Indiantelevision.com > Box Populi by Subhash K Jha

On Monday night Kareena Kapoor looked like a zillion bucks on Sony Max’s Current Bollywood. She was there to speak about her newly-found streak of success with Aitraaz and Hulchal. She radiated an inner conviction that has no connection with success or failure.

You either have it or you don’t. And she sure did. There was also a disarming directness about her when she spoke about Akshaye and Akshay. About the former she said he was the best actor in the industry today.

Not too many top actresses— certainly not Rani or Preity — would dare to go on camera to make such an exuberant declaration about one leading man at the cost of the others. But that’s Kareena for you — blunt as they come. That’s why she had the gumption to say she had watched Akshay shoot with her sister Karisma when she, Kareena, was a school girl.

A night before, I had watched Kareena performing in a mesmerizing mode in Mani Rathnam’s Yuva. The film is what I would call a prized re-discovery on television. Just months ago it had disappointed audiences, for no fault that one can think of or see. And now the film went through a process of rediscovery.

The film’s enchantingly episodic format rendered itself effectually to the sponsored breaks. We could actually watch this grossly underrated film as three different movie experiences.

The other memorable movie experience of the week was Phir Milenge. Aptly screened on World Aids Day on Sahara One, what it had in common with Yuva was a talented South Indian director and of course Abhishek Bachchan. In the two films Bachchan Jr gives rousing performances, thereby lending full-on credence to the impression that he came into his own in 2004.

Advertisement

Films on television can easily provide the comparative perspective, bring together cinematic experiences that would otherwise remain isolated and unlinked. But for this to happen we need to stop looking at cinema as autonomous sources of entertainment on the home-viewing medium.

Let the feature films on television not be about ratings alone.

This is where cinema and television need to get seriously compatible. And this is where the new made-for-television feature films come in. However, the one that was aired this weekend on Sahara’s Cinema Ghar was pretty awful. The actors(?) spoke in peculiar cool-dude accents and seemed to be caught in some freaky state of flaky angst.

ofngodfbdfbmst words? The talk-show culture which had gone dormant recently seems to have bubbled to the surface in a big way recently. Every one from Karan Johar to Shobhaa De is interviewing celebrities these days. I caught up with Kumar Mangalam Birla ‘s tete-a-tete with De on Sahara’s Power Trip. I was quite curious to see how the celeb-interviewer conducts a one-to-one with one of her friends from the Page 3 circuit. And I must admit I was rather disappointed.

Advertisement

For one, the décor seemed strained. Unlike Simi’s Rendezvous, here the environment exuded neither warmth nor a detached intimacy. Then there was certain stiffness about the way the questions were posed, as though the otherwise-articulate De had somehow decided to ask pre-prepared questions instead of letting the conversation flow as it came.

During the course of the conversation De wanted to know about Birla’s average day and his “time-management trick”. Then she pointed out how he had attended a whole series of Ramayan performances by his kids at their PTA meeting.

Now this kind of dinner-table intimacy should be worked upon. While letting us know about her own proximity to her guests, the anchor should also attempt to bring the guest close to us.

Sahara One’s daily soap Pratima seems to be yet another woeful saga of a devoted wife, callous husband and interfering family. The protagonist was last seen waiting on her husband on her hands and knees, even bringing his shoes to him personally , thereby reiterating the belief that when it comes to on-screen Sati Savitris the ‘shoe’ must go on.

What really made me sit up though in Pratima were the camera angles. The lenses don’t just seem to crane their necks to catch the characters at the craziest angles ever invented, they also seem to exude a kind of sweaty anxiety which adds to the general feeling of claustrophobia on the soap.

So the final verdict on this sweaty soap? It needs to slow down, sooner than ‘lather’.

****

Have you ever watched an interview with the VHP’s Pravin Togadia where he doesn’t lose his cool? And if the compere happens to be Prabhu Chawla, then nothing like it. On Aaj Tak’s Seedhi Baat, Chawla called Togadia, “tod-phod-ia”. Naturally, the guest seethed in rage and called his host a “fascist secular”. Chawla grinned back and wondered when the BJP-RSS will focus on the improvement of the ‘Hindu samaj’.

“The Hindu samaj is doing quite well for itself. You don’t have to worry about it,” Togadia replied curtly.

That, I thought, was a sufficiently shriveling retort.

****

It was a very moving moment when the frail and old Ramanand Sagar was escorted to the stage to collect his lifetime-achievement award at the Indian Telly Awards telecast this week on Sony. And to see the whole congregation give him a standing ovation was an unforgettable experience.

The event had its share of funny and sad moments. What gladdened the joy glands was to see teevee’s icons being accorded their place under the sun.

Isn’t it about time we looked more seriously at the acting talent on television instead of constantly looking at Big Brother….sorry, Big Purdah for approval?

(The views expressed here are those of the author and indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to the same)