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The
stakes are getting higher. And serials are becoming progressively
sweaty. Action is the key. And the sparks are flying high…
sometimes literally. In Star’s Sara Akaash, the airforce
pilots are into heavy-duty action. Monica has been captured by "our
enemies" (presumably Pakistan). Her dad, Kiran Kumar, who plays
a senior pilot tearfully watched the video recording of his daughter
sent by the hostage’s host.
There was no audio in the message. That in itself was a blessing
considering how noisy the average serial tends to be. But wait.
Papa Kiran Kumar could read Monica's lips as they mumbled inaudibly
on the television screen. "She's trying to communicate with
me in sign language… I know where they've hidden her. Let's
prepare for her rescue.."
****
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| The
ever so unhappy Kkusum |
If
only real life was more about clutter than chaos! The soaps tend
to arrange the lives of its characters in a tumultuous but manageable
pyramid of pain. The whole exercise in marital rivalry between Kkusum
and Mahi, the two women in Abhay (Anuj Saxena)'s life in Sony's
Kkusum came to a glamorous head last week when the two ladies
confronted one another amidst a flutter of drying clothes (ooh talk
about a clothes shave!) like Jaya Bachchan and Rekha in the film
Silsila.
****
I
like the way Ekta Kapoor uses Hindi film songs on the soap's soundtrack.
Himesh Reshamiyya's Tere Naam track with new lyrics, plays
a pivotal part in the goings-on. The girl who plays Mahi, Poonam
Nirula, is able to express pain better than most of her colleagues
on Kkusum.
****
There
isn't much to drive off the pain on Star's Kahin To Hoga.
Last week, at a wedding, actress Dolly Bhindra gave such a broad
performance as Punjabi bua, our TV screens nearly cracked open at
the seams.
Take
it easy, lady! I know it's important to be noticed on the small
screen. But let's not get so carried away that we turn the soaps
into veritable vaudevilles. Moving on to Sab TV's Sahib Bibi
Ke Ghulam and see the talented Anjan Shrivastava sporting flaming-red
trousers and flirting with a floozie in full farcical form is just
not my idea of a laugh.
****
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| Is
Shekhar Suman carrying on well? |
Gosh,
what about the aesthetics of the home-viewing process? The
other night I saw a bevy of ungainly dancers prancing on
Sab TV's Carry On Shekhar. The interview was with
the choreographer of a raunchy remix. The guests on Carry
On Shekhar are plumbing new depths of mediocrity. While
the original Jay Leno invites Madonna and Tom Cruise, Shekhar
Suman gets the choreographer of remixes and other fringe
people.
Maybe
there's an acute shortage of celebrities on television.
Hence we've the same set of stars and politicians cruising
from show to show, saying the same things.
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Zee's
Jeena Issi Ka Naam Hai took a break from Bollywood stars
and got us a journalist-filmmaker. Khalid Mohamed didn't have
too many stars coming to talk about him on the show. That could
be because he's no longer the star name that he used to be as
the film critic of The Times of India. Whoever came for
Khalid (and that included M F Husain) or sent messages (Amitabh
Bachchan, Shabana Azmi) did it with feeling.
No
empty noises here. All of last week the most visible face on television
was the BJP representative Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who, poor guy,
had to face the music for comments on Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi
made by fellow- politician Pramod Mahajan. I saw Naqvi manfully
defending himself on Sab TV's Kuch Khaas Baatein. Then
during a live debate on Aaj Tak he came up with a gem of a punchline
about BJP's "feelgood factor" being combated by the
Congress' "family tractor."
****
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| Cezanne
Khan... Mr
Confused ?! |
Gosh,
what an actor! Sure puts some of the mousy performers on the soaps
in the shade. Cezanne Khan who plays Anurag Basu in Star's Kausauti
Zindagi Kay is the worst offender. His inability to cope with
the dramatic confusions of his character shows up quite clearly
in the soap. Last week he was on his honeymoon with his second
wife at a frosty hillstation where snow fell in cottony flakes.
Quite a cotton-dried serial, this!
Aparna
and Anurag fought over a tie she had bought. She rushed out and
sobbed in the 'snow'. He drank himself silly while the hotel receptionist
looked more involved in the proceedings than we ever could!
****
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| The
petite & pretty bahu vis-à-vis the loud mouth screechy
saas |
Another
stormy soap which is rapidly reaching the brink in is Star's Kehta
Hai Dil. Must say the actress who plays the protagonist Karisma
is pretty and watchable. But beyond this pretty and watchable
sight there's her horrific mother-in-law. Grusha Kapoor plays
the role with a screechy hysteria that cuts through the primetime
mood of relaxation. Last
week her husband lunged for her throat for causing all the confusion
and chaos in their bahu's life. A bit late in the day, no?
On
Star's Sanjivani, Simran stormed into the comatose Aman's
bedside and tried to remove his life-preserving apparatus. Makes
us wonder about the life-savers which are constantly rejuvenating
this dead serial about two women warring over a wimpish indecisive
doctor who spends more time agonising about his love life than
saving lives in the hospital.
****
Let's
have the soaps' playing-time restricted to a manageable threshold
before they lose their focus completely. Sahara has wisely decided
to wind up the whiny squeaky daily Aarzo Hai Tu and replace
it with a loud and aggressive Kiran Kumar-helmed soap which would
at least startle viewers awake.
****
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| Breath
of fresh air... or is it too soon to comment?? |
No
matter what the standard of the sitcom, Malini Iyer has
infused life into Sahara's prime time. Sridevi's maun vrat episode
on Tuesday had the nation staring speechlessly at her super-expressive
face for signs and signals of animated communication. When by
sign, she explained to her brother-in-law about the film Roop
Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja he excitedly commented, "Oh, a
superhit film!"
Sridevi
made a pouty thumbs-down signal. A sporting reference to her disastrous
big-screen outing with her husband producer Boney Kapoor and director
Satish Kaushik. At least the team knows how to laugh at itself.
Our laughter can only follow.
****
(The
views expressed here are those of the author and indiantelevision.com
need not necessarily subscribe to the same)
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