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A
peculiar new phenomenon has crept up on us from nowhere. It’s
called ‘watch the wannabes make an ass of themselves’.
And it’s supposed to be a talent-hunt contest. Actually it’s
nothing more than an opportunity to watch young eager-eyed hopefuls
trip over and fall on their dreams.
Indian
Idol: Waiting patiently for drama to start |
So
we first had Zee’s India’s Best, which was awfully
dismissive of wannabes. Now Sony Entertainment has gone many steps
ahead in Indian Idol. It’s ruthless about the ruthlessly
ambitious youngsters.
I watched
the inaugural episode on Thursday. I was horrified about how ‘real’
reality TV gets when dreams are being tossed around for mass consumption.
Unlike India’s Best, this time it’s also the judges
choreographer Farah Khan, singer Sonu Nigam and composer Anu Malik
who are being caught off guard.
As
aspiring singers — some good others awful — trooped in
before the judges there were many funny and startling moments.
Funny
moment no.1: After a contestant is questioned by the other judges,
Anu Malik announces, “Now I want to ask you something.”
….and
the other two judges Sonu Nigam and Farah Khan lower their heads
on the table in exasperation and despair
Startling
moment no 1: The mother of a rejected candidate ('even if she’s
the only contestant, she’d still come third,' Farah quips)
barges into the room, and challenges the judges into reconsidering
their decision. When they are adamant, the irate lady snatches at
their marks sheet, making Anu jump out of his chair to declare -
“switch off those cameras…we’re being attacked.”
Maa’s
attack? But of course the cameras rolled on. The point of these
new reality-contests is to connect the aspirants and their evaluaters
through the viewers. And to do so it is important to create an awareness
of the levels of mediocrity desperation and anxiety that manoeuvre
these wannnabe events.
A
word about the comperes on Indian Idol. Much as I like Aman
Varma and Mini Mathur’s chirpiness, I wonder if it’s required
in a show where noise often exceeds talent.
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Shock
treatment
Embarassing
sound bytes! |
Two
interviews on MTV’s Big Picture caught my attention…
or should I say, grabbed my attention. They both featured
unconventional couples sharing a sort of guru-shishya camaraderie.
While
Shabana Azmi and Perizaad Zorabian in conversation with
Sophia (trying hard to converse in Hindi) were a barrel
of illuminating fun, Mallika Sherawat with Dharmendra in
conversation with Nikhil Chinappa was downright embarrassing.
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She
clung to him as though she was afraid of toppling over under the
weight of her own spiel spill. Every statement was a brush with
glush. Every utterance was a giddy pass. Dharmendra tried hard
not to look embarrassed, even when Ms Sherawat made an extremely
rude comment about the heroines from the past. “Dharamji,
tell me how did you carry them when they were all so overweight?”
Honestly,
if I was Hema Malini I’d be disgusted. Since I am not, I
just moved on to the Shabana-Perizaad interview on The Big
Picture. And it was so easy to see the cool camaraderie between
the two actresses — one a portrait of graceful exuberance,
the other a picture of unbridled joie de vivre — and why
their togetherness translated so well in the film Morning Raga.
********
Refreshing
tete-tete's
Celebrity interviews are like dips in a freezing pond. They either
rejuvenate or freeze your blood. I’d definitely rate the
interviews on CNBC’s Trendmill about Anupam Kher’s
dismissal as the censor chief very high. Pritish Nandy never desists
from calling a spade a spade. He lashed out against the censor
board and a government body like the NFDC for being totally ineffectual.
The tete-a-tete with Rahul Bose (always very hearable) and Manmohan
Shetty also threw forward some noteworthy ideas on why the government
needs to trust its employees more often
********
All
about wavering morals
Big
cities= low morals... the new soap funda |
I
happened to catch MTV’s first fiction programme Kitni
Mast Hai Zindagi, which is akin to Zee’s Kareena Kareena
(which shows a slight improvement). It is about a small-town girl
trying to preserve her morals in the big bad city.
Predictably,
the soap resorts to stereotypes to drive home its point. There’s
Jyoti who’s been swallowed by the city. She smokes, drinks
and is seen with different men.
Chee!
Ananya won’t be like that. Fine. But why point wagging fingers
at those who live in a particular way?
********
Telefilms
anyone.... please
Now
that's entertainment! |
Sahara
One’s Saturday-night telefilms are certainly an interesting
experiment with time and space. I liked this week’s film
10 Day Trial, where Kabir Sadanand (as usual, underplayed
and effective) played a man on a trial holiday with the girl he’s
supposed to marry. Though they bicker all the time, they finally
realize they cannot live without one another.
A
routine tale uplifted by a lack of pretension in the presentation.
We surely need to encourage films that are made for television.
I remember Star Plus gave us a series of memorable Star Bestsellers
by talented directors like Hansal Mehta and Tigmanshu Dhulia.
Now all we need to do is revive the same trend for television
to have a life independent of feature films.
Sahara
One’s sitcom Aao Bahen Chugli Karen has a talented
ensemble cast of actresses ranging from Loveleen Mishra to Himani
Shivpuri, who play gossipy bitchy residents in an apartment block.
A sort of downmarket Kittie Party but funnier, last week’s
epoisode was goofy all the way with Loveleen Mishra’s boorish
Bihari brother doing an invisible act, a la Anil Kapoor in Mr
India… except that he just THOUGHT he was invisible.
Right.
Just like a lot of our serials THINK they are sassy.
(The
views expressed here are those of the author and indiantelevision.com
need not necessarily subscribe to the same)
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