Arts / Entertainment

Pakistani TV shows are detergents to wash away Indian soap operas

July 27, 2016

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On July 17 and 24, the Zee TV subsidiary, ‘Zindagi’, ran a Fawad Khan festival. That channel only airs Pakistani TV shows.

Zindagi ran a ‘marathon’ of Zindagi Gulzar Hai starring Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed in the lead roles on July 17 and 24. Through back-to-back episodes, the whole series was aired in a matter of 12 hours. At the same time, Zindagi’s mothership, Zee TV, was running promos of what appeared as the most sensational episode yet of Kumkum Bhagya.

While Kumkum Bhagya can never hope to run a marathon (it would never finish), it’s seriously caught in a time warp, just like a horror story from a decade-old episode of ‘Shhh Koi Hai’ on Star Plus where a bunch of youngsters caught in a ghostly village went round and round the whole day and yet were at the same place. After watching it, I’m sure you would be tempted to say, “Zindagi bezaar hai.”

But we weren’t always this bad. Before the Indian TV industry was stung by a queen bee called Ektaa Kapoor, there were actually quite a few watchable (and now golden) serials.

Actually, it might not be wrong to say that the late 80s and the best part of 90s were the golden years of Indian television. Most of the serials back then stuck to a basic format of either 26 or 52 episodes

Then came Ekta Kapoor who gave the quintessential Indian bahu in the form of Tulsi Virani. She also gave us Smriti Irani, now mostly remembered for her tumultuous stint as HRD minister.

Today, there are either dance and other reality shows or annoying family dramas on different channels. Also, there are a whole lot of shows that seem to be undoing all the good work done over the years.

There’s Tanu who continues to plot in Kumkum Bhagya with Pragya trying hard to bust her and Abhi playing the confused husband, and who occasionally gets drunk when hurt by one of his wife’s numerous (and rather confusing) avatars and has conversations with a pillow who he thinks is his Phoogi, oblivious to his actual wife trying to bring him back to his senses. It might take another year before Tanu is completely unmasked. But one wonders if the Indian TV audience would want to wait that long to see if the kumkum stays on in the bhagya of Pragya or Tanu snatches it away from her.

In such an environment, Pakistani TV shows have come as a breath of fresh air. So whether it’s the love-hate relationship between Kashaf (Sanam Saeed) and Zaroon (Fawad Khan) in Zindagi Gulzar Hai, or the rivalry between Anam (Urwa Hocane) and Zoya (Ayeza Khan) in ‘Kahi Unkahi’, it’s attracting more and more Indian TV lovers.