Politically incorrect?- Indiantelevision dot com's Box Populi by Subhash K Jha

Nowadays a lot is being said on television about film persons going into politics. But the fact is, all the self-styled experts suffer from contempt of quote. On Thursday evening on NDTV 24X7, journalist Anil Dharker saw the presence of film stars as a "dumbing down" of politics.

First of all, I feel the term itself is dumb. How much down can dumb go? And what’s so down or dumb about Om Puri or for that matter Smriti Malhotra-Irani? She may not be as glamorous as her sisters from celluloid. But she neither acts dumb nor falls in the bimbo category. Her interpretation of the tough character Tulsi in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is cerebral, where it could have been plain…well, dumb!

In last week’s episode of the spectacularly successful soap, she had a confrontation scene with her 'lost-n-found' son Ansh. True, we could see the false rivulets of glycerine galloping down her cheeks. But all said and dumb…er, done Tulsi can bring a semblance of sensibleness to the most melodramatic moments. Alas, her sobs, as opposed to Ansh’s scowls don’t add up to much chemistry.

Teething troubles: Ekta Kapoor’s new Kkusum, Manasi Joshi, is struggling to establish her credentials with a new face and a new set of rules. Everything looks strange with a new face around. It must be hard for all the actors to keep a straight face while a Kkusum with a new face tries to have her say.

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'Man' your style: Talk talk talk…that’s what the ‘Manhunt’ shown on Zee was all about. Rakshanda Khan and Simran Brar got on stage to drool over the guys who passed by. I guess they wanted have their beefcake and eat it too. The impressive lineup of celebrity judges included Nikhil Advani the director of Kal Ho Na Ho. I suppose he has ‘arrived’. Once you are invited to judge such beauty pageants your life as a television personality is made.

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Women calling shots: Vir Sanghvi’s Cover Story with Raveena Tandon seemed to have been recorded prior to her marriage. They seemed to meet like two buddies, both single and ready to mingle. "You’ve a crush on me," Raveena told her host, who neither confirmed nor denied the allegation.

With style and spunk

Oh, the pain of being perpetually noncommital! What Raveena displayed in abundant measures was spunk. Nowadays we see a lot of spunky women on television. Even the timid Jassi has turned assertive. A brief holiday in Alibaug with her super-spunky grandma (Uttara Baokar) has done a world of good to her selfworth. She’s back in office and when the arrogant and stuck-up boss Armaan shouts at her she quietly replies, ‘Sir don’t talk to me in those raised tones.’

Bravo! And may the tribe of such spirited working women increase! In fact just the other day I saw Barkha Dutta talking to five Muslim girls in Aligarh on NDTV. The ladies chatted about politics and why the girls liked young politicians like Rahul Gandhi (giggle) and Jyotiraditya Scindia (giggle giggle).

Then the giggles faded and the girls spoke about how and why they felt like second-class citizens in their own country. It’s rare to see women expressing themselves with such candour and conciseness. But then it takes a Barkha Dutta to get the spunk out of women.

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Irresistible Mr B

Making news: Two interviews on BBC, this week, had us gawking in rapt attention. Why is it that any tete-a-tete with the one and only Amitabh Bachchan sounds newfangled, even if he says much of the same things that we’ve already heard him say so many times? The segment devoted to his opinions on BBC’s Asia Today conducted from Singapore, had the mega-star holding forth on why mainstream Indian cinema held such a massive appeal the world over ("I don’t know…maybe Eastern emotions make a stronger appeal"). He also spoke about his unfortunate brush with politics and why he’d never again, in this life, return to politics.

The most illuminating portion of the interview had to do with Mr Bachchan’s views on friendship with Pakistan. It was interesting to see him making his point on amity across the border without losing focus of his role as the country’s no.1 brand ambassador.

Even more interestingly, I happened to watch Imran Khan being quizzed by the unsparing Mahreen Khan. The closest we come to this spunky woman (ah, another one of those!) in our country is Swati Chaturvedi, who’s pretty ruthless with her guests. Which is easy to be when your guests are erring politicians.

But what about poor Imran Khan? The lady on the host seat just wouldn’t let the poor cricketer-turned-politician-turned-philanthropist off the hook! She specially took him to task for his turn-around regarding President Musharraf. Reading out the visibly uncomfortable Mr Khan’s quotes before and after his change in attitude Ms Khan embarrassed the hell out of her star-guest.

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Too much sugar!: Just goes to show we don’t need to be soft on stars. We just have to see Ruby Bhatia fawning and giggling over her celeb-guests on B4U Movies' Centre Stage. On Wednesday, Ruby got the lovely Namrata Shirodkar on her show. For some strange reason they spent a lot of time discussing Namrata’s newly born nephew.

Bold moves

"How did it feel?" Ruby sounded so animated that I thought Namrata herself had given birth to a baby. Later, Ruby said, "I’m not supposed to talk about your love life….but I can’t help asking you…."

And her giggles merged into the glycerine on Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. A few hours after I saw Mahreen Khan interrogating Imran Khan he looked incredulously into the camera after India’s victory in Lahore. He looked like he just remembered the iron lady- Ms Khan without muskaan (smile).

Another spunky lady on television last week was Mallika Sherawat on DD News. When asked if she was embarrassed about her bold image she shot back, "Why should I be. I like it! "

I know whom I want to murder.

(Pic courtesy: www.starworld.indya.com, www.hindustantimes.com)