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It
seems like yesterday! Years ago Hema Malini played Seeta and
Geeta to spectacular success in the cinema. Would she be able
to do a Kamini-Damini as successfully on television?
The
odds are heavily stacked against Hema. Prior to her, Karisma Kapoor
and Sridevi have descended from the razzdazzle of the big screen,
only to realize the exigencies of the home-viewing medium are entirely
different if not antithetical to the giant screen.
 But
miracles can happen. And Hema is Hema! Still extremely charming.
This isn’t her first stint on television. Years ago she had
done Nupoor on national television. Still radiant in Kamini-Damini,
Hema brings a kind of classic energy to the screen.
Her
scenes with screen-husband Pankaj Dheer duplicate the same producer
B.R. Chopra’ film Baghban, though naturally there’s
a difference between the way Hema interacts with Bachchan in the
film and Dheer in the serial.
That
brings me to the supporting cast of the show. The two Bahus are
played by absolutely raw and un-charismatic actresses. Is that only
to enhance the aura of the central attraction? If so Hema doesn’t
need anti-props to shine.
Some
of the values being propagated appear archaic. One of Kamini’s
Bahus wears pink lipstick and eye shadow to tea with her friends
who crib non-stop about ma-in-law’s highhanded interference.
The other bahu dreams about travel while her husband is busy on
the laptop in bed.
The
mood being propagated often reminds us of the family drama from
the 1960s. Maybe the Chopras need to look beyond their backyard
to realize how much Indian television has evolved since they made
Mahabharat many moons ago.
******
 The
power of the satellite soap was evident in full glory this week
when Tulsi finally gunned down Ansh in Star’s Kyunkii Saas
Bahi Kabhi Bahu Thi. Though I was as engrossed in the rites
of maternal protest as the rest of the nation, I must say Tulsi’s
Murder India act was stretched beyond endurance. The moment she
pulled the trigger to watch her errant son crash to the ground Matrix
style was repeated so often that I seriously began to wonder if
the scriptwriters were planning their next move while the mother
sorted her sinful son.
Let’s
have a more pacy narration to prop up what’s unarguably a high
point in the narrative.
******
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Is
Sujal being written out of Ekta Kapoor’s other TRP-topper
Kahiin To Hoga? Actor Vikas Sethi who some time ago
had been part Kyun Hota Hai Pyarr has grown his hair long
and joined the Kahiin To Hoga cast this week. The
first glimpse that we had of him was perceived as some kind
of an event. Let’s see how this grey character grows.
Grey definitely glows on television. Look at Ansh in Kyunkii
Saas…or at Rishi (Shabbir Ahluwallia) in Kahiin
To Hoga. Every grimace gets a nod from the audience.
Oh, they just can’t get enough of the baddies! That’s
why there are so many grey characters on Star One. Whether
it’s the lawyer’s chronicle Siddhant or
the NRI coming to terms with his new designation as the
head of the underworld in Family Business, they all
seem to be leaning towards evil.
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I
specially like the dilemma of disembodied morals as represented
by Jai in Family Business. His reluctance to be swallowed
by the crime world is beautifully designed in the map of the human
heart. He’s obviously modeled on Al Pacino’s character
in The Godfather while his wife’s screaming hysterical
protest to her husband’s sudden switch of jobs and morality
echoes Diane Keaton in the original.
 More
original is the breakup between the lawyer in Siddhant
and his girlfriend. There was a very raw and real sequence this
week when she finally threw him out of their live-in home together.
The clenched jaws, the terse words, and the anguish underlining
every gesture was effectively mirrored by the two actors.
At times Indian television demonstrates more maturity than its
more affluent large-screen counterpart. I’d count the weekend
film on Sahara One’s Film Bazar featuring the young
earnest actor who played Ayushman on Sony, as among the
mature events on television this week. He played a man so in love
with a girl engaged to marry a cad that he can’t get her
out of his head.
There was a line that the earnest lover-boy kept repeating to
the girl . “The man who marries you should wake up every
morning and thank God for his good fortunes.”
*****
Strangely I thought of that line while watching the incessant
outflow of barbed rhetoric's on Lalu Yadav during last week’s
Question Time India on BBC and its Hindi counterpart Public
Platform on NDTV India. All they seemed to discuss was Lalu
Yadav and his doings!
Makes you wonder. If it wasn’t for Mr Yadav what would they
talk about in these current-affairs gab sessions?
Speaking of shock value why was the otherwise-dignified Divya
Dutta talking about flatulence in such detail on Star One’s
game show Bluff Master? If the idea is to be as uninhibited
as possible then I suggest these things be done in a more civilised
way. I don’t think references to ‘farting’ or masturbation
make a show lively. They just put off family audiences.
*****
Jassi Jaisi…Koi Nahin is turning a corner. Jassi weeps
a lot these days. And she’s now got a sounding board in Neena
Gupta who’s already… sounding bored! And I don’t
blame her. How can an actress of Neena Gupta’s caliber be
happy playing a fringe friend to an actress who thinks glasses,
braces and a lisp constitute a great character transformation?
Neena in fact is currently re-living her best times on the retro
channel Star Utsav. Her performance in Saans still remains
a benchmark on the small screen. Too bad Neena’s Saans was
eased out by Saas and her boo-hoo-boo-hoo bahus.
(The views expressed here are those of the author and indiantelevision.com
need not necessarily subscribe to the same)
Pic
courtesy:
Hm
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