In the first show,the young man with a rock-like formation for a jaw,and eyes prized out of Edward Twilight Cullens sockets,is staring straight at the girl he will love; in the second show,the young man with an indeterminate jawline is doing all he can to convince his male relatives to let him marry the girl he already loves; in the third,the slack-jawed,weak-kneed husband has allowed his uncle to make up to the wife he claims to love and now faces retribution in the form of an avenging spitfire; in the fourth show,the first husband warns his first wife,whom he still loves,not to marry her second husband because he is marrying her for the love of money. And finally,in the fifth show,the man recalls how,once upon a time in his life,he was stabbed in the back by a beautiful woman.
The storylines are similar,and play out each day on your TV screens. It doesnt matter that three of them belong to serials (Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani,Saas Bina Sasural,Pavitra Rishta ) while the other two are from reality shows (Rakhi Ka Insaaf,Raaz Pichle Janam Ka). On Indian television,entertainment is into cross-dressing as much as is the wondrous Begum who was most unfortunately thrown out of Bigg Boss last week obviously,the Shiv Sena hacked into viewers mobiles and fixed her exit.
You need look no further than righteous Rakhi and her tabloid TV talk show,Rakhi Ka Insaaf. Close your eyes and this could be a prime-time discussion on any English news channel where everyone is asked for an opinion and everyone gives several at the top of their voices. Rather than the nations issues,here,theyre shrieking about marital and other personal issues of ordinary people. Rakhi plays the aam aadmis Oprah Winfrey,scolding her guests and moralising about their behaviour the tongue-lashing she gave the errant uncle coveting his nephews wife reduced him to pulp. Given Indian TVs melodramatic susceptibilities,she might well end up as Ms O on a more or less permanent basis. God help us.
If that thought does not freak you,how about the second season of Raaz Pichhle Janam Ka (Imagine)? It kicked off with Chunky Pandey (looking very much like a wan Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan) recalling that he was once a Portuguese ship captain on his way to India when the vessel was attacked thats why to this day he is paranoid about checking the doors and windows of his house. The entire regression therapy session sees the past unfold like a Hollywood film with a galleon and a blonde gentleman,bearing no resemblance whatsoever to Chunky,prancing up and down,a chest full of gold and diamonds,a beautiful blonde woman,a fight sequence and then a fatal stabbing. If you have been a keen viewer of the programme,one thought will doubtless be troubling you: how is it that the previous lives are so much more eventful and exciting than the present one?
Finally,whats interesting about reporter Archana shopping at Pantaloons and driving a Tata Indigo Manza during the washed out ODIs between India and Australia on Neo Cricket? Well,that she did it as a sales pitch on the show and not during a commercial break. Weve seen placement ads before,but this is something else.
shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com
