TELEVISION
A poignant portrayal

THOUGH the situations may be familiar but there’s a certain poignancy in the narration of Hudd Kar Di on Zee. The highlight of the serial is Dara Singh making a comeback to television after years when he last enacted the role of Hanuman in Ramayana. Here he plays Devendra Singh, an honest-to-God villager who, after retirement, comes to the city to stay with his son Suraj.

But the old man is a total misfit in the rich household of Suraj. His rustic habits disturb the son and his family who needle him endlessly. Devendra decides to enroll himself in school with his Neeraj. Finally grandfather and grandson make it to college. Neeraj goes abroad for further studies and settles down in the USA and Devendra Singh gets a Ph.D in family welfare.

Settled in the USA with his wife and kids Neeraj writes to his parents, who are growing old, to migrate. And history starts repeating itself as Neeraj’s family, bred in a different culture, cannot adjust to his parents.

A well-enacted serial which should touch an emotional chord in families who face the problem of adjusting to their elders.

Spook in the house

It’s a comedy of horrors, revolving around a young widow who along with her two children leaves her in-laws house because of her suspicious sister-in-law. She gets conned into buying a beautiful yet mysteriously unsold bungalow at a bargain. The reason: Captain House, is haunted.

But this is a horror show with a twist in the tail as the spooks are mostly jovial characters. However, there’s the ghost of a dead captain who is possessive about this house which once belonged to him. He is determined to throw them out of the house.

After a couple of episodes the story of Captain House takes an emotional turn, when after throwing out the family, realisation dawns upon the spooky captain that he has grown fond of the kids. He calls them back and decides to become a protector and saviour of the family.

An interesting serial from Jeetendra’s Balaji Telefilms Captain House is entertainment for the whole family.

Awaiting stardom

She’s the face which the small screen producers would give a fortune for. Ramneek Paintal the current Miss Delhi is just a step away from stardom. She’s already done campaigns for Siemens and Whirlpool and has walked the ramp for leading designers.

But the most exciting of them all has been her co-anchoring of the Liberty Public Demand show along with Roshan Abbas. Now there are many more offers coming her way and Ramneek says she may be signing a few of them.

And there are other things which are occupying the mind of this second-year history student of Delhi’s Jesus & Mary College. For one, the Miss India contest. "If I win the title, it will put me in a different league altogether," says Ramneek.

The 5-foot, 7-inch young lady has already started preparing for the big event. But winning the Miss India contest is not her ultimate ambition. Ramneek would like to become a high-flying actress and, as she says, "I wouldn’t mind becoming a top TV star." With her kind of looks, neither would the viewers!

Downside of college

It’s a serial on life in the campus. A straight-from-the-heart attempt by Rani Kohli who was herself a lecturer in a college and brings to the small screen her memories of young people she taught.

Four Plus Four is about students who go astray in college because of bad company and never get prepared for the realities of life. "I’ve seen so many bright young people during my teaching days who fell for the trappings of an easy life and totally neglected their studies. It was only after college they realised their folly but by then it was too late," says Rani Kohli.

Directed by Chander Chopra and photographed by the well-known Kaka Thakur Sanam Teri Kasam and Karan Arjun, Four Plus Four first showcases the problems faced by youth and then suggests remedies.

Very moralistic in its approach, it harps on the correctness of life. But then, how many young people want to traverse the straight and narrow route in their college days? Which is why Four Plus Four — likely to be aired on Home TV — could fall flat on its face.

The "outsider", that’s him

V.S. Naipaul, winner of the 1971 Booker Prize for his novel A Bend In The River, is best known for his searing accounts of life in the emerging societies of the post-colonial world.

Watch him on BBC on August 22 in engaging conversation with Jeremy Isaacs. Here the renowned author talks candidly about his life and work including his experiences of being an "outsider", both in terms of being an Indian in Trinidad and a West Indian in Britain.

Naipaul discusses his career as a writer, which has brought a knighthood and numerous awards, but has brought neither an obvious sense of personal satisfaction nor a Nobel Prize. A superb interview with one of the most articulate men of our times.

Musical bonanza

Music is a great binder. And if it happens to be Indian music then its appeal can cross all boundaries. Take, for example, Close-Up Antakshari. Its 250th episode was held at UAE’s sprawling amphitheater, Aqua Park-Umm-Al-Quwain, an idyllic setting with man-made islands surrounded by water.

That there were almost 3,000 audience crowding the amphitheater whose capacity is 1,800, was proof of the popularity of Indian film songs. Participants came from the Sultanate of Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE.

It was festive specials like Raksha Bandhan and Dandiya which brought the house down with audiences dancing and cheering the singers and almost getting out of control. In short, showcasing the fact that when music unites it sees neither caste nor colour.

— Mukesh Khosla