Realistic or not, cop shows always win hands down

Having watched it right from the day one of airing, it took no time to develop an instant liking for this top rated yet far-from-realistic crime show which has now crossed more than thousand successful episodes within its seventeen years of triumphant journey on one of top TV channels in the country. In fact, each character in the show has have carved a niche for themselves, thus attaining cult statuses. More than the inclination towards gripping murder mysteries, the reason that led to watching this in-demand and top rated show is the dislike for family dramas, saas-bahu tug of wars, and never ending line of over-decked, over-jewelled, and over-dramatic women who walk miles behind bossy men who are always dressed up in multi-coloured sherwanis. Though watching this thriller show meant extending the bedtime further; being a matter of excitement and fascination, compromising some weekend sleep has never been a matter of difficulty by far. But, a recent introspection has led to some moments of rethinking about the reasons to bid good bye the widely-watched serial forever. Though reasons to stop watching it are many, the most important one is the continually failed efforts of the creative team to add the much-needed touch of novelty into every episode. This has made the show tad bit monotonous off late.

However, no end is in sight for this longest running detective series, which has been continuing its winning streak for more than a decade, along with breaking several records, winning several hearts hands down. Most of their episodes might not thrill the realists and critics, but excite the masses with stories of those who are sucked into crimes either due to force or circumstance. Though several channels joined the bandwagon and created similar shows, none of them survived for long, and soon got wrapped up, while this time-tested show continues to gallop towards unmatched TRPs each week. Being enamoured with crimes and thrilling ways of solving them is a fixation that’s common to one and all. However, for me, what set this show apart from the rest is a sense of nostalgia that brings back some cherished moments with the sister, partner in crime, and a loyal viewer of the show. While dad has always left no stones unturned to dice the storyline and highlight the entire bloopers one after the other, we never stopped satiating ourselves with the mysteries behind every killer and vigilante in the show.

Being engrossed in crime shows for over a decade can lead to several perplexing moments like constantly looking over one’s shoulders while waking, or slipping into fears and anxiety at the sight of a stranger nearing from the other end of the street. It also triggers constant cautionary indication to closely watch every other guy who keeps lurking near home or hostel, only to find him casually walking away after ogling some of the women inside. Thanks to constantly resurfacing scenes from this favourite TV show, a regular viewer might never waste a moment to look for a lawbreaker amongst those silly and harmless men who lurk around to have some gratifying moments watching voluptuous women. Adding to this riddle of paranoia is the blown up news reports on the skyrocketing number of crimes in various cities. While most of us experience that intense urge to finding the baddies getting caught, crime show fans might experience this further owing to their constant experience watching the good overpowering the evil.

Many crime shows followed this most-talked about show, but soon bid good bye within a year of kick staring their eventful journey, while makers this most- watched serial continues to capture the hearts of both young and old by cashing on the innate urge to explore the darker and demonic sides of human beings. With a mishmash of far-from-logical plots, bizarre protagonists, larger than life personas of the investigators, and eccentric forensic experts who serve a string of oddities as their clinical examination results, the storylines of the show has become highly predictable lately; yet, the viewership has been on a steady increase. The makers of this successful detective series occasionally recharge their intelligence and creativity, which results on some sensible episodes that refresh our grey matter. Otherwise, every episode ends serving yet another moment of déjà vu.

If not a challenging mental workout, watching crime shows to reasonable levels can be a good exercise to the brain, if they can manage to build and retain the suspense towards the end, stimulating the brains of the viewers and making it sharper. But not every crime show maker graduates to that commendable level of making adrenaline-pumping episodes all the time, at least not in this show which has been running for more than a decade. Looking at the downside of watching crime serials, some viewers might assume the world to be a scarier place than it is, or formulate an inflated idea about the occurrence of crimes. Apart from serving moments of entertainment, thrill, and suspense, along with showcasing an hour long battle between devilish deeds and clear resolutions, crime shows sky-rocket to popularity due to their efforts to reinforce the sense of justice in the mind of the viewers, and help resolve their innate fears that lead to dreading the unknown and the unfound.

Despite the goofs in story-lines and characterization, some televised crime busters work because they go beyond gratifying our voyeuristic instincts.

