Messages from the medium

Saw Nawaz on Friday. In person. On television. After such a long absence. He appeared lonely, solitary in the crowd of uniforms. Remember...

Saw Nawaz on Friday. In person. On television.

After such a long absence. He appeared lonely, solitary in the crowd of uniforms. Remember him meeting Vajpayee8217;s bus to Lahore, in the spring? So sleek, so spry, so much in control, you could almost smell power on him like an Dakar after shave. Now, in the winter of his discontent, he is slight and sad with an aura of defeat about him.

Have you seen special, comprehensive programmes on the rise and fall of Nawaz Sharif, the rise and fall of democracy in Pakistan? At the time of his ouster, there were hastily assembled biographs. But haven8217;t seen an indepth study of how the man managed to fritter away all the goodwill he had won in the elections or the military8217;s ability to wrest power from elected governments without a whimper from any one. If you have seen, apologies.

If you haven8217;t, it8217;s an odd omission. For two reasons: first, it is the business of TV channels, news channels to occasionally go behind events and provide news documentaries of theinvestigative kind. BBC is justly famous for shows such as Panorama which did just that. Second, if India wishes to score propaganda points over Pakistan with a certain finesse, such TV programmes are ideal vehicles. By shedding light and focussing attention on Pakistan8217;s unhappy experiments with democracy, they would throw into sharp relief the contrasting strength of India8217;s democratic traditions. There8217;s plenty of visual footage available; add interviews, sprinkle history and it8217;s ready to be served.

AXN: In the last few months, it has upgraded the quality of its action films: Total Recall, Three Days of the Condor, Boyz N the Hood, Red Heat, Lawrence of Arabia, Devil8217;s Own, Red Sonja and as many Terminators and Rambos as Schwarznegger and Stallone have muscles on their bods. Meanwhile, Hallmark is premiering its version of Cleopatra with more fanfare than the Queen of England receives on her birthday. It had better be good.

A new phenomenon: in Raahein Zee, Ramolo loves Govind. Preeti loves Govind;Govind loves Preeti but Govind thinks Preeti now loves Tejeshwar and is about to become Mrs.T, so he proposes to Ramola sheer bloody mindedness. Meanwhile, Rohan does all he can to prevent Govind and Tejeshwar from marrying Preeti because he rather fancies marrying her himself.

A pretty familiar storyline, you say? Except for this: Ramola and Preeti don8217;t despise each other; they8217;re not rivals, tearing at each other8217;s designer outfits; they8217;re not even fighting, for God8217;s sake! Instead, seated upon rocks off a Mumbai beach, they conduct a most civilised conversation about love and no marriage.

Story continues below this ad

They confide in each other, sympathise with each other 8212; why, they even like each other. A myth has just been shattered: women in love with the same man are not natural born enemies. Simultaneously, however, the suspicion is growing that men in love with the same woman are each other8217;s worst buddies. Because Govind and Rohan speak to each other the way we8217;ve always been told women bitch. Are stereotypeschanging?

Or is the Raahein team of Vinta Nanda and Raman Kumar watching The Practise STAR World? Where too, the leading female characters want the same man. He slept with one, then the other and now with neither. But they still long for his strong, manly arms. And they happen to be best friends. As lawyers, they even want to work together. 8220;You want me to join the firm, even though you know I was sleeping with Bobby?8221; asks Helen with faint astonishment. You may snore with him too, but first sign up, her friend sorta replies. Bob Dylan sure knew what he was singing about: the times they are a changin8217;.

Amateur Sex The Sequel: last week, you read about this pornographic film on a local cable TV channel and the susbsequent words of attrition between the cable operator and this humble self. On Friday morning, a telephone call from said operator8217;s office. Mrs B? It8217;s Miss, Ms., but how8217;s he8217;s supposed to know?. Mrs.B., on the night of Amateur Sex, there was a new operator who ran that English film. It8217;snot an English film, it8217;s pornography in which they use body language, instead of words. Yes, Madam, we have dismissed that man. Thank you for drawing our attention to this matter, madam. Mention not. It won8217;t happen again, Madam. It better not, because every move you make, I like the singer Sting, will be watching you. Happy watching, madam. Why, thank you, cable wallah. Was it lung power, the paise or the pen which did the trick? Who cares? 8220;We can and will make a difference,8221; says Suhaib Ilyasi on India8217;s Most Wanted aka Fugitive.8221; Well, guess what? We just did.