Balika Bulldozes Saas-Bahus…
10/11/2008 |
They do not know what has hit them!
To a stunned TV-industry, an itsy-bitsy girl has made the so-called
giants bite the dust. All those Saas-Bahu's and others of their tribe
have been run over by the little feet of the Balika and she is the new
darling of the nation. Hence, the serial that brings her to our
households is galloping on the popularity charts by leaps & bounds.
Much of it is owing to the tapestry of fascinating characters that have
a ring of truth about them!
GR8! brings to you a heart-to-heart with the Beend-Beendni, Maa-Bapu and of course, the redoubtable Daadisa… read on…
Bewitched!
That's perhaps the only way to describe it. Out of the blue, there has
come a story that has left millions of TV-watchers transfixed by its
simplicity and spontaneity.
And it is different!
It has spurned all the trappings of a prime-time serial that have
straitjacketed our television into an over-the-top tamaasha that is
empty to the core. Balika Vadhu doesn't have that grammar of
serial-making, initiated by all those breast-beating dramas that have
been ruling the roost in TV till now. In it, there are no cameras going
berserk all over the bewildered faces of actors', swishing and
whooshing left & right and up & down. Neither are here those
ear-splitting bangs and mad surges of the cacophony going in the name
of background score.
Instead, the camera, here, holds on to an emotion… the characters look
live & pulsating because of the nuanced acting… and you hear
mellifluous Saarngi's and Aalaap's in the background to underscore the
pains and pleasures unfolding on the screen.
That's how, belying all the set norms and notions of today's soaps,
Balika Vadhu has become the channel driver for Colors and is largely
responsible for its leap to No. 2 position on the popularity charts,
today.
Ever the ones to catch the scene where action is, we gather our jholas
and hop onto a journey to the way, way off studio where it is being
shot.
After a few eons, we do reach the god-forsaken place at last! Entering
the set, we are instantly transported to an exotic (for us Mumbaiya
log, that is) ambience. It's a Rajasthani Haveli, so minutely detailed
out that it simply overwhelms you with its authenticity.
Yes – those marbled walls, those brocaded jute wall-hangings, that
carved furniture, that four-poster bed, those huge ornamental frames
with images of a Thakur Parivar are all real as real can be. Even the
kitchenware is authentic brass and ceramic.
It takes quite a few moments for us to come out of this hypnotic dcor.
But aren't we here to hobnob with what has become the first family of
Television, today? We are… we are… and we gatecrash into the shooting
area to see how we can steal them from their shots to have a gabbing
sessions with them. It doesn't prove to be so difficult, because we
find all of them totally shorn of all the Nakhras & uppity stances.
For full article , buy the November 2008 issue of GR8! Magazine
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