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This is the first book to examine prime time soap operas on Indian television. It proposes that this particular genre of popular culture provides important resources for insights into contemporary social issues and practices. Closely examining five prime time soaps — Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kit, KasautH Zindagi Kay, Saaf Phere ... Salon/ Ka Safar, and Sa/5na Babul Ka ... Bidaai—the book analyzes how they work as flagship programs and brands for television channels. Focusing on the complex constructions of family, tradition, "Indian-ness," and gender, the book also analyzes narrative structures of soaps in the context of their fractured and never-ending time frames and plot outlines. There is a general tendency to dismiss constructions of femininity in soaps as "regressive." Examining soaps as sites of contestation, the author examines how women in soaps are constructed as strong women, and how their powerful representation comes from the contradictory demands made of them by their central role in the family and the manner in which soaps` narrative action calls for spectacle and glamor. Meticulously researched and persuasively argued, the book tracks how prime time soaps in India have made the small screen a big medium in reaching out to people.
ISBN - 9780415553773
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Pages : 364
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