Punjabi antenna
Waiting for the big break
Randeep Wadehra

There was a time when delivering even one-line dialogues was an ordeal for her. Now she doesn’t need a retake even for long ones. Known for her finesse and beauty, the model-actress Sittu Singh, aka, Satwant Kaur, has acted in a number of Punjabi films, viz., Ek jind ek jaan, Dil apna Punjabi, Majajan, Hashar etc, and Hindi films like Singh is King, Dev-D and Short-cut . Some of her successful Punjabi telefilms are Ma da dil, Main jaan tera and Jai siddh jogi.

A discovery of director Satinder Walia, she gained prominence with Gurdas Mann’s famous album Mur mur yaad satave pind di galiyaan di. Much in demand in Punjabi and Hindi film industry, Sittu is looking for that defining serious role that would catapult her into the ranks of topnotch actors.

Ritesh Lakhi was his usual professional self while interviewing the Punjabi University’s Vice Chancellor Jaspal Singh on Guftagu. Whether the questions were about various controversies relating to the past VCs, or current issues like Punjabi as a medium of instruction and its relevance to students’ career prospects, the proceedings remained coherent and informative. Talking of education Punjab Speaks dealt with the state of engineering colleges in Punjab. Issues like infrastructure, quality of education and job prospects for the state’s wannabe engineers were discussed.

PTC News channel’s Good Morning Punjab is certainly a very interesting show but, occasionally, disappoints. The two anchors, Jassi and Babla Kochchar, are good but sometimes they slip up. Kochchar, a suave host otherwise, occasionally cuts short the guests just when they are making an interesting point. This was apparent during the interview with the Punjabi litterateur Satinder Singh Noor. Whether he was talking of love theme in his poems, plagiarism or developments in literary scenario in the two Punjabs, Noor was at his articulate best but on a couple of occasions was interrupted. At least this was the impression one gathered while watching the show. It is quite possible that certain portions were edited out in order to cut the show to the required time-length. If this is true, then the show’s production procedures need to be revisited. One is saying this because one noticed an entirely different Kochchar in The Career Show wherein he didn’t interrupt the invited experts and limited his verbiage to modest levels sans interruptions.