Archive for the ‘Star Plus’ Category
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi - betrayal by the new bahu
On August 20, 2008 in Saas-Bahu, Drama, Star Plus, Revenge, Values, Character, Society, TV, Popular, Family, Hindi Serial
A battle royal between Tulsi and Tripti is ongoing, with Tulsi fighting a proxy battle with Vaidehi (her bahu, but one who also totally believes in Tripti and is fighting to destroy the Viranis even though she is married to Laksh and is now in love with him). One wonders as to how Tripti is wandering around free and out of jail, given that she had been sentenced by a court to a jail term, but she is wandering freely without any constraint; but she must have proved a popular villain, and hence they brought her back into the serial in a confrontational mode with the Viranis without worrying about a jail sentence.
So Vaidehi sets out on her task. It can be a good role for any actress, showing her to be a dutiful daughter-in-law while also seeking to destroy the family in which she lives. In this case however, by getting her to confront Tulsi at every opportunity, to laugh like a maniac many times, and to try to look evil a lot, somehow is ruining the whole effect. It looks out of place, and seems like over-acting. At the same time, they show her to be capable of any kind of wrong deed, including adding stuff in juice and putting oil on steps to make people fall.
Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki - the murder mystery
On July 16, 2008 in Values, Drama, Star Plus, Revenge, Character, Family, TV, Detective, Crime, Hindi Serial
Balaji serials have the unique ability to spin a murder mystery into a long and complicated hunt with one common characteristic - at one point, all the characters have become suspected of the murder before they are one after the other proved innocent. And so it is starting to happen in Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki. Consider the scenario.
The wayward daughter of the house, Tanu, becomes more and more rebellious, and soon after the real life case of the Arushi murder case, the serial starts advertising her death in a similar manner. After much public criticism, the serial denied that it wanted to cash in on the Arushi murder case.
However, soon after, Tanu starts becoming even more confrontational, not caring about whom she is speaking to. She even starts learning secrets of the others in the family and threatening them with their secrets. Soon after that, she is found murdered, poisoned by a chemical. Her friend was suspected of the murder, but soon after that, her friend is also found murdered. And Om Agarwal is suspected of the murder on the basis of some evidence (the evidence seems to be incredibly light, and seemingly with no actual proof).
Tripti is back in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi
On July 08, 2008 in Saas-Bahu, Drama, Star Plus, Revenge, Values, Character, TV, Legal, Family, Hindi Serial
After Tripti faced a court case and was shown to have become crazy, it would seem that she had exited from the serial. However, she is probably the one to have made the quickest re-entry. Hardly had the entire issue about Mandira and Juhi Thakral died down that the serial brought forward the old issue of KT, Ansh’s son Eklavya and the return of Lakshya from his forced trip abroad (when KY got married to Eklavya).
Anyhow, Lakshya is back, and one was never sure about what KY wanted. She was not exactly very enthused about having Eklavya as her husband, and he is insanely jealous; but she is traditional and Eklavya is after all her husband; so she counsels Lakshya that there is no point cribbing about the past. Lakshya must move on, and he does in a very quick way.
Lakshya had gone for a wedding along with Joydeep (one no longer knows what the relationship of Joydeep with Bhumi is, they don’t focus on that anymore), and there he encounters his friend getting fresh with the to-be-bride Vaidelhi and she does not appreciate even her would-be husband trying this with her before marriage. So she fights back, and Lakshya helps her. When faced with the issue about who will marry her now, Lakshya steps forward and marries her, and then returns to ShantiNiketan.
Kasturi - the amnesia plot
On June 30, 2008 in Drama, Star Plus, Revenge, Video, Values, Character, TV, Romance, Family, Hindi Serial
When a serial lands in problems or the story needs to be elongated, there are some traditional measures that can be adopted such as amnesia, plastic surgery, etc. All of them are great for changing not only the person playing the character, but also help in adding a few weeks to the serial. And so it proved in Kasturi; just when the confrontation between Kasturi and Raunaq seemed to reaching a peak and Robbie would become totally aware of the truth of Raunaq, things changed. So what did happen ?
