Indian soaps remind us of three things, high drama, lot of make-up and ever going on baseless elongated episodes. Most of us are bored to death by watching Indian soaps. Some of us have switched to watching only News channels, few others have restricted themselves to watching movies, some others to sports channels, and some have completely shut off or keep away from the information box.
However, from June, things started changing for better, with the introduction of the new channel named as Zindagi, which is an Indian entertainment channel.
Currently, this channel airs Pakistani serials which aired on Hum TV and later it will start showing television shows from our neighboring countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and other countries like Turkey, Egypt, and Iran.
This channel not only fosters friendly relation with our neighboring country Pakistan but also chooses to start off cultural exchange with other countries.
Why serials aired on Zindagi are slowly but surely catching up with the audiences?
Well, in India there are two varieties of audiences- one which enjoy watching meaningless, long drawn, never ending serials, which is why serials on other channels are still running successfully. The saas-bahu drama is still getting a lot of attention from many viewers. However, there is another section of people or audience who enjoy shows with real content, real matter, artists who put less or no makeup at all and serials which come to an end. I think the serials aired on Zindagi is slowly gaining popularity because these serials are coming to an end and getting over after 15 to 20 episodes each. The first serial titled “Zindagi Gulzar Hai” was no doubt a love story with a happy ending, but it was a love story with a twist, it had a background, it had a reason why the female protagonist was acting weird, because of what happened with her mother. There were a series of other serials namely, “Maat”, “Kahi Ankahi”, “Aaina Dulhan Ka”, “Aunn Zara”, “Mere Qatil, Mere Dildaar”, “Dhoop Chaaon”, “Badi Aapa”, “Mera Ishq Ghumsuda”, and “Kitne Girhain Baki Hain”, “Maliha Madiha” and the list goes on. In a period of only 6 to 7 months more than 10-15 serials have been aired and have been concluded. Most of the serials are inspired from novels and are issue based. These serials are based on issues such as love, passion, unfaithfulness, man-women relationships. Whereas in other channels we see some unrealistic stories, although mostly these stories are weaved around women and how one woman deals with all trials and tribulations all by herself. Indian women in such soaps are portrayed in the wrong light, always bedecked with jewellery. But we know the reality, don’t we? Of course we have good reality shows such as Crime Patrol and epic based serials such as Mahabharat but still these are not enough to provide a complete entertainment to all and cater to all.
Serials aired on Zindagi channel have very strong script, the cast is aptly chosen, stories are realistic, sharp, quick , and intelligent. Each character has some background story and each story is weaved around a central character. The amazing thing about these serials is that what is bad is shown without any extra coloring or without toning down its ugliness. Human emotions are well captured and well portrayed. Although I have enjoyed most serials, but I feel that Pakistani serials are not able to translate the comedy serials such as “Yeh Shaadi Nahi Ho Sakti” that well. I personally could not continue with this serial because the comic scenes were not well made or could not generate peals of laughter. Zindagi channel has captured the classes already. Soon it will seep into the mind of the masses and most serials will be well appreciated.
Serials on Zindagi have every possible ingredient that we as viewers enjoy watching. The drama, human emotion, modern family values or traditional family values are not blown out of proportion, none of the characters are hollow. All characters are rounded and every actor-female or male have played shades of black, white and grey. We get to see a handful of people in each of these soaps and they really get into the skin of character. It feels as it is their own story.
The recent soap titled as “Mera Saaya” has a hatke factor of a 50-year-old woman giving birth to a baby girl and the trials and tribulations in her life. How the birth of this new baby changes or affects the life of her married children. This is obviously something which has not been aired on other Indian television channels. So my friends I wish you give a chance to these serials aired on Zindagi while you still have a chance to take a look at these. Take a break from those boring saa-bahu drama, which is nothing close to being real and give room to some reality and larger than life stories in your life.