Hindi TV Serial - Rang Badalti Odhani - Getting difficult for Khanak to reveal her love for Shantanu

The serial is taking a pretty long time to come to a decision on one aspect, whereby it is pretty clear that Khanak and Shantanu love each other and are very attached to each other, but they still need to get closer to each other both in terms of emotionally and physically. The way it is working right now is that Shantanu has told Khanak that he loves her, and now expects that she will do the same.
And while Khanak is very attached to Shantanu, she does not believe that she is so forward that she can easily say those words to Shantanu, making him very frustrated, since he cannot believe that anybody can find it so difficult to express their love. Khanak is also frustrated because she feels that Shantanu is pressurizing her to express her love in actual words, and not willing to understand as to why she cannot say those words.
The story is not taking this very seriously, with all this discussion and conflict happening in a very light hearted way; including Khanak loudly talking to herself all the time about how she should really tell Shantanu what he wants to hear. She makes a plan whereby she cooks some halwa, and the kaju put in the halwa spells out the words of I Love you, but that halwa gets in the wrong hands in terms of first to her father-in-law and then brother-in-law, which results in tension of these 2 gentlemen with their own wives.

Comedy - Sab TV - Sajan Re Jhoot Mat Bolo - the make believe family to satisfy father-in-law

Sab TV has positioned itself as a channel that serves light entertainment, and not the drama that one sees on regular entertainment channels, typically serials that involve conniving family members, or conflict between different members of a family, and so on. Instead, the channel has an active comedy lineup of serials, along with other light serials, which are meant for the entire family to watch and enjoy.
One of the serials is called 'Sajan Re Jhoot Mat Bolo', which is about the relation between a loving husband and wife. The serial appears from Monday to Thursday at 9 PM and is for 30 minutes. The serial is about a man called Apurva, who is the lead character of the serial. He is in love with Aarti, the niece of his boss, Dhirubhai. Apurva does not have any family members, but is otherwise a very nice person. Dhirubhai, before he lets his niece Aarti marry Apruva, wants to meet the family members of Apurva (does not know that Apurva does not have any family members), and to ensure that Dhirubhai can get his solution, Apurva manufacturers an entire family.
His friend acts as his father, a drama artiste plays the role of his mother, and other friends play other roles. There are always challenges that happen in such situations, such as when Aarti tries to make tea, and fails. At that time, the make-believe mother is told to teach Aarti how to cook, but she does not know either, and gets in a soup.

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:

Hans Baliye - comedy performed by the stars

When you think of Hans Baliye, what comes to your mind ? Nach Baliye, the dance show of TV stars (and others), where famous people from different areas come to display their dancing prowress (and which the famous footballer), Baichang Bhutia won this time. Well, Hans Baliye seems like something similar, given that this also involves famous people (and with both members of the couple being famous is also a common theme).
Hans Baliye occurs on Star One (although if it becomes popular, it will no doubt move to Star Plus). Hans Baliye has started very recently, with the first episode being shown on May 31, 2009. Initial episodes with couples had all of them using the concept of humour within a marriage to make their mark.
The judges for the show are Karishma Kapoor and David Dhawan (both of whom have been involved in many movies that were slightly raunchy comedies). Hosts for the show are Sunil Grover and Gaurav Gera. The couples taking part are:
- Juhi Parmar and Sachin Shroff
- Tanaaz Irani and Bhakhtyar Irani
- Sara Khan and Ali Merchant
- Ashita Dhawan and Shailesh Gulabani
- Rajesh Kumar and Madhvi
- Delnaaz Paul and Rajeev Paul
- Gurpreet Guggi and Kuljeet Kaur
- Mel and Maski

Video of First episode of Hans Baliye



Part 2



More videos of Hans Baliye available at Youtube (click here)

