The fate of television drama

Television has come to play such a significant role in our lives, especially in those living in industrially advanced societies; it looks as though the entire culture revolves around television images. In this regard, serial dramas invite closer study.

The term television drama covers diverse forms of entertainment such as soap operas, crime dramas, situation comedies as well as serializations of classics like works of Jane Austen. In recent times, soap operas have begun to generate a great deal of interest among scholars of communication, cultural studies and anthropology.

Detailed studies based on close readings and structural analyses as well as ethnographies of institutional production and audience reception have marked the field of television drama study.

In countries like the United States and United Kingdom where soap operas play such a dominant role, one has to make distinctions between day time dramas and prime time dramas; this is because, in terms of content and visual codes, there are significant differences between them.

Television, as opposed to cinema, is an intimate medium, and this fact affects camera positioning, acting styles, construction of scenes, framing etc. In addition, the viewing context is different as well. Moreover, there are specific visual codes that characterize television dramas. While filmmakers frequently make use of the shot-reverse shot, makers of television dramas deploy the conversational shot.

How soap operas have proliferated throughout the world, adding each culture's particular inflections is indeed interesting. While American and European soap operas used to dominate internationally, the scene is far more complicated now. The Latin American telenovelas that are popular not only in Latin America but also in North America add a new dimension, Japanese soap operas began to dominate Asian countries in the eighties; 'Oshin' was popular in Sri Lanka as well. To day, Korean soap operas with fanciful titles such as 'Stairway to Heaven' and 'Autumn in My heart' have begun to gain popularity not only in East Asia and South Eat Asia, but also in parts of the United States and Latin America; Egyptian soap operas have begun to construct new forms of Arabic subjecthood.

Soap operas, as the generic title indicates, are a vital part of consumer society and are associated with a certain banality.

However, they have also had deep political implications. For example, the highly popular Chinese television drama 'Yearnings' made in the early nineties generated a great deal of discussion of the open economy, post-socialist China and Chinese cultural values. It dealt with lives devastated by the Cultural Revolution. Similarly, the Indian television dramas based on the two epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata, which enjoyed phenomenal popularity (whole cities came to a stand still when they aware aired on Sundays), focused on issues of cultural nationalism, globalization as well as women's relationship to family, society and the nation. Moreover, they had a direct impact on Indian politics; scholars have drawn a direct connection between the unparalleled popularity of the 'Ramayana' and the rise to power of the Bhratiya Janatha Party.

It is against this backdrop that I wish to focus on television dramas in Sri Lanka. We have been watching them, with an increasing sense of unease, for the past three decades. Most of them are compellingly forgettable.

There is very little in them in terms of the writing, acting or production values that would command our attention. However, there have been a few who have sought to direct interest in television dramas towards higher ambitions. Tilak Jayaratne is one such writer. His television dramas such as, 'Kadulla', 'Vanaspathi', 'Kampita Vil', 'Nadunana Puththu' and 'Dande Lu Gini', which have now been published in book form, merit closer study. He made an attempt, not always successfully, to infuse local television dramas with a critical political edge, exploit their radical potential and illuminate important facets of social experience.

For example, in his 'Kadulla', which explores the rise of local capitalism, he sought to draw on a subaltern understanding of history to project a new vision of society.

Dharmasena Pathiraja directed it, drawing on representational strategies and visual registers associated with classical realism. Similarly, in his other television dramas, some of which were directed by Sudath Mahadivulwewa, Jayaratne sought to focus on history as a constitutive force of subjecthood - a wholly commendable move. His efforts merit closer study.