Opinion Get past the gladiators

The first episode picks up the story on the eve of the country’s Independence. Kapur sets the stage with one pithy question: how many countries will become independent on August 15,2 or 565? Will the princely states go with Muhammad Ali Jinnah,memorably shown offering the maharaja of Jodhpur a carte blanche if he chose Pakistan? Will they ignore India,which a stern Sardar Patel declares will not intervene if people express their displeasure at Jodhpur’s aligning with Pakistan?

Well,the rest is history,given we all know that they decided to willy-nilly accede to India. Now watch the back story. Through a series of interviews with historians,biographers,lawyers and through dramatised scenes,archival footage and newspaper reports,Pradhan Mantri (maybe forthcoming episodes will reveal the reason for this name) recreates the events of those months.

A random check on the historical accuracy of the facts gave the show a thumbs up; the recreated scenes were well dramatised. However,some actors just didn’t look the part: Jinnah and Louis Mountbatten bore little likeness to their originals. Worse,Lord Mountbatten didn’t have that regal air about him or sound like the last viceroy of India we have all heard in newsreels. Kapur convinces us that he does know what he is talking about,although am not convinced he needed a black bandhgala and trousers to lend him the necessary gravity. Still,Pradhan Mantri’s first episode was highly watchable and informative.

Historical accuracy is not something giving the producers of Jodha Akbar (Zee TV) sleepless nights. They have assumed Akbar did marry Jodha,though there is questionable proof of it. The series seems bent on exploiting our collective swooning over Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai in the film by that name. The production is lavish,the sets opulent,the costumes shimmering,the women beautiful — the stage has been set perfectly for a passionate love saga.

Except that the hero doesn’t quite fit the bill of a historical romantic hero. Sure,Akbar is shown to be muscular,macho,with all the swagger becoming of the ruler of all he surveys. He commands,he demands attention with his mere presence. But often for the wrong reasons: he appears to suffer from facial muscle ticks; that or there’s something manic about him. Most of the time he looks half-crazed with a fixed,almost demented expression in his eyes,and a crooked smile on his lips. Certainly,this is not how we imagine Akbar to be or to behave.

When a leopard is caged and your face is close to his,you can well imagine how he will react: he will snap those ferocious sparkling teeth of his to bite your head off. Luckily for host Bahar Dutt,she was on the other side of the fence. Dutt encounters the leopard in a new five-part special series,Saving India’s Western Ghats (CNN-IBN). She discovers that the changing environment in the Ghats,with forest-mining,dams and urbanisation,has hemmed the animals in,leading to more leopard attacks on human habitations. Dutt also visits Sahyadri’s forest groves with expert Madhav Gadgil,goes paragliding for a breathtaking bird’s-eye view of the Ghats and ends up in Lavasa,where villagers accuse the township’s developers of denying them water — an accusation denied by Lavasa.

Saving India’s Western Ghats has begun well,although Dutt is a little tongued-tied or overawed by her surroundings. Along with NDTV’s weekend Documentary 24×7 slot,such series are like fresh monsoon showers,bringing viewers relief from the overheated political climate in TV studio debates during the week.

One such debate on Face the Nation (CNN-IBN) had theatre personality and then BJP member Aamir Raza Husain trying to distance himself from Narendra Modi. It was heartening to hear someone speak so incisively without any room for misunderstanding. Most politicians on TV doublespeak,which allows them to retract statements and blame the media for misrepresentation. Not Husain. May his tribe flourish.

shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com