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Over to the sultan of swing

WHAT do you call a team that comprises names like Sir Geoffery Boycott, Sunil Gavaskar, Navjot Sidhu and Sourav Ganguly? Great team but where are the bowlers? Well, how about a name like Wasim Akram? Sure, if he’s around this could be an unbeatable side.

The Sultan of Swing now drops the cherry to hold a microphone as he joins the ESPN Star Sports commentary team. Armed with his deep understanding of the game, he brings in the missing bowlers perspective to this team of seasoned commentators.

Understandably, the channel is delighted to have him in the commentary box and is planning to use his charismatic appeal in its publicity campaigns.

"During my playing days many journalists asked me to comment on matches and players but I wasn’t able to do that freely as I was also a player then. But now Iam at liberty to put my opinion across to viewers," says the man generally thought to be one of the finest left arm bowlers the game has ever seen.

But the former Pakistani skipper is not certain which way the ball will swing in his new innings though he is sure to regale viewers with his knowledge of cricket. Which is why fans are looking forward to this memorable innings.

She is thrilled at the turn of events in her life and is hoping that things get bigger and better. And why not? The way her career has been shaping up on the small screen there seems to be no stopping the young lady who has set her goals high.

Meet Aparna Tilak, the vivacious and outspoken Janaki Sehgal in Star TV’s Jeet, Fridays at 9.30 p.m. "The serial is Godsent for me. It’s like a dream come true. I’ve learnt so much from it," gushes Aparna, an arts graduate from Mumbai’s St. Xavier’s College.

Starting out as a model for high end products like Pepsi, Head ‘n’ Shoulders and Pantene, she got her first break in Sony Television’s Family No. 1 where she played the mad-about-looking-beautiful Rashmi and she then went on to do Koi Apna Sa on Zee.

When her Bollywood debut in Vikram Bhatt’s Footpath came a cropper, she sensibly retreated to the comfort of the small screen where she’s getting plum offers by the dozen.

But some day, she says she’d like to go back to the silver screen and shine like Madhuri Dixit. Antara Mali better watch out. Someone else also wants to become Madhuri!

The much touted Zee Thursday Premiere has hit the rocks instead of rocking viewers with hits. The first phase was marked by a spat between Zee TV and the producers about the gap between the theatre release and the airing of their new movies on TV.

In the second phase, Zee is playing cautious and is only picking up films that have not done well at the box office and whose producers don’t mind them being aired even a couple of weeks after their theatre release.

Take the case of Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahati Hoon. The box office dud is on Zee even before it has completed its run on some of the theatres across the country. Obviously filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma doesn’t mind the overlap as long as there’s a neat pile to be made from its video rights.

Take a look at the other ‘hits’ being aired on Zee Thursday Premiere. These include Darna Mana Hai, Ab Tak Chhappan, Hungama, Chori Chori, Armaan and Ek Aur Ek Gyaraah. If these are hits one wonders what is Zee’s idea of flops!

The weather is turning chilly and Channel V is all set to raise the temperatures of male viewers by offering something sizzling, spicy and hot. Showcasing Bollywood’s most wanted babes on V Hotline and V Rush the channel unveils six of the hottest faces in the Great (V) Goddess Festival, every Wednesday at 9.30 p.m.

There’s the sensuous Yana Gupta, saucy Isha Koppikar, seductive Lara Dutta, ravishing Katrina Kaif, gorgeous Sameera Reddy and the lissome Celina Jaitely. Get to know these girls some of who go by the new sobriquet of item numbers. The series gives you juicy glimpses of their less publicised private lives.

Discover how good a cook Lara Dutta is or take a lesson or two in kite flying from Katrina Kaif and find out why Sameera Reddy thinks she was born to be the Goddess of Looks. And there’s plenty more these divas reveal that will have you wanting more.

For once, it has been proved that it is the content and not the star that makes or breaks a show. Take the case of Kuch Diiil Se aired on Sab TV Monday to Thursday at 2.30 p.m. Many thought that the show’s new host, Mita Vashisht, would not match up to the charisma of Smriti Malhotra, who is on maternity leave.

But Mita, who returns to the small screen after a gap of seven years, has not just retained her appeal but has lent a new freshness to the show.

Her engaging way of asking provocative questions needles the audience into instant reactions. The invitees consist of lawyers, cops, psychiatrists, doctors, social workers and celebrities who talk on social issues that affect people’s daily lives.

Mita says she said yes to the show as it wasn’t the stereotype saas-bahu stuff. "I agreed to do it on my terms — that I’d brook no interference and do it the way I wanted to do it." Brave words considering the number of stars who hanker after such plum assignments.

Steven Spielberg once again proves that he is a master whether it is the big screen or, in this case, television.

His Emmy Award-winning series Taken, Sundays at 9 p.m., traces the lives of three families, each of them intimately connected with the alien abduction phenomenon over the course of more than half a century.

The series skillfully combines 50 years of alien mythology with stories of ordinary and some extraordinary people on the frontlines of man’s contact with the other worlds.

The screenplay is written masterfully and all through the series Martians are seen in both human and alien forms. The special effects showing space ships which appear both as glowing orbs and mechanical crafts are remarkable and worth watching.

This is as absorbing a series as The X-Files. So mark your diary and reserve your seat for this out-of-the-world experience.

— Mukesh Khosla

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