THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CRIME CAPERS FROM INDIAN TELEVISION - Meenakshi Pandey

 

The timeline of Indian television can be divided distinctly

into two periods, before Ekta Kapoor and after Ekta Kapoor. Prior
to the deluge of the daily K-serials, all produced by Ekta Kapoor,
there was some variety in terms of genres. Following the success
of the K-serials, all others joined the bandwagon in making family
soaps. Crime investigation is one such genre, which has all but
disappeared from the telly. This is a little strange considering the
fact that detective shows tend to have a very dedicated fan
following.
When Pankaj Kapur donned the hat of Karamchand, the carrot
nibbling detective, in 1985, he was the first on the scene. He
along with his assistant Kitty, played by Sushmita Mukherjee,
helped the local police solve cases. But perhaps the best offering
in the genre so far was made in 1993, when Bengali novelist
Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s creation was adapted for television
in a series called ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ about a sleuth by the same
name, played by Rajit Kapur. Byomkesh Bakshi was helped by his
friend Ajit in solving cases. Byomkesh Bakshi is often hailed as the
desi Sherlock Holmes. The series was quite impeccable in terms
of acting and detailing. ‘Tehkikaat’ was another popular series
where actors Vijay Anand and Saurabh Shukla played the crime
solving duo of Sam and Gopi. Anita Kanwar as the clumsy and
disheveled Inspector KC in the series ’Saboot’ has been the only
woman crime investigator on Indian television. But now, ‘C.I.D’,
the longest running crime investigation series is probably the only
one left in the genre which is still on air. The character of ACP
Pradyuman, played by actor Shivaji Satam, has an entire generation
of fans who have grown up watching his overacting and hilariously
bizarre crime investigation methods.
The prime reason for the disappearance of crime capers
from television is that the quality of such shows has dipped
greatly leading to a lack of interest of the T.V watching masses.
The present crop of shows compromise greatly quality in terms of
both the content and its execution. Infact, the very popular show
C.I.D owes its fan following to the fact that the viewers see it as
comedy show and not a detective show. Good detective series
have an inherent interactive pull about them.

Watching it requires you to apply your mind in following the sequence
of events, putting pieces together, trying to pick up clues and solve the
case before the sleuth, which is why most people may not like to watch
it. They would rather settle for something sappy which doesn’t tax their
brains. This makes the followers of crime investigation shows a very
niche audience. And since the powers that be of the telly world, are only
interested in making money by serving to the taste of the lowest
common denominator, the popular belief is that the howdunits may
have had their heydays in the past with little possibility of them making
a comeback. But there are others who do not believe that crime investigation
as a genre is dead. Adapting popular crime fiction for the television
can work very well. Pulp fiction has often been proved to adapt
beautifully to the electronic medium. Works of crime fiction authors like
Ibn-e-Safi or Surinder Mohan Pathak whose writings enjoyed a cult
following amongst their readers can be serialized so the present
generation can get a taste of the popular vernacular fiction of the yore.