It has the potential of becoming a winner, but needs to be marketed smartly. Sab TV's new talk show Kuch Diiil Se treads mined territory with sensitivity and finesse and speaks volumes for the channel's proactive stance.
Here’s one show that would do a channel proud. Well researched, superbly presented and nicely thought out. It suffers only one flaw, a flaw that could perhaps be fatal. Not many really knows Kuch Diiil Se debuted on Sab TV this week.

For those who diligently clued in though, the show is a treat. Firstly, Sab TV needs to be commended for its originality of thought, its brilliant casting coup and good timing.

The concept, that of picking prickly social issues and discussing them threadbare on a talk show may have been inspired by an Oprah, but it has been localised well. Presenter Smriti Irani, better identified as Tulsi of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is a surprise treat. Here’s a superb example of cashing in on another channel’s USP and making it work for you, although in a completely different context.

And Smriti lives up to expectations well. Sab’s contention that she would gel with viewers and panelists owing to her ‘pure and good’ image as Tulsi, may just have hit bull's eye. But Smriiti does not rest on her Kyunki laurels alone. Articulate, witty yet non abrasive, she probes and questions guests and panelists with a finesse that proves that here’s a television personality who isn’t just all glamour and glitz. This woman is poised for a long innings on television.

The Sab team also needs to be commended for launching a show that does not necessarily have pots of mass appeal but is gritty enough to lock in the viewer jaded of slapstick and soppy soaps. Yet, how many among the audience prefer a talk show that dissects the emancipation of women when there’s a Bhabhi or a Shagun (in the afternoon) or a Kaahin Kissi Roz (at night) on Star Plus?

It needs gumption to experiment. Issues like lesbianism, open-ended relationships, marital abuse, the team has carefully picked several taboo issues, brought in good case studies and willing to talk about their situations, invited expert panelists ranging from clinical psychologists, anthropologists and feminists.

The first few shows have been gripping. In one, a couple, Somesh and Anjali, spoke about their open ended marriage. But it was Smriti who painstakingly, yet compassionately probed their feelings with sensitive questions that could probably have raised the hackles of some, but did not due to her careful handling. Interspersing her own frank opinions (“I would definitely be jealous if I even saw my husband with another girl”) while questioning the couple’s beliefs, she even got the girl’s mother who was in the audience to admit that she clearly would not favour her daughter taking advantage of the open endedness of the relationship.

In another, the show managed to rope in Sushmita Bandopadhyay, the victim of an ill fated marriage to an Afghan, to talk about her experiences when the dreaded Taliban ruled the war-torn nation. Research and homework is an intrinsic and important aspect of any talk show, and the team behind KDS has obviously done it well.

The experts are well chosen and articulate, mostly from Delhi, where the show is being filmed. The only passive aspect seems to be the audience on the show, which is often lackluster and asks insipid questions. Even the phone-in questions, which Smriti invites seem a trifle stage managed. Perhaps the SAB team needs to get some proactive audience to put some spice into the show, which otherwise has to rely heavily on the presenter to keep asking peppy questions.

With KDS, Sab is moving towards becoming a well rounded channel. Good comedy, some good current affairs shows and now a show like KDS, right on the eve of CAS. The timing of the show appears well thought through (2:30 pm for the housewives and 11 pm for the working people), but promotional activity, apart from what one sees on the channel itself, is niggardly. How does the channel expect viewers to be hooked by a show they know so little about? A few press ads here and there are scarcely going to help. What is needed is some innovative packaging to sell this excellent product.

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