A Study on Portrayal of Family in Tamil Television Serials

 

K. R. Shiva Shankaran*, Dr. V. Ilamparithi

Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, SRM University, Chennai.

 

ABSTRACT:

For the past few years there is strong change in television programmes among all the television channels are up to capture the high TRP rating. And there are few channels which adopt dubbed serials. And it had become a new trend in the television industry especially in South India. This study is to find out how the families are been portrayed in the Tamil television serials. Although television serials plays a vital role among families on day-today life in the society. The programme genre appears in different formats with the sole purpose of entertainment. Many studies revealed that these shows are not only manipulated idly to use the viewers’ emotional quotient but also tailored with the budget and regional scenario. This study intends to critically examine the influence of Tamil television serials among the families and gratifications that are attained by them. The questionnaire will be the main tool with the sample size of 50 respondents to collect the back ground information, television viewing pattern watching behaviour of families. An open ended interview schedule will be administered to the subsample of the, study. The quantitative and qualitative analyses will be carried out as per the objectives of the study.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Today there are various number of channels with different genre appears in the small screen. Thus the media and television cluster leads the channels to produce the new genre with some entertainment value on it and to attract the more number of viewers towards the channels to support economically. The television serials plays an major role in television channels to grab the audience attention towards its channel, it’s also having unique way of selling proposition to sell the advertisement slots and the TRP plays the intentionally gambling role in it. The viewers are framed as a spectator where the content is moral or immoral to the society.

 

The portrayal of family life has been a major programming theme from the beginning of television channels. Many fictional families that have appeared in "family series" since andloved by lakhs of Tamil audience. Chithi (1999) MettiOli (2002), Kolangal (2003), Nadhaswaram (2010) SaravananMeenatchi (2011). The fact that these fictional families are on television, rather than some other medium, is significant in trying to assess their impact on society. Some sociologists consider television the "new public sphere" that has unified thepopulation in a common set of images and symbols. Some go even floater and consider television the "new State religion" that cultivates a homogeneous outlook on social reality (Gerbner 1977). In any case, there is consensus that television has a great influence in our collective life. If television is as powerful an influence as it is held to be, then we might assume the fantasy families who enter our collective awareness on a regular, recurring basis act upon "real-life" families. They can do so by shaping our ideas and attitudes about what kind of family life is desirable, interesting, serious, or funny; they can show us how husbands and wives are supposed to behave and how parents and children are expected to relate; and they can to us which kinds of family members should betaken seriously and which ate only to be seen as fools. Thus the television family far from being. Simply a famous entertainment device is connected to the ways in which family life operates in "the real world."Beyond providing entertainment, television vastly increases both the availability of information about the outside world and exposure to other ways of life. According to David French and MichaleRichiards (2000), television is something special.

 

It has ascribed culture, political, economic characteristics that concerns to government, education, political parties, advertisers and entrepreneurs. Both of them insist that television is having a central role in terms of fundamental socio-political process.Bandura (1969) suggested that television is a source of vicarious learning competing with parents, teachers, and other socializing agents in providing models for children to emulate. At the very least, television provides certain information that the parents would not be able to present.The implication is that television can increase the repertoire of possible behaviours beyond what the real-life family situation might provide (Comstock, 1983; Larson, 1989). Consistent viewers may also find some general characteristics of program storylines so widespread and so often repeated that they come to believe these behaviors characterize most of the real-life situations (Withey, 1980; Gerbner, Gross, Signorielli, and Morgan, 1980). Gerbner and Gross (1976), for example, have reported such a phenomenon in viewers of television violence. Heavy viewers of violent programming consistently overestimate the amount of real violence that is taking place.Gerbner’s cultivation theory (1976) states thus “the combined effect of massive television exposure by viewers over time subtly shapes the perception of social reality for individuals and ultimately for our culture as a whole” Mass media disseminate culture values of a society and reinforce the same to cultivate attitudes and values amongst audience. By mainstreaming such content television plays a large role in shaping attitudes, values and beliefs, leading to first order and second order effect. Heavy viewers tend to be influenced by televised content more than light viewers especially pertaining to subjects about which they have little experience. This study aims to understand the portrayal of family in Tamil television serials. The chosen sample of 50 respondents for this study was chosen through snowball sampling. And the respondents are in the age group 30-50 years across different socio-economy profiles in Chennai. Data was collected through questionnaire and open ended interviews. Based on these findings the most popular episodes of television serials were analyzed for the portrayal of family.

 

Profile of Respondents:

The respondents were middle class and upper middle class. Most of the respondents were belong to the age group 30- 40 years, 5 respondents belongs to the age group of 45 – 50 years. The respondent occupation was domestic help, and working in private sector.

 

Kind of program they watch:

From the interviews we had come to know middle class and upper middle class people watch serials and reality shows. The data reveals that there is a huge difference between the likings of middle class and upper middle class people.

 

Preferred Tamil serials by the respondents:

More than half of the respondents (15) watch Tamil television serials every day for a minimum of 1- 3 hours. The respondents include light and heavy viewers. Most of the channels preferred by the respondents were Sun TVand Star Vijay TV. 10 respondents watch both the channels and 5 respondents watch Jaya TV and KalingarTv. Most popular serials among respondent includes Mappillai (Star Vijay TV), PagalNilavu (Star Vijay TV), Deivamagal (Sun TV). Respondents watch these serials for interesting story lines, inspiring couples and mainly for the entertainment purpose. Respondent said they were eager and watch some episodes daily without even a single day break to know the twist that TV serials keeps on every week.

