Fans rule Martha Cecilia's Kristine

MANILA, Philippines - A fledgling TV director in the mid-‘90s, Rory Quintos was given the ABS-CBN teleserye Pangako Sa ‘Yo in 2000 which ran for two and a half years, spanned three generations of love, bitterness, deceit, ambition, and revenge and ran for 480 episodes.

Its impact was such that when the leads Kristine Hermosa and Jericho Rosales fell in love in real life, their audience followed this love story as well. The series also created an Amor Powers (played by Eula Valdes), possibly one of the most successful avenging characters in Philippine soap opera.

When direk Rory, now a seasoned ABS film and TV director of I6 years was given Martha Cecilia’s Kristine, she saw in it the same epic proportions Pangako had and was absolutely enthralled.

Today, Kristine is the sixth of best-selling pocketbooks written by Martha Cecilia under the Precious Hearts Romances (PHR) franchise aired afternoons, and the first given a primetime slot.

The series is basically the story of sisters Jewel (Cristine Reyes) and Emerald (Denise Laurel) Fortalejo and Marco (Rafael Rossell) and Bernard (Zanjoe Marudo) de Silva. Jewel falls in love with Bernard and Emerald with Marco. The battleground is called Paso de Blas, and the feuding families much like the Capulets and the Montagues are the Fortalejos and the De Silvas.

Of course, like Romeo and Juliet, the youngsters in love will choose to fall with their enemy. But their love story is only the romantic frame of the series. Because the feud started generations ago, we can expect drama and action with the scope usually found only in a motion picture.

Sharing her thoughts on Kristine, direk Rory declared, “ It is very rare that you come across a story like this that has all the elements of a great series. The last time was 10 years ago in Pangako. So when the Kristine series was offered to me, right away I grabbed it. I read all 53 books and I said ‘Wow, this could really go on and on and on.’” We watched the first week of Martha Cecilia’s Kristine, and agree with direk Rory’s evaluation of the material.

It is said that Martha Cecilia (MC) is the most successful writer of pocket book romances in the vernacular. She has written over a hundred stories. She is under contract with Precious Hearts Romances, but hasn’t always been on easy street. Her first story to be adapted into a teleserye was My Cheating Heart, also directed by Rory and Martha reveals that “it was ABS-CBN, after many years na pag-aalok ng mga kuwento sa iba’t ibang istasyon, who gave us the chance for PHR novels to be turned into teleserye.”

The readership of the Precious Hearts Romances is varied from a geologist to male readers in Palawan and Davao penal colonies, people from all walks of life, and all ages. “I have received one fan mail from Gensan who is 80 years old; then a 72-year-old woman visited me in my house.”

Just like popular actors, however, MC is also besieged by fans especially over the Kristine Series. “Sobra ang pagka-possessive ng mga readers sa 53 books na ito. They live and breathe it. They talk about it as if kapamilya nila ang mga tauhan. Mas memoryado pa nila kaysa sa akin ang mga dialogues… Karamihan sa mga readers ko ay nagkaanak na at marami sa kanila na ang ipinangalan sa mga anak nila ay galing sa mga characters ng Kristine.”

The first violent reaction from fans was when Martha killed Jewel in the story. They would light mourning candles in their homes; said they would stop buying her books. The publisher called for an emergency meeting. Bring Jewel back to life was the order. Martha had no recourse but to research and consult with doctors to find how someone who had fallen from a height could survive which happily she found.

If Martha’s Kristine fans can be this onerous on print, how would they possibly react to things they do not like in the TV adaptation?

Book fan Angela answers in a blog, “I think Cristine Reyes is not fit for the character of Jewel.. coz Cristine is fair and the character..is in the morena category. Second, Bernard is the nephew not a brother of Marco…just a clarification `coz I know the book by heart `coz I am a fan of Miss Martha Cecilia..”

Will the new teleserye be in for rough sailing? Or will fans split into several camps and provide more controversy? What is certain is that Kristine is early on becoming the most talked about teleserye in town.

(E-mail me at [email protected].)