Opinion Desperately pursuing Baba

For over a week,ceaseless TV searchlights looked for Asaram Bapu,without much success. So they showed us his ashram and his followers/ detractors instead. But just so we did not miss him,TV anchors managed to twist an alleged sexual harassment case into yet another Congress-BJP confrontation — a tribute to their remarkable mental agility — and kept the focus on him. Even after the police had located him on Sunday,TV news went after him. On Monday,Headlines Today,with ill-concealed glee,repeated its 2010 sting operation featuring a young female reporter visiting his ashram and under false pretences,gaining an audience with him. You are then told how Asaram propositioned her with a “night spend” in his company. Pretty damning.

Such are Asaram Bapu’s powers that the Rajya Sabha debate on the food security bill hardly got a look-in on news channels,besides Rajya Sabha TV of course. The rupee and the prime minister,both trying desperately to rally sentiment,were unable to garner much support from any quarter,least of all the news channels. Nothing but Asaram would do for them.

For those of us who were not hypnotised by him,the weekend had a lovely treat in store. Thank you,Lok Sabha TV,for shifting the spotlight from Asaram to Arati. And to Subrata. And to Jaya Bhaduri in her first screen role. Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar brightened the weekend,50 years after it first lit up the big screen. That it took Lok Sabha TV,not Doordarshan nor any of the commercial films channels,to revive its memory,is a huge compliment to the channel and a shameful comment on the others. Private Hindi film channels will repeat the same film every weekend,but they never find space for intelligent entertainment.

TV serials could learn a trick or two from the old master,Ray. The relationship between the husband and wife,the wife and her husband’s family when she dares to step outside the home and into the world to earn a living,is so evocatively,delicately portrayed,you wonder why anyone would bother thereafter with the subject of women,careers and families. Think of a TV serial like Diya aur Baati Hum (Star Plus) which is huffing and puffing with similar themes — and shake your head in disbelief.

Another series that requires serious assistance is the long-titled and long-suffering Trinny and Susannah’s Makeover Mission India (TLC). Frankly,it’s more like Mission Moveover India. Trinny and Susannah walk the streets alone in different Indian cities and discover fashion horror stories wherever they go. Many of us share their sentiments: Indians are not the most sophisticated dressers. But then,Trinny and Susannah decide that the only way to refashion Indians who wear atrocious clothes and have no idea of what suits them is to tog them up in western attire and hope for the best. Watched segments of several episodes where hapless Indian women,squat,short and broad in the hip,are shimmied into dresses to feel better about themselves. Is this a colonial hangover,or er,makeover? Surely,they could do better,having come all the way to India?

Meanwhile,surely Junior Masterchef India (Star Plus) should know better than to make children cry? And it’s not just the onions they chop that brings tears to the children’s eyes. No sirree,the kids cry because they have not made the cut. For all the gentleness of the judges,the young contestants feel sad,bad that the dishes they have prepared do not delight the judges’ palates and that they (the children) will go home hungry for more. To watch the children and their parents tense is,well,is it good TV?

Recommended viewing: The Killing (FX),an American crime series based on a very successful Danish thriller with a female police detective as the lead character. It’s edgy,alternative and really good TV.

shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com