Song sung blue

Now listen. Hrithik is going to sing. At least that’s the impression Karan Thapar gave us on Face To Face last week. When Hrithik appeared on a one-hour special on BBC’s Face To Face to kick off their Young Achievers series we wondered, why the one-hour special? And why try to make an actor sing? Would a singer be asked to dance or a chef asked to demonstrate aerobics steps on a talk show?

Evidently Karan Thapar wanted Hrithik to sing on Face To Face for the same reason that he wanted the interview to be an hour-long special. He wanted to pattern his Hrithik-chat on Simi’s Rendezvous. Hence the half-hour conversation was padded up with a profile on the star detailing Hrithik’s rise through Kaho Na Pyar Hai to Mission Kashmir. Since all of this happened within a year, did we really need a refresher course on Hrithik’s career?
The song almost didn’t happen. “I told you I took singing lessons. But I didn’t tell you I could sing,” Hrithik corrected his host with uncharacteristic firmness. When Karan Thapar insisted, Hrithik semi-recited the words Kaho Na Pyar Hai in a let’s-get-it-over-with tone.

Why must all star-talk on television model themselves on Rendezvous With Simi Garewal? True, she knows how to handle her stars. Moreover, the basic fact about a star’s life cannot be amended just to bring variety into the chat-fests. But why ape another show’s format?At least Vir Sanghvi’s Star Talk is different from Simi’s Rendezvous.... The host’s attitude doesn’t undergo a sea-change when stars are on the show. Curiously even Vir’s non-star guests talk about stars when they come on his show. Last week when dress designer Rohit Bal showed up on Star Talk he made a dig at Govinda’s dress sense.

Said Bal, “I think Govinda needs to examine his head. He’s not the kind of person I’d like to dress up.” Do I hear Govinda heave a sigh of relief and exclaim, “Chalo Bal-Bal bachey?” Seriously, we need a ‘blink-it’ ban on all digs on Govinda’s dress sense on television. Who needs yuppie dress designers and anorexic veejays to make digs at our film industry?Even the quiz masters aren’t above taking potshots at film folks. Last week on Zee’s Bournvita Quiz Contest, when an obfuscated photograph of Saif Ali Khan was identified by a young contestant as Aishwarya Rai, the anchor Derek O’Brien was maha-tickled, “Yes, he does look like a woman,” O’Brien guffawed. Would he dare to speak this way about a politician?Rohit Bal wasn’t the only dress designer on television last week. Sandeep Khosla showed up on DD2’s Let’s Talk. One of the questions that he had to answer was, why are all of Abu-Sandeep’s clothes so expensive? Khosla turned apologetic and promised to rectify their elitism in the near future. But the fact is, no one asks Shah Rukh Khan why he works only with the best directors in the country. So why censure a dress designer for making clothes for the rich and famous?Ekta Kapoor’s twin-delights Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi are progressing well on Star Plus. In Saas..., the popular character of the daughter-in-law from Junagarh has company. She’s got a young female relative over from Junagarh.

And they both have a whale of a time speaking in that cute accent which has viewers going ballistic with amusement. Deviating from the elders-are-sacrosanct role of family serials, this new character from Junagarh seems to enjoy making an ass of Daksha chachi. She’s just taking a leaf out of our protagonist Tulsi’s book of household etiquettes. Tulsi goes around instigating one woman of the house against another. And audiences just adore her rebellious streak!Neena Gupta’s Siski is shaping into a fine little yarn about the jealousies and insecurities of a guy’s best friend after one of them gets married. I only wish Ms. Gupta would hurry up with the story. The pace is a little sluggish at times. In last week’s episode the sequence where Kanwaljeet and Sumeet Saigal (the latter makes a convincing Sardarji) sat drinking in the latter’s bedroom while grandma Achala Sachdev kept barging in, went on too long. Then there was Kanwaljeet being downright rude to Neena Gupta when she asked him if he was married. “The lady is too opinionated,” he barked back. Still, Siski works. In Pal Chhin Neena Gupta depicted an elderly man’s determination to find marriage and companionship beyond the permissible age.

Now in Siski we see a 35-year old woman’s burgeoning relationship with a surly army man.Kader Khan’s comedy on Star Plus’ Hasna Mat needs serious looking into. Last week, he first did a takeoff on a Malayali character, then an Arab sheikh. Finally he got lewd. When a travel agent dropped in with his female secretary offering to “supply” Kaderbhai leered at the lady. “Oh, you supply?” I know it’s a matter of demand and supply. But must an actor of Kader Khan’s standing shrink his aesthetic sense so drastically to be accommodated on the small screen?Looking at the year that went in Hollywood, Tom Brooke on BBC’s Talking Movies thought the films of the year 2000 were stale. “Hollywood wanted to play it safe.” He also pointed out the growing phenomenon of leading ladies being cast in traditionally masculine roles in films like Charlie’s Angels, Miss Congeniality and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. An American social scientist pointed out that seeing women in dominant parts would have been a healthy sign were it not for the fact that most of these “butt-kicking babes” are young women with perfect faces and bodies. Now where were the really indepth analyses of the year on Indian movies? All of them spoke only about Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor. None of the television magazine anchors ventured to give us a list of their favourite films of 2000. Tom Brooks did. His favourite film of 2000 is Steven Soderberg’s Traffic.A traffic stopper on television was Dimple Kapadia in Bobby, screened on Sony on the evening of Sunday 7 January. Still fresh, still unique, Raj Kapoor’s film didn’t look 28-years-old. Speaking of nostalgia and romance director Anil Ganguly’s telefilm on DD2 on Jan 6 was called Ankhiyon Ke Jharonkhon Se (remember the Ranjeet romance from 1978?) and it featured the Maine Pyar Kiya girl Bhagyashree in the lead. In 24 hours, Indian television covered three decades of great romantic female leads.

Subhash K Jha