Punjabi Antenna
Hit with viewers
Randeep Wadehra

SHE is bubbly with an impish mien. Her outlandish dresses — right from cricket gear to village belle garb — and pastoral lingo help spread cheer on the telly. With rustic guiles and wiles — backed with high decibel repartees that would otherwise jar in a genteel ambience — Anshu Sawhney manages not only to fit into the overall scenario but also keep the audience enthralled. She has certainly stirred up the entertainment segment of Punjabi TV as Preeto of the latest theme-based music countdown show, Preeto Top 10, on PTC Punjabi.

The show airs 10 songs every week, depending upon their status on the popularity chart. The added attraction is the wacky conversations she carries on with assorted viewers, who phone in with their problems — ranging from heartbreak to alcoholism. Anshu, who is doing her graduation from Panjab University, is already a Sangeet Visharad from Allahabad University, and is training as a classical dancer from Pracheen Kala Kendra.

She has gathered eight years of professional experience as a TV newsreader for ACN, Doordarshan and other TV channels, as a radio jockey with BIG 92.7 FM etc, as host for several live television and stage shows, including musical nites with famous singers, apart from being a model and voiceover artiste for different commercial establishments. The talent is flowering. Carry on, Preeto.

Daljit Singh, who normally uncovers crime in high places and the officialdom, had a riveting human interest story to narrate this time. The show, Udeek ek saal hore, depicted the plight of a 13-year-old girl who became a bone of contention between two sets of contesting parents in the court. As an infant she was informally given away in adoption by her biological parents.

Thirteen years later they suddenly changed their mind and reclaimed her. However the girl-child emphatically declared that she didn’t even know her natural parents, and the only parents she considered her own were the ones who had brought her up. Daljitinterview with a child psychologist informed us of the emotional consequences for the youngster emanating from such conflict situations. Well done, Daljit.

PTC News telecast live the unearthing of over one lakh quintals of sugar illegally hoarded in Ludhiana. Often journalists and camera teams reach such crime sites only after the raids have been completed, giving a reconstruction of the whole action. However, Rajesh Inderpal and his team were right on the spot when the raid actually happened, periodically reporting the rising quantity of seized sugar bags from various godowns, interspersed with the concerned officials’ comments. Good show.

On the political front the recent SAD Vichar Baithak in Shimla couldn’t enthuse the talk-show panelists much. Neither Khabarsaar nor Masle, Straight Talk or Ek Khaas Mulakaat had anything new to say on the proceedings. One really longs for hard-hitting debates on matters of vital importance to the region as well as the nation. Are you listening Messrs Ritesh Lakhi, SP Singh, Balwinder and Co?

The impending elections in Haryana seem to have inspired a new slot on PTC News that airs Hindi news and views targeting the state. But what do we have that’s different? Nothing really, barring interviews with such political stragglers like Abhay Chautala and Kuldeep Bishnoi, who merely mouthed predictable inanities. There is a need for the Big Fight —Devil’s Advocate type of talk shows — for such occasions, at least.

On September 28 PTC News telecast Talash Bhagat de Warisan dee that looked at the dwindling of the ideals that patriots like Bhagat Singh had cherished enough to die for. Though a repeat, it has not lost its relevance and intensity. Producer Davinder Pal Singh, himself an incorrigible idealist, is good at such productions. He must come up with more of such stuff.