Folks Who Can Survive All Sorts Of Deaths To Large Wedding Budgets These Things Are Common In All TV Serials

Have you ever seen a Hindi TV serial? If yes, I am sure you can relate to the following article and incase the answer is no, follow any two TV serials and you'll find this true.

I have seen a lot of serials courtesy to my mother from 'Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki' and 'Kasauttii Zindagi Kay' to 'Udaan' and 'Bade Achhe Lagte Hain.'  There were certain things that I found common in all of these (and I do mean all). Here is a list of five things that make up a successful Indian TV serial.

A large joint family:Every serial I have ever seen has at least one of the lead characters living in a joint family if not both. Be it in Kumkum Bhagya or even Tu Aashiqui and the list goes on. The probable reason for this could be drama. I feel the more the number members the more people to become antagonists. After all who doesn't want drama (not).

The insane amount of leap years: I am sure this is heard by everyone. There are so many serials that take so many leaps that sometimes it becomes difficult to keep track of the time of the serial. Now I know why serials never disclose dates. After all if they start with the present date, they probably end up being 20 years ahead of the present date if not more! But who wants to keep up with unimportant details like date and time when there are more important things like making the life of lead characters hell.

The undying youth: I mentioned family for a reason. No matter how many years have gone by in the serial. No one ages, not even the grandparents in the family. I seriously wonder sometimes the reason why all directors ignore this natural process or maybe they have gotten their hands on some secret ingredients where both mothers and daughters look like sisters with a two years gap or instead of 20! 

The wedding: This is one of my favorite things. TV serials have so many weddings of the same characters that it just gets tiresome after a point of time. Even the lead characters get married to each other at least twice after divorcing each other. I really do fail to get the logic behind this. Why do you need to get the lead actors married twice or even thrice if they're eventually going to end up together? You could just show disagreements or even separations of short duration if they're going to end up together anyway. I am pretty sure real life is not this drastic.

Woman/man of steel: I have saved my personal favorite for the last. If you have made it this far then you know this point was going to come up! One thing that I have learnt watching these TV serials is to never lament the death of the protagonist. They are made of steel. No matter what is the cause of tragedy, be it a building collapse (Yeh Hain Mohabbatein), car accident (Kasam, Dill Se Dill Tak), fall from building (Sath Nibhana Saathiya), fall from cliff (Udaan) and being shot in the chest (Iss Ishq Mein Marjawan). You'd think the actors would die? You cannot be more misguided. No matter what you throw these protagonists even the antagonist to, they will come back. After all dying in such extreme cases is just so main stream. I'd be luckiest person on this earth even if a third of the number of miracles in a serial happened with me.

No matter how much we may hate the absurdity of these situations, we cannot deny that they're still addicting. These were some of the things that summed up an Indian television serial for me. What are yours?