Banoo Main Teri Dulhann

Dulhan, on Zee TV at weekdays 8 PM, is reaching a climax. After a long boring set of episodes, finally things are starting to peak. After reincarnation, and after quite a bit of drama, eventually Divya and Amar got married (even though Sindoora tried her best to prevent it).
And now it seems like history is going to repeat itself. For a time it seemed like Amar was totally in awe of Sindoora, respecting her, and fighting with Divya when she used to tell him to beware of Sindoora (Vidya was able to remember what happened in the previous birth when Sindoora killed both Amar and Vidya).
But it was all a drama; Amar was basically trying to make Sindoora pay for what she had done once he had learned what Sindoora had actually done. Helped by Bharat, Sindoora's son (who hated Sindoora for what she had actually done), they prepare a dangerous plan where Bharat would provoke Sindoora into trying to kill Divya and Amar in front of cameras. The plan backfires to some extent when Sindoora does not pick up the gun that Bharat has given (with fake bullets), but instead picks up the same gun that she had used 22 years back to kill Vidya and Sagar.
And now they reach the same plan, and Sindoora admits that she killed Vidya and Sagar, and says that she will them again and again, that nobody can help them. And after some more dialog and drama, she shoots Amar.

Video from the 30th September episode where Sindoora shoots Amar







More videos on Youtube (link)

Balika Vadhu (Child Bride) on Colors channel

The various Hindi serials currently on air (and in the past) have focused on a variety of social ills, including such ever popular (and high drama generating) areas such as jealousy, widow remarriage, adultery, affairs, children out of wedlock, dowry, etc. Somehow, even though dowry is a heinous social ill (and causes immense problems to a lady whose in-laws are demanding), we have been hearing and reading about it so much that the concept of dowry being shown in a Hindi serial is not shocking anymore.
What was shocking to me was this serial being shown on Colors at 11 PM weekdays, right after Big Boss Season 2. Why this was shocking was because child marriage is wrong on so many levels and is highly illegal (and yet unfortunately still prevalent in some areas of the country); it causes immense physical and mental distress to the affected girl, displays a custom where the parents of the girl feel that she is a burden and she needs to be handed over to somebody else as soon as possible, and the trauma of both the young girl and boy to be put in such a responsibility is pretty bad.
So this is the reason why this serial affected me so much. The serial takes a young girl called Anandi, who is married at a very tender age to a young boy from a much richer family (with her own family pretty sure that this is the only way that her life can progress). In her 'in-laws' place, her in-laws are shown to be very nice, except for the matriarch of the house, the grandmother who keeps on finding fault, and administering punishment.
The relationship between the young couple is also very tender, since neither of them is aware of what a marriage actually means. They fight (and it would look cute, except for the fact that they are married and do not know what that means) all the time including about Anandi coming to live in her 'husbands' room. Eventually, after another strong scolding (and much crying), this young girl runs away and heads back to her parents house (badly traumatized by her experience with the grandmother), and yet the couple emotionally blackmail her to go back and beg forgiveness for whatever she has done.
Hindi channels need to have sense of responsibility; showing a child marriage like this in a normal setting can reassure those people who are also planning on getting their children married and make this seem normal; the channel is just after TRP'. The only concession that is made is a small line at the end of every episode that tries to present a message against this wrong practise.

Videos of the serial from Youtube (link)

Little girl crying miserably, begging for forgiveness even when she has not done anything

