Telescope

Let us, also, leave poetry to T.S.Eliot and Poll 8217;99 to the polls tee-hee!. Not because the general elections are unimportant never that but because the entire part of the rest of this week will be overwhelmed by them and you are going to have election results, news, bombarding your brains like NATO planes bombed Kosovo.

Instead, let me introduce to you in case you have not had the pleasure before, Hallmark. Like the greetings cards? Exactly like the greetings cards. In fact the greetings cards company has extended its business into television. The Hallmark entertainment channel did a trial run in India last year and much to the delighted astonishment of many viewers especially female, it ran like a non-stop Mills amp; Boons novel made specifically for television. Therewas much mooing and coochie-cooing, a little bit of smooching but no frontal nudity pul-ease we8217;re Hallmark, not Fashion TV!!

The trial run was misleading. When the channel was launched earlier this summer, you realised that though Romance was very much on the cards so to speak, there was a great deal more variety than just A Thing Called Love you8217;re to pronounce that as A Fish Named Wanda. There8217;s Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick, Noah8217;s Ark, Anne of Green Gables; there are historical dramas like Champagne Charlie, modern stories such as Madam Mayflower, murder mysteries, race histories, costume dramas and of course The Love Letter. There8217;s much more but you get the general thrust, don8217;t you?

These are short-length films or two-part series created for television. You8217;ll never see any of these films on the big screen. That8217;s not the Hallmark credo. It specialises in TV films. It claims to be devoted to quality, the way India is to quantity how else would one describe a country which has contributedone out of every sixth human being in the world?. And to a very great extent it has succeeded. If this is beginning to sound like a promo for the channel, it is one but only because of all the channels that are beamed into our homes, Hallmark is the most artistically competent, aesthetically pleasing, as well as eco, sorry, child-friendly.

It treats subjects you are not likely to see any where else. It includes people who are normally excluded from the world of network television in America: Afro-Americans, the aged, the infirm, young children. And it treats them as the main protagonists, not the villains, victims or innocents they are usually typecast in television serials. That too in sympathico, sensitive roles.

Hallmark looks for the unusual story, almost never the commonplace. It depends a great deal on literature for its inspiration. And it manages to attract some of the best-looking and most talented people in the profession. Mostly of yesteryears but still alive and kicking.

The roll call forgolden and olden popular film actors in serious dramatic roles is unparalleled: Lauren Bacall, Candice Bergen, Gregory Peck, Hugh Grant, Tom Skerrit, Richard Chamberlain, Anne Bancroft, Judy Davis 8212; to name just a few. Many are wrinkled and crinkled, but in performances well beyond their big screen roles.

Importantly, significantly, differently, there is little sensationalism and almost no scenes that you could not, would not, watch with either your mother-in-law or nine-year old daughter. It is quite a treat and quite wholesome a bit like porridge but far tastier.

There are two features which, however, spoil the show. There are too many repeats, too frequently repeated. You can begin to watch Noahs8217;s Ark in September and end in November. The other irritating, annoying, spoilsport is the transmission. Hallmark8217;s having a big problem with it. Scenes are invariably freezing as though exposed to Arctic temperatures. Sometimes throughout a film. Nothing could be worse when you8217;re trying to watch a film.Terrible.

Hallmark has a lesson for Indian television wouldn8217;t you just know it?. We have already progressed to the 45-minute episodic series Love Stories, STAR Best Sellers, X-Zone, Saturday Suspense, Gubbare. These are more satisfying than 24-minute shows. Zee TV tried producing TV films. But those were full-length movies. Hallmark has shown what can be done with the shorter version. Indian TV requires variety and we deserve quality. Will someone do a Hallmark?

A word about a most wondrously shot documentary, Brahmaputra DD1, Sat. You knew the river was a beaut but director Gautam Bora has lent it poetry. This is a loving tribute by Bora and Sanjoy Hazarika who guides us through the journey along its banks. There are moments when you want to get beyond the river and learn much more about the people but perhaps the Brahmaputra, swept everything else aside.