Open Letter to B P Singh
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Namaste Singh Saab,
I have been a fan of CID ever since it started. I had just stepped into my twenties when CID premiered; 12 years have passed and we have grown with the show. I have seen your earlier series - "Ek Shoonya Shoonya" as a kid - probably the first time I saw Satam Sir, as far as I can recollect. I was so happy to see him again on CID - he was the only member in the cast I knew. After that came Daya-Abhijit, Asha, Freddie-Sudhakar (my all time favorite CID team). They became a part of our life, characters we cherish and get inspirations from. Today with all the rubbish being churned out on TV, CID remains the only show I watch, the only show which makes me happy that I have invested money in buying a TV and a Tata Sky connection. A show I know I can see with my nephews and nieces and not have to cringe or feel embarrassed. In spite of dealing with criminals, the language has never ever been abusive.
A lot has changed in the last 12 years and understandably so. 12 years is a really long time. I have seen standards of the show reaching great heights then falling to the lowest of lows and now on its road to recovery. Sir, you and your initial team worked really hard to make CID a success, to build a loyal audience who will watch the show no matter what; however the current creative team seems to be missing that fire. Perhaps this is because they got an already successful show to begin with. This letter may sound like I am complaining but as an ardent fan I would like to bring these things to your notice.
INCONSISTENCIES IN DAYA SIR'S CHARACTERIZATION
Taking the recent case of "Sr. Inspector Abhijit" (aired 19-Mar-2010) for example: after the lady accuses Abhi Sir of killing her son, there is a confrontation scene between Daya-Abhi when Daya Sir asks Abhi Sir if he is faking his memory loss, if he had some connections with the criminals who kidnapped him. This is absolutely ridiculous; this is not the Daya Sir I have known for years. He was there with Abhi Sir when he was kidnapped; he was there when he was found. In fact he was the one to open the dikki to get him out. He was there when Abhi Sir failed to recognize his mother; he was there when Abhi Sir said how his mom died because he could not recognize her. He was always there with Abhi Sir in his most turbulent times. He can never say this even if it involved a girlfriend. That scene was just so out of character. What was the dialog writer thinking?
Another instance, before 22-Jun-2007 when "The Case Of Murderous Affair" aired, Daya Sir had a proper family with a brother, bhabhi, nephew and sister; in one of the old 1998 cases he was even seen remembering his father. Then suddenly he was made an orphan in "The Case Of Murderous Affair" just to bring an emotional twist. Why? Please Sir you have to stop your creative team from making a mess of such a legendary character. I think they need to see the all the episodes before Daksh entered to understand the characterizations, their backgrounds and the standard of the show. They can't mess around like this. When so much care is taken to maintain the consistency of Abhijit Sir's character, Daya Sir deserves the same attention. Please no messing around with this legandary character henceforth.
FREDDIE NOT A BUFFOON
It saddens me to see that this really old character has become a joker. For many of us Freddie is a very respectable character, we love him and want him to be shown with respect. Daya-Abhi occasionally pulling his leg is fine but when a newbie makes fun of him, laughs at him, it saddens me. There is a difference between Comedy and Buffoonery and it's time the creative team understood the difference. If they can't create proper comic situations that fit the story, we can do away with it altogether. Freddie is Jovial but not a joker, he may not be as sharp as ACP-Daya-Abhi but he is not a fool, he may be silly at times but not stupid. Fredericks has been part of the CID team for 12 years and it's high time he is given his due. We want a case built around him, a Freddie-centric case. He needs to be portrayed as a capable CID officer. AND it is high time that is referred to as an Inspector; he has been an SI for too long.
CASTING & MIS-CASTING
Apart from the main CID team, all the people cast in supporting roles these days are pure non-performers. It seems like some people were walking on the streets when they were just picked up and put in front of the camera. Even the recent ladies chosen to make special appearances were terrible casting decisions. The actress cast as Purvi was busy adjusting her hair even in emotional scenes and about the other lady, Shikha the less said the better. There was a time you had performers like Prateeksha Lonkar, Akshay Anand, Aman Verma, etc. Why go far - you had cast our very own Aditya Srivastav as a criminal in 1998 and we know what a performer he is. We want performers in supporting roles not good-for-nothing-popular-faces.
