Bhagyavidhaata serial on Colors

Serials nowadays are trying to be more socially conscious, a number of them saw how the previously popular saas-bahu serials started losing attention, and then saw how a serial such as Ballika Vadhu that takes a social issue can become very popular, and so a number of serials have jumped onto the same league of having socially active serials. So there are serials dealing with child marriage, dealing with the condition of poor in society, dealing with caste differences, and so on.
So, Colors has very recently launched another serial called, "Sabki Jodi Wohi Banaata… Bhagyavidhaata", and the motif of the serial is about, how in Bihar's lopsided society, the difficulty of getting a poor and average looking girl married off is so difficult that people came up with the idea of getting their girls married off by force, through kidnapping the groom, and under the pressure of force, getting him married to their girl. It is not so however for the girl after that, since her in-laws would not readily accept her (after all, if they were looking for nice dowry, then they would feel cheated, and since it is assumed that the boy's side has an upper hand, getting the boy married by force would not appeal).



And so it is in the case of Bindiya, who is an educated girl with morals and values, but is from a not so well off family, and who is average looking. Her brother, using force, kidnaps a valued boy, and gets her married off to this boy, who is not able to forcefully resist because of the guns all around him. However, since he does not feel any relation to her, and because the rest of his household (except for his elder brother) do not like the situation other, they ill-treat her, making her do all the work in the house. Her elder sister-in-law (the elder bahu of the house), in fact, screams at her all the time and otherwise also makes her do all the work of the house. Even her father is not treated well when he comes to their house. However, what will happen now ? Will she ever get proper treatment from a household that feels that they were forced into doing something ?

Videos of Bhagyavidhata on Youtube

Bhagyavidhata 6 may 09 part 1:


Bhagyavidhata 6 may 09 part 2:


Bhagyavidhata 6 may 09 part 3

Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai on Star Plus

Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hain is a relatively new serial that appears on Star Plus weeknights at 9:30 PM (Monday - Friday). The series started on January 12, 2009, and has been moving relatively slowly; it is full of family drama, being slightly different from the saas-bahu serials of earlier. The serial essentially revolves around 2 Marwari families (both being above middle class, in fact, with the sets and house that they show, the families are rich). The 2 families are the Maheshwari family (to which, the main female character, Akshara, belongs to), and the Singhania family, to which the main male lead, Naitik, belongs to. These 2 characters are a part of an arranged marriage, and the serial displays the goings on in the families, their relations with each other, and the way their emotions move.



Akshara is a traditional girl, who is sweet natured, and who knows her limits. Her parents (in fact, the entire family), is looking for a groom for her, and she is somewhat uncomfortable with the concept of looking for a boy (at least initially), but she does not have too much choice in the matter. To the extent, when she meets Naitik, she is totally tongue-tied, and her family thinks that she had destroyed the marriage. However, Naitik is impressed with her, and decides to move ahead with Akshara (and her family is so happy, that no one bothers to even ask her whether she wants to get married to Naitik).
For the past several months, they have been engaged, and the families are moving towards the marriage date. There is also the tension of different emotions and social customs - whether it be the amount of gifts and presents in the marriage, whether it be the power relations between the 2 families, whether it be that girls should get educated after a marriage, whether the girls or boys can easily meet after an engagement, and so on.
Right now, the 2 households are engaged in some of the mehendi functions, and there is also some tension between Naitik and Akshara since Naitik found out about an earlier engagement that Akshara had with his cousin Rituraj, and is miffed about that, and Akshara feels this; this distance from Naitik is scaring her since she now feels close to Naitik.

Cast:

Hina Khan ... Akshara Vishambhar Nath Maheshwari (the main lead, protagonist)
Karan Mehra ... Naitik Rajshekhar Singhania(Akshara's to-be husband)
Vinita Malik ... Daadi (Akshara's grandmother who is more like a friend to her)
Sanjeev Seth ... Vishambhar Nath Maheshwari (Akshara's father)
Lata Sabharwal ... Rajeshree Maheshwari (Akshara's mother)
Manu Malik ... Omkar Nath Maheshwari(Vishambhar's younger brother, Akshara's uncle)
Neelima Tadepalli ... Sunaina Omkar Nath Maheshwari(Omkar's wife)
Ather Habib ... Shaurya Vishambhar Nath Maheshwari (Akshara's older brother, in love with Varsha, now married to her)
Pooja Joshi ... Varsha Shaurya Maheshwari(Akshara's childhood friend in love with Shaurya, now married to him)
Aman Sharma ... Anshuman (Omkar & Sunaina's son, Shaurya and Akshara's cousin brother)
Amardeep Jha ... Shankari Tai (Udaipur's most famous matchmaker, who knows Maheshwari family for a long time)
Zarina Roshan ... Gopi Daadi (worker at Maheshwari household, but more like a family member, aka Akshara's second grandmother)
Sunita Rajwar ... Dhaniya (another worker at Maheshwari household who is also more like a family member and Akshara's friend)
Bajinder Singh ... Bhola (driver of Maheshwari' family)
Ali Merchant ... Rituraj (Akshara's was-to-be fiance and now Akshara's brother in law)
Sonali Verma ... Gayatri Rajshekhar Singhania (Naitik's mother)


