Sunday, June 17, 2001		Television

THE tables are turning on the cops. Anuradha Prasad has gone a step ahead of India’s Most Wanted with a new offering revolving around human rights and police brutality.

Haqeeqat, Tuesdays 8.30 pm on Sahara TV is based on real life incidents of cop-related violence against the common man. Presented by Mahesh Bhatt, these true stories are dramatised versions based on actual incidents. These are cases where the law instead of protecting the innocent has perpetrated inhuman crimes against the victims.

While most of these cases have been consigned to history, the trauma of the victims lives on. The cases taken up range from child abuse, immoral traffic, dowry deaths, domestic violence and several other crimes.

"We are not just concentrating on big cities where sensational cases come to light everyday. We are going into small towns and villages where it is easy for the cops to suppress such incidents," says Prasad.

With their image already dented how will the cops react to this show that is out to expose their misdeeds? Only time will tell. But what’s important is that they may start thinking twice before cracking the whip.

Directionless

Here’s a family plot that must find a place in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! There are so many characters, sub-plots, so much confusion that the viewer is going to get totally lost in the maze of Manzilen Apni Apni, weekdays at 11 pm on Zee TV.

Here’s a sampling. Rahul and Ankush are cousins who run a flourishing business. Ankush loves Priya. His sister Jaya is in love with a social worker, Shankar. Her classmate Devbrat is also in love with Jaya. Rahul happens to meet Priya and falls for her. Ankush goes to see a girl for Rahul. The girl, Nanda, falls for Ankush. Rahul marries Priya and Ankush marries Nanda.

Do they live happily ever after? No, this is the time for more characters to enter the serial. A mysterious woman enters the family, then follows the paralysed grandfather of Rahul and Ankush and the couple of Smriti and Deepak who keep wondering why they are in the serial.

Then there is the boy named Prakash, who has been brought up by the family and a girl named Shruti who earns the affection of the entire family.

But don’t go away yet. Dozens of more characters are waiting in the wings for their cue. Confused kya? If yes, then it may be time to move on!

Anderson gets futuristic

As star of the X-Files she’s built a cult following. Now Gillian Anderson steps out of the spooky serial and into the future with a nine-part TV series that reveals a breathtaking vision of the world of the future.

Future Fantastic on Mondays 7 pm on BBC addresses issues like: Will children ever be born on Mars? Will robots outsmart humans one day? And will it ever be possible to teleport from one side of the world to the other?

All nine episodes discuss how science fiction may soon become a reality. For example, many scientists are coming to believe that direct contact could be made with aliens any day now. Another episode tells us about new computers being developed in Lausanne, Switzerland, that will have power to grow, reproduce and even recover from injuries.

Then there’s the inevitable question: Is it possible to travel in space and time. The answer could be yes in the near future. But the ultimate in superfast travel is teleportation. A classic feature of sci-fi literature, no one ever thought it would be possible — until now. It would be possible to teleport people and objects electronically as was done in Star Wars. Impossible? Not really. Real life is now poised to imitate science fiction!

Trinity on TV

Dheeraj Kumar has surely hit upon a perpetual moneymaking machine with his religious serials. At any given point in time chances are one of his godly serials would be on the air on some channel or another.

Now Star Plus which has suddenly got hooked on to religious epics after Ma Shakti has hired the talents of Dheeraj Kumar for another mythological Jap Tap Vratt Sundays 9 a.m. — based on the life and times of Lords Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma.

But, it primarily focuses on Lord Vishnu, who from time to time incarnates himself into different avatars to destroy evil from the world. The mythological also depicts tales and important incidents related to the lives of the Hindu trinity —- Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh with the help of Jap (recitation of Mantras), Tap (penance and religious austerity) and Vratt (religious vow).

Of birds & bees

The birds do it, the bees do it, so do the butterflies. And we all have an eerily same way. At first, the sexual behaviour of insects might seem strange, but a closer look provides us with a view of how insects use the same old techniques we do: searching for a soulmate, eliminating competition, seducing the partner and concluding with the mating itself.

Insectia: Mating Game on June 17, 7.30 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel shows how close insects are to humans when it comes to mating. Butterflies warm up to the flame of love, cicadas serenade and male spiders often offer food to their females.

Mating is sometimes tender (butterflies), sometimes sadomasochistic (praying-mantis) and sometimes—as in the case of goliath beetles who embrace for days before mating—downright idiotic!

But any which way, it is always fascinating. Watching this absorbing programme for more information.

Lion King

Ever seen the world from the animal’s point of view? Here’s your chance to do just that and understand just how the lions perceive their world.

Animal World: Lions on June 20 at 10 p.m. brings an extraordinary new perspective to the enduring fascination with the king of the wild.

Find out answers to surprising questions like why lions are not the skilled hunters they’re made out to be? How does their remarkable flair for arithmetic help them to protect their territory?

How can lions eat around 25 kg of meat in one sitting? Why a lion sleeps for over 19 hours every single day? Or what strange power makes them see around six times better in the dark than humans can. An unputdownable show from start to finish.

— Mukesh Khosla