Horror overtakes entertainment
Amita Malik

IT was going to be such a relaxed weekend for TV viewing. The India-Pakistan hockey encounters. The start of the US Open tennis. All, more than exciting for sports lovers. Things hotting up in UP with dire threats for spicy news from the one and only Mayawati. Melodrama at its best, but not as entertaining as Laloo Prasad’s TV appearances. The Kumbh Mela meandering along with its piety and its side shows. And whole pages of newspapers heralding the premiere of Karisma. Well, there was something for everyone. And then, out of the blue, came the horror of the two Mumbai blasts.

And coinciding with it, the Mayawati bombshell, with all its political repercussions. Caught between the two big stories, the channels had to do a very difficult balancing act. Aaj Tak did not hesitate. IT did uninterrupted coverage of the Mumbai blasts from the first moments and I think rightly stuck doggedly to its decision.

Sahara Samay also gave priority in the first hours to the Mumbai outrage. NDTV did a careful balancing act from the word go and Mumbai got equal billing with Mayawati, when, I feel that for all but political animals with a stake in the UP mess, Mumbai clearly should have come first. Zee also had difficulty making up its mind and Star News, based in Mumbai, had difficulty catching up. But I think in the end all channels realised that the Mumbai tragedy, with its overwhelming human interest as well as its long-term dangerous political implications, was of far more viewer interest than the sordid political squabbling going on in Lucknow. Two channels, Aaj Tak and Sahara, were first off the mark, and did the most in this direction.

The most sobering were the names of the injured running along the bottom of the screen on Sahara. At a rough guess, every fourth name was that of a Muslim. And we saw on the screen, funerals for the dead Muslims. It seems terrorism knows no communal barriers and will kill everyone indiscriminately. Mumbai’s cosmopolitan population, in force at the Gateway of India, was more than evident. And when it came to picking up the pieces of those blown to bits or rushing into queues to donate blood, every community lined up. Mumbai did not lose its head and one can only keep one’s fingers crossed, because this column is being written mid-week. Mercifully, on Tuesday morning, one saw Leander Paes in person on the screen, in an emotional reference to the many good wishes he had received, the moving three-hour visit by Mahesh Bhupati and the frequent phone calls from Martina Navratilova. Life does, eventually, return to normal. The much-heralded Karisma serial on Sahara Manoranjan did not prove anything in its premiere, except that a serial is a serial. The theme music was routine. The first episode was crowded with everything, and took a pot shot at Karisma Kapoor, aged and in grandma-style spectacles. That at least she carried off. Anyone who has acted in a Shyam Benegal film should be able to do that. And once the mist will be cleared from the opening, overcrowded with happenings and with over-loud music and thunderous sounds, as in any other serial, there will be plenty of time to make up our minds. We are keeping our options open.

Meanwhile, there have been a number of ego trips on two reality serials, Shekhar Gupta’s Walk the Talk and 1 to 1. Gupta’s choice of interview and locale has been by and large excellent. But in Salman Khan, he really came up against a brick wall. Ever on the defensive, seeing a catch in even the most straightforward of questions, Salman seemed to be literally bursting with self-pity in his over-tight jeans. His hang-ups were so boundless and his suspicions so childish that in the end Shekhar Gupta, a skilled interviewer, gave us a sad insight into the thought processes of Salman Khan. In the end, Salman just proved to be a mixed-up kid.

I to I, the programme in which celebrities interview themselves, has had its share of ups and downs, and some disasters. After the first two celebrities, who proved to be a study in contrasts, there have been some revealing insights into individual egos. Some took themselves too seriously, most lacked a sense of humour, sadly needed in such a programme. If Shubha Mudgal was a disaster, one could also make little of an elegant, sophisticated personality like Shekhar Kapur. He took himself so seriously that he tied himself up in philosophical knots and ended up as a bit of a bore. Halfway through, Omar Abdullah entered into the spirit of the game, spoke with his usual panache on TV and one liked particularly the charming insight into his personal life and felt it was a pity he had given far too much time to politics. Mahesh Bhatt also came up with his usual hang-ups but, being an experienced TV performer, also gave us some interesting moments. He also took himself too seriously. Such programmes shall do well if their style is throwaway.

Tailpiece: One is getting a little tired of Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai picking up the same subjects for their long weekend programmes. Could there not be some co-ordination to avoid such repetition, all the more so because the same topics have already been flogged to death in the news?