Zindagi Gulzar Hai

Lately I have got hooked to the Pakistani television series.  I have a hangover of this serial Zindagi Gulzar hai & a telifilm Behadd. I can’t stop thinking about the same. I wonder if I had seen such intense kind of work in my life that is holding my mind so much probably my inspirations would have been different by now. The crappy content I see without having a choice is so loud in terms of making my thoughts run in a different direction. I see the Saaree, Jewellery, I see the set. All I don’t see is a story. My niece at an age of 10 thinks that joint family is about Politics & fights. I don’t blame her you become what you see.

Here I am not going totally against the Indian t.v. scenario. After all I have myself worked in television for few years. But there is a VAST difference for sure. I no more sympathize with the reality show contestants crying on stage because they come from poor family. I no more sympathize with daughter-in-laws who do so much for the family & gets nothing in return. It’s nowhere close to real.

A little bit of bitchiness, a little bit of laughter, crying, cribbing. A mix of all is good entertainment. But here we witness high trp’s of shows that go on for many years with no message & no entertainment.
I had worked for few reality shows few years back. I thought it was such a wonderful platform for people who have talent & want to break it on their own. But today when I speak with those contestants 80% out of the lot is jobless ever since, Yet optimistic that they will get a chance again, just because they have seen the glamour & money of this industry.

I remember working on this reality show where the actual wedding was shown live on tv, Both the families were given lots of money for the preps & their activities were captured on cameras in all rooms. As a reality show producer my job was to provoke them, interview them in such a way that they should lose it on camera. My Bosses in the Programming Control Room use to find it a victory if the judges cry or such teaser moments use to get a lot appreciation. While interviewing one of the family members on this show I provoked her over a monetary issue & later when the show was done I realized that her relationship has gone sour with her whole family because she spoke foul for them on national tv in the heat of the moment.  With the guilt of this I realized to end my short stint in Television industry. People find it funny but this episode had made me guilty as well as had proved me emotionless.

Hence now when I watched this Pakistani serial it felt real for a change. The simplicity was beautiful. No good clothes, no fancy sets yet so much to look forward to. The romance was felt like a teenager in me; the holding hands got me goose bumps, the acting, the story got me emotional, I couldn't stop thinking about it for days to come. In 23 episodes they showed a whole range of emotions which we don’t see here in years except the changing husbands & wives. The background score added a different level of intensity to the roles.

I wish our entertainment industry realizes soon where we heading to or rather where we should.