Saat Phere - Saloni fails to convert everybody

Saat Phere, Saloni ka Safar, the prime time 9:30 PM on Zee TV consists of Saloni being faced with new problems every few months, and she, with her love and goodness, trying to face these problems for the next several months. However, the entire episode with Kallika shows her failing. Kallika is her step-sister, elder to her, and as usual, Saloni fought with the others in her family to get Kallika accepted into the family. But she did not know that Kallika was actually out to get revenge for the way that Saloni's father, Narpat Singh, had actually treated Kallika's mother (he had apparently abandoned her when she was pregnant and this led to a lot of suffering for her mother and Kalika).
However, when Saloni gets to know this, she decides to treat Kallika like an elder sister, and in the face of a lot of opposition, brings Kalika back into the house, little knowing that she is only there for revenge. For the purpose of revenge, Kallika also has a fake marriage with Kshitij (the estranged son of the elder of the family, Kakasa). Kshitij also wants revenge for the treatment that he has suffered, and literally wants to ruin both Nahar and his elder brother.
So, coincident, both Kshitij and Kallika discover that they both want revenge, and get together, have a fake marriage, in order to come into the household and together take revenge - the question is about how Kallika can take revenge on Narpat Singh by being in Saloni's married house ? Well, she can take revenge on Narpat Singh by ruining Narpat Singh's daughter's household (this did not make too much sense). At the same time, Kshitij and Kallika also have a lot of tension because Kshitij wants his rights as a husband, and Kallika keeps on reminding him that this is a sham marriage, and he should not touch her. Kallika also kidnaps Saloni's newly born daughter, claiming that the daughter was dead; and she starts creating distances between Saloni and her elder sister-in-law (who is always ready to turn against Saloni for any reason apparently).
In the end, Kallika kills Kshitij, and gets Nahar blamed. Nahar is tried, sentenced to death, and in a major travesty of the legal system, is supposed to be hanged within a few days. Now typically, the process of appeals in the Indian legal system takes many years, and a death sentence is not automatic in murder cases, only applicable in rare cases. So you have Saloni and her family trying to rush and get a stay on the actual execution while Kakkasa also discovers that Kallika is deceiving everybody (and of course, he has handed over the entire property to her - people in hindi serials typically always make this mistake - handing over the entire property to the wrong people).
Finally, Nahar is saved after a lot of drama, and then Kalikka's mother comes out of her comatose state after seeing Narpat and blames Kalikka for behaving like this, bringing a whole family to ruin. So Kalikka now repents, telling Saloni that her daughter is alive, and that she will save Nahar.

Video of Saath Phere from 10 September (where Kalikka's mother recovers, Nahar is saved, and things become good again)

Khatron Ke Khiladi winner - Nethra Raghuraman

Khatron Ke Khiladi was the Indian equivalent of the Fear Factor programme, with a Bollywood super-star Akshay Kumar being the host, and 13 female models / stars being the participants. The show was exciting, with these being real stunts (although performed in controlled conditions with nets / protection gear, etc). It was fun to watch these stars jumping off buildings, putting their hands through worms, cockroaches, etc.

Participants were:
Nethra Raghuraman
Urvashi Sharma
Aditi Govitrikar
Pooja Bedi
Yana Gupta
Sonali Kulkarni
Anjana Sukhani
Meghna Naidu
Anita Hasnandani
Dipannita Sharma
Tapur Chatterjee
Tupur Chatterjee
Vidya Malvade
After many rounds, the turn of the final came and it was aired on the Colors channel on August 14th, 2008. The final 3 of Nethra Raghuraman, Urvashi Sharma and Aditi Govitrikar were vying to win the finals, and take home a purse of Rs. 50 lakhs. While Aditi was out of contentions when she did not do well in the the fire maze (unable to climb the hurdles). Left in contention were Netra and Urvashi, but in the last stunt (because of a misunderstanding), Urvashi was penalized for 30 seconsds, but Netra on the other hand finished there stunt in just 9 seconds, hence a clear winner.

Khatron Ke Khiladi Grand Finale 14th August Part 1 Video



Khatron Ke Khiladi Grand Finale 14th August Part 2



Khatron Ke Khiladi Grand Finale 14th August Part 3



Khatron Ke Khiladi Grand Finale 14th August Part 4



Khatron Ke Khiladi Grand Finale 14th August Part 5



Khatron Ke Khiladi Grand Finale 14th August Part 6



Khatron Ke Khiladi - Grand Finale - 14th August Part 7



Khatron Ke Khiladi Grand Finale 14th August Part 8