Friends and Lovers

The bonus in the deal with Australia’s Channel 9 which will telecast the matches, is that Doordarshan’s sports team will receive a spot of training with the Australian channel. Not a moment too soon. Refer to the recent Challenger one-day series in Ahmedabad (DD Sports). If Indian cricket is one generation behind Australia’s, then its TV cricket coverage is two generations adrift. The camera work resembled the fielding by many Indian cricketers: seldom did it catch up with the ball and when it did, it managed to loose it. Rarely did we see field placements or angled shots square of the wicket. And the replays were grizzly like a two-day old beard. Not at all attractive.

There’s also a curious, unsubstantiated belief that if you know how to play cricket, you automatically know how to talk cricket. Which is like saying if you know how to talk cricket, you must know how to play it. Not always or entirely true. We hope under Channel 9’s tutelage, DD becomes sports friendly.

What could be friendlier than Friends (Star World)? Half a dozen gals and guys who have six-handedly redefined the meaning of friendship. We’ve never seen pals like these before. This is bonding in double knots (single knots are for marriages). These Friends are so close, the rest of their lives never separate them; they’re so close, they should formalise the relationship in a church; that or get a knife to scrape them off each other. How close? When Marcel, the pet monkey belonging to Ross, has to leave because he has reached sexual maturity (before Ross!), they all go to say goodbye to him at the airport. That’s close.

How funny is the show? Ummmmn. It is fun without being hilarious, broad without being bawdy and a trifle juvenile without being retarded. It’s got a gentle, tender rhythm with occasional great lines. For example, in one episode, Rachel injures her foot. George (One Fine Day) Clooney, is the doctor tending to her tendons. Rachel invites him and his colleague over to Monica and her apartment. When the medicine men walk in she exclaims: “Aren’t you a bit cute to be doctors?”

Monica gulps, the docs stare, the laugh box howls.

“I mean young a bit young to be doctors!” This punch line might not straighten out Muhammed Ali even now, but it creased the lips.

Or there is the moment when Phoebe visits her twin sister.

“Gotta a minute?” she asks her sister who is rushing about.

“Sure, I’m at work.” No, the sitcom don’t make you split with laughter like a banana peel. Still, maybe it’s early days. We are watching old episodes. Maybe it will get funnier, maybe these Friends will grow on you like they have on each other. Maybe.

Question: what does `the other woman’ mean to you?

The other woman, silly.

Yes, but who is she?

The other woman, dumb writer.

Let’s begin again: when you think of the other woman, you think of the woman other than the wife. Those wicked, scheming females who break hearts, homes and marriages; who are, so often, in Hindi popular culture, negative characters. If you watch two current serials, Sparsh (Sony) and Aur Phir Ek Din (Star Plus), you will think the writer wrote them backwards. The `other woman’ is the wife and the wife is the other woman. The other woman (played by Mrinal Kulkarni and Soni Razdan) is more loving, giving and sacrificing. She’s the one who waits patiently for the man when he manages to escape from his wife’s clutches. She’s the kinder one who understands the man, his nature and needs. The wives (actresses Divya Seth and Lilette Dubey) are harder, harsher, more single-minded and self-centred. They put themselves before their husbands and in the case of Dubey’s character, before her son. This is sacrilege: Indian mother’s never ever place any one, least of all themselves, before their sons.

There are shades to these women but you have only to think of Saans (Star Plus) or Heena (Sony) to appreciate the difference. In those serials, the wife is patient, understanding, the other woman hysterical and demanding. Watch on: stereotypes and traditional perceptions are being challenged and subverted in a way they never have been on the big screen.

Lastly, did you watch Filmfare Awards, The Millennium Show (DD, Sony)? Aren’t these shows beginning to look less like awards ceremonies and more like the musical jamborees which entertain NRIs in Dubai, London, New York? And did you notice how many times the TV camera sought out Rekha in a close-up, like she was Ash Rai? How the frequency of these close-ups increased while Amitabh Bachchan was giving his thank-you speech in which he did not thank his wife? What do you think? The camera man had a crush on Rekha? Or was he, naughtily, reminding us of Silsila?