How tired I am of? watching all the vampish household melodrama on T.V?? If you haven’t guessed, I am talking of the dramatic, unpredictable soaps of the Ekta Kapoor camp, and the copycats. Every eligible man on these serials – given enough time – conceives a child with every other eligible woman, giving rise to one big wholesome family of interwoven relationships. The saying – ?this world is one big family? comes true, only in these serials. And mind it, all these are highly moral and ideal families of the reel world.

For around 7-8 years this false melodrama has ruled the roost, draining the audience emotionally. I remember my mom?s colleagues sulking and not attending office the day after? the reel screen hero Mihir died on screen. These soaps put a question mark on some of the societal norms. In these soaps divorce and extra- marital have become easy, and matters treated as lightly as one would contemplate a change of a dress. This certainly has affected the whole mass that watches these soaps. According to some surveys there has been a manifold increase in divorce rate in real world as a result of? these on-screen divorces and infidelities.

Now, it seems,? that the era of melodrama is almost over and some meaningful soaps are back on air. These are educative and are made with the intention to bring reform. Though the educative programmes had always existed on television on channels like DD national,? DD metro (which is now off-air), and one or two such serials on almost all the channels, these managed to garner only a few viewers.

But, it seems that now more tastefully dished out reformative soaps are coming up, and these are able to carve out a decent fan following for themselves. Some examples are serials like ?Balika Vadhu? on Colors; a saga of the evils of child marriage and the stale old customs which still exist. This programme ends with an educative summary talking of the ills in the society and an informative message. ?Jyoti? on NDTV Imagine is another serial about the struggles of a middle class girl striking balance between modernity and age-old irrelevant traditions. Then, there are many more like Lado and Rajuben, which might bring in some reform along with intellectuality.

Though the television business is more about profits, TRPs and changing fashion, yet if it manages to reconcile its goal with the bigger and nobler motive of educating, we have nothing to complain about. It then becomes a win-win situation. Does it not?