Yeh Hai Mohabbatein, Kumkum Bhagya: Prime Time to High Time, These Shows Should Go Off Air in 2018

The Indian television space focuses a lot on relationships and its conflicts when it comes to a TV soap. And the most popular saas-bahu sagas have managed to hook the women onto their TV sets very well. Be it introducing new characters or creating a plot twist, various TV shows are running on for years. But this redundancy is not what we would want to look forward to the upcoming year. Similar conflicts on different characters are not exciting enough. It just seems over-stretched rather than entertaining. And honestly, we would not mind bidding them a goodbye.

It is high time we make space for some better shows and meeting new story plots in the form of new shows than going on watching the same tears flowing for drama. These are some of the shows we hope, bid a good riddance in the year 2018.

1. Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai

This has been one of the most popular TV shows on television soon to complete a decade! Started in 2009, it explored a romance in an arranged marriage situation. Yes, the idea worked since it was relatable to most of the viewers, but over time any romance does turn out to be run-of-the-mill. The show shifted its focus from the lead couple’s love story to their daughter’s love story. So, we clearly have seen a generation change in this one. The show had parallel arcs along with many leaps to develop interest. But while it does manage to hold interest for a little while, it becomes redundant at a point. Following the adage- all’s well that ends well, the show can go off air with a clear happy ending in the next year.

2. Yeh Hai Mohabbatein

It has been 7 years since the show is running and despite having introduced several plot twists and ideas, we do not see it working its charm like it would, years before. The show saw its episodes of separation and getting back together. It saw the introduction of a love-triangle too, but Raman (Karan Patel) and Ishita (Divyanka Tripathi) would just rather take a happily ever after ending to this prolonged love saga.

3. Sasural Simar Ka

This show has literally turned into a joke in the name of plot twists, to say the least. It started in 2011 as a story of two sisters marrying into the same family. From a saas-bahu saga, it changed the genre and went on to try a supernatural beat. It failed miserably. Moreover, it got popular as a ridiculous twist our TV shows had ever seen. The lead protagonist turning into a housefly is the last thing anyone would’ve imagined.Also, all the main leads who started out with the show have quit and it is difficult even as an audience to keep pace with the new stars who have taken their place. In this case, it is best to shoo the ridiculousness off your screens. Come on, we deserve better!

4. Kumkum Bhagya

When this show started in 2014, it was about a mother’s aspirations about her two daughters’ marriage. It then focused on a love triangle plot. Stretching the same through drama elements time and again, the show could’ve ended much before. Character’s disguise, planned to kill of character and going around the same emotions of love, jealousy, and misunderstandings, the show can end for good. The star cast of the show has also changed many times, again losing the connection with the audience.

5. Shakti- Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki

When this show was first announced in 2016, we expected it to be one of the progressive shows we would get to see since it touched upon the topic of transgenders. But they messed the very idea by showing the protagonist clueless about her reality of being a transgender. Thus, what could’ve been a very progressive concept turned for the regressive and what follows is absolutely unreasonable. The show just misguides about the whole transgender community. Rather than making it worse, it will be best if the show ends on a note clearing all the misconceptions about transgenders.

6. Dil Se Dil Tak

The show started in January 2017 based on the popular Hindi film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke. Yet another show to deal with a good topic of surrogacy for the small screens. Initially, the show garnered a lot of positive reviews given the effortless chemistry between the leads Rashami Desai and Siddharth Shukla. But off late it is again dragged with melodrama. What we saw in a movie to be seen in a regular soap would have its additions and plot twists, but they tend to get unconvincing. Recently the lead Siddharth Shukla himself was so unconvinced with his character shaping up, that he chose to walk out. With a replacement, the plot is likely to change again. In such a case, we would rather do with the soap just ending on a good note.

Some of the above-mentioned shows do have a strong fan-base, or their success over the years would not count. But it also a thing to wonder if we would rather get to view more creative and intellectual content than watching the same plot twists and melodrama being mouthed by women wearing excessive jewellery and make-up at all times. Let us hope 2018 will give us some better shows which deserve longer runtimes!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 26, 2017 09:16 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).