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PUNJABI ANTENNA
Cool crooners
Randeep Wadehra
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Mika belts out Punjabi hits
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When
the live telecast of Punjabi Beats from Amritsar was announced by
Zee Punjabi, one wanted to yawn. However, one watched it in case
something new was being offered. There was Navjot Noor compering the
show which had singers like Mika, Nachattar Gill et al belting out the
usual stuff. When the show began, there were only a handful of die-hard
enthusiasts at the venue. But as the evening progressed, the audience
swelled several fold as did the decibel level.
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Eye-catcher |
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Dimple Mehta
is a proficient dancer as well as an anchor. She compered AIR’s Mehfil
for some time. Other programmes anchored by her are the MH1’s Ek
Tara Bole and road show I Want. Currently she’s
anchoring Phulkari for Zee Punjabi, apart from ETC Punjabi’s
Dil Diya Gallan and Caught On Camera. She was also
seen in the BBC-DD joint production Vijay Jasoos. |
Every time a crooner, I
couldn’t get her name, asked whether anyone would like to be her
Ranjha, there was a sea of raised hands accompanied by
affirmatives-in-chorus. Obviously the show was a hit. Beating the heat
with music? Only Punjabis can do it.
One was taken aback by
the change, in a popular anchor’s hair colour. Her fetching
light-brown tresses had suddenly turned garish gold. It hardly suited
her typical Indian looks. Brown-skinned blondes look as bizarre as dusky
redheads. Somehow the desire to be different often tempts artistes to do
weird things.
Now one finds "artistes" with
weird hairstyles and get-ups; hair sticking out like bunched-up
porcupine quills, beards trimmed to look like shoe-polish brushes and
moustaches resembling criss-cross of bruises. As for their mannerisms
— the less said the better. When content is absent, zany form becomes
the norm. An epitome of this trend, Jazzy B, candidly recalled how,
while he was walking down a footway in Canada, a group of Punjabi
rustics, visiting the country for the first time, commented on his
appearance, "Oye, Kanedda vich aih kee turya awnda hai?"
Ouch!
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