TELEPROMPT
Special focus on VVS
Mannika Chopra 

BY the time this column appears, the dust and the din over the Commonwealth Games (CWG) would have been relegated to the inside pages of newspapers, and may not even find any space in the news line-up of news networks. It all, of course, depends on how the closing ceremony turns out and how much effort will be taken to bring corrupt transgressors to task. At the time of writing, that final curtain call on the 19th CWG has still to take place. But as live coverage plays out on DD Sports and the national channel, it would be fair to say that the Games have evoked a sense of patriotism and nationalism. Flags have been flying, tears have been welling up, and we are witness to many permutations of the bhangra by the Games’ spectators as India seems to be romping home with a respectable tally.

DD’s co-anchors cricket commentator Charu Sharma and Maneta, borrowed from ESPN, are a study in contrasts, playing the good anchor, bad anchor role seamlessly. On Monday evening, while announcing the total medal tally, Sharma added a note of caution, saying that England and Canada still had it in them to catch up and push India to the fourth place. Co-anchor, a fairly competent PYT, demurred to say that India was doing a sterling job.

On Australia’s tally, Sharma facetiously remarked he didn’t even want to go there and talk about their haul. Quick as a button, Maneta responded and talked about their superior sporting abilities. Is this some sort of rivalry between the anchors, or just an effort to give both sides of the picture? While the CWG are on top of most couch potatoes’ recall, cricket displaced them for one glorious day. For the purists, India’s match with Australia in Mohali will be the match in which the artistic VVS Laxman came into his own. For the public it was the day that India snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, and for channels it was the time to hastily scramble and get their Very Very Special Laxman statistics in order.

Laxman’s stellar performance brought out a string of glorious adjectives that evening. Later, Headlines Today’s special programme on Laxman most probably had his parents — both of whom were interviewed — feeling embarrassed. "God of cricket" (hmm, I thought Sachin Tendulkar was GoC; has there been a coup?), "India’s answer to its cricketing prayers" and "Australia’s avenger" were the terms associated with him.

Earlier, at the start of the series, Times Now had even called the India-Australia face-off as the "Revenge Series." Appreciating cricketing talents of our sportspersons is one thing, but indulging in an unbalanced orgy of hype is quite another.

This week also saw the return of Kaun Banega Crorepati on Sony with Amitabh Bachchan, on his 68th birthday, rehosting the quiz show that had in 2000 catapulted him back in the public eye. A decade later, Bachchan is thicker around the waist, a little more gravel-voiced but he holds the show together as no one else can. The only thing that could have been avoided was a filmy introduction to Bachchan that included him dressed differently for each scene — reciting his father’s poetry and some of his famous dialogues and dancing to his old filmy numbers.

The show’s channel switch from Star Plus is not the only new thing about the quiz show. The format has undergone a change, too. The background is more jazzy; the show has a less dark, sombre feel to it; there are fewer questions to reach the jackpot; there is an extension on the lifelines; and there is also a wild card question that can get the participant Rs 5 crore thrown into the proceedings.

Is it my imagination or my lack of general knowledge but the questions seem a tad harder — even in the early rounds. The first contestant was a good start to the show. Earnest and well read, and a former IAS hopeful, you could taste how much the money would have meant to him and his brother sitting in the audience. Alack and alas, it was not to be. He tripped over a question on the names of express trains. Like him, I, too, thought they were names of rivers but clearly we were both incorrect. That’s the beauty of the show; it pulls you in even if you are not aiming to be a crorepati or patni, as the case may be.