We like to think of television as trash. People (as opposed to the masses), intelligent people with discerning tastes, don't watch television. Unless, it's a cricket match, BBC or a news bulletin. Of course, the height of political correctness is to say that if Doordarshan is the bottom, Discovery is the tops. And if you really wish to be nasty, you say Indian television is worse than Pakistan TV.Which sounds true, without being entirely so. If you watch TV, instead of compulsively pressing the remote control, you will find something. It may not be intellectually stimulating and fulfilling but it can grab and hold your attention. Last week, for example, you could have watched the following without wanting to throw up: serials like Hum Paanch (Zee), Mahayagya (Sony), Kalpurush, Jung (DD1), Shikast (Sony) and Annabelle Lee (TVi); live coverage of the Mike Tyson hearing (CNN); an interview with English Patient, Ralph Fiennes (Film '97, BBC), Jimmy Stewart in The Philadelphia Story, an Akira Kurosawa film festival (STAR Movies), the Indian Prime Minister in conversation with Pritish Nandy (DD!).and perhaps most memorably, the pictures from Mars.So, folks, there is something to watch. Like the Sojourner, search, seek and ye shall find. Most of us are too lazy, too impatient, too contemptuous to even try. Which is not to suggest that we should suspend our critical faculties and simply sit and stare. But that these should be trained on the right targets and not at TV generically, which, let's face it, is here to stay-more than can be said for any of us.We should howl protests over films shown by STAR Movies often at 11 pm. Some of them are softly pornographic, others into alternative escapades and most, terribly violent. Max Mon Amour, to give you just one example, had actress Charlotte Rampling in love with a monkey (or was it an ape?) and we had to witness her enjoying his caresses. Sure, this was very Darwinian and maybe a highly acclaimed film, but who cares? It looked B-Grade; it wasn't simply a weird film , it was a bad film and by that yardstick, alone, should have not have been aired.Much better to watch some of our Indian TV serials. Ha, ha, you laugh, derisively? Why not laugh with Hum Paanch instead? It's very middle class and progressive too: in which other serial would six out of seven main characters be women (okay, girls)? So, it's not the last laugh but it can be quite funny, in a domestic sort of way, and has been so consistently for a couple of years.Mahayagya may not be our answer to Yes Minister but it is a fairly incisive portrayal of our politicians, their profound immorality and self-obsession. When you look at a close up of Rohini Hattangady, the awful Vimla Pandey, what you see is naked ambition-ugly, greedy and all consuming. Kalpurush is an ode to the remembrance of things past. It movingly, and without nauseating pathos, recounts the ordeal of a man disillusioned by his own dreams, separated from his family, disabled by an injury, trying rather haplessly to come to terms with himself. He's just returned to his ancestral home for the first time, accompanied with his wife and teenage son. The reunion with his family is being dramatised tenderly, but without shehnais moaning in the background.Jung covers familiar territory: the conflict between two adversaries, one good, the other venal. Though a few cymbals do clash in the musical score, the struggle between the two men and its effect on the other family members, notably the wives and the daughters, is being handled with a little finesse. Sure, it has its filmi moments, its maidan-e-jung battle cries, its soppy dialogues. Still, something is fizzing here.Shikast is new. What is most unusual about it, is the lead character. He's not the man with them muscles, the hairy chest and strong jawline. He's Dhananjay, puny, slight-a kind of Everyman-as nondescript in his looks as he is in action. That makes the serial interesting. Undoubtedly, the presence of Shammi Kapoor and the don, Milind Gunaji as the police officer and Ashish Vidyarthi as one of the baddies (or so it appears) helps. And then, there are Kitu Gidwani's kisses, last seen, raining down generously on Raj Zutshi's obliging cheeks and neck.Not all TV, particularly Indian TV, is foul; not all of it should have been murdered at birth.
