|
 One
event that certainly registered above all others this
week was when John Abraham and Bipasha Basu showed
up on Star's KBC2 to regale audiences with
tales from the Bong-throng.
Bipasha
in a flaming-red sari looked every bit the Kolkatan
cool-cat. And she was surprisingly nervous and homely.
John and she looked so much like a couple they could've
been married for years. AB humoured them and made
them feel ten feet tall. There were loads of anecdotes
on their past, all adding up to a fabulously fulsome
hour and a half of game and anecdotes.
My
favourite chatty stopover was about John's penchant
for mobikes, with AB letting out that John, Abhishek
and Uday Chopra often zoomed away in the dead of the
night.
Bipasha
said she stopped riding pillion after the time he
drove her to a nervous wreck by cribbing that his
fuel tank would get scratched by her nails, etc. This
was a couple so much in love you could do away with
the prize money and just watch them being so comfortable
together.
****
|
Star's
Baa Bahu Aur Baby turned fashionably topical when
last week one character Pravin got lost in the torrential
deluge. I've noticed the soap has a tendency to smother
the satire in what looks like acres of ache.
Funny
or grim? Take your pick. Star's other new series Shanno
Ki Shaadi is again pre-determined by an absence of a
dramatic core. The foreign-returned Sindhi Prince Charming
is totally smitten by the desi paratha-specialist sniveling
and sniffing Punjaban (Divya Dutta).
Can't
see what the attraction is. But chemistry is hard to define.
The satire makes unending references to parathas and courtship
rituals. But since the boy adores the girl from the moment
he sees her I can't see where Cinderella can take her pumpkin,
but to the mandap.
****
Rarely
if ever, do we get a chance to see the stars drop their
defenses down in the truest sense. I was tickled pink on
Sony's Sitaron Ki Dhoom on Sunday evening when Shaan
singing away boisterously got several TV stars to come on
stage for a bout of singing and dancing. But the best part
of the exercise was to watch 'Tulsi' Smriti Irani let her
hair down to the svelte sound of 'It's the time to disco.'
Well
well… wonders never shriek!
****
And
if Ketaki Dave as Daksha can make a comeback to Kyunki
Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, anything can happen on TV.
Daksha Ben the most popular character in Kyunki…
is all set to return to the soap after a hiatus of nearly
three years.
Producer
Ekta Kapoor confirms the return of the parody-gal. “It's
true that we're bringing back Ketaki Dave as the popular
Daksha Behn in Kyunkii... Now that the soap is turning
another corner and ready to go into another generation leap,
she could fit in nicely."
The
actress is reluctant to talk about her return into the roomy
folds of the ceaseless soap. "Yes, Ekta and I have
spoken. But the details have yet to be worked out. So I'd
rather not talk about it yet."
Ketaki's
departure from Kyunki… wasn't a signal for her
new career in films, as she had hoped. She did bag a lead
opposite Johnny Lever in the Govinda comedy Aamdani Atthani
Kharcha Rupaiya. But the film essentially cashed in
on her image as Daksha from the soap. Soon her career in
films fizzled out.
Now
she's all set to return to the medium that made her a star.
Diehard fans of the long-running soap would remember Daksha
as the comic lynchpin of the soap. With her thick Gujarati
accent and her patented exclamation, "Aa-ra–ra-ra!'
Ketaki was quite a scene stealer, so much so that she needed
to be cut d/own to size.
When
the actress parted ways with the producer, they brought
in Himani Shivpuri into Kyunki… for a while
as the comic lady. But it didn't work. Himani was sent packing.
"Not
that anyone is indispensable," says Ekta. "But
we did miss Daksha on Kyunki."
To
end on sober note… are the values propagated by Mahatma
Gandhi really dead? Watched MTV's Kya Baat Hai with
some interest. It featured the entire cast of that lovely
film Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara in conversation with
youngsters who threw their eye-for-an-eye philosophy at
the congregation… It shocked the pacifists. It certainly
shocked Urmila Matondkar who couldn't believe we were living
in times of such abject cynicism. And when Ashok Pandit
got especially aggressive Boman Irani used his smiley placard
as a shield.
War
of mouth, I guess.
Shekhar
and Smriti's
by VICKY AHUJA
John
Abraham and Bipasha Basu's
pic from: www.indya.com
(The
views expressed here are those of the author and indiantelevision.com
need not necessarily subscribe to the same)
What
do you with Shekhar Suman? Either you ignore him or laugh
with him. He's so irrepressibly irreverent that you end up
laughing at his jokes even if you don't want to. I watched
him do a take-off on Shahrukh Khan's Lux ad. And one thing
I could tell you with certainty… the Shekhar Sumans won't
be invited for any binge chez the Khans.