Shararat comedy serial on Star Plus

For a break from all the heavy saas-bahu serials on Indian television, it is necessary that we have comedies also playing. Of course, many times these comedies are not exactly very good. One serial that does not try too hard, and manages to keep the whole atmosphere very light is called 'Shararat'. It used to originally appear on Star Plus, and now comes on Disney India. The serial is primarily based on an English serial called Bewitched.
The story is of 3 generations of a family. A long time back, a lady called Rani Devi was very good and kind, and she was given a blessing by a sage - she would get magical powers and these powers would be handed down the generations to daughters, not to sons. However, in a slight twist, Rani Devi sneezed at the sage when the power transfer was happening and the sage modified the power to be ineffective if the lady had a cold (this would be for a period of 24 hours).
This was from a much earlier generation, and now the modern generation has these powers as well. First there is Nani (grandmother Sushma played by Farida Jalal), her daughter Radha (played by Poonam Narula Goel), her son-in-law Suraj (played by Mahesh Thakur), and the grand-daughter Jiya (played by Shruti Seth). There is a constant skirmish between Mahesh and his mother-in-law (in fact, Mahesh got to know about the magical properties of his wife and mother-in-law soon after marriage and was not so happy). Whenever his mother-in-law gets angry with him, she turns him into some creature or the other.
Then there is Shanti Saberwal (Shoma Anand), the nosy neighbor who feels that something is strange in their house, but never can seem to find out exactly what. Things keep on happening mysteriously, but she can never figure out what exactly is happening. The serial also focuses on Jiya who is a recent learner of magic, and who also uses magic in her college (where she likes Druv), while a new girl Pam seeks to be the center of attention.

A video shot from the serial:

Another comedy show - Champion Chaalbaaz No 1

In the last couple of years, comedy based shows have made a name for themselves, something that a lot of people would never have expected when reality shows starting popping up, based on singing and dancing. But shows such as Laughter Challenge and Comedy Circus have moved comedy onto a much higher plane, giving channels the enthusiam to launch comedy serials. And Sony has introduced a new one, taking comedy, but mixing it with the type where pranks are played. The serial is called Champion Chaalbaaz No 1, and it started on Sony on December 22nd, with the weekly show being every Saturday at 10 PM.
The show is a reality show where 33 participants will take part in 17 weeks of the show, the aim being to play pranks, including on unsuspecting people. So, for example, there was a case of one of the participants acting as a crazy waiter serving a group of young men, and he was lucky to get off with a slap. There will also be a celebrity prank, where a prank will be played on a celebrity.
The judges for the show are Cyrus Broacha and Sajid Khan, with a forever giggling Mona Singh being the host of the show. The audience will also be able to judge the contestants.
The show can quickly get out of hand, and in one episode I saw a situation where the prank could turn real serious. The idea is to take an unwary person, out for some fun, as he is firing on balloons in a stall, and the participant pretends to be hit. The situation quickly turned serious, with the people affected being emotional at times. At such times, if they get roughed up by a mob, or if they were asthma patients or the like, then things could get out of hand very quickly. The judges pointed this out, terming it cruelty, but Mona Singh refused to acknowledge the seriousness, and eventually the judges gave it up.

Watch videos of Champion Chaalbaaz on YouTube.

Doordarshan Nostalgia: Nukkad: Streetlife

There are times when you get reminded of serials that one watched a long time ago, at a time when Doordarshan was the only channel in town and the only entertainment that you got on TV were the serials and Chitrahaar that Doordarshan would dish out.
One such very popular serial of the Doordarshan time was called 'Nukkad'. What does Nukkad mean ? It literally means the neighborhood, and was all about the characters who would live in the neighborhood or a locality (in the case of the serial, it was a locality of people that were not well-off by any means, in fact, they were poor). The idea of the serial was to show their life, and for many of us, it was a good awakening to see how people separate from us lived, what were their hopes and aspirations, and most of all, they emotions, their ambitions, and their despair.
The serial was directed by Saeed Mirza, and starred such actors such as Dilip Dhawan as Guru (Electrician), Avtar Gill as Kadar Bhai (Hotelier), Sameer Khakar as the drunkard Khopdi, Javed Khan as the barber, Pavan Malhotra as the cycle repair guy (Hari), Rama Vij as the wise teacher, Suresh Chatwal as Chotu, and many others.
So you had stories related to their everyday life and interactions, and you had stories about their attempts to do something like when Hari attempts to set a world record for the longest continuous time cycling and fails when very close, and another time when they play a cricket match and win with a shot from the most unlikely of sources.

