From storytelling to soap opera
 

"Valijon and Maydagul were childhood sweethearts. They had finally overcome family pressure to become engaged, but their dreams were dashed when Valijon fell victim to drug addiction. Will love finally prevail despite this setback? The story had listeners to the Silk Road Radio Soap gripped for weeks on end." I quote from the latest news letter of the UNESCO education sector (Education Today April-June 2005).

This event is further clarified by explaining how the media has handled the creative aspects and development aspects linking each other resulting in an edifying narrative that helps the masses to help oneself to eradicate social evils. Taking this particular event it is stated that it was the impact of the 'Tales from the Silk Road', a collection of books produced by UNESCO, Tashkent to highlight the age old tradition of storytelling, that sparked off the Silk Road Radio.

Rather than retell old stories, Silk Road Radio would construct new ones to address family matters and contemporary social issues. It is said that 'medium is the message'. The hints in several layers that the power of the medium depends on how the messages are enveloped to help the masses. This has been experimented all over the world by most of the media handlers or media users.

Quite a number of views are being held on the concept of the 'soap opera' in the actual usage. Some media critics believe that the genre soap opera as it is used and implemented today all over the world is more sensational and devoid of any human significance worth mention.

But the genre resulted not only in the promotion of sales of certain commodities as the name itself suggests of 'soap', but also to be used as tension relief measure for the housewives who relax before the small screen while they are at work. In this case the head and the founder of the Silk Road Radio, John Butt says "soap opera has the capacity to openly use fiction and romance to deal frankly with intimate family matters".

On further investigation it is clarified that the genre soap opera could be utilized to bring about an awareness on health matters like the education on aspects of HIV/AIDS prevention, drug abuse and other everyday matters. It is reported that the Silk Road Radio is modelled on the successful BBC Afghan soap opera titled 'new home new life' launched in 1993 and still running.

The popularity of a long running radio play or a teleplay could be regarded as a significant factor taking two sides into consideration. Firstly, there is some inherent reason why a series of plays become popular either via sound or visual depending on the consumer, it may be the benefit that derives out of the entertainment value or it may be the educational value, which is also a factor linked with the lifestyle of a particular culture.

The advertisers only know that the particular series of plays is popular among the listeners and viewers, but it is the ultimate evaluation that matters. What were the ingredients that had gone into the making of the series of plays so interesting. Is it the storyline or the theme or the characterization or anything else? The creative communicators at home and abroad say that some of the age-old legends, parables and folk tales could be utilized in modern terms.

In fact the creators of such modern sagas like Superman, Spiderman, Incredible Hulk, Super Girl, Robin Hood, have declared that the inspiration had come from age-old sources both folk and historical. Similarly, time and again the tele creators have proved that even the age-old epics like Ramayanaya and Mahabharathaya could be transformed into modern day popular radio plays and teleplays.

In England during the formative stages of the teleplays the experiments on Tarzan and Robin Hood legends became welcome variants to the existing patterns of narratives. In United States, the legends of Cowboys still play a significant role in the visuals with varying terms from time to time.

It is also the changing phase of the 'hero' that matters in the cultural context. Tarzan may not be too important for us as he used to be, instead the Incredible Hulk may be far more closer to us depending on the acts he performs. His actions may be far more gripping than any other hero. Then there is also the 'anti hero' who is not the accepted one in the conventional sense of the term.

The anti hero is found in the downtrodden world of the masses who is by and large a helpful character who eliminates the evils whilst living amidst it. Ultimately one has to agree that devoid of the age-old folk and historical material a medium could not be sustained creatively.

This may not be a generalization, but a norm accepted by the exponents of popular culture. In our own media cultural context, how far have we dealt on these issues? It is time that we take the issue of the Silk Road Radio seriously, in order to turn back (and not to put the clock back) to the indigenous knowledge as a source of creative inspiration.