Videos of the serial on YouTube:

Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai - 1st July 09 Part 1


Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai - 1st July 09 Part 2


Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai - 1st July 09 Part 3

Rakhi Ka Swayamwar on NDTV Imagine - finally the spectacle started

With a whole host of new reality programs having started on TV, the quest to make something different drives television programming. When you combine this quest with a weird personality such as Rakhi Sawant, who would like nothing better than to create a new sensation, you get the idea of having a Swayamwar for Rakhi. To tell the truth, my stomach turned over when I first saw the TV ads, since I do not particularly like Rakhi. However, I am trying to be objective when I write this, and purely from a reality show basis, the mission of trying to get a girl married off through a reality show is about as exciting as a reality show could be (although I am not convinced that Rakhi will eventually marry the person at the end of the show).
The show asked for people to send in their applications (the show announced that 12,000 people sent in their nominations), and after screening and further review, the list was shortened down to 16 people (view the 16 contestants on this link). The show is being hosted by Ram Kapoor (from Zee TV's Saat Phere), and is being hosted at Fateh Garh Palace, Udaipur. The costumes are splendid. However, when I asked around as to how many people enjoyed the show, majority opinion out of 10 people was that they found the show boring (they found the first day boring), so maybe the excitement will improve as we move onto more episodes.
Each week, the grooms will be put through tasks that will test their personality, character; physical fitness, talent and also their compatibility with Rakhi. Additionally, Rakhi will be joined by a host of her celebrity friends for certain tasks, who will help her make her decision. In keeping with tradition, Rakhi will also visit the homes of the prospective grooms to get to know their families better. All through the series, viewers will help Rakhi decide, by voting for or against the prospective bridegrooms.

Videos of Rakhi Ka Swayamwar:

Raja Hasan to appear on the show on the 2nd of July


Rakhi Ka Swayamvar, 1st July 2009, Part 1


Rakhi Ka Swayamvar, 1st July 2009, Part 2


Rakhi Ka Swayamvar, 1st July 2009, Part 3


Rakhi Ka Swayamvar, 1st July 2009, Part 4


Rakhi Ka Swayamvar, 1st July 2009, Part 5

Jyoti - the marriage happens

Jyoti is a serial on NDTV Imagine that takes the life of a girl who is struggling to help all those who depend on her, but who has to face obstacles at many walks of life. After being almost evicted from her house, Jyoti was finally finding happiness, getting married to Pankaj, who is blind, but who is very loving. And she finds more happiness, but you know for sure that something bad will happen later, after all, the serial depends on showing her struggling and still keeping her good faith and nature intact.
Even though she is separated from her family, they find out about her marriage, and all of them decide to go for the marriage other than the mother Padma, and obviously her sister Susham (and Sushma's husband Brij).
So, the family members land up at the marriage, and after some initial struggle with the guards at the gate, they meet Jyoti and also have a good meeting with Pankaj's family members. Of course, there are the usual set of guests at the marriage who can do nothing but gossip, and they are speculating on how Pankaj managed to land such a beautiful girl; and then start speculating on why the family members of the girl were not there at the wedding.
In another coincidence, Sushma and Brij had been hired to perform at the marriage, and they did not know that this was supposed to be Jyoti's wedding. When they see Jyoti at the wedding, they are shocked, and go back. In the end, when Padma is missing not being present at Jyoti's marriage, Sushma calls up (with Brij having drunk, and now being frustrated and drunk), and tries to provoke Padma against Jyoti.

Video of scene at Jyoti's marriage on June 24, 2009

Part 1;


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:

The new Ramayana on NDTV Imagine - Last episode on June 26th, 2009

A long time back (1987-1988), Ramanand Sagar (from Sagar Entertainment) had made a serial based on the Ramayana, and it was extremely popular. In 2008, on NDTV Imagine, Sagar Entertainment again created a new Ramayana, using new effects, with a new sophistication, and with new actors. It has also proved very popular. The series went through the entire timeline from the initial years of Ram's life, his marriage to Sita, exile based on his father's promise, Sita's abduction by Ravan, the search, the bitter battle, return to Ayodhya, Sita's banishment from the court and settlement in the ashram, Luv and Kush's story, and final return to the court.



