Just Blogging Away: Daily Soaps I Love (Or Had Loved)
But there have been about 3 t.v soaps that have caught my fancy in my whole lifetime. Two of them are history and 1 is my present. Just wanted to give you a glimpse of 2 them today, one from the past and one from the present.
Kasautii Zindagii Kay
Only the Ekta Kapoor super superstitious camp could spell ‘Kasauti Zindagi Ki’ as ‘Kasautii Zindagii Kay’! But anyway, I really loved watching this serial in the late 1990s. Even now I remember how much I used to love it when it was on and it was probably one of two instances in my life where I just had to watch every single episode because I was so hooked.
I even had big fights with my father over it at times too, but Anurag and Prerna’s love story that soon turned out to be Mr. Bajaj’s and Prerna’s love story appealed to my romantic fantasies.
In fact, if it weren’t for the whole Indianised multiple husbands and the whole ‘Indian family politics cum drama’ saga, this love story could actually be from one lesser known Mills and Boons novels and even today, I have my suspicions. After all, it just takes one story to get good inspiration.
Anurag never quite appealed to me but over the span of the whole serial, I quite fell in love with Mr. Bajaj’s brand of love. He was willing to play games and manipulate circumstances for his love on the one hand and he was willing to wait for years and be the ‘forever supportive friend’ on the other. It was quite touching to watch.
The casting was perfect and Shweta Tiwari and Ronit Roy’s acting really came into its own. Even now, I often think of them as great actors that have somehow been underutilized by the industry. Cezzane Khan was cute in the initial ‘falling in love’ days as well, but he soon became the really annoying target for all of my frustrations and anger as the serial progressed. The vamp Urvashi Dholakia (Komolika) also dazzled in this soap and just like any good vamp should, she garnered a lot of curses through her great acting.
Just like all Ekta Kapoor serials (that go on and on and last forever) this one too had its weird paradoxes. Like how come the characters never aged despite taking 7 year leaps. All the characters dressed opulently and made deals in crores but they still carried the shabbiest of Nokia phones (the really old ones that were heavy as well as un-styled).
Anyways, if you haven’t caught this soap when it was originally run, you can catch it on the ‘Star Classics’ channel on Youtube. That’s where I have been for the last two days (hence the slacking on blog-writing, as you can see).
![]() |
Anurag and Prerna….No! Prerna and Mr. Bajaj for Me! |
Revenge
Revenge is obviously my current craze. Though thankfully Star World is showing this soap on Indian television, it is sadly way behind the original telecast on ABC channel. Oh, you have no idea how gripping this show really is till you get on the telly and catch it from episode number 1. I gurantee, by episode number 4, you will be so hooked, it will be like a heroine addiction. I for one, certainly get withdrawal symptoms when I don’t get my doses of Revenge. If you check out their Facebook page, you’d be surprised as to just how many people like me are out there going crazy for this show.
For one thing, this show is set in the richest of rich locales, the Hamptons. Everyone is super rich and lives in super luxury. Just watching them in their designer garbs usually gets me a-drooling. But honestly, it is not just the characters or the clothes or the lifestyle that seduces the average watcher… it is quite simply the ‘story line’. There is nothing quite like it.
While Victoria Grayson and Emily Thorne (Amanda Clarke) played by Madeleine Stowe and Emily Vancamp respectively take the show to newer heights with each episode, my favorite character is that of Nolan, played by Gabriel Mann. Madeleine is quietly seductive and has an inbuilt sense of style, glamor and attitude, which makes her casting for the role of the queen bee Victoria quite a coup. The Canadian actress Emily has also come a long way with this show, as her name which had once been a national buzz is now an international one.
If you haven’t caught this show yet, you really truly and absolutely do not know what you are missing. If you are looking to catch it, please (and I really beg you to) watch it from the very first show. This is one soap that you really would miss the world of if you missed the first few episodes, just trust me on this one.
![]() |
My Absolutest Favorite – Revenge |
In case you are wondering which was the 3rd soap that I talked of in the introduction, it was ‘Charmed’ of course. Go look it up to know more on it. It was also shown on Star World for a while there; not sure where it suddenly disappeared to…. making way for ‘Two Broke Girls’ and other such things that don’t even hold a candle to it. Anyways, some people just don’t know ‘good’ when they see it… that’s all I can say!