Love is similar to the smell. Barely stepping into the territory of quicksands, careless travelers may never return home, forever remaining captives of an insidious trap, rigged by nature itself. Slightly different things are with Russian melodramas waiting for unsuspecting viewers in the evening air. Switching one channel after another is extremely difficult not to run into another trap, attracting the audience with false tragedy, cute faces of the main characters and shamelessly pressing on emotions music. But unlike quicksand, stamped speculative melodramas, on the contrary, repel the viewer who is in a firm consciousness, content with only weak spirit.
In recent years, the number of melodramatic opuses by Russian television producers, despite the abundance of criticism, has reached a climax. Monthly small screens take on at least a couple of new projects, the only purpose of which is to fill the empty evening air. And yet their unpretentious and numerous audience unfortunate melodramas still manage to find. Bored housewives, pensioners or girls who dream of bright romantic feelings are involuntarily imbued with artificial experiences of absolutely improbable heroes, rushing from one predictable story to another and so on to infinity. In this situation, the only thing that pleases is that not everyone who had the mistake to taste the Russian melodrama, remain faithful to it for decades. In this regard, it is necessary, if possible, to illuminate the opuses that have caught the eye, in order to protect the ignorant from a cunning trap, which is actually not dangerous, but under a certain coincidence can cause serious damage.
TV channels love to invest in monotonous melodramatic stories, as their production does not need to spend impressive amounts, using props from past crafts and traditionally attracting actors who essentially do not care what to star in, just to get the coveted fee, allowing you to live in prosperity for a couple of months. It was on this basis that the serial tape of Vladimir Kilburg and Kairzhan Orynbekov “Native Heart” was nurtured. Journalists did not follow the process of creating the project independent of the TV channel-producer, and therefore, close to its premiere, few of the viewers knew about the very fact of the existence of “Native Heart”. The unvarnished television advert that followed shortly before the series' release warned the audience of what awaits it in the near future, and frankly, such frankness is the only worthy thing that the authors have done. They openly showed that “Native Heart” is all that has already been passed repeatedly and can cause a stream of allergies among connoisseurs of a quality television product. All the components of the inexpensive secondary melodrama were in their place, and the intrigue was caused by just one question: what link would the story have, broken down into predictable and annoyingly mediocre components.
So, the plot of “Native Heart” begins with a tragedy, as otherwise in such a genre to do extremely difficult. Nothing foreshadowed troubles for the measured and happy life of a twelve-year-old schoolgirl Dasha Polyakov, but Providence had its own plans for this. A terrible car accident takes the girl’s parents to the grave, after which she has to become a pupil of an orphanage, since she does not have other relatives. Having joined in the unusual everyday life of orphanages, our Dasha naturally shows the best traits of character, without any problems finding a common language with the same lonely pupils of the institution as she herself. Over time, Dasha becomes perhaps the brightest girl from Detsdom, she has a strong romantic relationship with Grisha Vishnevsky, who is going to make the heroine such a long-awaited and sweet offer. The echoes of a long-standing tragedy, although they continue to torment the heroine, but life continues to give her one gift after another. In addition to the warm relationship with Grisha, Dasha is awarded special protection by the director of the orphanage, who connects and seeks for the heroine the right to study in a prestigious Moscow college. And when it seemed that life had finally entered a stable course, the main action of melodrama begins, which acquires a repulsive taste of artificial bitterness.
To especially impressionable viewers did not have to be bored, Grisha has to go on a frankly careless act, after which he has no choice but to go to prison. It does not matter what motives can justify the hero. For the plot, it is critically necessary that Dasha again remembers that fate does not feel sentiment towards her, gradually taking away everything that the girl miraculously got. To maintain the necessary level of tension, Grisha refuses to communicate with her beloved, experiencing either remorse, or trying to cast a halo of mystery around him. Not realizing what is really happening in their relationship, Dasha still decides to go to Moscow, so as not to lose the last chance to build a bright future, and upon returning to her hometown she finds that in addition to the difficult situation with Grisha, another painful injection awaits her. This time it turns out that her legal apartment, which is supposed to be inherited, has long been sold and it is owned by new owners. In addition, it turns out that many other children of the orphanage lost their property, finding themselves in a difficult situation. Not going to leave the case alone, Dasha takes up the investigation, in which she will be helped by Grisha, who reappeared in the field of observation, who decided to atone for the guilt.
The only difference between “Native Heart” and other genre brothers is the detective line, designed to cheer up the monotony of the plot construction. The main intrigue of the story is to find the one who was involved in the theft of the property of orphanages, as well as its return to legitimate hands. however, as one would expect from the film of a melodramatic orientation, the creators still put emphasis on the love burdens of the main character, since among the screenwriters of “Native Heart” there were clearly no successors of the case of Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle. Frankly unassuming detective leads are easily revealed even by the most inattentive viewers, so the interest is only that the greedy villain will behave closer to the final. As for the relationship of grown-up Dasha and Grisha, they are built quite ordinary, with the proper level of fictional tragedy, doubled openly annoying soundtrack, wandering between such series almost unchanged.
In the end, I want to say that “Native Heart” is another variation of the same thing. No detective is able to give the series life shape. The serial tape of Vladimir Kilburg and Kairzhan Orynbekov looks like repeatedly recycled recyclables, which also awaits the fate of predecessors. And with the exception of the external attractiveness of the main character, “Native Heart” does not carry a single lead that justifies the time spent watching.
2 out of 10