Opinion All Shah Rukh,all the time
It used to be all about loving your family. At the movies,in TV serials,in Indian parampara. Now,its all about being a superstar.
It used to be all about loving your family. At the movies,in TV serials,in Indian parampara. Now,its all about being a superstar. We have cricket superstars at the IPL,we have superstar bids for two new IPL teams. We have film superstars who own superstar IPL teams. We have superstars performing on Superstar ka Jalwa. We have talented youngsters aspiring to be superstars on IPL Rockstar (amongst other talent shows). We have yoga superstar Baba Ramdev trying to shine on the political firmament. And finally,we have Living with a Superstar. Super,man (sorry,couldnt resist the pun).
Living with a Superstar (Discovery Travel & Living). is a fine series. It follows Shah Rukh Khan wherever he goes and gives us rare glimpses of the superstar as an ordinary but candid being (otherwise known as OCB). Of course his life as an OCB is vastly different from that of other ordinary beings but that is its charm. We dont want to see how we live,we want to see how people like him do what his home looks like (expensive,tasteful,large),how he behaves at home (casual,charming) or when he goes out with friends (still casual,still charming).
Under different circumstances this would have been a very satisfying voyeuristic experience,one we can safely recommend to the entire family (with shows like Emotional Atyachaar around,you cant be too careful). But the truth is we have had too much of a good thing,in this case of SRK. Weve seen so much of him,heard so much from him about himself after his remarks on Pakistani cricketers and the release of My Name Is Khan that Living with a Superstar is an over-indulgence. Or sheer bad timing. Were not bored by him SRK can never be boring but we are sorta tired of him.
Watching Baba Ramdev has sorta changed too. Now that his political ambitions are public,his history lesson (Sanskar) on how everyone from Robert Clive onwards has exploited India,how we must transform India into an economic superstar (!) and build a rashtra mandir(?) sounds like a speech-for-votes,nothing spiritual or uplifting about it (for that you have to practise levitation asanas!).
IPL Rockstar (Colors) is just another talent hunt show,exploiting the current craze for circus cricket (no offence to the game itself). Contestants sing,judges judge,Sukhwinder Singh sings. Its business as usual. Except. The performances were interspersed with visuals of wildly cheering cricket spectators at Delhis Feroze Shah Kotla grounds. You couldnt tell whether they were applauding the cricket or the performances since we never saw the spectators and the contestants in the same shot.
In the case of Superstar ka Jalwa (Star Plus),the spectators silhouettes were clearly visible in the foreground. They were there,who ever they may have been. Not that it mattered. The show was about the superstars. It saw them perform some of our favourite Bollywood numbers,old and new. The Bachchans were there,the Khans are there. Everyone who was somebody was there. Why they were there was not at all clear. To begin with it seemed an extraordinary coup for Star Plus to have assembled such a superstar cast for such exciting performances even Aamir Khan is scheduled to perform a number from 3 Idiots and nobody on TV has managed that before. We thought we were watching one more talent show contest featuring the best of the best. A sort of Dancing with the Stars of the Bollywood kind. Which would have been extraordinary. Alas,no such thing. As Aaj Tak showed us later,the cine stars had come together to perform at a charity event for the cinema industry. That made Chitrangada Singhs performance no less watchable. It seared the edges of the TV screen and set the stage on fire. Will someone dial 101?
shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com
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