Paramparca - the turkish serial

I would share interesting titbits of the serial on tuesday evenings with family. Last week while narrating it stuck me, that I could do a compare and contrast to the serials back home. So here we go

Outdoor locations are a major part of the serial and they are breathtakingly beautiful. More so, as I have a soft corner for Turkey and Istanbul and plan to visit someday.

The actors are very very handsome and stylishly dressed. The dresses reflect the changing seasons,  thank god. Minimal accessories, come to think of it, they have really no need for them. Very western if you ask me, but with a touch of the orient. And they blend seamlessly.

The background score is very apt and soothing . No jarring noises for some climax scenes and  no sad violin music, thank you.

Many a shoot has happend while the actors are driving, so you get to see the beautiful roads, shops and scenery or they are in some restaurant and you get to take in the decor and the varied food that is served. There is fresh fruit and vegetables and greens and salads forming a great part of any meal, be it upmarket or lower middle class household. Huge breads of various shapes are the staple food. Takeaways are like any other place, some stuffing inside a loaf of bread and you wrap in a tissue and keep chugging at it.

They seem to relish taking photos on their mobiles and posting it online. All the youngsters are going about with a tablet in their hand! Any breaking news event is usually some unknown camera taking a picture and posting it for all to see. Sleazy!

The colleges are not the huge structures that we see here, but look more like malls!

Except very old women from hinterland, everyone else wears western clothes.

There are lots and lots of hospital scenes.Very familiar to what we have here. But then the hospitals are very upmarket and pleasing to the eye, almost like star hotels. The actors get shot, they have grave accidents and fall down in their car into a ravine and after a few shots of the ambulance and hospital scene,they look very fresh and life goes on as usual. But then the lead actor and actress have a disagreement(in real life) , so the lady has to be bumped off. A stray bullet which was aimed at somebody else, hits her and she dies instantaneously! Being a veteran of 58 episodes and 2 hours each I believed  that the lead lady would come back alive. No, next shot was the burial scene! Even then I refused to believe she is dead, I thought a bad dream or wishful thinking  by some low ruffian in the serial wishing to see her harmed. No, she is buried alright and is remaining there for the last 5 episodes. Instead of the photo on the wall with a garland, it is her tombstone which is shown every now and then to drive home the point. This is the change.

But then they are desperate to add zing to the serial by adding new characters, none of them collectively are able to come anywhere near the lead lady, whom they bumped off.A new romance angle is with a psychiatrist and the hero. Not half as interesting. And unnecessary old ladies are imported from hinterland and asked to play roles which does not have any depth.

They seem to go in and out of prisons. The police appear to be very hep and efficient. As soon as somebody slaps somebody on the road, the police arrive and quickly take away the culprits. The police stations are very modern and policemen very professionally attired. The culprits are treated as persons and they sit across and talk normally. One of the actors, a hot headed fellow makes it a habit to make a prison sentence a routine thing. His life inside is quite fine and when he gets out, he has a job waiting for him as a mechanic in a car service shop owned by his friend. I dont understand the language, but the body language shows he has picked up his life just where he left off!

Women enjoy as good a status as men.They are shown as leading lady in a board room set up. They are lawyers, doctors and beauticians. One of them drove a taxi also.  It appears to me that women dont get to spend much time in the kitchen, preparation time appears to be less. Of course except for the grandfather who likes to experiment in the kitchen, I have not seen any man do much of kitchen work.

I think throughout the world, Indians have the most complicated cooking system! It is my view not based on any information but that is how I have always felt, and this serial has not made me change my mind!