Interviews, interviews but what are they saying?

Why do people give interviews? According to the programme promos, in Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, Rekha said she never had any personal rel...

Why do people give interviews? According to the programme promos, in Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, Rekha said she never had any personal relationship with Amitabh Bachchan Star World. Well. That8217;s almost like saying she was never married to Vinod Mehra. 8216;8216;Very, very close,8217;8217; she told Garewal, whose eyes popped like startled champagne corks, 8216;8216;he was a well-wisher8217;8217;. Like a greeting card?

What did you expect, any way? For her to sit on that very comfortable sofa, look Garewal in her almond-shaped eyes and say yes, she had 8216;8216;a very, very close8217;8217; professional, sorry personal relationship with the tall guy? Puhlease. Why, she couldn8217;t even say her absentee father was a bad guy8212;fat chance she was going to reveal her true feelings for Bachchan, publicly.

Garewal, in her 100th episode, struck the right balance between indulgence and inquisition. Rekha carried herself with all the aplomb of regal bearing, spoke impeccable English and told the story of her early years with flashes of frankness: 8216;8216;I am always Bhanu Rekha8230;very shy, alone, even now.8217;8217; Such candour made way for romantic reinvention of her life8212;she had a 8216;8216;wonderful childhood8217;8217;, the romance between her parents 8216;8216;was worth it all8217;8217;, three 8216;8216;moms8217;8217; was 8216;8216;fabulous8217;8217;, and she never missed her father because 8216;8216;if you don8217;t taste something you can8217;t miss it8217;8217;. The same woman said she never had a personal relationship with Bachchan or married Mehra. We will never quite know the truth. Interviews aren8217;t about that.

Sometimes, they are about promoting your work. Other than to publicise his film, why would Karan Razdan have allowed the quick-witted, glib, non-stop talk specialist, Shekhar Suman, to berate him about his Girl Friends? Suman did everything he could to titillate with questions about the sex scenes between the two actresses in the film: 8216;8216;How can two women make love?8217;8217; What did he expect Razdan to say? 8216;8216;First woman climbs up the second8217;s leg8230;8217;8217;? Suman punned and had a good time at Razdan8217;s expense: 8216;8216;Is your next film about two men?8217;8217; No, said Razdan. Shekhar sighed sadly, 8216;8216;Not about faggots, lesbians but it does sound queer.8217;8217; Yes, rather like your questions, Suman.

Speaking of questions, dunno about kids, but India8217;s Child Genius should be watched by every adult who considers him or herself a fool Star World. You begin to feel awful clever. Last week, we answered all but one of the questions. Therefore, the question is questions, questions: is a child genius as intelligent as an average adult? This average adult doesn8217;t know.

Less satisfying was Parliament and the Olympic Torch run. The scenes in Parliament were on a repeat run for the nth time: Opposition MPs prancing up and down, Treasury bench sitters jumping up and down, Speaker-sahib bouncing up and down pleading for decorum8212;in a word, a disgrace.

Quite the silliest live telecast, in recent memory, was the Olympic Torch run through Delhi. For close to eight hours why?, the news channels tried to keep up with the flame, but only momentarily did we sight it burning bright: most of the time, we saw filmstars, buses, motorcycles, vans8212;in that order8212;and people trying to catch up with the film stars8230;DD News gave us the entire history of Greece going back to God Zeus, while the private news channels sounded like a stuck record: 8216;8216;What is happening? What can you see now?8217;8217;

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Last word: Sony8217;s Jassi took off her salwar kameez, wore make-up, a jacket and still looked like the Jassi we know and love.