopra...

1 comment:

Ritu Deswal said...

CAN WE AFFORD "KHMK"???

Dear Joyeeta M'am

Good to read your article on 'KHMK'. Although, as you also feel, it's a change from those low IQ irritating serials of Balaji productions but i want to share some of my thoughts with you and all others who visit your blog:

When Ekta decided to make Mahabharat, People wondered how the queen bee would do without a ‘K,’ but she has come around with a way to deal with it. The epic serial will be called "Kahani Hamari Mahabharat Ki". Ekta Kapoor’s Kahaani Hamari Mahabharat Kii has the topmost television actors being part of the project. Small screen's favourite bahus, betas and villains are now set for another innings. Ronit Roy, Kiran Karmarkar, Saakshi Tanwar, Chetan Hansraj et al will now be seen in soap queen Ekta Kapoor's magnum opus Mahabharata.With Ekta Kapoor's magnum opus Kahani Hamari Mahabharat Ki, the Oms, Parvatis and Mihirs will graduate from the glamorous bahus and betas to mythological characters.

But was it a Roman Mahabharat or our Hindustaani....wasn’t very clear, since most of the character wore a look and feel of being Roman, the crowns, the roman sandals and hair cut ....

Secondly, madam Ekta Kapoor the Kaurav’s and Panndavs were not late night birds like your soap actors....Chaupad (game of gamble) was played in broad daylight for entertainment.....so why was there so much lightening and thundering without any rains.....May be you were trying to show good overpowered by Evil through the whole play of lightening and darkness ....but you could have used your creative wits to show the same without going factually wrong and irrelevant (what was the urgency for Kauravs and Paandavs to play Chausar in night)!

So for such a change, from our idiot box queen Ekta Kapoor, you tell me- Are we ready to let our young generation watch our great epics even if they are wrongly presented & fatually irrelevant??? CAN WE AFFORD IT ??? It's better to let them watch the correct cartoons instead of wrong moral stories,isn't it???

For me Ekta Kapoor's 'KHMK' is a pain.... The one made before by B R Chopra was superb. I remember getting up on time even on Sundays just to watch that and not get out of track about MAHABHARAT.This is not even a patch on that.

Ritu Deswal