Drama in the morning

“STARSTRUCK 1” alumni Yasmien Kurdi and Dion Ignacio reunite and play parents to Duday, played by Leanne Bautista, in the morning family drama.

For a time, TV viewers have been treated to light family fare before they have their noon meal. Some usually continue on to either of the two long-running noontime shows or opt to watch a newscast.

This show sheds light on the journey of couples who adopt

There was the show about a cheery maid who managed to make a stoic, pragmatic man twice her age and the bunch of his bratty and snobbish children fall in love with her.

Currently airing is a drama about an estranged couple who were forced to be together as the legal adoptive parents of an orphaned young boy.

The other station also did its own experiment of a family drama and second chances as well as teenybopper fares.

KURDI returns to portraying an embattled mother in the upcoming show after playing a shunned housewife diagnosed with HIV in last year’s afternoon drama “Hindi Ko Kayang Iwan Ka.” These shows may fall under different drama categories, with a smattering of heavy crying scenes and comedy, as is typical with most Pinoy dramas. The bottomline, however, is they were lighter in treatment compared to afternoon and evening shows where all the crying, slapping, confrontation and action scenes are liberally used.

It had been the trend, but it seems it is back to the traditional drama route for the noontime slot. Anyone who took time to watch or caught the teasers and trailers of Hiram na Anak (loosely translated as Borrowed Child) would think that way.

The show will premiere today, 25 February, before noontime variety show Eat…Bulaga!

It tells the story of Miren and Adrian, played by Yasmien Kurdi and Dion Ignacio, a couple who decides to adopt a child. Miren has had difficulty conceiving after they lost their baby to an accident. She befriends Wena (Empress Schuck), a young woman who flees an abusive relationship with her husband, Benjo (Paolo Contis), who wants her to coexist with his mistress, Dessa (Lauren Young), under one roof.

Parts of a preview trailer showed how Wena threatens Benjo and Dessa with a knife to let her and her baby leave their communal house. Another scene shows her hapless, sobbing while walking under the heat of the sun. She comes across a van with its back door open and decides to leave her newborn there. Another scene shows her crossing paths with Miren and they become fast friends.

Given the images presented in the trailer, any viewer can surmise that Hiram na Anak is in the same mold as many Pinoy dramas. The title itself is a dead giveaway — a lost child finding a new home.

EMPRESS Schuck appears in a special role as Wena, a naive department store worker who finds herself in an abusive relationship. Show director Gil Tejada Jr. shared with the Daily Tribune about how he classifies his show.

“It is a traditional drama. When one says traditional drama, one would immediately think there are crying scenes. It cannot be avoided. That’s part of the element of a drama show.

There’s crying, shouting. It’s just that how… the manner you make latag (present the story).

We also took into consideration how the characters must not be similar with each other.

Yasmien and Empress, though both are mothers here, should not be similar with each other.

That’s what we always keep in mind. Paolo as Benjo, how is he as a father? How does he differ from Dion as Adrian? They must be opposites so that this would work,” he explained.

He believes the show is breaking the trend of noontime dramas.

“Actually it was really formulized, intended for that. If you notice, the timeslot doesn’t work that well. Sad to say, it doesn’t work given the fact that you have competition like the shows the rival network has been producing. There’s also sports. We strategized how we can work this timeslot. So we came out with…we can’t say this is formula but we know the right ingredients that we should give to our audience. Although you can say it’s formula but basically it’s how you create the characters and present the story. It’s completely different; it’s not like the afternoon or evening dramas. This is a completely standalone concept and at the same time, our drama is different from those that I’ve worked on although it is a domestic drama that features external characters that affect the major characters,” he continued.

Like his previous projects, Tejada’s shows have been eye-openers to social issues. This show sheds light on the journey of couples who adopt.

The cast also includes Rita Avila, Vaness del Moral, Sef Cadayona, Maey Bautista and Leanne Bautista as Duday, the little girl who “changes the lives of people who surround her.”

Behind the drama is the creative team composed of creative director Aloy Adlawan; creative consultant Denoy Navarro Punio; headwriter Gina Marissa Tagasa; writers Maria Prescilla Hidalgo and Anna Aleta Nadela and brainstormers Hilda Marcelino and Roda Sulit Marino.

Hiram na Anak is an original creation of the GMA Drama group under the supervision of senior vice president for Entertainment Group Lilybeth Rasonable; vice president for Drama Redgie Acuña-Magno; assistant vice president for Drama Cheryl Ching-Sy; senior program manager Cathy Ochoa Perez and executive producer Omar Sortijas.