Tuesday, December 08, 2009

The ending of a mega-soap serial

Half an hour of my weekday night has been reclaimed!!! [Sigh of relief] Don't ask me what I'll do with the reclamation. I will waste it on something useless, :-) and if I don't, it will be not on a serial again.

I did infer some rules of mega serials in an earlier post (TV Soap Inferences) about Kolangal, the only soap/mega-serial that I watched with any degree of regularity. That serial went down last week on Friday with its guns on blanks, after a run of 6+ years and is off the air from this week. It has been a 'bullet shower' over the preceding few episodes, that would have put a Clint Eastwood western to shame. For a prime time TV show, the antagonist supremo lets loose his revolver, kills an activist (who was the only redeeming part of the serial) in cold blood, poisons his own PA, slaps a kidnapped woman, hijacks a court judge, kills his own mother by mistake, attempts suicide and lands up as an invalid.What a bloodbath! and there is no warning at the start, about the trauma it can cause to people, especially kids. I thought that the serial was going to conclude towards the end of November given the pace of bloodletting, but some last minute twists by our beloved director added a life of 1 more week to the same to add loads of sentiments and tears before the final episode.

RIP Kolangal. Hopefully the concluded serial hasn't gone into hibernation to come back as a sequel to finish the unfinished or untold threads and to add to my sufferance. :-)

31 comments:

savitha said...

ennathu,Kolangal serial mudinjathaaa???Time to celebrate, RamMmm!!

Thankfully,I haven't seen it in years. And from your post, I infer the serial ended up as the husband calls it--"kevalangal" :P

gils said...

hahaha :D kevalangal :D :D ithu kuda nallarukkay :D :D olangal wud've been apt :D

RamNarayanS said...

@Savitha - I wanted to title this post Hip Hip Hurray, but forgot it. :) Kevalangal, the way the plot meandered, it became that :-) It started to test my patience as they stretched it endlessly and a for a full time viewer, it should have been misery. I dunno what ran in the director's head, he started killing everyone in the story, maybe to tie-up and close the loose ends.

@gils - Olangal (in Tamil, meaning cries) was what it was. In Malayalam it has a slightly different meaning I think. It means sounds. :-)

Uttara Ananthakrishnan said...

what happened to Abi? :P

Annam said...

remba porumai boss unalukku:)

RamNarayanS said...

@Uttara - Don't get me running on that! :-) Poor Abhi, She got hit by bullets in the arm and survived, in one Rajiniesque episode becomes a hugely successful builder spanning projects, builds a mega bungalow for family and on being suspected by sis and bro, bequeaths almost everything to parents/bro/sis/business partners and a portion to a differently abled children's home where she heads to after finding dear friend Thuls serendipitously who was banished from her life by sis/mom to trigger her to get married. Enough!!!

@Annam - :-) Adhayey thaan ellaarum sollaraanga (but context is different) :-)

Shruti said...

U saw kolangal for 6+ years and still surviving! Man, you must have a strong heart I gues!! Story kaga pathengala illa........

P.S : Atlast found ur blog :D

sri said...

//kevalangal" :P
//

LOL

I dont see any serial, just remember the joke where few maamis would ask vadivelu to drive fast so taht they can see the serial LOL

Sorry I cannot empathise with loud music, cry , cheap knots and lousy draggy stories. Aala vidunga da saami

sri said...

remba porumai boss unalukku:)


amaanga me to repeeat!!

sri said...

//ennathu,Kolangal serial mudinjathaaa???//

MGR sethutaara maari kekaraangayya

sri said...

olangal wud've been apt :D


ROFTL!!

sri said...

//Don't get me running on that! :-) Poor Abhi, She got hit by bullets in the arm and survived, in one Rajiniesque episode becomes a hugely successful builder spanning projects, builds a mega bungalow for family and on being suspected by sis and bro, bequeaths almost everything to parents/bro/sis/business partners and a portion to a differently abled children's home where she heads to after finding dear friend Thuls serendipitously who was banished from her life by sis/mom to trigger her to get married. Enough!!!
//


yabba kannu kattudey

sri said...

//U saw kolangal for 6+ years and still surviving! Man, you must have a strong heart I gues!! Story kaga pathengala illa........
//

Ahaaaa adhu engalukku theriyumey

sri said...

//what happened to Abi? :P//

Married a black orangutten that fell into a tar tin

Shruti said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shruti said...

//Ahaaaa adhu engalukku theriyumey//
Theriyuma?! i mean the reason why Raam saw OLANGAL?? Appo solrethu... Naangalum therinjupom la :D :P

RamNarayanS said...

@Shruti - Welcome in. But I didn't get 'At last found your blog'? I am not visible enough and I revel in anonymity. I may have dropped a comment or two on yours some time back or maybe even none. Went back and saw that your blog looked familiar (and hence deduced the above sentence). :-) You seem to be churning out tons of 55ers. Prolific work!!! Great...
@Srivats - Ennaanga idhu? Full mood pola. :-) I keep seeing that Vadivelu joke on TV every now and then and the TV serial mentioned there is 'Jeeva Nadhi'. :-)

@Both - Konjam laptopai vittu andha pakkam poyittu vandhaa, poondhu velayidi irukkareenga. (-: idhukku paeru thaan sandhula sindhu paaduradhaa?