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

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

Baa Bahoo Aur Baby: A realistic serial

Baa Bahoo Aur Baby is a serial that is pretty different from the other serials that come on the various TV channels; and especially very different from the K serials of Balaji Telefilms. There are many similarities:
- This also has a family situation like the K serials
- There is a Saas and various bahus in the serial like the K serials
- The saas is the head of the household and everything runs according to her (atleast that's her wish)

However, there are very many differences that make this a unique serial:
- The serial is about the middle class as opposed to the rich people of the K serials
- The saas is not evil, nor are any of the characters shown as deliberately mean unlike the K serials where there will be one or more characters who are shown as mean from the beginning
- The serial does not seem to want to suddenly jump by 20 years as opposed to other serials that jump by 20 years, maybe more than one
- The people in this serial look real, and when they wake up, you don't see them still immaculately dressed or painted in full make-up

Okay, now that we have established that this serial is unlike any of the K serials, we can talk about the serial. The serial is about a matriarch, Godaveri Thakkar, who runs the household and has a total of 7 children, 5 of them sons and 2 daughters, and most of them have a family of their own. Most of them live with her in the same house, donated to her by her her sister-in-law Gurvanti. Godaveri has her husband also living in the same house, Labhshanker Thakkar who is a good-for-nothing alcoholic and does not contribute significantly to the running of the house. Godaveri is not a dictator, but her word is law and in most of the cases, her decisions seem to be based on some logic, although there is the usual resentment among some member of the family or the other depending on who got affected by what decision.
Her family has a number of different characters, whether they be among her sons or her daughter-in-laws. He eldest son Arvind for example, is a boring character, but very responsible. His wife Leela is a jovial person, but very fond of daydreaming. Similarly, her other characters in the household such as sons Pravin (fond of money and a tight-fist), Pravina (Pravin's wife and a prankster, but about whom Baa always finds out), Subodh (an actor), Meenakshi (Subodh's wife and fond of fasting and crying), Harshad (a doctor and who lives outside the house, but is now reconciled with Baa), Shilpa (Harshad's wide and a doctor), Charubala (daughter of Baa and egoistical), Gopal (known popularly as Gattu, he is retarded and hence not capable of behaving like a true adult; he is very popular, my young nephew only knows him from the serial), and Radhika (known as Baby, she has polio and crutches, but is very strong-willed).
These are not rich people, and yet have a strong sense of pride. The serial is particularly middle class, and these people do not have a business that is making them lots of money. The men work outside and make a living from that. An episode or a series of episodes talk about mini-stories that are captivating to some degree; such as the quest to get a husband for Baby and the issues related to her polio affecting the types of boys coming to see, such as the historical background for why her daughter is now being refused by another family, or their relationship with the estranged son Harshad and how his dying son is bringing them together again.
People who watch this serial regularly can identify with a lot of the issues that they face, even the jealousy between the different family member is not a killing jealousy, instead they have their issues which eventually gets worked out.
The serial started in 2005, and is fairly popular for the reason that the scenarios described are realistic, there is no vulgarity, you can watch it without suddenly seeing cars braking or doing full speed chases, or a villain trying to seduce a young girl and so on. The serial is on Friday to Sunday on Star Plus at 10 PM. Also, the serial is directed by Deven Bhojwani who also plays the retarded 'Gattu'.
For a lot more detail about each character and some of the stories, refer to Wikipedia.

Anybody remember 'Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi' ?

