Getting salacious

The other day while watching a music countdown show on MTV, don’t ask which since they all look the same, featuring Hrithik Roshan, the ticker at the bottom of the screen informed us about the date of the actor’s wedding. We were also told that the wedding will take place in Mauritius. And then came the wicked rider. No, Kareena isn’t invited.

Well, neither was my neighbour Karisma Kapadia or her aunt Neetu Singhania. So why make a mention of something that isn’t happening? So far only gossip magazines were known to indulge in keyhole journalism. Nowadays television journalism has acquired a yellow pigmentation. The music channels are specially salacious in their intentions. Gimmicky gossipy titbits are thrown in our face by the anorexic veejays in-between bouts of heavyduty gyrations.

So far the film industry accused the print medium of portraying film stars as libertines and studs. What about the visual medium where mischievous mess-information is lustfully merged into suggestive visuals? The political pow-wows are also acquiring their own discomfort level, thanks to the rapidly merging profiles of politicians and film stars. On one show BBC’s Face To Face, we saw Karan Thapar sharing warm moments with Hrithik Roshan. On another talk show SABe TV’s In The Line Of Fire we saw him trying to control Amar Singh who was seen jumping out of his seat with agitation and anxiety.

Some of the questions asked on these current affairs channels border on downright rudeness. Manoj Prabhakar on Zee News’ Encounter was cheekily asked by the interviewer if Prabhakar was video-taping their conversation.

Prabhakar fielded the cheeky question with great skill. No I don’t need to. I’m sure you can give me a copy of the interview, he retorted sarcastically. Manoj sounded aggravated by the judgement of the cricket board. Instead of giving me shabaashi I’ve been punished! he wailed disbelievingly, like a missionary nun whose selfless service had gone to waste in an ungrateful nation.

No one on BBC’s Question Time India was seen mourning for Manoj Prabhakar. But everyone including the panel of politicians felt the decision to bar Ajay Jadeja from active cricket in his prime was unjust. A majority of the audience that evening felt Jadeja should have been put through a normal trial instead of a unilateral board decision. The telegenic politician Saleem Shervani said he had seen Jadeja giving a television interview. My heart went out to him. There was a lot of sincerity.

Sincerity was at a high premium on the unearthly slotted Face Of The Nation, DD1’s weekly political talk show where the amazingly understated Vir Sanghvi gets a panel of intellectuals to quiz a politician. This time it was the young and sincere Omar Abdullah who’s gradually emerging as the Rajiv Gandhi of the new millennium. The same clipped accent, carefully chosen words, dry humour, urbane wit and yes, the foreigner wife who’s accused of running her husband’s show from the background. On Face Of The Nation that night, a learned panelist asked if the younger Abdullah’s wife was the power behind the throne. Omar raised a quizzical eyebrow. My wife? She doesn’t have a political bone in her body. In that case why did Omar’s Dad mention her at a public gathering? "Because my mom isn’t around he(Farouq Abdullah) gives me a hard time about my wife."

I really couldn’t make out what that meant. But it certainly suggested a hands-off attitude. Elaborating that she’s doing her own thing while he does his own Omar rationalised, I’m here in Delhi. She’s in Srinagar. Absence makes the heart grow stronger, right? Omar better have a strong heart. Like Rajiv he’ll have to answer questions about his wife on many panel discussions to come.

Two daily soaps Akaash on Zee and Ghar Ek Mandir on Sony need better production values to sustain interest. Like all the other daily soaps both are female-oriented. The divine Kitu Gidwani holds fort in Akaash as a college lecturer with a problematic sibling(PS). Last week a Bua returned aghast from PS. She told me she was pregnant and then she doubled up with laughter, the Bua complained to Kitu Gidwani. Pre-marital pregnancy is more seriously dealt in Zee’s daily-cacy Babul Ki Duwayen Leti Jaa where Mohan Bhandari’s unmarried daughter has just announced she's in the family way. The girl’s mother throws a fit. She calls over two of her daughter’s best friends and blasts them for letting their friend go astray. One of the friends is an Urmila lookalike who uses more makeup per episode than Urmila probably does for an entire shooting schedule. She turned around and told the impregnated girl’s mother, We knew exactly what she was doing. But we supported her. Because she doesn’t have a support system in her own home.

Message: squabbling couples are liable to have pregnant daughters on their hands. Don’t practice safe sex, practice peace at home, Amen. Peace has gone to pieces in Sony’s tacky-tacky-boom-boom Ghar Ek Mandir. Gautami Shroff plays Aanchal a social activist on the trail of her future father-in-law’s tormentor who calls up the old man and laughs so hard you fear for his heart not the old man’s but the anonymous cackling hyena on the line. Aanchal finds a clue to the man’s identity in a ten year old newspaper which her pa-in-law-to-be clutches clammily. But waddayaknow! The rascal’s photograph has been cut out from the paper. So Aanchal trots off to a a newspaper archive where within exactly 5 seconds she has the paper. I wish the daily soap would demonstrate the same level of professionalism and efficiency. Ghar Ek Mandir sets your teeth on edge.

Farida Jalal hosting a new interactive chat show Jaanam Samjha Karo on DD1 has the same effect on us. When a viewer wrote in to whine about how much she misses her absentee husband Farida gave the unhappy woman spiel on birha ki aag and then warbled a couple of lines from an old song. I am sure, by then, the distressed lady must have decided to switch channels. And Agony Aunts.

Subhash K Jha