What makes a movie successful?

Movies have been an inevitable part of our lives since as long as we can remember. While some make significant splash in the box office and get placed on the hit chart, some others fail to garner attention and soon fade out into the darkness that holds the zillion more ‘flops’ that have tested our patience and tortured our senses over the years. “This movie is different,” while, every other filmmaker keeps reciting this clichéd claim, not so surprisingly, there’s absolutely no dearth of terrible movies. Why do certain films succeed while certain others barely get registered in moviegoers’ mind? Budget, storyline, star cast, advertising, promotion, or sheer luck; what is sure-fire factor that helps churn out a film that ensures stupendous box office success? Opinions can vary, and so do the reasons that make one do the categorization. Finding the right concoction that helps make a box office conqueror might be impossible. However, in today’s fast paced world that leaves hardly any time for relaxation; in order to squeeze out two hours from the immensely busy schedule of ours, a movie has to help us unwind, shed the stress and laugh our lungs out, thus leaving the cinema hall with sheer contentment.


A cinematic gem undoubtedly, should have a strong and reasonably realistic storyline. But, some of the movies that we get to watch these days have been made with excessive focus on the realistic aspect of their stories, the reason why entertainment often takes the backseat. A movie has to entertain the audience as a whole, and not just handpicked viewers and critics. However, some of the movie-makers who are constantly extolled for their award-winning works are yet to learn how to create the potion of making the feel-good movies that a major share of audiences would love to watch. The outcome of this unawareness are the movies that are crafted with lacklustre storylines that cry out to get drenched in the showers of colourful backdrops, foot tapping songs, worth-watching romantic moments, and rib tickling comedy. A filmmaker who has a slew of flop movies to his credit was recently heard going gaga over his new lacklustre creation with zero comedy and romance. His recent movie with a significant overload of emotions and a dreary story that gets stretched out and exaggerated to reaching the nadir of boredom soon tanked at the box office within days of opening, despite a hefty budget and an impressive star cast.

A bankable star or a director with innumerable awards under his belt aren’t all that it takes for a movie to be a fifty crore or a 100 crore grosser at the box office. Instead, the requisite is sheer entertainment that satisfies both the masses and the classes, making them long for the next movie from the very same makers. The fame and profit of such movies will grow manifolds with just positive word-of-mouth abuzz. That said, we needn’t forcefully watch or endorse movies that make money with implausible plot and larger-than-life-heroes. But, if such movies can entertain us for the quality time we devote to watching them, those much criticized absurdities too are worth, even if they lack the mirror images of hardcore realities. With reality comes another facet of movie-watching. While most of the cine-goers love stories that are real and rational, do they really look for the pinching reality of life in the movies that they choose to watch? No one would want bear with the negative experience of watching a sad story, yet continue to remain hypocritically stubborn about being loyal viewers of movies that are far from enjoyable and fail amuse the audiences, but are well laced with hardcore realities of daily life. The fact is, most of us hardly look for the bitterness of realism, instead, hope to watch movies with idealistic storylines that are adorned by brilliant amalgamation of songs, dance, comedy, and romance. Despite the fact that numerous voices of decency preachers vehemently oppose the showcasing of Munnis and Chikni Chamelis, these sizzling hot item numbers leave no stones unturned to attract public, including those who fervently oppose the bandwagon of item girls.

Apart from failing to keeping pace with changing market dynamics, and differing choices of target viewers, earning the moolah is yet another goal that some filmmakers deliberately tend to ignore. In the urge to operate each movie with more than stronger and intense stories and undiluted streams of hardcore logic, many directors are guilty of luring naive investors into their million-dollar risks, only to deliberately forget about the money that gets poured into their magnum opuses. For lack of watchable elements, many of such abysmally hopeless movies that would have been better left unmade fail to recover even the costs incurred in their making. Thus investors often end up in hefty loses, vowing not to invest in a film ever again.

Movie making is way beyond a good dose of gut feeling, and has to be balanced with factors that help enjoy extensive box office success. Creative decisions, entertainment quotient, and their financial outcomes have to go hand in hand, in order to ensure successful results in movie making.