A dead body is shown of a Star Wife or a Fitness Trainer and the ladies enacting that part, even if that means being a dead-body, look anything but what they are supposed to play. Take Purvi for instance: even if we ignore the bad acting and just look at the fact that she was cast as Daya Sir's girlfriend. Look at Daya Sir and look at that girl: how can anyone even think that they can make a pair on screen? It has to be more authentic and believable.
It's high time the Casting Director wakes up from his sleep and starts working hard on his job rather than taking the easy route of casting some so-called popular actor and ending up with such ridiculous decisions. We want good performers who suit the roles in the supporting cast.
From the current members in the team sorry to say the lady who plays Taarika is no good. Absolutely lousy body language, someone working for CID has to have an alert body language, someone who is always on her toes, she seems too complacent and laid back. She can't carry a single scene, not even a light comic scene with Freddie like in Khoon.. Zameen Se 25000ft Uper (aired on 9-Apr-2010). She has been around for 3 years but has shown zero improvement in her performance. I wonder how her scenes are okayed, I wouldn't like to store such performances on home videos forget showing on national TV. It's time to either re-cast Taarika with a better actress who is closer to Abhi Sir's age, stature and personality or bid this character good bye.
AMBIENCE AND BACKDROP
Sir, earlier your locations, houses, chawls were all so authentic. If you are looking for a waiter then his house was shown in a chawl, but now any and everybody seems to be staying in a duplex bungalow. This is Mumbai and we know how difficult it is to even get a room here. The locations have to be more authentic and in sync with the characters. Again such easy decisions have to stop and team has to work harder.
The current CID office is being used since 2005 if I am not wrong. It is really time to change. I never liked this office anyway, it is so haphazardly made. For 6 people its way too big, space is wasted everywhere. I feel that the CID Team's office should be more compact. I wish you went back to the office used in 2001-2002 [THE CASE OF THE MULTIPLE PUZZLES (aired 1-Feb-2002)]. It was just perfect.
We often see suspects and witnesses being present in the main office of the bureau while the team interrogates other people and discuss the case. Sometimes we actually see suspects in the Forensic Lab right next to the dead body! Not just that sometimes we see Salunkhe and ACP arguing with each other in front of them like in 7 Days To Die (aired 13-Jul-2007). This is quite silly. The suspects and witnesses should be kept in other rooms, like it used to be shown in older episode.
About the Forensic lab, again I don't like it at all. It looks like the same location as the CID office with Forensic Equipment arranged there. I have been a science student and seen many labs but I have never seen a lab where multicolored chemicals are constantly boiling for no reason. This constant "gud gud bud bud" has to stop. The creative team needs to check older episodes to see how the Forensic lab should be set up.
Also a lot of the unnecessary bad special effects have to stop. The science in recent years has descended into insane realms with bizarre effects and silly machines that are far, far removed from the real world. Some liberties taken with the forensic science is understandable but I feel things have gone a bit too far. The science-fiction angle should be toned down and the gimmicky and bad special effects have to stop. Once again the creative team should look at the older episodes to see how Forensics was used back then. Of late there have been too much use of Forensic, and discussions within the team have reduced. The use of Forensic needs to be cut down and used only when required not to create comic situations.
Sometimes in the older episodes we would see the team consulting other scientists/specialists on some cases. In some episodes we would see a lab assistant or technician bringing a report to the main forensic doctor and so on. This gave the show a feel of realism that has been missing for the past few years.
Speaking of realism, it would be nice to see the Bomb Squad and Dog Squad from time to time. It was interesting when they were brought in an investigation in the old episodes. Even normal Police Inspectors and Constables have totally gone missing in the last couple of years. It almost feels like Mumbai Police is non-existent. You should really try to bring them back.
Finally the comedy in the Forensic Lab really needs to be toned down. As with Fredericks, the creative team needs to realize just what is good comedy. In the old days, there was comedy and good-natured leg-pulling between Dr Salunkhe and the CID officers that actually worked. Nowadays it tends to be annoying more often than not. It seems forced most of the time, actually all the time.
WARDROBE
It's time, HIGH time, that the CID team gets a new wardrobe. We are seeing them in the same clothing since Mar-2007. We need change; it is almost like the need of the hour. It's amazing that these clothes have been kept so well by your team that they can possibly be worn for the next 10 years but still a change is needed immediately. AND when you bring the change we don't want to see Abhijit Sir in those coats anymore. He looks younger and fantastic in Shirts and Formal Trousers. I wonder how he shoots in those coats in a place like Mumbai. It's time to give CID team a new look.
