Tuesday 8 November 2016

GOT vs Saas Bahu

When Ekta Kapoor decides to compare GOT with her saas bahu dramas, this happens to me.....

#GOTFandom #GOTIsReligion 😂😂😂😂

Dear Miss Kapoor,

First of all, heartiest congratulations for your success in spreading filth, narrow mindedness, superstitions, importance of irrational hatred, selfishness and all those negative emotions in a society which is already tackling to overcome these.

Second of all, for your kind knowledge, there is a difference between Indian TV content and your soaps. Indian TV also hosts programs like Crime Patrol, Savdhan India and The Voice India Kids. It has also hosted in the past programs like Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, Shrimaan Shrimati, Hum Paanch, Malgudi Days, Hum Log, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Ghutan, Surbhi, Circus, Kora Kaagaz etc. etc.  You see? The difference?

You raised a pointless argument here by comparing GOT to your serials. However, I take it upon me, to open your eyes to a few things that might give you some, if not all, the answers you are looking for.

1) GOT is a medieval fantasy. Let me know if you wish to typify your shows as medieval fantasy too. If you wish to do so, you are going to start an altogether new argument.

2) GOT has been shot at scenic locales like Belfast, Northern Ireland, Malta, Croatia, Iceland and Morocco amongst a few others to make sure it abides by its genre of fantasy. The writer, directors, screenplay artists have brought out an alternate world for us to witness. Your shows have been shot in extravagantly filthy rich houses and bunglows with spacious lawns and 2 km long staircases, adorned with chandeliers and satin curtains and whatnot. And then you say you portray "common people"s emotions and your neighbourhood aunties' ways. (I don't know how many of us have neighbourhood aunties who wear 5 cm long earrings even when they sleep.)

3) GOT makers undestand the significance of background music. (It is generally used to enhance the effect of a situation, just to let you know, in case you don't.) They understand subtlety and stay away from creating music that denotes unnecessary drama, even if it is a fantasy, to make sure you feel inside the world. They do not have inappropriate bollywood/hollywood love songs playing in just to stretch the whole thing.

4) While Jon Snow was resurrected, the makers made sure of doing it before the body actually burnt. Unlike Mr. Mihir Virani. (I read you guys brought him back after showing his funeral pyre without making it clear whose body was burnt, if it wasn't Mr. Virani after all).

5) I strongly advise you to observe the women in the show. They sure are selfish and backstabbing like in your shows, but their purpose is political. They are either avenging their families or trying to win the iron throne. May I understand what do your women fight for? Love of a husband who has proven himself an infidel 100 number of times? Or creating impression in the eyes of a mother-in-law who treats her daughter-in-law like a piece of shit? Umm, what? Why is validation of a woman by someone other than the woman herself such an important part of your show?

6) Your women wear jewellery and make up and saris even while they sit at home and plot the other woman's "barbaadi". They cook and clean and watch out after their children. And the children unlike the normal children spit stuff like "paay lagu ba" etc etc to ensure they look respectful in the eyes of their elders. Not sure which "yug" are you trying to depict here. You have "ba"s who live for 100 thousand years to see their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren and shit, without Melisandre's ruby necklace. Like, how?

7) Your shows revolve around who will pick up the fallen spoon, and whether Raj will eat the laddoos that Pooja had made, and whether Bajaj will leave Rashmi to be with Neha, and whether Ba will understand Beti's wishes, and aarrghh. In normal world there are far worse problems than these and I so wish you make yourself aware of all those and stop being so stubbornly unaware of the REAL world.

8) Your shows do not end for YEARS together. GOT ends where it has to and a new series comes after a year to ensure that the viewer's are not bored to the hilt and the screenplay writers also get some creative time to come out with their best instead of just stretching one scene to nowhere or showing same stuff 200 number of times under the pretext of effects.

And if you still want to compare your shows with GOT and typify it as a medieval fantasy, I am sorry, but I am unable to find an alternate universe in your shows. They are mediocre, unmagical and they do not, absolutely do not, add any value to a normal person's time except make them think that a cat crossing a road is a bad omen and that if a light burns out before you do the aarti then the person may not live long.