Imagine the surprise, I change channels around 8:30 on the morning, and on Star Gold (I think, not fully sure about the channel) I see a serial long lost from memory. The familiar figures of Satish Shah, Swaroop Sampat and Rakesh Bedi on screen, and the serial looking old. This has to be .. 'Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi'. I watched the whole episode with rapt attention, it was about Renu (Swaroop) and Raja (Rakesh Bedi) trying to get some money to pay insurance premium for Renu's husband Ranjit (the late Shafi Inamdar) who is out on some business trip. They rent out a room to Satish Shah and then an aunt Farida Jalal came along. To tell the truth, I did not laugh as much as I used to when originally watching the serial (a long long time back), but I still found it funny.
The serial brought out a fair amount of nostalgia. This serial used to come on Doordarshan a long time back (starting in 1985) and used to be very popular. Doordarshan at that time used to only start making some sense around 7 PM (starting with Krishi Darshan, which I don't know anyone watching) and then would have some serials and of course Chitrahaar (one day of the week initially). Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi was one of the more popular ones.
If you look at it now, the sets will seem ordinary, acting will seem okay, the stars will not wear fancy clothes or jewellery and talk about obscene sums of money; but the serial was fun. It basically starred the following people - Shafi Inamdar as Ranjit, Swaroop Sampat as Renu (his wife), Raja as her brother (Rakesh Bedi), Satish Shah as the chameleon (in each episode, he would play a different character), Ranjit's boss (Tikku Talsania), the chachi (Farida Jalal).
These people, on a low budget and lots of effort and time shooting ended up making a serial (directors being Kundan Shah and Manjul Sinha) that was exceedingly well acclaimed and ended up making celebrities and giving the actors a very good reputation.
Even the title track of Yeh Jo Hai, Yeh Jo Hain Zindagi (sung by Kishore Kumar) turned out to be very popular. The serial ran for a couple of seasons, got dropped for some time, and then came back, but was not so popular the second time. Eventually the serial shut down.

Great India Laughter Challenge 3 - Hope it is better this time

The Great India Laughter Challenge, when it came for the first time, was like a breath of fresh air in the midst of all the family drama serials, and became fairly popular even though it was not on a prime TV channel, instead appearing on Star One on the weekends. However, the combination of a good hostess, of 2 celebrity judges (Shekhar Suman and Navjot Singh) and some great characters made this show a must-see for a number of people. Clips of episodes became a fast moving digital item. People such as Sunil Pal, Raju Shrivastava, Bhagwant Mann, etc became very famous.
However, the second episode seemed a bit stale. The jokes were not so good, and viewers felt a sense of disillusionment that the program seemed to have gone down in quality. In addition, rumours of rifts between the hosts were circulating everywhere, and there indeed seem to have been some differences between the hosts. However, there were more guest celebrities with some second line film stars appearing on the show.
Now, the third round has launched, with the first episode of the Great India Laughter Challenge 3 appearing on May18, and is styled as 2 episodes per week on Star One, on Friday and Saturday at 9 PM. The talent hunt for the episodes ran at 11 locations in India so as to get more local talent. The winner is likely to be announced in September.
Read this interview of Navjot Sidhu here.

It was an afternoon Shekhar Suman and Navjot Singh Sidhu would like to forget as mediapersons grilled them about the falling standards of the jokes in the second season of the television show, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and the reports of growing differences between Sidhu and Shekhar.
"Never before has any programme reached the heights which this programme has achieved," Suman stated. "I have had personal reasons for not appearing in the programme with Sidhupaaji because I was cutting an album, shooting for films and doing other assignments. Minor differences do arise between two personalities when they sit together. But it wasn't as if we were not on talking terms."
Both of them admitted that they had received complaints about the falling standards of the jokes in the show. "We try to refine the jokes and language and teach the participants some techniques. But sometimes, they get out of hand. Just like a coach cannot be blamed for a poor shot of a master batsman," Shekhar explained.
Sidhu blamed the editing team for pasting his laughter on some of the jokes even before they began. "Bhai, yeh pooch ke aapne meri izzat bacha li," he said with a broad smile when a journalist asked him why he laughed even when there were jokes about dead people.