Indiantelevision.com > Box Populi by Subhash K Jha

Pop the bubbly. Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi completed a 1,000 episodes. This called for a celebration. Dropping the glycerine routine Tulsi decked herself in flamboyant finery to strut around the opulent set looking like a matriarch beyond the camera.

But the most innovative feature of the celebratory episode on Thursday was the way TV tycoon Ekta Kapoor's entry on the sets was announced. We first saw a mysterious figure descend from a car and saunter towards the venue of the celebrations. We saw the look of awe pleasure and surprise bordering on ecstacy on the faces of the soap's various couples as they opened their bedroom doors to this mysterious VVIP.

And then the camera panned the gently smiling face of the TV tycoon herself. As she did her simpering namaste to one and all on the sets I wondered about how important marketing and packaging has become to selling soap to the public. Ekta Kapoor is no longer just a woman behind the scenes. She's a hotshot celebrity who gets mobbed more than the icons in her soaps.

The era of high-profile stardom is upon us. How long can we shy away from reality? Or look at glamorous people as illusory? TV can no longer afford the luxury of treating the celebrity as an illusion. In his interview with Prabhu Chawla on Aaj Tak's Seedhi Baat Abhishek Bachchan was visibly uncomfortable answering squirmy questions on how he would react to doing a nude scene and what it feels like being his father's son.

The nude query was squirmy for its outrageous hypothesis and the question on Papa…well, hasn't Abhishek been there before, and so many times?

When non-film journalists do a film personality they should make sure the questions don't sound like repeats of gossip columns from film glossies.

I enjoy watching Rajiv Masand interview his stars on Star News. He's gentle but probing. And some of his guests are downright stupid. Arshad Warsi who's otherwise fairly wise seems to have turned into a hare-brain on the topic of his little son. Warsi spoke about how his son was oblivious to Pierce Brosnan when the latter coochiecooed the baby.

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Er, isn't Arshad's son just 7??????
Gawd, these celeb-parents. They embarrass everyone from James Bond to pyara bachcha.

Sony's new Ekta special Kaisa Yeh Pyar Hai is about a small-town girl who comes to stay with a rich family and their playboyish son (Iqbal Khan, abandoning plans of becoming a big-screen star) who brings chicks home to write love messages on their bare backs.

Maybe he wants to brush up his graffiti for the annual abuse-your-favourite-soap contest. Or maybe he likes to write on smooth surfaces.

Someone needs to tell the writer of this soap that smooth writing isn't about bare backs. Nor does this poor-kid-in-evil-rich-situation jell with the audience.

Incidentally, how do you tell the really rich apart from the rest in Ekta Kapoor's serials? Simple. The ladies in the household wear more lip gloss than the other characters. Kruttika Desai who plays Ronit's mom in Sony's Yeh Meri Life Hai wears so much of the stuff she can hardly move her mouth even when expressing extreme agitation, like she was doing last week when her husband went broke.

"Everything will be okay again. We'll get back our status," she kept repeating. Was she referring to the show's TRPs?

*****

One soap that I sincerely wish well is Sony's Rihaee. Not only does it have a genuinely committed cast (Nakul Vaid, Divya Dutta, Rajeshwari Sachdev) but a format of storytelling that forces us to sit up and watch.

Last week's story set in a Rajasthani village was about a young woman who accuses her husband of impotency and is asked by the village panchayat to prove her charge by sleeping with him in public. A real-life incident given a dramatic twist by Sanjay Upadhyay who has almost grown up on and with TV. He can make the most mundane of situations look special.

There were heart-stopping moments of suspense. And the theme of oppression shone through the carefully designed modern-day fable. Full marks to the makers of this hardhitting piece of dramatised life. Drama and life go hand in hand on the boxed screen. I saw a television-awards function on Sunday on Sony where Rohit Roy and Anjan Shrivastava did a takeoff on the Ruchi sting-operation from India TV.

For the record Ruchi was played by Tanaaz Currim who was also one of the guests on Sony's Batliwala which is becoming watchable, thanks to the chemistry among members of the Batliwala clan who bring out a Parsi humour without going overboard. Currim was a delight, and so was Neha Dhupia who came on the same evening.

The spunky spirit prevailed throughout. And it extended even to the debate What's The Big Idea on CNBC about TV mores where ad gurus expressed their views on the plight of TV. While Alyque Padamsee wanted the saas to be more sassy (whatever that means, besides being a corny copy-line) Prasoon Joshi was more forthcoming. He pointed out there were no original ideas on Indian TV. Ideas like Jassi and Kaun Banega Crorepati come from abroad. According to Joshi, those who aren't creative shouldn't be allowed to dabble in TV.

A bit harsh in his appraisal of the TV scene? Yes, but we need Indian TV to grow up, and out of the stubborn stagnancy that it has gotten itself into.

Enjoyed a news story Naach Par Aanch on Star News about the impending closure of beer bars. Said a dancer, "Will you be happy if we come out and stand on the roads? Should we dance on the streets?…And who says we wear skimpy clothes? Have you seen these girls who visit pubs?"

Ouch and ooh. Spunky ladies aren't just the birthright of the soaps. The lipgloss may be diminished. The grit grows in inverse proportion.

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

Abhishek's pic from: www.bollywoodblitz.com