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Now
if that isn't wildly coincidental, what is?? The presentation
was decidedly filmy. When the girl spots her rapist she
wails, "Issne mujhe jeete jee maar dala."
Incidentally
the rapist was played by Yash Tonk who wore thick glasses
and looked as zonked-out as Tulsi on Kyunkii Saas Bhi
Kabhi Bahu Thi who has stopped shedding glycerine. Now
she simply frowns so hard at her adversaries they run scared
to the other corner of the frame.
The
vamp of Tulsi's peace is played Achint Kaur who I must confess
is one of the best things to have happened to Indian television.
Achint has a knack of filling up that small space with a
great deal of unaffected charm. Besides Kyunkii...
I enjoy watching her on Star One's Pyar Ki Kashti Mein
where she has been paired with Anang Desai who looked
pretty paternal before Achint as a tycoon with hair more
dyed than Madonna.
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She
wanted to know if he had ever been in love. "Yes, with a
girl I once saw I in college…." Blah blah, went Anang,
as Achint turned all glassy-eyed dreamy.
Needless to say she was the girl.
It takes a great deal of acting prowess to actually make feelings
apparent on the miniature screen. Here, not only the emotions
but also the actors expressing them have to be many sizes larger
than life.
****
They
were larger than life at the IIFA awards. I must say I found the
coverage on the new Channel 7 to be by far the best. Within no
time at all Channel 7 has emerged as the finest Hindi news channel
on air. The coverage is professional sharp smart and crisp. Yes,
the correspondents tend to act extra-cocky with celebrities. That,
I'm afraid has become a way of life on television. They all seem
to think they've a right to act more starry than the stars.
Worse
still, some of the correspondents, enjoying the free trip to Amsterdam
a bit too aggressively, even made so bold to ask Preity Zinta
and Urmila Matondkar about their hair, clothes and accessories.
Shouldn't
we stop trying to ape the West, even if our stars are blissfully
doing the same?
****
Coming
back to Channel 7, I see a truly watchable blend of features and
news there. This week there was a thought provoking feature on
why relationships seem to collapse in the metros. Though I didn't
didn't much care for images of skittish couples dancing at pubs
(to show how flighty relationships have become) I did enjoy the
whole idea of opening up relationships for scrutiny…
A refreshing change from the way they are smothered in melodrama
on the soaps.
****
Smothered
is how I felt when I watched saucy Samantha on HBO's Sex &
The City hitting on a priest and then telling her friends
the next day that she had spent the whole afternoon masturbating.
Oh jeez. Er, isn't this a bit much? Still, I confess I enjoy the
sexual frankspeak on Sex & The City specially since
it's so symptomatic of the solitude in big cities.
Last week there was a terrible moment when we saw the leading
lady Sarah Jessica Parker wait the whole evening for her boyfriend
to show up, then pay for her cake and walk out all alone on her
birthday.
How many of our soaps actually bring out the urban angst? Zee's
Kabhi Han Kabhi Na tried to do it in a light tone, fell
and lost its way.
This
was a week of solid non-fiction programming. On BBC's Hard
Talk I caught an engrossing panel discussion on the plight
of Muslim women in Muslim countries. A clergy argued back with
lucid vengeance saying there was no area where women were treated
unequally by Muslim law.
"Why do you answer a question with a question?" Sebastian
shot back. "I learnt it from Tim Sebastian," retorted
the clergy.
Love All. Some more thought provoking masala on NDTV where during
a discussion on women broadcasters in cricket Mandira Bedi was
hauled over the coals. I liked the gracious though stout self-defence
that Mandira put up. I thought some of the comments by the sports
critics in the studio bordered on the abrasive.
Why must we be so dismissive of achievers? Achievement was being
honoured on Star Gold's Sabse Favourite Kaun. Though the
awards had no surprises to offer I loved the way Arshad Warsi
held fort on stage with Rakshanda Khan.
Everyone who attended seemed to get an award. And those who didn't
attend, like the senior Bachchan, didn't.
As simple as that.
DD
News got so carried away with its IIFA coverage that they forgot
to carry out a spell-check. 'Mayor' was spelt with two 'a's. Fortunately
diarrhoea wasn't required to be spelt, though the hostess seemed
to suffer from its verbal version.
Why must the TV anchors talk more than the celebrities that they
interview? And why must the celebrities look as though they'd
like to be anywhere but on TV?
One exception was Koffee With Karan this week. Now enjoying
a re-run on Star One, I caught the episode with Bipasha Basu and
Lara Dutta where the two of them bitched poor Amisha Patel out.
Girls just want to have fun, specially when Karan Johar is around.
The
morality tale has a certain old-world charm. That touch of traditionalism
comes in sharp contrast with the amorality of the other soaps.
