Dark tales

TELLY VISION

TV channels in India are spreading the, you've-got-to-watch-our-serial-at least-once syndrome. They're luring audiences with cheesy trailers, plugging forthcoming serials in regular programmes and even promising to give viewers some exciting prizes in the bargain.

So we have Ms Jassi (yawn) and her friend Nandu discussing a new serial called Ek Ladki Anjani Si, while Raghav, her lover/friend/acquaintance, says, "Oh, and I believe Sony Entertainment Channel is also showing us Karan Johar's hit film Kaal." (Now, when was that film ever declared a hit?)

Welcome to Indian television's new trick of advertising new shows on channels. So what if serials and programmes eventually flop and have nothing new to offer: sometimes the lure of moolah works.

On Zee television's Saat Phere-Saloni ka Safar, gold coins are promised to viewers who SMS and carry the story forward. A hopeless serial with a slew of very badly sketched characters, Saat Phere traces the story of Saloni whose world is bleak because of her dark complexion.

Her mother wants her to marry a cunning, devious and, may I add, a rather plain-looking fellow. The engagement breaks up after her family fails to give Rs 30 lakh as dowry.

From the looks of it, the story will probably end up with the girl going from Rajasthan to Mumbai, endorsing Fair & Lovely and becoming the next Bipasha Basu.

With serials on television looking dull and staid, it felt good to watch Sania Mirza on Question Time India on NDTV. Prannoy Roy definitely looked impressed with Mirza's confident and candid views.

A sample: "I don't need to listen to music before a game... it doesn't do much for me. I simply don't talk to people for 15-20 minutes and just focus primarily on the game," she told the audience.

Success stories like that of Mirza are being celebrated, but we sometimes get large doses of harsh reality as well. Star News recently aired the story of six-year-old Deepika, whose parents had physically tortured her because she was a girl child.

While her father was arrested, Deepika's mother fled the scene. The girl was rescued by a police officer after she managed to escape from the bathroom where she had been locked for nearly a week.

Though the channel deserves credit for bringing this story to the public at large, one felt the kid's presence in the studio was suffocating and uncomfortable.

Sipping her drink, the child looked lost when experts around her made scathing remarks, "She'll obviously grow up to be an abnormal child." Tragic.

Meanwhile, on Aaj Tak, a certain Mrs Panda was crying foul. Her husband D K Panda, an inspector general from Uttar Pradesh has been dressing in drag and declaring himself as Krishna's Radha. He was shown hugging a tree and saying, "Ye mere Krishna hain aur main inki Radha hoon" ("This is my Krishna and I'm his Radha").

The story tried to capture the plight of a wife who, after 33 years of marriage, has to suffer the consequences of having a mentally unstable husband. "He spends all the money on buying expensive clothes and makeup," she remarked, to which her husband replied, "My lord has told me never to dress up in sasta (cheap) clothes."

The channel sadly made a mockery of the entire story that otherwise spelt a complete disintegration of someone's home and family.

A heart-wrenching tale of a lonely child, a sordid reality of being a wife of a cross-dresser and a celebration called Sania Mirza. Seems my telly was in the mood to throw a punch of realism in my face.