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Sketches of satire

Sudha Pillai's Instagram page ridicules the exaggerated dialogues and sequences of serials.

Sudha Pillai, while quitting her job last year, had only one thought on her mind — to spend more time with her 75-year-old mother. By being with her mom, she automatically embraced her daily routine, a part of which was watching Malayalam serials on different channels before dinner. Sudha soon realised how much stupidity was going around. She decided to take a dig at these serials. And what better way than through satire! That’s how she started her Instagram page ladiessaloon007 — What I have learnt about relationships from Malayalam TV serials.

According to her, ladiessaloon007 is a satirical take on the stupidity and absurdness that take place in society. She stresses on the fact that she never targets men, women or any section in particular. Her first dig was on Hollywood actresses shedding their clothes in the name of feminism. She says, “Comedy and satire help me maintain my sanity in the current world where a lot of things are completely unacceptable to my logic. Or else I tend to get angry because I am not reacting to something when I desperately want to. I react to things happening around me and this is the way I do it. When I happened to watch these Malayalam serials with my mother, I was taken aback by the dialogues. To me they were really absurd. My mom also watches them to make fun of the various dialogues and sequences. It was only a few weeks ago that I thought of coming up with a series with a satirical approach towards these characters.”

Some of the captions in the series include: Slapping the wife regularly is essential for a good marriage; Nine out of ten times, love is not the reason you marry; Blackmail is the foundation of all relationships; It does not matter whether you have a sex life or not or whether it is good or bad, when you go to bed you should be dressed up like it is the morning of Onam. Always!

Explaining the idea of adopting line drawing pattern with a tint of red, she says, “I am an artist and photographer by passion and therefore illustrating is what comes to me best. However, pen and ink art require a lot of time as these are more intricate. I, therefore, use line drawings.” However, Sudha’s intention is not to make fun of these serials. It was the impact that she felt the serials have on the lives of thousands of viewers that persuaded her to start the series. “It is an undeniable fact that serials have a subtle impact on those watching them. Initially, when one starts watching them, he/she may feel the dialogues are c**p. But over a period of time he/she starts ignoring common sense and relates to the characters and sequences. It gets to a point where viewers begin to see these as situations occurring in their life and even start reacting to things the way their favourite characters do. We do not realise how serious this issue is. When people are getting so influenced by these serials, it is definitely the responsibility of the channels to have content that is not exaggerated,” she says, adding that the channels are creating a false impression that they are providing what the audiences demand.

“The choice is limited and so you are forced to get entertained with the kind of content these serials have,” says Sudha, adding that casting a fair girl and making her dusky for a serial and promoting that in order to attract more people is the most absurd thing she could cite. The other illustrations include politics, the things single men and women have to face etc. Sudha says there are illustrations even on herself, because only a person who makes fun of oneself can do it on others.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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