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Straightaway,
let's give the devil its due. Star One is a unique way of
countermanding the lachrymose excesses of Star's primary channel.
In fact the swanky new upmarket channel even takes potshots at its
more illustrious dowager-like primetime entertainer.
On the quite-funny The Great Indian Show I saw a fairly entertaining
spoof on the Saas-Bahu soap formula where Deepak Qazir(who plays
the patriarch on Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki) pitched in as the satirical
pa orchestrating the mock-maudlin proceedings from the head of the
dinner table.
 Star
One thumbs its nose at all the value-systems that are so flamboyantly
upheld on Star Plus. The all-new serials - all 22(or is 24?) of
them- cannot be called soaps. They're much to proudly urbane to
qualify as conventional couch-potato diversions. After watching
the chic lineup of fictional entertainment for a week I've come
to certain conclusions about urbane lifestyles. Everyone wants to
be a cool dude or a hot chick. And there's a lot of sleeping around
going on.
Sex in fact, jumps out of the closet on Star One. In Siddhanth which
is certainly watchable, a young college girl is raped by a group
of spoilt rich friends during a party. The lawyer-hero first sneers
his way through the accused's defence and then starts getting guilt
pangs.
There's also a hotshot politician whose wife wants a baby. But he
can't…er, rise to the occasion. So she seeks…er, comfort
from her old friend who's none other than our lawyer-hero Siddhanth.
Extremely well-plotted and surprisingly strong at the centre, Siddhanth
reminds me Tigmanshu Dhulia's tautly designed political thriller
Rajdhani which came on Star Plus before its affluent phase began
after Kaun Banega Crorepati. It certainly affords us a new
kind of night-cap. More heady and steady and less sugary.
The sugar-content is low in most of the Star One serials I've watched
so far. The daily primetimer Remix, which claims to be the first
hour-long daily on television, has a genuinely young feel to it.
The characters are likeable and accessible. And there's a certain
momentum and vibrancy about the narration generally absent from
tv 'entertainment'.
Some
of the other soaps on the new channel try too hard to be with-it.
I watched the inaugural episode of Special Squad, our own version
of NYPS Blues and found it much too enamoured of the American detective-series
format. A girl was raped and murdered in the car park. The actors
had a tough time trying to look as though they cared for anything
more than their suave speech patterns which were all translated
from the English.
You know the kya-tum-wohi-soch-rahe-ho-jo-main-soch-raha-hoon variety
of trans-literal linguistic motivation that doesn't make sense in
any except the derivative context.
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On
Star One there're some location-specific serials, like Pyar
Ki Kashti Mein and Hotel Kingston which don't
look very exciting. In the latter, the hotelier Benjamin
Gilani's daughter arrived last week with her chee-chee NRI
boyfriend in tow. NRI boyfriend curls up his nose at the
concierge. "Everyone knows red wine is not served chilled."
Girlfriend and her Dad look tense. Concierge clenches his
jaws. "But those who know also know that this particular
brand is the only red wine that must be served chilled."
Oooh,
someone has been researching wine protocol. Wish more attention
was paid to the mannerisms and airs of the rich and the
spoilt. They're too caricatural to make an impact. In any
case parodies on the rich don't work any more. Every viewer
out there wants to own a Porsche and a body like Britney
Spears/Hrithik Roshan.
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On
the whole Star One's package is very inviting. And I must say
it has snapped me out of the circle of boredom I had got frozen
in on the couch.
********
 Zee's
new serial Kabhi Han Kabhi Na with veteran dude Vishal
Singh playing a sister-fixated nerd(Singh has been around since
Doordarshan days) whose rich-bitch girlfriend wants to change
him from sister's pet to a ghar-jamai is interesting on paper.
member Madhavan as the defiant permanent guest at his in-laws'
in Ananth Mahadevan's Ghar Jamai?
An
interesting concept, though at the moment I don't see it getting
hot enough to grip audiences into a state of frenzied excitement.
The guests on Shekhar Suman's talk show on Sab TV are getting
more embarrassing by the day. So what does he do? He trots over
to Zee's India's Best to brief the hopeful boys and girls on how
to conduct their careers.
Cool! But why was he giving one particular boy (Himanshu) such
a hard time? Picking on the poor guy's words, flooding him with
strange counter-questions….hey chill …he's just a starter!
********
 In
MTV 's Kitni Mast Hai Zindagi Yash Tonk has joined the
cast as a suave, smooth-talking, mysterious and powerful tycoon.
Yes yes, I know. The soaps really demand a lot of suspension of
disbelief from us. But then think of the whole question of the
over-exposure of tv stars from the producers' perspective. Now
that Tonk is out of Ekta Kapoor's Kasauti Zindagi Kay(he
died a slow painful death, just like some of our long-running
soaps) he must be used elsewhere.
And while we're on MTV , I must express some amount of dismay
with the way the Lycra Awards were conducted. The show came across
as shallow . One of the items had all the male actors of a forthcoming
film parading on stage. Since none of them is particularly glamorous
or ramp-worthy, wonder what purpose the exercise served. Except
to give the film some pre-release exposure. But at our expense!
The best moment on the show was when Rekha came forward to get
her icon's award. Many members of the audience stood up to cheer.
We would do the same for Rekha. But please spare us the vapid
variety- shows that accompany the awards ceremonies.
(The
views expressed here are those of the author and indiantelevision.com
need not necessarily subscribe to the same)
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