@All - Let me clear up the air. I see Kolangal at random, not a full time watcher, nor am I very fond of it. I have said (old post) that a lot of it is 'kaadhila vizhugaradhu' when the TV is on in the house. The last few episodes I was seeing it 'mummurama' to figure out if it shows signs of closure. 'Aadhi'kku andha serialla nadichchadhaala BP varudho illayo, enakku avanai paaththaaley BP aeridum. :-)

Aaha, there are too many Abhi and Kolangal haters around. :-)

All of you now be happy that the mega-serial is no more and hope that a sequel doesn't come. :-D

savitha said...

//Aadhi'kku andha serialla nadichchadhaala BP varudho illayo, enakku avanai paaththaaley BP aeridum. :-)//
Ungaluku mattum illa boss, enga veetu pakkathla oru 2yr old boy goes on his highest temper and begins scolding him, the moment he appears on scene :D. Vasai paadraan, with his index finger raised, meratraan. ithuku mela onnum solrathuku illa

RamNarayanS said...

:-) :-) See what influence the 'muttaal petti' has on kids. :-) In mine, cartoons run forever.

Shruti said...

U r the Raam I know I guess.. Meow's Chithapa?

RamNarayanS said...

@Shruti - No lady. I don't think I am the Ram you thought I may be. Meow, I can link to it as I love cats :) and I am Chithappa to 2 kids who are @ Chennai, but I am unable to place you. (AFAIK, nobody blogs in my near and close family and so far I am a loner there (-:)

Still keep dropping in. :)

Shruti said...

OMG OMG!!
Am sorry, I guessed the wrong person! Thatsy Kalachified in the first attempt. Hope u can link to that PS! I have never seen u in my blog though!!

Still, Blogrolling u!! :D

RamNarayanS said...

No problem Shruti. Nothing wrong in it. I would have come to your blog on some comment from you on Gils' blog. Thx for adding me in. :-)

Uttara Ananthakrishnan said...

She married Thuls! :-) What a succinct summary! I watched kolangal during my 12th std exam prep time... The last three months, kinda reason to while away half an hour and my mom would be okay with that...:-)

R-ambam said...

now! thats a news .

RamNarayanS said...

@Uttara - No, no, no. You got it wrong. I never said that anywhere. That would classify as absolute blasphemy by me by the way the characters were etched. Thuls was still a good friend to Abhi when the soap ended. Thuls was the person who shows Abhi the differently-abled childrens' home when she was in dire straits some time when she feels that her troubles are insurmountable and is thinking of giving up. Both of them, at the end go off to spend the rest of their time with the kids at he childrens' home. Thank Goodness Thiruselvam didn't end it any other way. [Now you've made me jog and relive the ending, Hmmm]
@R-ambam - The good news is that the serial ended, but the urgency to end showed up in the past few episodes. :-) Hopefully sequels don't come to it.

Swaram said...

LOL .. 6 yrs and so much Masala :P
Hats off to u Ram and congrats on all the extra time that u hv got :)
LOL @ RIP ;)

RamNarayanS said...

Swaram, Last 3-4 months, very diligent viewing of the soap to see signs of closure. Before that used to see at random. :-) With all the twists turns and swapping of characters, I don't remember anything on the early portions. :-) Soap amnesia. :)

Unknown said...

Kolangal.. half of the Tam households in and around the world can swear by this name, I guess :D

You are my next research Subject, Raam! ;) Guys CAN watch tv soaps? for 6 years? Nejammava? :O

There was this soap 'Yengirundho vandhaal'(hope I got that right :|) that my patti used to watch, once it got over I heaved a sigh of relief only to find the re-run start in weeks. Grrrrrr!

All the best for a new lease of life :D

RamNarayanS said...

Bienvenue Mademoiselle Anu.

I am very difficult to research. And I like Math to an extent (hope that puts you off the idea of doing any kind of research on me) :-)

Oh Man!, Everybody seems to think I watched Kolangal forever inspite of my protestations. :( Anyway, answering you, I would definitely watch a re-run of serials like Rayil Sneham which aired on DD during the single channel days (maybe pre-Anu :-)), but Kolangal got me hooked somewhere and then tested my limits. I used to watch Selvi as well, but dropped it once the story was extrapolated all around.

Guys can watch soaps, why not? Looks at this guy [Dustin] for an American soap opera, [Days of our lives], that has been running almost non-stop for more than 45 years now, every week day. How about that? :-)

Cmon, what do you expect oldies to see? The fan spinning or browse the Net. :-) You shouldn't Grrr on it. If that is what they like, let them enjoy it. :-) (I have a really really soft corner for oldies)

Long retort, but what to do?

Unknown said...

Aye, aye Sir, got the point :) I like Grrring. I can Grrr even when am not angry :)