The
K women: As
far as the treatment of women is concerned I think the soaps are
far ahead of the talk shows. The women are in -charge and often
emotionally stronger than the men. In Ekta Kapoor’s excellent
Kahiin To Hoga I love the character of Sujal’s la-di-dah
aunt who hauled him over the coals on Thursday.
“What
did you think? Kashish would marry you after my son’s death?”
she taunted him. “She dumped you and married my son for his
money…” The words fell like pelting nails on Sujal,
as the Rich Bitch sneered secretly, just like the wanton wife
Aparna in Kasautii Zindagii Kay.
The
negative woman characters hold up the soaps, much in the same
way that the movie moghuls take care of Bollywood. BBC’s
invigorating series Bollywood Bosses, featured Rakesh Roshan
on Saturday. After Ram Gopal Varma, Sanjay Bhansali and Karan
Johar, Roshan seemed like an unusual choice.
Rather
than judge or evaluate his cinema in detail (there was one female
critic doing that, though she worded her observations very carefully
as though she was walking on glass rather class) the docu-profile
let Rakesh Roshan and his son Hrithik speak.
Both spoke feelingly. They seemed to remember details from their
past that were painful and yet potent. The ‘struggle’
that goes into the creative process is very integral to Sanjay
Bhansali and Rakesh Roshan, though they both spoke of a different
variety of struggle on Bollywood Bosses, and that difference
shows up in their work.
I specially liked this observation of Rakesh Roshan. “Every
time it (the process of filmmaking) is the same… the same
nervousness before scripting, the same clammy hands on the day
of shooting.”
****
Quite
a week: Last week the beer-bar dancers of Mumbai had gone
on a collective protest march. A well-known social activist who
appeared on NDTV’s Mumbai Central last week said,
“It has been quite a week for women.”
I thought of her statement, when I saw Raveena Tandon as the broken
but brave Choti Bahu in Sahara’s Sahib Bibi Ghulam.
The plot and the events have now begun its downhill journey. And
Raveena’s crumbled face conveys the valiant dignity of a
woman, who knows she’s fighting a losing battle against fate.
Last week there was quite a poignant moment, when in front of
her ailing husband she brings out her jewellery to save his honour.
Raveena got across the poised poignancy of the situation extremely
effectively.
****
Some
good adaptation: The trouble is, most of the literary works
on television are submerged in reams of kitsch that the soaps
are famous for. How many viewers know the indomitable Gulzar’s
adaptations of Munshi Premchand’s stories are on air at this
very moment? The last time Gulzar Saab came to television to do
the lucid and lyrical Mirza Ghalib, he created history.
His adaptations of Premchand’s stories could’ve been
a new beginning for Doordarshan. The trouble is, no one watches
national television any longer, not even in the so-called ‘interiors’
where they’ve already switched to the ‘MTV’ mode
of home entertainment.
Gulzar’s
literary adaptations are every bit as meritorious as his timeless
feature films. Here’s one filmmaker, no… a visionary,
who hasn’t compromised on quality just because of truncated
size of the medium. Godaan, which Gulzar adapted last month
was brought to television with none of the nuances from the original
text getting lost in the transcreative process.
****
Whoes
watching?: And now Kafan, last Sunday had Pankaj Kapur
in a superlative-defying performance as a man so wretchedly impoverished
he defined if not invented the poverty line. Gulzar Saab’s
luminous ability to convey home truths with minimum ostentation
was on full display.
But alas, who’s watching?! A few evenings later I was back
on Doordarshan to watch an espionage thriller Joshilay, where
this macho cop runs into his old flame, now married to a man who
uses his hands on her quite liberally. Ex-flame sobs, cop fumes,
sadistic husband sniggers…..
Viewers
simply wept for the fate of Gulzar’s outstanding series.
