No awards for tele-serials: State awards jury decision attracts bouquets and brickbats
The Kerala State Television Awards is an annual feature, where a government-appointed jury picks the best programmes, artistes and technicians on TV for the laurels. The awards for this year, announced this week, however, ruffled feathers by the dozen. The reason: The jury decided to not select any television serial for the awards stating that no tele-serials aired during the year under review had any artistic or technical merit.
The jury did not stop at that. It went on to add that the negative portrayal of women and children in the soaps that were reviewed were alarming and that they did not deserve an award.
While many came out in public applauding the decision, harsh criticism also followed. It is common knowledge that the tele-serials aired by a whole lot of entertainment channels in Kerala have been under ridicule for their content and the way characters are portrayed. Women characters in most of the serials have been criticised as not anywhere close to real, and that such serials helped only in the gradual degradation of the societal values.
Awards jury rebukes tele-serials citing lack of quality, responsibilty
Tele-serials, or soaps as they are called, have a huge viewership, and channels thrive in the manner which they rake in television rating points (TRP) and advertisement revenues that come with them. Almost every household in Kerala swears by these programmes, as television enthusiasts find them entertaining to the hilt.
It is in this scenario that the award jury’s rebuke citing lack of quality and negative portrayal of women and children has triggered a debate. A few days ago, soon after the new Left Democratic Front (LDF) government came to power, the new Minister for Culture, Saji Cheriyan, had categorically made known his dislike for tele-serials that had low quality content. He had even said that the government would consider censorship of television serials as they were found to be propagating unscientific and superstitious content.
The award jury’s observation that tele-serials and comedy shows broadcast on TV for the families need to be more responsible with their content, summed it all up. The jury’s decision saw social media go abuzz with congratulatory messages. They still continue.
Awards jury decision attacked by actor
But then, not all are happy with the jury’s take on tele-serials and the decision to not select any entry for the awards. Hareesh Peradi, an actor of repute, took to social media to cut the jury down to size. In a Facebook post, he unleashed a scathing attack saying that the jury was selected to judge the entries before them and not to scrutinize their artistic quality.
He went on to say that even the families of these jury members were tele-serial enthusiasts and many in their families can be seen engrossed in the tele-serials every time they are aired. “If the social values of these families have not been dismantled by these serials till now, how dare they believe that tele-serials are responsible for the value degradation in other families of Kerala?” he queried.
Applause galore as awards jury takes a strong stand
Soaps aired on Malayalam television have always been under criticism. Family dramas that portray violence against women and children, domestic abuse, hatred between members of a same household have been under criticism since the past so many years. However, television networks have turned a deaf ear to all ridicule as they now that there is a sizable audience out there to watch and applaud the serials that are telecast.
Though these audiences are not very happy about the jury’s take on serials, many continue to applaud and congratulate the decision of not picking any serial for the awards. As a Twitter user pointed out, it is high time that such “sexist, toxic shows need to stop influencing living rooms.”