Well, Kasturi decided that she needed to strike back, so she pretended to behave madly. In the midst of this, Raunaq and Anita decided that they really do need to end the life of Kasturi, and they can drop her off a cliff after drugging her; she however is prepared and tries to turn the tables on them. However, in the end, she is the one who gets shot and falls off the cliff, and her mother blames Robbie for this happening.
Update in Kumkum - Sumit and Kumkum do a pretend marriage
On June 29, 2008 in Values, Drama, Star Plus, Character, Family, TV, Romance, Hindi Serial
In the rebirth of the serial, Kumkum and Sumit land up in families far away from each other. Their life moves through at fast speed, and soon they reach their adulthood (after all, if they are shown as children for a long time, what happens to Hussain and Juhi Parmar - they would tend to get mighty impatient!). So, soon they reach at a point where the come into contact with each other; but totally opposite; their fathers are in conflict with each other.
And then suddenly you are witness to an extraordinary sight - Kumkum gets stuck in a spot while helping Mini, and had to cook up a story such that she is actually married and was with her husband (and this was asked by neighbors apparently, and then imagine that she could cool up a story that she was married without telling her strict father); you can imagine the rest - in a mistake, Sumit is acknowledged to be her husband, and she is not able to deny this. Her father is horrified at her selection of a husband, but is slowly coming around to accept this. Sumit is away from home after a misunderstanding with his father. He accepts this arrangement of being a false husband since Kumkum convinces him that she has the information that he is looking for.
Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat on Star Plus
On June 21, 2008 in Drama, Star Plus, Video, Values, Character, TV, Family, Hindi Serial
Raja Ki Baarat is a serial that appears on Star Plus at 8 PM weekdays (Mon to Thur). It is a show about a girl called Rani, only 17 years old. She is the support of her family after the passing away of her father, and works in the big mansion (who lives in this kind of lifestyle anymore). She is very good at what she does (and she essentially works as a servant in the house), in addition she is very dedicated and honest (although the senior Bhanumathi can’t stand her). The other main character of the serial is the prince, Yudhistir, who is very aware of his status. He is not arrogant, but very much aware of his tradition and duties, and will act in the manner prescribed by tradition.
In this family, the Raja Surya Singh Rathore is the strongman of the family, the absolute patriarch; his word is law in the family and he believes in his elder son. In addition, there are the 2 sisters to whom he is married - the Badi Rani and the Choti Rani. The Badi Rani is bed ridden, and does not speak. The entire family cares for her; however, it turns out that the Choti Rani (her younger sister) wants to get rid of the Badi Rani and get the focus onto her son Ranbir rather than the elder son (Yudhistir), who is after all the son of the elder Rani.
Towards this end, she is trying to poison the Badi Rani (her own sister) and Rani is getting caught up in this game, since part of her duties is to attend to the Badi Rani and give her the medicine. Now the Badi Rani is poisoned, her life is saved but she is in a coma, and the blame starts getting put on Rani. How does she get out of this and prove her innocence ?
Kayamath - Prachi is finally happy
On June 17, 2008 in Drama, Star Plus, Video, Character, Family, TV, Despair, Romance, Hindi Serial
It seemed like in every episode of Kayamath, Prachi does nothing but cry. So it was somewhat relieving to see that there was finally an episode in which she is happy. And why is she happy ? Because the inevitable finally happened. The long long (too long in my opinion) scene of Milind having lost his memory, and then ditching Prachi for Ayesha (with Ayesha doing a lot of manipulation, portraying herself as the perfect manipulative and ruthless person, and combined with getting half of the dialogues where she only speaks to herself) finally turns around.
Milind, even though he seems to have not regained his memory, cannot stay away from Prachi to the utter disgust of Ayesha who tries everything possible to threaten Prachi, and to plot against her (including manipulating a relationship between Sukriti and Alaap, only thwarted when Milind sees Prachi telling Alaap to stay away from Sukriti). In all this, nobody ever suspects that Ayesha is the one behind all this.
