July 3 2001 was a redletter day in the history of Indian television. Amitabh Bacchan triumphantly conquered the small screen in one fell swoop, when his baritone boomed from the sets of ’’Kaun Banega Krorepati’’. At the same time, the daughter of a famous jumping star made her debut as producer with ’’Kyunki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi.’’ Both programs became overnight sensations and turned the world of television upside down.
While the former was a gameshow that offered people to win a lottery on TV and play with the nation’s superstar at the same time, the latter was a soap opera on the lives of a rich but well-knit, traditional Gujarati business family. The two ran almost neck to neck on the TRP ratings, one sustained by Amitabh Bacchan’s charisma and lure of the big bucks, the other by the tried and tested story of rich boy falling in love with poor girl.
Tulsi Virani became a household name as viewers rejoiced in her victories and cheered for her when she faced off with the enemy....her mother-in-law ! The entire nation mourned when golden boy Mihir aka Tulsi’s husband was killed in an accident. The premise of the story was simple at that time, rehash the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and pitch the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law. Hence the title. Same old good vs evil, but put a modern domestic spin on it! It worked well, for audiences just lapped it up like hungry wolves sending the TRPs soaring through the roof.
However, with success comes greed and eventually a certain apathy towards the viewers. The unprecedented success took its toll on the producer, the writers and the actors. It became one big egotrip: actors walked out, actors were replaced, story lines were altered to suit the people and not the characters and the script went amok, basically taking the audience with it!
The most recent episodes are prime examples of the fact that the producers of KKSBKBT have lost all respect for the audience. The story moved forward 20 years, (nothing wrong with that), but the storylines continue to be the same. They are rehashing their own stories again and again, dealing with the same issues over and over, basically making a parody of themselves.
I watched about 10 episodes and frankly this is not the same soap that started out with such promise in 2001. All the self-referencing has caused KKSBKBT to kill itself. When Tulsi killed Ansh last December, that was the last straw. They did it more for the dramatic effect and ratings than anything else. It looked soooo contrived and forced. And now Nandini is pregnant with Ansh’s baby (FYI, Ansh rapes her just before he is killed by his own mother) and cannot decide whether to keep the baby or get an abortion. Meanwhile Karan has married old friend Tanya, so the triangle continues to interest! Hardly. Unlike Mihir or Tulsi, who made such an indelible impression on the viewers, the new characters have no depth or substance to even linger on for a few seconds more!
All the older characters are getting bumped off or they have already just disappeared! And the ones that are still there have nothing to say or do except serve tea and biscuits. Yeah the character of Gayatri chachi has nothing to do except put her make-up on and ask if everyone wants chai!!!! Tulsi seems to be the be-all and end-all of this concoction. Savitha’s acerbic comments have been mellowed, the new Mihir and Tulsi dont gel at all, and the new generation actors are sooooooo pathetic, they are further crippled by the baaaaad dialogue and lame storylines!!!! And they have this new trend of playing a hit song with their own lyrics in the background. Gosh, that is the weirdest thing. Plus it happens in slo-mo. The
one song they kept playing for Nandini and Karan was ’’Dil ne ye kaha hai dil se’’ from ’’Dhadkan’’. This alone has made KKSBKBT unwatchable!