Indiantelevision dot com's Box Populi by Subhash K Jha: Oh! To be like the Big B.....

Oh! To be like the Big B.....
When Mahesh Bhupathi came on Star World's ever-engaging Rendezvous with Simi Garewal he confessed that the highlight of his career as a tennis player was, playing opposite Amitabh Bachchan, and that he wanted his son to become a film star "like Amitabh Bachchan."

Cut to MTV's The Big Picture where Akshay Kumar sat with his co-star Amitabh Bachchan for an interview on the film Khakee. Though Akshay tried hard to hide his awe under a veneer of bravura(he even slapped the Big B's thigh at one point) it was quite obvious for anyone who cared(dared?) to look that the younger star idolized Big B, like the rest of the nation.

The three-pronged interview went rather well. Though the veejay was attentive, she wasn't over-gushy. There was a lot of ribbing about Mr Bachchan's obvious fondness for Aishwarya Rai. But his co-star in Khakee is Jaya Prada. "That's my domain. That(Aishwarya Rai) is his…" the Big B demarcated the costars' circle with a pincer movement.

The ruminative Rendezvous with Bhupathi unconsciously pitch forked some interesting parallels between Bhupathi's and Michael Jackson's growing years. As Bhupati described his rigorous tennis training as a child, we were transported to Jackson's childhood with his disciplinarian dad.

The arrival of Mrs Bhupathi signaled a new phase in the pleasant peace talks. The tennis player grinned sheepishly as he recalled his dad's consternation at the inflated telephone bills during the season of courtship.

"Why don't you put it down as long-term investment?" Bhupati suggested to his dad. And did Bhupati have girls throwing themselves at him? Dunno about the girls because the sports star has his coach with him most of the time. "Don't know about him…I'm planning to bump him off," joked Mrs Bhupati about the coach.

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Mahajan 'Rank'led?: Sab TV's Court Martial had the ever-articulate Pramod Mahajan on the hot seat. As usual, he was asked about his position in the BJP high command. Mahajan smiled his wry smile. "No. 1 and No.2 in the party is fixed. No.3 keeps changing." Mahajan then proceeded to protest that he isn't a commodity whose placement in the hierarchy keeps changing.

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Chew on this:

Chow time! Anurag and Prerna in happier times on 'KZK'

Good show. Wish the same could be said about the serials which don't know where to stop. The perennially popular Kasautii Zindagi Kay on Star has two more bad marriages to wreck-on with. Anurag is already screaming at his new bride Aparna and going into rose-tinted flashbacks about the good old days when he and Prerna were still together.

By a quirky coincidence, at the very moment when Anurag and Prerna were struggling with chopsticks in a flashback, Meenakshi Sheshadri and Rishi Kapoor were doing the same in the film Damini on a neighbouring channel.

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Working hard at play:

'Jeet'- all's well in the classroom?

This just goes to prove our serials are getting more and more filmi by the week, or the day. Star's Jeet celebrated Rose Day with a full-length episode devoted to the climate of coochiecooing convictions. The academician hero sang R D Burman ballads to his female colleague whom he coyly calls Janakiji. When he heard Janakiji's mom was unwell, he visited her with a smile and words of comfort.

Er, when do these teachers get the time to do what they're paid for? We may well ask Vikramji and Janakiji why they're never shown imparting education to their students. But they will probably turn around to ask us how often do we see the airforce pilots on Saara Akaash flying planes, or the doctors on Sanjivani treating patients.

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Cacophony rules the airwaves:

Grusha Kapoor - mum's not the word!

The shrillest soap on air is Star's Kehta Hai Dil. After a long gap(when he was busy pursuing a film career via Baghban), Aman Varma is back on the serial. Last week, he shot down his own son-in-law . The dead chap's mother(Grusha Kapoor who can't be above 30 in real life) wailed so hard and so artificially, we feared she might end up cracking our picture tube.

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Grandmoms put on grand show:

Nowadays, actors on television are turning into contortionists to attract attention. Thank God for Meera Syal on the talkshow-cum sitcom The Kumars At No. 42 on Star World. As the feisty Punjabi granny in England, quizzing celebrities along with her downright embarassed grandson Sanjeev, she always brings huffs down. Somehow Syal reminds me of the gradmom played by the ultra-adept Uttara Baokar in Jassi. Both are naughty and great fun.

The Kumars - better than homegrown soaps

Last week, the guest on The Kumars….was actress Claire Sweeney . Granny spoke about how she was once awarded the "Best Wet Salwar -Kameez Queen" back home in Punjab. To divert attention from the aggressive granny, Sanjeev wanted to know about Ms Sweeney's latest role as a lesbian, and what it felt like to touch another woman on a show.

"That's something he always wanted to know," butted in the grandma.
There's a lesson on the The Kumars for local sitcoms. The performances and dialogues can be entertaining and risque, without offending conservative sensibilities. Most of the young people picked up from the streets to play prominent roles on the avalanche of soaps can't even pronounce words properly.

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"See you letter," said the hip Krutika to her conservative friend Kajal on Ekta Kapoor's new Friday-night soap Kkoi Dil Mein Hai on Sony. Let's put these….er, actors through the basic rudiments of camera conduct before they aspire to become household names.

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Stud turns Samaritan:

Ramman Trikha - spreading cheer

Ramman Trikha(seen recently as Antara Mali's flamboyant co-star in the film Main Madhuri Banna Chahti Hoon) has joined the cast of Jassi as the sunshine spreading Sunny. He runs after Jassi with plates of homemade parathas and offers to massage her head when she comes home after work… Shah Rukh Khan in Kal Ho Na Ho and Sanjay Dutt in Munnabhai MBBS would be pleased.

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NDTV's morning bulletin on Monday crowned Shah Rukh Khan the star of the year and then headed to Mahabaleshwar to check out the touristic potential of the hill resort. The correspondent spoke to a couple of vacationers, tasted the local strawberry and …ran into Dev Anand! Even here, the correspondent couldn't get away from television's ongoing fascination with films and film people.

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In a week when Saddam Hussain dominated international news,just about the most newsworthy local story was the one on Aaj Tak on Sunday night about imprisoned politicians in Bihar roaming freely on the roads on sick leave. While one posh ostensibly incarcerated politician was caught driving his brand new luxury car, another politician in jail had a wife who had just given birth to a baby!
It was hilarious to hear the jail authority trying to explain the aberration. "We've to…er…make arrangements when she comes visiting."
To be sure.

Last word
Star News got a globally famous mehndi-applier Ash to tak about what it felt like to adorn celebrity hands. "Julia Roberts asks many questions…not Bollywood stars they're more educated about mehdi."
Right. Mehndi scholars. That's all Bollywood needs.

(The views expressed here are those of the author and indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to the same)