In the end, Milind refuses to marry Ayesha, getting up from the actual marriage place (just the night before, he had told Prachi that he loved her, but he was duty bound to marry Ayesha). Ayesha is devastated by this and cannot believe that Milind is rejecting her for Prachi. Further, right then a fire happens, and in the midst of this fire, Milind miraculously regains his memory (you just need to tap them on the head and they either lose their memory or regain it). And then of course, he recognizes that Prachi is the one that was with him, and they get ready to marry. And in the midst of all, they want Ayesha to attend (after rejecting her and humiliating her, they want her to attend !).
Ghar Ki Laxmi Betiyaan - The end of Bhavishya ?
On June 10, 2008 in Star Plus, Revenge, Video, Drama, Character, TV, Crime, Family, Hindi Serial
Many months ago, Saraswati was shown as having got married to Bhavishya, the worst time of her life. He caused immense torture to her, and then tried to burn her. She finally got out this problem, and Bhavishya was diagnosed as being mentally ill and sent to a mental hospital.
And then the rule of the doubles came in; Durga met a young man who looked exactly like Bhavishya. The family was very suspicious of this new person, but slowly everybody (and hesitantly Sawaswati) got over the whole worry and accepted him. He married Durga, and things seemed to be fine. He was actually genuine, and then Bhavishya, having got out of the hospital in some way, kidnapped this guy and took his place. And then he started plotting again.
He started drugging Durga, and had more plans to cause problems to the rest of the family. He also caused immense tensions between Durga and Saraswati, and eventually for Saraswati to be declared as mad and sent off to a hospital. But now his game seemed to be up; both Karan and Lakshmi realized his truth and plotted as to how to expose him. And eventually, the sisters and Savitri cornered him, and burned him to death (not good, you should never show using murder for any kind of revenge; it is illegal and gives essentially wrong advice to people).
Latest update on Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi
On June 06, 2008 in Drama, Star Plus, Values, Family, TV, Hindi Serial
Seems like the saga of the Smriti Irani based character, Tulsi is now in full flow. At some point in the past, there was a fall-out between Ekta Kapoor and Smriti (primarily based on the fact that Smriti started her own production house and was spending a lot of time on this effort). So, in an accident, Smriti got removed from the serial and in her place, Gautami was brought in (with plastic surgery to explain the face change from Smriti to Gautami). Gautami soon managed to get enough proof to convince everyone that she was the real Smriti, and also acted in ways that resembled the old Tulsi (I always get confused about this, given that she is going to be stepping into a marriage with a live husband - what happens when there is the expectation of intimacy between the 2?).
So anyhow, soon Smriti came back into the serial (with a lot of fanfare), and poor Gautami was suddenly shown as a conspiring fake person, in cahoots with Mandira in order to defraud the family of the entire property and then run away with all the money. And Mihit became the good person again, having gone to Mandira’s side only for the purpose of trying to find the reality of Tulsi’s reality; he soon discovers that his suspicions are correct, that she is indeed fake, being in reality Juhi Thakral.
Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar: A lot of champion singers
On May 22, 2008 in Song, Melody, Star Plus, Video, Contest, Reality Show, Competition, Singing, Talent, TV
Jo Jita Wohi Superstar is a show that seeks to bring together contestants from many different singing contests on different channels over a period of time. It is similar in format to the other show, Ustaadon Ke Ustaad (on Sony). The concept is that you get together the winners and the contestants who came close to winning, and then bring them into 2 separate teams composed of the winners and challengers. But it is not so simple, with contestants from both the champions and challengers getting eliminated by voting; you also have the change of a challenger going towards the champion team.
The show has mined all the major music shows of the past, including Indian Idol, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Supersinger, Fame Gurukul (from different channels). The show comes at a time of 10 PM on Friday and Saturday on Star Plus; for the contestants, even if they eliminated quickly, they still get a lot of publicity and when people are trying to generate their name through shows and other appearances, such publicity can do wonders.
I watched an episode of the show that was shown on the occasion of Mother’s Day, and all the participants sang songs that were meant to bring out tears, and they did so for the majority of people on the stage (I am a bit cynical, so was wondering whether there would be a contestant or a host who could dare not to show a tear and be considered unemotional ?). It became clear that the show wanted this to be a teary event when they literally encouraged the mother of Abhijeet to go on stage when he was singing, and she seemed very uncomfortable standing there.
