Punjabi antenna
Blend of folk and funky
Randeep Wadehra

MUSIC videos are predictably ubiquitous on the small screen, and it is easy to guess why. Mix Punjabi folk with reggae or rap, garnish it with hip-hop or funk, top it with techno and you have a hot ‘n’ heady Punjabi Pop album ready for release.

In fact fusion of Punjabi lyrics and Caribbean sounds is very much in vogue. This is what Sa Re Ga Ma’s latest Punjabi album Realism offers (English titles for Punjabi compositions have become so common now that one sits up and takes notice only if the title is Punjabi).

Although Chumka is outstanding in this album, its video could have been composed more imaginatively. However, all the 12 songs have catchy tunes but it is doubtful if any are going to be evergreen.

Another number in the video circuit hitting the high road is Jazzy BRambo. No quarrel with its lyrics or beats but surely the ‘protagonist’ in the video could have been better endowed. After all Jazzy B is no Sylvester Stallone.

It is that time of the year when Punjabi movie buffs look forward to new releases. One of the first off the block is Dr Swaran Singh’s Lakh Pardesi Hoiye—a flick shot in India and UK. The theme, you guessed it, is NRI rootlessness versus desi values. Kulbhushan Kharbanda is a successful industrialist in the UK who values his Indian roots. However, his son Rajat Bedi has ‘gone astray,’ seeped as he is in the western night clubbing culture.

But friend Aman Verma’s death brings Rajat to India where he falls in love with Miss Punjaban Gracy Singh, only to come face to face with the sordid reality of NRI brides.

Amarjit Kaur Chawla’s story is simple and contemporary. Great photography and Anand Raj Anand’s music are added attractions. Should do well at the box office, if only because of the charming lead pair. Perhaps the transnational theme with desi context may prove irresistible.

Punjabi television scene has yet to attain a modicum of stability. Channels, launched quietly or with fanfare, often disappear without a whimper. For example, we do not know what happened to Channel Punjab that had promised to create ripples in the stagnant waters of India’s Punjabi television.

Then came Just Punjabi with an assurance of innovative programming, but it has yet to take off. Among the established channels Zee Punjabi and ETC Punjabi had been dominating the scene for quite some time, but have been upstaged by the dark horse PTC News.

Latest television audience measurement (TAM) figures show PTC grabbing 28 per cent of the viewers’ attention, ETC Punjabi 21 per cent, Zee Punjabi only 4 per cent and surprisingly a relative newcomer Dhaliwal Entertainment 18 per cent.

DD Punjabi is steady at 17 per cent and MH1 at 12 per cent. With plans for a bouquet of channels for Punjabi homes in Europe, PTC News is certainly on a roll.