Opinion Dump the Parampara

In the first episode of this male companion piece to Rakhi Ki Swayamvar,it took a while to recognise the prospective bridegroom: his hair had been swept back (that,or he is balding),his cheeks had acquired the first flush of romance (that,or he had applied rouge) and there was a blushing bride-to-be air about him (that,or he had applied too much rouge!). Not the Rahul Mahajan we last saw cavorting with Payal Rohtagi in the swimming pool in Bigg Boss. Ahem. As for the girls,they played hunterwali: dressed to kill the competition’ bedazzle Rahul with their costume jewellery or get their claws into him with their long perfectly manicured nails. Ooomph and oof. Do you really want to watch this? Not really.

That Rakhi and Rahul are leading TV stars means anybody can be a TV star. Which is a good thing and a bad thing.

Here is something you can really get your teeth — and nails — into. It’s a pleasure (seriously) to be able to say something nice. Let’s hear it for Sony’s Rishta.com,Powder and Mahi’s Way. The latter would benefit from Mahi referring to her generous proportions a little less frequently. We can see,right? Still’ she and the show are easy on the eye,gentle in humour. And,they’re giving Delhi its most favourable unpaid-for promo,ever. No other show has taken us to the city’s restaurants,malls,shopping centres or down its roads,teetering on the rear seat of Mahi’s scooter. Capital show (dreadful pun).

Rishta.com is winsome because it is unpretentious. It’s not trying to be terribly funny,or overly dramatic. It’s not even about being meaningful,unlike almost everything else that passes for entertainment these days. There’s no bonded labour,no child marriage,no female foeticide. This is the rather jolly adventure of a marriage bureau. There’s Isha with a widowed father who has dared to love again,much to his daughter’s distress and disapproval; there’s the charming,feckless Rohan’ her Rishta partner who’s found girls but not love. Motley co-workers and clients complete the cast. It’s contemporary and it’s entertaining without doing anything fancy. Lastly,there’s Powder,a taut thriller on a narcotics control team looking to bust drug don,Javed Ansari. It’s a most assured attempt to portray organised crime and those who fight it. It has action but also plenty of emotion as the narcotics team confronts not only the drug lords but the enemy within — their individual prejudices and conflicts. It’s shot in tight frames with extreme close-ups which personalise the drama. There are excellent location shoots and a cast who believes in the virtues of understated acting. Powder allows us to believe TV entertainment can match Hindi cinema in dealing with topical issues in a realistic,entertaining way.

Sony has always tried to swim against the tide and,once again,it’s leading the way away from the stereotypical themes of TV soaps: the joint family,the suffering women,the tradition-bound men,our parivar and our parampara,both of which have changed and evolved but not so you’d notice on TV. These new shows acknowledge a younger India,single,urban and looking for a life beyond marriage.

shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com