About Tasha's wardrobe, I think everyone needs to look at how Asha used to be dressed: hair tied, her clothes, her walk and body language - she was perfect. She was seen in Sarees, Salwar-Kurta, Shirts n Trousers and yet she looked her part - A CID Officer. Tasha needs to take inspiration from her and get rid of her model like walk and body language, stop the strange dressing. Speaking of Tasha, you should give her more to do than just stay in the background most of the time. Same for Vivek, they need to be given their moment to shine.
CLUES GONE TO WASTE or MISSING
There are so many occasions when a particular evidence is highlighted and then completely forgotten as the case progresses. Taking the recent "Sr. Inspector Abhijit" (aired 19-Mar-2010) for example: there is a big dramatic scene where it is revealed that Abhijit Sir called Paresh (the boy he is accused of killing) and then later there is no mention of it. You can't be using clues like this only to elevate drama without giving it a proper justification in the case. Look at "ACP Pradyuman Giraftaar" (aired 29-Jan-2010): in the entire case the CID team was trying to figure out what the terrorist looked like, even though the ACP knew him quite well. Since the ACP was faking his death he could have managed to provide a sketch. Such logical explanations are frequently not given.
Taking "Beherupiya" (aired 14-Aug-2009) for example: there should have been a scene where Abhijit Sir tells the team how Daya Sir found him. Since no such scene was there, the case seems incomplete. I know today's audience is smart enough and need not be spoon fed for everything but still some things needed to be explained. In "Rahasya Shootout Ka" (aired 1-Jan-2010), Dr Salunkhe had to find the gun from which a bullet was fired. You gave so much time to show him firing from 4 guns, matching all of them one by one and then giving the result. This was unnecessary. I mean silly things like these are given time but more important ones are just simply skipped.
PUBLICITY OF OTHER SHOWS
Sir, please refrain from doing publicity of other shows and random products in CID. CID is such a highly regarded show, such publicity is a huge letdown. These shows have absolutely no relevance in CID, they come out of nowhere and make serious situations into look stupid and ruin the flow the case. On one side we are shown how our CID team is working day-in and day-out to find criminals, we wonder if they even go home at times and on the other hand they are shown giving show timings of upcoming shows. In one of the cases Taarika was applying Hair Oil in the Forensic Lab!!! for the publicity of Parachute Hair Oil in CID. Publicity has to be subtle not like this in-your-face and completely out of context. I thought publicity of Salman Khan's Film WANTED in Khooni Piracy Racket (aired 11-Sep-2009), Sony's Show JEET JAYENGE HUM in Baal Mazdoori (aired 27-Nov-2009) and LENOVO LAPTOPS in Case Of Missing Princess (aired 19-Jan-2007) were well woven into the plot. Something like that is still fine but what Freddie is made to do is such a letdown.
BACKGROUND SCORE
Of late the Background score used in the episodes have become more of a noise than adding to the mystery of the situation. Sometimes its too loud and tends to go on and on even when the team is discussing the case and at times we can't even her what the team members are saying. The background score used earlier had that element of mystery to them and it would add to the drama as it would unfold. I wish the creative team either came up with better background score or go back to the older tunes and use it intelligently keeping the scenes in mind.
VARIETY
I can't remember when the last time was, when CID was NOT solving a murder case. It is always Khoon Khoon all the time. Even the Case Titles sound the same filled with Khoon, Khooni, Murda, Qatal, Qatil. What I don't like is how people continue to die even after CID has come into action. Once CID is in Murders should be rare, CID team must be able to save people. We want variety in the Crimes CID investigates and better Case Titles like in the good old times.
Sir, Earlier CID was so true to life. I hope those times come back. The current Creative Team should go back and watch old CID episodes to understand the essence of CID all over again, feel the love for it like we do and work hard with passion to bring back the glory. They HAVE to work hard on better scripts, reduce predictability in the plots, work with better performers, create an authentic environment as demanded by the characters in the script and keep the CID Team in character. One very special request, please get Asha and Niyati back, the only two women characters from CID who have stayed with us even after leaving the show for years. We miss them and want them back; these actresses were just brilliant and gave some memorable moments for fans to cherish. We want them BACK in CID. I hope our voice will be heard and we will be able to see the result in the upcoming episodes.
Here is wishing the CID, many many more years of success and glory and hope it remain part of our lives for years to come.
Regards,
prabha. with Kal El @ indiaforums
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