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One
got some very sharp responses from some of Lataji's
admirers, like Javed Akhtar who said all artistes
strive for perfection but only Lataji actually attained
it. How true! The sharpest response came from Jaya
Bachchan who said, "Why should I convey my birthday
greetings to Lataji on TV? I'm a big fan of hers.
I'll go back to Mumbai and greet her."
India
TV had opened their channel to fans from all over
to send in their warmest greetings. "Aap to bhagwan
hain. Aapse hum lete aaye hain aur lete hi rahenge,"
gushed a man from her home town in Indore. And all
the time Lataji remained indoor… locked away
far from the madding crowd.
The
other big events of the week were all the events related
to the release of the enchanting and deeply moving
Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara. I saw Anupam Kher
and Urmila Matondkar talking on MTV's The Big Picture.
Blessedly their interviewer wasn't the insufferable
loudmouth Cyrus Broacha. This other guy, though, capable
of being equally obnoxious behaved himself in keeping
with the solemnity of the film being discussed. Good
for him. I've seen how Urmila freezes impertinent
anchors with just one dismissive look or sentence.
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Bombs
seemed to be in vogue during this, the week of peace and
Gandhi Jayanti. I saw one being planted on Ekta Kapoor's
Kahiin To Hoga by the character played by the villainous
Vikas Sethi. On Zee's Time Bomb I've realised bombs
keep going off at any given pretext. On Monday Rajiv Khandelwal
(who till recently played the protagonist Sujal in Kahiin
To Hoga) entered his espionage headquarters with a bomb
glued to his chest. Maybe he was shy of taking off his shirt.
Thrills
notwithstanding I'd still go with Sony's CID Special
Squad as the best bomb-chum on TV, ahead of both Time
Bomb and Star One's Special Squad. It has got
its pace in place and the faces look convincing as secret
agents. Also, the rugged outdoors always add to the flavour
of the caper.
Lately
Salil Ankola has gone blind on CID. Sanjay leela
Bhansali's Black has triggered off a new dramatic awareness
and passion for disability, I guess.
****
After
Black last week, it was Madhur Bhandarkar's Page 3,
which was premiered on Sahara One. Again a fabulously successful
premiere. Page 3 and its amazingly tightly edited
cluster of freaked-out characters seemed to belong to a
world where the size of the screen didn't make a difference
to them… or us.
Later
Madhur told me that his SMS never stooped bleeping throughout
the film. I believe him. There is a haunting quality to
Page 3, as tough to define as it is to demolish.
You've
so far watched novices or celebrities in dancing competitions.
But Star One, Star's fledgling channel, has come up with
a unique concept. They are putting up a show called Nach
Baliye where the contestants are celebrities and yet
not seasoned dancers. The star-judges are choreographer
Saroj Khan, veejay actress and model Malaika Arora and filmmaker
Farhan Akhar (whose dad, incidentally, is busy judging a
music contest Fame Gurukul on the rival Sony).
Judging
talent-scouting contests has become big business on television.
The judges are reportedly being paid sums running into more
than two crores to lend their wisdom to the avalanche of
contests. "I wouldn't like to comment on the going
price for the judges. But Nach Baliye is certainly
different from other talent contests. It features married
couples… married to each other, that is," grins
Star India chief operating officer Sameer Nair.
"Thrice
every week, beginning 11 October, these well-known star
couples will dance their way into goofy fame. The beauty
of it is, these TV couples aren't seasoned dancers, so they
have the right to mess up their steps, even trip and fall.
That's the whole beauty of watching these celebrated jodis
from TV. You never know which way their lack of dancing
skills will take them," Nair said.
The
show's concept was taken from the well-known dance international
dance show Dancing With Stars. "But that was
about celebrities getting it right. Nach Baliye is
about getting their steps wrong. It turns the whole concept
of reality television upside down," Nair said in defense.
So
far reality TV has been the USP of Star's chief rival Sony.
Will they finally get a run for their TRPs from Star? More
importantly why do dance contests perform so poorly in comparison
their musical counterparts? Sony which has a big winner
in the singing sphere Fame Gurukul floundered with
Dance Dance. Explains Sony business head and executive
vice president Tarun Katial, "Dancing stars are restricted
to Bollywood's star line-up. It isn't as easy for a dance
winner to make mileage out of his victory as it is for a
winner on the singing contestants."
Says
Nair, "Watching TV celebrities on Nach Baliye
struggling with the dance steps is fun, it doesn't matter
whether they win or lose."
Lata
Mangeshkar's pic from: www.lakshmansruthi.com
The
channels went cuckoo for the Nightingale. Lata Mangeshkar's
birthday tempted them into hefty encomiums. India TV had round-the-clock
reportage of the event… if 'reportage' could be deemed
the right word since there was no trace of the Bharat Ratna
awardee on television; only her admirers gushing as only she
can make all of humanity gush.