The serial had a lot of new effects, with the one that I really liked being the one where when Ram fires the arrow which kills an enemy, there is a small light that comes from the skies and settles on the arrow. The serial had some great performances, with Gurmeet Choudhary playing the role of Lord Ram with great skill. Some of the lead characters:
Gurmeet Choudhary as Lord Ram
Debina Banerjee as Mata Sita
Ankit Arora as Lakshman
Vikram Sharma as Lord Hanuman
Akhilendra Mishra as Demon King Ravana
Punkaj Kalraa as King Dashrath
Vijay Bhatia as Bharat
Lalit Negi as Shatrughna
Rajni Chandra as Kaushalya
Jaya Ojha as Mandodari
Kavita as Kaikeyi

The serial has got the Most Promising New Show of the Year award at theIndiantelevision.com's New Talent Awards held this year. Gurmeet Choudhary who plays the lead role of Lord Rama also won the Most Promising New Talent of Tomorrow award. The serial had some of the previous staff as well, with Ravindra Jain, who was the music director for the original series, returns as music director for this series, with Kavita Krishnamurthy and Suresh Wadkar as playback singers. It is directed by Anand Sagar, son of Ramanand Sagar.

Title track of the serial on Youtube:



Scene of Sita's swayamwara and the breaking of Shiva Dhanush

Information on Ladies Special - the comedy show on Zee TV

Comedy shows are many on TV right now, and they happen on every channel. Another such comedy show happens on Zee TV, called "Hasne Hasaane ka Tonic - Ladies Special". This is a new standup comedy show on Zee TV that provides women a platform to project their point of view through the medium of humor. Based on the numerous saas-bahu shows, audiences have only seen women cry / plot / scheme on screen; this time they will see them make everyone laugh. Ladies Special is the search for ‘India’s Funniest Female Stand-Up Comedian’ and has eight contestants and three challengers. The contestants find try to find humor in mundane stories from daily life and present a unique perspective on domestic issues, saas-bahu relationships, cricket and politics.

Hosted by: Swapnil Joshi

The Judges:
Tabassum
Baba Sehgal

Some highlights from behind the scenes:

- Special sarees are made for Tabassum which can weigh only up to 60 grams. This is because of injuries sustained on her legs because of which she also prefers coming ready from home. Despite her old age and the physical ailments, she is extremely enthusiastic & spirited and doesn’t lose any opportunity to crack jokes or dance with the contestants. In fact, she is the loudest one on the sets!

- Baba Sehgal & Tabassum have hit off very well with each other. They have a unique chemistry since she is from an older generation and is a like a motherly figure. This is the first time a Baba and Baby have come together as judges on a show (Tabassum is famously called as Baby Tabassum).

- Although Baba has taken on well in the new role of a judge in a stand up comedy show, his first passion remains music. He is seen jamming & singing with the live band in any break that he gets between shots. Swapnil joins in this enthusiastically and they keep everyone entertained on the sets.

- The trophy for the best performer every week is a unique golden belan that Tabassum gives to her favorite performer in every episode.

Bhaskar-Bharti on Sony TV

I don't think that this is an original idea (about a man turning into a woman due to divine intervention), but this is still a new concept for Indian TV, and so far is working out (although at some time, the serial creators will want to stretch the serial, and that is when the story will start becoming painful). Bhaskar Bharti started on Sony TV on May 25, 2009, and is created by the long running creative group of Deeya Singh and Tony Singh.
Bhaskar is with a media company, and is a hotshot and well acclaimed professional. He is a serial womanizer, who ditches girl-friends all over the place. It is one of these women who cry out that Bhaskar should become a girl so that he realizes what a woman has to face, and it is through divine intervention that Bhaskar converts into a girl, called Bharti.



In the beginning, Bhaskar is shocked, but has slowly started to come to terms with the concept that this is something real, but he is constantly trying to figure out how to become a man back. He is still in his office, but under the name of Bharti now, and starts to see how discrimination against woman happens, and one is sure, that as the serial progresses, they will start to show Bhaskar in his guise of Bharti, learning more and more about the problems faced by woman.

Bhaskar Bharti blog (link here)

Videos of Bhaskar Bharti from June 18th

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3: