Update 28 and 29 September: Sa Re Ga Ma Pa

The programme is now reaching the final stages. There were 4 contestants left before this week's episode, Amaanat, Anik Dhar, Poonam Yadav and Raja Hasan. In Friday's episode, another contender was to be evicted by the public voting. It would be even more painful for the contestants since they have come so far and it would be hard to go now, so close to the end. This time the voting was to have international votes as well, and the voting was actually best for the serial, since there were a total of more than 54,00,000 votes sent via SMS, and since the vote costs a person at least Rs. 6, the channel made a huge amount of money. However, after all the voting and singing, the person to lose was Poonam. This was sort of expected since the voting for the girls had been lesser than that for the boys, and with Sumeidha getting out last week, the path for Poonam was clear. It was disappointing to see her go, but this is a competition based on audience voting, and such things are bound to happen that you don't like. It was good to see such eminent talents such as Pandit Jasraj and Jagjit Singh being the celebrity judges.
The other thing that we have been seeing nowadays is that movies about to release jump on the bandwagon of these reality shows, and this episode was no different. This time it was the Shahrukh Khan production, Om Shanti Om, that was the combination. So you had Farah Khan, Deepika Padukone (looking radiant) and Shreyas. Obviously, Shahrukh Khan would have been too big a personality to get on the show (although he did spend time with the contestants off-stage). The movie and then Shahrukh was the center of attention, with the songs of the film (and some were pretty good) song pretty nicely by the contestants. The other attraction for the singers (all male) was the inducement of singing the songs to Deepika Padukone and maybe getting her to dance with the singer. They were all a-blush over being so close to her. In addition, Vishal-Shekhar were the music composers for the movie.
It was a bit disappointing for people who wanted to know what the movie was about, since when Farah Khan was asked about the movie, she said that you should watch it for seeing Shahrukh, Deepika, Shreyas and the songs. This was so strange, because the movie should have something on its own, and you are not expected to watch it only for the stars.
And then the singers got a chance to meet Shahrukh 1:1 at another location where selected songs for them to sing, all from his movies. However, one thing that struck me was how well they seemed to sing. Another observation from Farah Khan was about how this was the only program where the judges did very little fighting with each other.

Shahrukh Choice - Amaanat



Shahrukh Choice - Aneek Dhar



Shahrukh Choice - Raja Hasan



Amaanat singing Ajab Si from Om Shanti Om



Raja Hasan singing classical - Dil ye pagal dil mera



Pandit Jasraj in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa



Poonam Yadav's last performance in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa



Amaanat Ali singing a ghazal



Dastaan-e-om Shanti Om - Shaan full song



Ajab Si - Om Shanti Om Audio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFV7fdG1LK8

Om Shanti Om Main Agar Kahoon

Doordarshan Nostalgia: The cultural show - Surabhi

This is more like nostalgia for people of my generation, given that a number of today's youngsters would not remember this excellent cultural program called Surabhi; but it was more than just a simple cultural program. The serial attempted to show us the diversity across the length and breadth of this country; it is almost a guarantee that in each episode we would discover something new.
The serial ran for a very long time and had a total of approx 415 episodes making this a very long-running serial indeed. Imagine learning about the martial art of Kerala called 'KALARIPAYATTU', or learning about the art and culture of a city in Tamil Nadu or Rajasthan. The serial was hosted by the popular duo of Siddharth Kak and Renuka Shahne. It was a popular combination, with the slightly more serious Kak and the ever-smiling Renuka. One of the hottest point about the serial was the involvement of the audience, with audiences being asked a question at the end of an episode, and the involvement grew and grew till they had to handle a huge number of postcards (I believe that they had a record of 10 lakh postcards for one episode).
If you want to know more about the contents of each episode of the serial, there is a whole list available at this link. In addition, you can download clips of videos at the Rajshri Site (after some ads), or purchase the entire episode at this link.

Jhalak Dikhla Jaa on Sony

The second version of this dance contest is here. But this was to be expected, since Nach Baliye started on Star Plus, Sony had to come out with its own competitive program, and voila, the second version of Jhalak Dikhla Jaa was born. The serial differs from Nach Baliye in that Nach Baliye takes a star couple and gets them to dance, while Jhalak Dikhla Jaa pairs a celebrity with a dancer, in the hope that with practise, the celebrity will improve. So, for example, in a previous version, the master chef Sanjeev Kapoor appeared and tried his best to perform.
The judges for the earlier version have all changes, so now Urmila Matondkar, Shiamak Davar and Jeetendra replace the judges of the previous version, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Farah Khan and Shilpa Shetty. Similarly, the show was hosted last by the husband-wife duo of Archana Puran Singh and Parmeet Sethi was planned to be hosted this year by Shweta Salve and Rohit Roy, and then Shweta Salve was replaced by Mona Singh.
The twelve participants in the second season are Ronit Roy, Cyrus Broacha, Sonali Kulkarni, Prachi Desai (Bani), Mika, Mir Ranjan Negi, Sandhya Mridul, Sudha Chandran, Aadesh Srivastav, Mini Mathur, Jay Bhanushali and Tapur Chatterjee.
The show will start on September 28th, and will appear on 9 PM on Sony on every Friday and Saturday.

Kasturi: A women-oriented show on Star Plus

Kasturi is a relatively new show on Star Plus at the prime time 9:30 PM slot on weekdays. Star Plus has introduced its new primetime offering daily soap, 'Kasturi' – Laakhon Jaisi Par Laakhon Mein Ek from April 23, 2007. Given that the serial starts with 'K', has ladies dressed with a lot of make-up and jewelery and there is a lot of heavy emphasis on drama, family values and malice, it would seem obvious that it is a Balaji Telefilms serial, and bingo, it is.
It primarily stars Shubhangi Atre, who hails from Indore, and had auditioned for Kasturi in the past and is now playing central character in Kasturi. The serial is the story of the middle class girl named Kasturi and her struggle to protect her family’s legacy as well as the story of her dreams and aspirations which are so closely intertwined with her family. The ambience is pure Delhi- as Kasturi’s Dad has a Saree Shop in Chandni Chowk. Kasturi is born in a middle class Punjabi family. She is bright and intelligent and loves everyday simple things. Kasturi is humble and polite but innately very strong- who’s fighting to forge her own identity. Kasturi graduates with top honours from the University. Kasturi’s father who was earlier not opposed to her carrying on with her education, suddenly changes his mind- as he is afflicted by Engina. From this juncture starts the real struggle- The family wants her to marry but Kasturi wants to do something in her life. Unknown to the family Kasturi begins to work at a firm.
From here the trials and tribulations, the vicissitudes of life begin to emerge through which Kasturi forges her identity. There is a lot of drama at this point, and a lot of trials and tribulations that she goes through at the hands of Robbie Sabharwal (Karan Patel), who is a famous rock singer and thinks he is the best. In fact, he is the best and is also arrogant. He always likes to be in the company of people. She is framed in a morally compromising position at one point of time, and her detractors including some evil family members blame her for letting down the family name. At this point, Robbie's fast friend Raunak marries her.
And so on, with Raunak being implicated in a murder, and then Kasturi saving him by presenting the victim in court, and then believing that Robbie is behind all this. And so the story will keep on moving on, with things happening like this.

These are the songs played in the serial.

Mitwa from Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna



Yeh Honsla from Dor

Nach Baliye 3: A new season

The 3rd episode of this popular dance show is on the air now. It now appears on Star Plus with Friday and Saturday 8 PM (twice a week). The show format is that it takes 10 couples and takes them through a dance competition where they get weeded out by public participation and are reviewed by judges every day. All of them get a choreographer to guide them through the steps and dance sessions (and the rehearsals can get quite tiring); so in many ways the win is also that of the choreographer.
Judges will be Vaibhavi Merchant (who is a famous choreographer), Isha Koppikar (a film actress and who can be quite a tough judge), and David Dhawan (the famous film director who has made a number of comedies, with Partner being his most recent one). The aim of the dance competition is to judge which couple dances the best as a couple, to the required fluidity and most naturally, all of which takes hard work. Hosts for Nach Baliye 3 are Hussain Kuwajarwala and his wife Tina(winners of nach baliye2).

The couples who are taking part in Nach Baliye 3 are:
* Jodi No. 01: Sweta Keswani and Alexx O'Neil
* Jodi No. 02: Amita and Karan Patel
* Jodi No. 03: Rakhi Sawant and Abhishek Awasthi
* Jodi No. 04: Shivangi Kapoor and Shakti Kapoor
* Jodi No. 05: Amita Sethi and Vikas Sethi
* Jodi No. 06: Kavita Kaushik and Karan Grover
* Jodi No. 07: Sanjeeda Sheikh and Aamir Ali
* Jodi No. 08: Kashmeera and Krushna
* Jodi No. 09: Ritu Janjani and Kiran Janjani
* Jodi No. 10: Pooja Bedi and Hanif Hilal

If you want to know more about these couples, then refer to these links (Rediff, Link 2, Wikipedia (full details about all 3 seasons),

Videos of Nach Baliye 3 are available at YouTube

Finale to Indian Idol 3

So, it's the last steps to the finale episode of Indian Idol 3, where you can find out who the winner is, who the person is who is going to make all the money and contracts awarded for the winner. It's been a tough contest, and has involved a fair amount of tension, and open fighting. We have seen judges bickering over the points awarded to a contestant, and we have seen judges being very biting and unpleasant towards contestants. However, once the contestants agreed to be part of the contest, it is normal for them to expect such treatment.
The episode to watch for is the episode that will appear on the 23rd of September, 2007 on Sony TV at 9 PM. And who are the contestants to make it to the finale ? These are 2 contestants from the eastern part of the country, with Amit Paul from Shillong (in Meghalaya) and Prashant Tamang (from Darjeeling in West Bengal). As one might expect, the involvement level of people if contestants are from a smaller state is much greater, and you have the effect of these 2 being heroes when they visit their hometowns. Even local politicians (and apparently even militant organizations) have asked people to vote for them.
It must have been very painful for the last eliminated competitors, Emon Chatterjee, Ankita Mishra, Meiyang Chang, etc. However, it is creditable for them to have reached this point, and to have been singing in front of such critical judges every week is a great thing. And who are the judges for this competition ? Well, you have the abrasive Anu Malik, Alisha Chinai (forever fighting with Anu), Javed Akhtar (one wonders as to what he is doing in a music competition show), Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam and Farah Khan. Anu Malik is one of the most hard and harsh judges, but his performance must be well-likes since he has been there since the first Indian Idol.
And of course, you have had a whole list of celebrity judges appearing (one wonders how good they are at evaluating music), notably John Abraham, Adnan Sami, Kailash Kher, Anil Kapoor, Ajay Jadeja, Ganesh Hegde, Ila Arun, Ritesh Deshmukh, Govinda, Shabana Azmi, Zayed Khan.

For a site with clips, click on this link.
Another site with clips.
Directly watch Amit Paul's videos on Youtube, Prashant on YouTube.

Latest developments on 'Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki'

This is one of the long running serials on Star Plus, being a Balaji (Ekta Kapoor) Telefilms creation and happening at the prime time of 10 PM on weekdays. This serial captures the usual incredible happenings in a large joint family, with good people suddenly turning bad, with a new wife suddenly appearing, with a son going ballistic when he learns that his mother is not actually his real mother, and so on.
In the ongoing episodes of the serial, the serial moves from the point where Parvati managed to get rid of all the bad elements in the family and got Trishna arrested for murder and numerous other acts. And then a new problem where the good son Pranay suddenly got to know that he was swapped between the mothers at the time of birth (this swapping never made sense), and turns into an evil and malicious person. And this was the person whom Parvati had handed over Rs. 500 crores to get out of the hands of Trishna, and he is now the owner of this whole money.
And the level of his change in the serial is so much that he refuses to accept his wife Maithili, and instead starts living with Mallishka, somebody whom he had rejected in the past. So Maithili has to see her husband living with another women and be treated like dirt by them; in fact Mallishka treats her like a servant, but slowly Maithili starts turning the tables.
And then something happens that changes everybody's impression of Pranay; he rapes Maithili and then tortures her after that. When Parvati wants to get him prosecuted, as usual, many members of her family turn against her and then her evidence gets stolen. Also, in a slightly tacky way, Balaji has used this incident to try and get public involvement in the incident. It is a tricky area since India does not recognize marital rape as a crime (and the way it has been presented in this serial, with a lot of drama and not much debate or substance is not going to move the law in any way).
However, with members of her family for and against her, Parvati goes very quickly to the Supreme Court (after her case is rejected in the High Court) and there manages to get her daughter to see the right track, return the evidence and provide the information necessary to get Pranay convicted for rape and sentenced to 7 years. It is handled in a very tacky way, with very little debate about such a complicated issue, and most disappointing.

Drama in Saat Phere - Saloni Ka Safar

Well, it's that time again. The serial is made of a series of episodes, with each episode lasting a few weeks or months. So, the latest episode was regarding Piya, the sister of Nahar. Her husband was ill-treating her and not working, so she started working and when her brothers Brijesh and Nahar found out, they were very angry that she had not told them and had started to work. Anyhow, Saloni pacified them.
And then Mannu Bhabhi was presented with a handsome looking, affable young man Abeer she was told was her son. All her maternal instincts got activated and she was very protective towards him. Anyhow, when Piya and Abeer met, they were attracted towards each other, but Piya did not proceed since she was already married. Her husband though was very suspicious of her behavior and suspected her character. Then tragedy struck, she was raped and she could not even see who had done it. Everybody suspected her husband because of his previous behavior, with only Saloni being somewhat hesitant about believing this. Anyhow, after some chases, her husband dies and she eventually marries Abeer. Everybody is happy except for Saloni as she has come to know that it was Abeer who was the rapist. And since Saloni is the one who is the proponent of truth, she speaks out her mind, and turns everybody against her. Even her own parents refuse to support her since she is going against family traditions. Her brother-in-law Brijesh also goes against her (although it is revealed later that he was actually supporting her, and I never understood this turnaround). Eventually, with the help of her husband Nahar and with the aid of a modern technology (DNA testing of the rapist's child inside Piya and Abeer's hair), she is able to prove that Abeer is the rapist. And then suddenly everything comes together, and it is also revealed that Abeer is not even Mannu Bhabhi's son, just somebody her estranged husband paid money to come and impersonate her son. So, as usual, Saloni saves the day.

Doordarshan Nostalgia: Shanti (made a star of Mandira Bedi)

Nowadays Mandira Bedi is on a roll, having made a mark in the area of television commentary on cricket, something that no other lady in cricket has managed to do. You can imagine the reaction of cricket purists when they first saw Mandira on 'Extra Innings' wearing her noodle straps. There was an lot of hue and cry about trying to sex up the world of cricket commentary, but she managed to overcome the controversy and made her name. And now she is very much in demand, having posed for a series of very sexy photographs in the men's magazine 'Maxim' and also having acted in a Hindi movie called Shaadi Ka Laddoo (which was not so good though and sank without a trace).
What started her on this path to fame were 2 things - a supporting role in Shahrukh's movie 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' and her role as the main heroine of the Hindi serial 'Shanti'. Shanti was an incredible episode in Doordarshan's history, a show set in the daytime to appeal to the stay-at-home women audience, and it was incredibly successful. Imagine a serial running every day on the weekdays, and managing to go for 804 episodes. I remember when Doordarshan started this show in the mid-nineties and I remember that the word was out that there was no limit on the number of episodes. The serial only finished when it seemed that the serial was dragging on and TRP's had gone down a lot (in fact, it seemed that Doordarshan actually put a stop to the show because of its low ratings).
The serial was about a strong career oriented women, in the world of show-biz and powerful movie moguls, it was a strong role for Mandira Bedi with her playing the role of an inspirational character, head strong woman, and was essentially the story of an illegitimate child who came back to take revenge and fight for both her and her mother's rights.

Dekh Bhai Dekh: A great comedy serial

Hindi comedy serials are a very rare set. If you neglect the current set of stand-up comedies such as Comedy Circus, Laughter Challenge, etc, then in the past, there have been very few, and specially ones that can make you laugh. There was for example, some serials such as Wagle Ki Duniya, Sarabhai vs. Saraibhai, Khichdi, Yeh Jo Hain Zindagi, etc. But excepting for some of these, in many cases the comedies have been flawed, and in most cases, the serial makers have not been able to find the exact combination that will have audiences in splits.
Currently, most of the serials are some sort of family dramas, with something or the other happening between relatives; and of course, many of them are very rich and not somebody we can connect with. It is then that I remember this serial called 'Dekh Bhai Dekh' that started appearing on DD Metro in 1993 (at that time, DD Metro had appeared as the alternative entertainment channel, as Doordarshan main used to be much more boring).
It had a set cast of characters, and was extremely entertaining, taking a joint family in their home, and their antics and activities. You watch their activities, and how their interactions generate comedy by itself, and how it all seems so natural. This was a production by Saraswati Production, a company owned by Jaya Bachchan.
The story is about a joint family with 3 generations staying in the same house. So you have the grandparents, with the grandmother (Sushma Seth) being the matriarch, being in control of everybody including her husband. She is a socialite, while her husband, even though hen-pecked, could not enjoy more than having fun with his grandchildren, and plays a person who is loving and nice to like.
And then the 2 sons of the house, with Baldev (Navin Nischol) being the elder son, the more serious of the two, and who watches everything that happens in the house, understanding and not getting angry and having a loving relationship with his wife, Suhasini (Farida Jalal) who runs a beauty parlour at home. The younger son, Sameer (Shekhar Suman) is the more dashing and flamboyant of the two, and runs his own business. He is married to Sonu (Bhavna Balsaver) who is a writer, very sweet and also very absent-minded, and slightly dumber than the others.
And then there are the kids - Sanju and Keethi are the teenaged children of Baldev and Suhasini, while Vishal and Pinky are the school-going children of Sameer and Sonu. Sanju by himself is able to generate a huge amount of laughter, with a hot-tempered girlfriend Shilpa (Urvashi Dholakia) who always doubts him and he is always trying to ensure that he remains in her good books. And then there was Liliput and the house servant, Deven Bhojwani

Chanakya, a serial from the past

In the midst of so many serials about troubles within the family, about the serials that explore the relationship between a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law (saas bahu) and the constant problems between them, one sometimes get a wish (driven by nostalgia) for some of the serials that appeared on Doordarshan. One of these was Chanakya; and why am I thinking of Chanakya ? Because while I was browsing on YouTube, I came across some videos of Chanakya (watch them here), and that activated the section of brain dealing with memory.
I remember Chanakya for many things. At a time when serials based on ancient India or mythology were mainly costume dramas with a heavy focus on heavy language, where every other sentence referred to honour or the lack of it, here was a serial heavy on political drama. While in school, we learnt in a few short paragraphs (or maybe it was one chapter, I don't remember) about who Chanakya was and what he had done. However, as far as I can recall about what we were taught, we were primarily taught that Chanakya was the writer of the 'Arthashastra, the book on Indian politics and that he was a very clever tactician who brought his favorite king to power.
However, it was the serial that presented things in a slightly different (maybe it was just more detailed) context, labeling Chanakya (known as so because his father was called Chanak) (also known as Kautilya or Vishnugputa) as a person who was inspired by a mission to bring the country together after the invasion of Alexander (or Yakshendra as I remember the name being pronounced in the serial). Just like the Discovery of India series (Bharat ek khoj) brought the history of Indian to everyone, this serial brought the life of times of one of India's greatest thinkers and tactician to the screen.
The serial essentially captures the rise of Chanakya in those time when the Nandas were the rulers (but not very skilful). They had a superb minister, almost to the level of Chanakya himself, called Rakshas. Rakshas was able through his actions to keep the Nandas in power and ensure that no one was able to plan or execute any actions against the Nandas. It was Chanakya, a ruthless person in his mission, who was able to weld together the different states, defeat the Nandan and bring his brave protege, Chandragupta Maurya to power.
There are many examples of his determined nature shown in the serial, but the most famous of them have to be the episode of where when grass hurts his feet, he gets the grass eaten by ants; and probably the most famous one where he makes a solemn vow not to tie his hair till he has got rid of the Nandas.
The serial seemed to be very well-researched, and spent a lot of time and effort to make the entire portrayal including the sets seem authentic. The director and lead actor (Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi) essayed the role in a way that seemed to be very authentic (including the fact that people rode horses bare-back since the saddle was not yet introduced in India). One person who did not come off so well in this serial was Alexander, since the serial also mentions his brutality many times. People will also be surprised to know that the serial was somewhat controversial at its time because of the large use of saffron flags particularly because there was already a lot of feelings about the ongoing rise of the BJP and the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation.

Kumkum: Ek Pyaara Sa Bandhan on Star Plus

This is yet another long running serial on Star Plus, the only difference being that it does not appear on the night slot, coming instead in the morning around 7:30 AM, and then coming at 1 PM in the afternoon, from Monday to Thursday. The show has created 2 stars in the name of Juhi Parmar and Hussain (who play the lead characters of Kumkum and Sumit), madly in love with each other. The show has been running for so long, having started on July 15, 2002 and still running (it recently crossed the 1000 epsiode level), one feels that until TRP pulls it down, the show will keep on going forever. And the show has already had the favorite part of the K series (even though it is made by another company); it has taken a time-leap to show another generation. Sumit and Kumkum however will keep on going forever.
The story is about the Wadhwa family, where Jatin and Sumit were brothers, with Jatin married to Kumkum, and Sumit in love with a college colleague. Sumit is however attached to Kumkum, and they are very good friends. However, when Jatin dies due to brain tumour, Sumit eventually marries Kumkum, and whatever we are seeing now is after that event. They are an extremely attached couple.
Kumkum is also a type of super-woman, which I think is the prime attraction she has among her audience. Like many others, she is forever on the side of good, always acts for the benefit of her family, is devoted to her husbands, in-laws and others. At the same time, she is not willing to take any injustice, and has often fought for her relatives (even using stealth and other such activities).
So, for example, when her own daughter-in was upto no good, essentially wanting everything and pushing the rest of the family out, it was Kumkum who fought back including appearing in disguise, exposed her wrong-doings and got her arrested for her wrong-doings. In another instance, when her own old friend wanted to break up Sumit-Kumkum over jealousy, she accused Sumit of outraging her modesty. It was then Kumkum who fought the legal case, and finally using a mixture of drama and shock, who finally got the old friend to admit to her crimes in court and got Sumit off.
So as long as the serial lasts, one can be sure that this is what will continue to happen, with things happening that impact Kumkum and her family, and Kumkum fighting back to save them, thus continuing the crusade of Indian's super-woman.

Comedy Circus: Slightly Adult, but very good

Comedy Circus is a very controlled format with the whole show lasting just 13 weeks. I have always like the 'Great Laughter Challenge' and was wondering as to whether more comedy shows will be like me-too, trying to copy the format but otherwise being totally boring, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The show has a different format, with a total of 7 pairings, and in a unique twist, pairing 7 popular television actors ready to train under 7 well-known stand-up comedians. This seemed interesting, and when I got around to watching it, it was very interesting.

(Ali And Kashif enacting two beautiful ladies!!)

