Slice-of-life trumps maudlin soaps

A strange thing happened in the Hindi general entertainment channel world in the past few weeks: Sony's Crime Patrol climbed to the No 1 position for a while. So why was this strange? Here's why. Poonam Saxena writes.

A strange thing happened in the Hindi general entertainment channel world in the past few weeks: Sony's Crime Patrol climbed to the No 1 position for a while. So why was this strange? Here's why. Is Crime Patrol a family drama? No. (Well, with a name like Crime Patrol, it's hardly likely). Do the women in it wear makeup so thick you'd have to scrape it off with a shovel? No. Does everyone live in fake-looking houses with massive dining tables where the entire family gathers for all their meals? No. (The houses look fake because they are fake. As for the dining tables, well, they're often the setting for all the drama.)

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No, Crime Patrol is a fictionalised show based on true crime stories and the investigations thereafter. It is anchored well by TV actor Anup Soni. The stories can be quite disturbing and the depiction has a gritty, realistic, hard-hitting feel. Nothing is prettified. But clearly plenty of people find it gripping and addictive enough to make it their preferred viewing choice. Sony's other crime show, the long-running CID, is popular too. But that is pure fiction; not in the same league as Crime Patrol and sometimes very difficult to take seriously.

In the latest ratings figures, Crime Patrol has slipped from the No 1 slot, but it's still at No 3. My limited point is this: It's good to see a show so different from soaps and serials do so well in the cutthroat ratings race. It proves that there is space for all kinds of programming, if only TV executives were brave enough to go out there and sincerely invest in other genres. The top slot in the latest ratings incidentally was reserved for the Star Parivaar Awards on Star Plus, which, interestingly, did better than even film award functions. There's a simple lesson in that: yes, we are a Bollywood-mad country, but perhaps we love our TV characters even more passionately. Many viewers don't know the names of the actors and actresses who play their roles but identify so deeply with the characters that they – the characters I mean – become part of viewers' lives. That's the power of TV. And that's why in the Star Parivaar Awards, all the TV stars come ‘in character' and are referred to by the screen names throughout.