PUNJABI ANTENNA
Feast of soul-stirring notes
by Randeep Wadehra

Khusro, Farid, Bulleshah and other Sufi poet-philosophers of yore came alive on the small screen last fortnight, thanks to the efforts of Alpha Punjabi, which organised Shan-E-Sufi at Kalagram and televised it live. Sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Ali Khan’s daughter Zila Khan and Puranchand Wadali’s son Lakhvinder Wadali wowed the audience. The icing on the cake was the presence of such masterful Sufi singers as Hans Raj Hans, Wadali brothers, Barkat Sidhu et al. A sublime experience indeed.

PAL Music’s Dhol Mereya is the latest music video playing on various Punjabi channels, like Balle Balle, MH1 and others. The folk-music-based lyrics, sung by Gurpreet, are catchy. The composition titled Gham holds promise. Its soulful rendering runs parallel to a tragic love story enacted by Mehar Gill, Sandeep Kaur, Bobby Ghai, Navdeep and the arch villain Ranjit Sharma. This is the sixth album from producers Gurprit and Harvir Dhillon.

Do criminals deserve human rights groups’ support? In India at least it is mostly anti-social and even anti-national elements that seem to evoke the compassion of human rights activists. The latest is, of course, Maninder Pal Singh Kohli – who, apart from being a prime suspect in a rape and murder case in Great Britain, has reportedly committed cheating, forgery and bigamy in India. Khabarsaar conducted a thought- provoking debate. The opinion whether Kohli’s confession on television was voluntary or otherwise was divided, as was the need to defend him against extradition to Britain.

While watching Alpha Khabran, one came across something very strange indeed. Even as the newsreader was informing us about how interviews for selection to the ICS in British times used to be conducted, the accompanying clip was from Attenborough’s Gandhi. Worse, the clip showed Dyer facing the inquiry committee that was investigating the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Somebody really goofed up there, or was viewers’ gullibility taken for granted? A case of black humour, perhaps?