Chatter Box

Difficult divas

It never pays to be a diva — especially on the small screen,where actors are just as disposable as the wafer-thin plots. Zarina Wahab has learnt this the hard way. The actress who played Pratibha,mother of protagonist Karan,in Zee TV’s Yahan Main Ghar Ghar Kheli has been replaced by Natasha Sinha on the show. While Zarina herself says she quit due to some other work commitments and because she wanted to spend more time with her children. Insiders,however,tell a different story. It seems Zarina wouldn’t come on time,or would switch off her cellphone and had a lot of date issues. Perhaps this unceremonious dumping was why Zarina was misty-eyed when bidding adieu to the cast and crew.

Child-friendly tunes

Disney’s show Ishaan has done so well,that the channel has now brought out a music album to reach out to fans. The album has music composed by the likes of Anand Ranganathan,Dhruv Ghanekar,Kaizad Gerda and even one bonus track D.I.S.C.O. by Bappi Lahiri. Most of the songs have a contemporary pop feel and range from love ballads,to rock anthems to groovy dance numbers. Maybe it is a good idea to get children listening to this PG-rated stuff. It’ll stop them from asking awkward questions about Sheila’s jawani.

Epic comedy

Besides being the biggest reference point of historical metaphors and anecdotes,the Mahabharata has always been a rich mine of jokes for comedians and the ones on Comedy ka Mahamuqabla are no exception. Raveena Tandon’s team did a take on the epic,with the actress playing a heavily mustachioed Duryodhan,while teammate Sudesh Lahiri played Dhritarashtra and Vibha Bhagat played Gandhari. A modern addition to the tableau was the eye doctor,played by Parul Yadav,who performs an eye operation on Dhritrashtra. Now,that would’ve been quite a sight.