I suggest you watch stuff like GOT, FRIENDS, Grey's Anatomy etc very carefully Or if you want to get inspired by some Indian TV shows, then the ones I quoted above should help. If you wish to get some more inspiration, do call me and I will give you recommendations. We can then hope to see some good things coming from you instead of some irrational hate saga dripping like a snake's venom from everyone's eyes and mouth.

Sunday 16 October 2016

Something is wrong somewhere

Yesterday my paternal grandmother came to me clutching Chetan Bhagat’s “Two States” in her hands and asked me how I felt about the author. I said he is a very famous author in India but I personally am not a big fan. She then went inside her room and didn’t come out till late evening. At the dinner table, she told me she loved the book. She loved Chetan’s simple writing. It helped her understand some words of English that she had never known so far. She said she would like me to get her more Chetan Bhagat’s books. I bought her all of them.

I am sure readers who are reading this have already judged my grandmother as a mediocre because she enjoys Chetan Bhagat and the likes in Indian writing. But I can’t. She is one of those in my life who influenced me into reading good books. She has a reading career spanning entire Marathi Literature – classics and contemporary and if she starts a literary argument with someone, she has all the odds of winning. That’s the kind of knowledge she has about reading. She has trouble reading English literature, so I definitely couldn’t have recommended her a Kafka or a Shakespeare. (I am not a great fan of Shakespeare but I do love Kafka’s writing). I had tried suggesting her Amitav Ghosh and Arundhati Roy in the past. She did try reading them and found them slightly cluttered with large sentences making it difficult for her to catch up. (I love BOTH).

If you notice, I am trying to make a point here. I see Chetan Bhagat/Durjoy Dutta haters crying foul over the way they write and questioning the abilities of their readers. Every alternative post that I have seen since the release of “One Indian Girl” is a shame post comparing Chetan Bhagat to cruelest of things. I am wondering for a while now, whatever happened to CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. Why do we have to bash a person up just because he wrote something we didn’t like? Why do we have to judge someone ONLY on the basis of the reading choices they make? Everyone is entitled to have an opinion about everything. Everyone is entitled to express it publicly. We call it freedom. And unfortunately we remember only till here. They call it selective acknowledgement or memory or something of that sort. We forget we are responsible for our expressions as well. There is nothing wrong in expressions, but whatever happened to being responsible while doing that? Why do we have to criticize each and every thing that doesn’t match our choice? Who decides who is a better reader? Who decides who is a better human being? On what grounds are these comparisons being made? Virginia Woolf decided that she didn’t like Aldous Huxley because she found the writing “All raw, uncooked, and protesting.” But Aldous Huxley is still read and adored by many who like it all raw and uncooked and protesting. And no one judges this reading base. I read a few comments on some social networking sites blaming Chetan Bhagat for writing about sex unabashedly. Let me tell you I was introduced to sex in books by Sidney Sheldon and yet, Mr. Sheldon has a fan base as well as critics.   

When you bash a person up it shows who you are than who the person is. Every writer has a way of writing. Every reader has a different perception about different things. Not everyone is going to read everything because we have choices. Books have taught me to be open to ideas and opinions. They have taught me subtlety. Criticism is good if it is going to make a good change. The critics we see today look like they derive some sadistic pleasure by putting someone down and whacking them with hurtful words and statements, till they are satisfied with themselves. And when it’s still not enough they go ahead and whack the people who support them. Even those who are neutral and want to spread peace are not pardoned in this hate crusade. I am sure people are going to pounce on me for writing this piece but again as I said it shows more about them and not about me.


Just a humble request to everyone out there – encourage people because we do not know who is what, has come from what background, with what past or present. Laughing at someone for making mistakes is not a sign of being human. Monkeys laugh without giving a second thought. It is cruel. It is dangerous. Writing hurtful things about others who haven’t harmed you in any way, is shameful. Be kind to people even if you do not agree with their opinions. Remember there will always be someone who wouldn’t agree with yours. Would you like them to treat you the way you are treating someone else?