The people taking part in this program were the following: saucy Urvashi (Komolika) Dholakia, stage-cum-television actor Ketaki (ar ar arrrr...) Dave, sexy Karishma Tanna, cute and sweet Ali (Kamal) Asgar, ever popular Kiran (Om) Karmarkar, chocolate boy Swapnil Joshi and the versatile Varun Badola - they team up with well-known stand-up comedians like Shakeel Ahmed Siddiqui, VIP, Annu Mudgul, Pratap Faujdar, Khayali Saharan, Kashif Khan and Sunil Sawara. With these pairings, every week, the judges will give points based on their ability to make the audience and the judges laugh, and the 2 weakest pairs will then face a voting by the remaining contestants and one pair will leave.
The following were the pairing ups:
- Ali Asgar & Kashif Khan
- Karishma Tanna & Khayali Saharan (Voted out)
- Ketaki Dave & Pratap Faujdar
- Kiran Karmakar & Sunil Sawara (Voted out)
- Swapnil Joshi & VIP (Vijay Ishwarlal Pawar)
- Urvashi Dholakia & Shakeel Ahmed Siddiqui (Voted out)
- Varun Badola & Deepak Dutta (Voted out)
A bit more about the people involved is there in this link

Now most comedy programs are about jokes, but the jokes are of the clean kind. Comedy circus is slightly more risque. There are jokes about sex, lots of jokes about marriage, about parenting, about cross-dressing, attraction between males and females and between people of the same sex. It meanders on the edge, and can be fairly adult, but never really steps over the line.
The contest is anchored by Shruti Seth (and many of the contestants make humorous advances at her), with judging being done by Satish Shah, Archana Puran Singh and Johnny Lever (and judging seemed to be fairly decent, although one person's version of comedy may not be the same as that of another).
Some videos of the Comedy Circus can be found at this link (YouTube) and at the Forums link

Finale of The Biggest Loser on Sahara One

Well, it finally is happening today. On September 1, the show The Biggest Loser is coming to an end, at 8 PM on Sahara One. Starting with 16 contestants in May 2007, all of whom looked like they needed to lose weight, we have seen on a weekly basis as to how they have been losing weight. At first, it seemed a bit strange to have such a program on air, after all, to have a program based on getting people to lose weight would seem like making fun of them to some extent. Then I realized that it was based on an international program. And as time passed, just like the earlier reality show called The Biggest Boss, there was a lot of play about the inter-play between the different characters, the drama and the tension (expected since the program was about eliminating people based on voting from other contestants). And there was the weekly drama about getting people down to either their shorts (or in the case of the ladies, their T-shirts and shorts), and then weighing each of them in order to get the total weight loss for the week.
One could see that there was a lot of hard work and exercise, along with control involved in getting them to lose weight. And one could see them actually losing weight on a weekly basis, and as time went by, it must have been inspiring for over-weight people to actually see the amount of weight that must have been lost due to regular exercise and control. A lot of neighborhood gyms must have benefited tremendously from this feeling about losing weight.
The presence of Suniel Shetty lent the star power to the show, although there is a sneaking suspicion that given that he is not being seen in too many movies nowadays, this is an attempt to use the glamour power of TV in order to get back to the main-stream movie business.
One good thing in the show has been the presence of fitness experts such as former physiotherapist to the Indian cricket team, Andrew Leipus as Health & Fitness Director. The team consists of Deepika Mehta & Yusef Khan who are experts & specialists in the fitness & training arena, ably assisted by Varun Shivdasani (Culinary Nutritionist) & Dr. Ajit Desai (Cardiologist). This should be a reminder to people that a rigorous weight loss program has a strong medical affect on the body and should be done only under proper advice.
So now the show has 3 people left, being Hiren who lost 40 kg, Natasha who lost 30 kg, and Sandeep who lost 41.6 kg. This is a tremendous effort, and these people deserve to be in the finals. In the course of this program, some of the contestants who were left behind were Gracious D'Costa, Ravinder Singh Sahni, Ajay Nagrath, Nirmal Soni, Sharmila Joshi, Neeraj Paul, Kiran Jethwani, Dr. Rizwan Ahmed Qureshi, Samirah Ahmed, Robin Soloman, Hemangini Merchant, Priyanka Bhayana, Muna Aleem. All of them lost varying amounts of weights but were eventually voted out one by one (either for lack of dedication or bad attitude).
Some of the highlights of the various episodes are available on the videos at this link; and then some more videos at this link