 

Representation of family in serials:

Based on the response the serials were chosen for analysis are Deivamagal, Mappillai and Pagal Nilavu.In Deivamagal the story revolves around the lead pair Prakash (Krishna) and Sathyapriya (Vani Bhojan) and how they overcome conspiracies against them within the family and the society problems that arises due to their respective jobs and positions. Gayathri (Rekha Krishnappa), the eldest daughter-in-law of Jaihind Vilas, wants to amass the family's wealth. Prakash (Krishna), who is aware of her evil plans, has to fight a tough battle against her to keep the family united.In Mappillai it is a story about Senthil (Senthil Kumar) is forced to be live-in his mother-in law's house (Jaya`s (Sreeja Chandran) parents) and how a husband supports his wife in achieving success in her life.In It is a story about love, but circumstances have made Andal and Azhagar's families rival for two generations. The drama explores whether their daughters, Revathy (Soundarya Bala Nandakumar) and Sakthi (Sameera Sherief) unite the family.In PagalNilavu the story revolves around Revathy (SindhuShyam), Collector return to the native place with her son Karthick (VigneshKarthick), Sakthivel (Uday Mahesh) is a Minister he is with his Second wife Malarvizhi and their son Prabhakaran (Syed Anwar Ahmed) and daughter Thamizhselvi (Sreenidhi Sudarshan). Karthick has revenge with Sakthivel's family, meanwhile Andal (Mona Kakade), sister of Sakthivel and Azhagar (Manmohan), brother of Revathy and their daughters Revathy (Soundharya Bala Nandakumar) and Sakthi (SameeraSherief) are trying to unite the family and so they love Karthick and Prabha. Karthick, Prabha, Jr. Revathy and Jr. Sakthi join the same college. Karthick and Jr. Revathy fall in love for each other likewise Prabha and Jr. Shakthi too fall for each other.

 

Though they belong to the same family they all are rival among themselves. Elder ones of the family decide not to marry their child to relations. Karthick and Prabha clash at each other often. Though Sakthi live with is second wife Malar he has unforgettable love towards his first wife Revathy. So he comes often to see Revathy and his son Karthick. This make both Revathy and Karthick uncomfortable. When Revathy was about to be arrested for 1 crore rupee bribe case, though she is innocent, Sakthi confess that it was his money to save Revathy. Malar who gets angry throws Sakthi out of the house and he also loses his minister post. A guiltfulRevathy takes Sakthi to her home to help him and accepts him as her husband. Initially Karthick didn't like Sakthi's arrival, but later he realizes Sakthi's love towards him and his mother and accepts Sakthi as his father. As this goes on Prabha and Jr. Sakthi marries and stay at their respective houses. Later Jr. Revathy knows about this marriage and reveals it to her father. A furious Azhagar throws Jr. Sakthi out of the house, since she refused to remove the thali tied by Prabha. Then Prabha comes and takes Jr. Sakthi to his house. Later a sad Azhagar finds a groom for Jr. Revathy. But, Jr. Revathy requests Azhagar to leave her till she completes her studies and promises she will not do like Jr. Sakthi and breaks up with Karthick. While this happens Malar didn't like Jr. Sakthi and tortures her in absence of Prabha this made Jr. Sakthi angry as she fights with Prabha and goes out of the house and lives with Chidambaram Later on worrying about the family he requests Revathy's family and Azhagar's family to stay with him. As Malar knows this she too comes with Prabha and Thamizh and lives with them. Will Azhagar talk to Jr. Sakthi? will Jr. Sakthi accepts Prabha ? willKarthick and Jr. Revathy reunite? willKarthick and Prabha unite? whether the family reunite or not will be shown in the upcoming episodes.

 

Table : 1 List of Serials watched by respondents

S.No	Serial Name	Channel Name
1	Deivamagal,	Sun TV
2	Mappillai	Star Vijay
3	PagalNilavu	Star Vijay
4	Nandini	Sun TV
5	Vamsam	Sun TV
6	Vani Rani	Sun TV
7	KairasiKudumbam	Jaya TV
8	MoondruMudichu	Polimer TV
9	SaravananMeenakshi	Star Vijay
10	Chandralekha	Sun TV

 

CONCLUSION:

Through the In-depth interview, the data findings show the audience feels television serials is the most dominant art in the current scenario. It can help the people to understand their own lives in a better way and also on the society and culture. The respondents admire both the male and female characters and theydon’t prefer more violence. And they believe that more number of domestic violence and verbal abuse is been often used in the television serials. And the gender dominance plays an important role. Few of the respondents claims that the telecasting serials for more time us good because it turns out to be the only source of entertainment for people in home. Emotional dramatization has made an impact on the viewers andhas become the prime reason to watch them. Emotion hasbecome the USP of the television serials to make the audience stickto be regular viewers.Thisreminds the nature of humans, being emotional when they arealone or feel lonely, than when they are in-group or surroundedby people.

 

REFERENCE:

1.     French David and Richards Michale (Ed). (2000) Television in Contemporary Asia, Sage Publication, New Delhi.

2.     Casey Bernadette, Neil Casey, Ben Calvert, LianFrenels and Justin Lewis, (2008). Television studies: The key concepts, 2^nd Edition

3.     Ramalakshmi (2016) Young women domestic violence and television serials (55-60). (Media and Visual literacy)  ISBN No:978-93-81992-74-6.

4.     Lull, J (19900. Families’ social uses of television as extensions of household. In Bryant (Ed).

5.     Nabi, Biely, Morgan, and Stitt  “Reality-Based Television Programming And The Psychology Of Its Appeal” 2003

6.     Bandura, A. (1977).Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 

 

Received on 24.10.2017       Modified on 08.12.2017

Accepted on 23.01.2018      ©A&V Publications All right reserved