K is dead, long live K

Had they passed on earlier, say two or three years ago, we would have sorely missed Anurag, Mr Bajaj and most of all the prim and propah Prerna. What a love triangle they made: Anurag always loved Prerna although he had admittedly strange ways of showing it — like marrying another woman. Prerna loved Anurag, for a while, and ruthlessly exploited him throughout but transferred her affections to Mr Bajaj the moment she saw him in a three-piece suit, toupee and grey locks. Mr Bajaj, well, he loved Anurag, sorta the way Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan love each other at film ceremonies (aka Kal Ho Na Ho). Yes, we’ll miss them now they’re gone. Their departure is an admission that television entertainment has changed, has to change and, either the Ks change too or — chop.

In place of Kasauti, comes another K to Star Plus: Kis Desh Mein Hai Mera Dil. From our brief acquaintance, we’d say it is dilly-dallying somewhere midway between Punjab and the North American continent. In the halcyon sylvan settings of Punjab, resides Heera with her joint family (some things never change) in a house, not those castle/mansions Prerna & Co., inhabited. Heera’s father is no tycoon Ambani; indeed, he looks retired and resigned to the fact that his childhood friend in Canada has forgotten that their children exchanged wedding garlands at the nappy age.

Following taunts from his sister-in-law and entreaties from his wife, he dials his daughter’s prospective father-in-law — tring, tring. Heera’s future (and heart) dangle somewhere along the (telephone) line. Kis Des Mein… is quieter than the earlier Ks — it is village India (so far), and while we still have those stock close-ups, the music is not hammering at our temples.

NDTV Imagine’s line-up of drama serials is remotely related to saas-bahus but even that is a change. While Jasuben… Joint Family continues to be all about the matriarch Jasuben, this is a saas-bahu remix with humour that allows you to laugh rather than cry (although the laughs are becoming few and farther between). Radha Ki Betiyaan… sees a mofussil mother (a suddenly very plump Supriya Pilgaonkar) and her three daughters take on Mumbai. The three girls are full of grit and guts and different enough to be realistic. However, their presence in the home of an elderly woman who never steps out of bed or bedroom, never speaks to them and employs a live-in doctor to administer to her needs, is rather far-fetched.

Ek Packet Umeed follows the joys and jousts of women who run a home for women in distress. If you apply the rules of a saas-bahu to this all-female (barring one male) gathering, you will get Ek Packet Umeed: dollops of drama, conflict, and tons of loving each other.

These shows represent change but suffer a two-fold drawback: they drive slower than in first gear and occupy a one-hour weekly slot — they won’t hook viewers at this pace.

Finally, heartiest congratulations to Star News for its incomparable welcome to our conquering cricket comrades. As soon as they touched down on Indian soil, Star News’s vividly imaginative graphics team produced a helicopter and a plane that flew across the screen (without, mercifully, colliding into each other), showering the players with what were supposedly flower petals but looked more like puff snack foods.

shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com