'K for Kishore' - A musical reality show dedicated to a legend

There have been numerous reality shows dedicated to music on all the major Hindi channels, almost as if it is necessary for all these channels to have a major musical contest. Typically, the format of most of these shows is all about people trying to impress the judges with their singing capabilities, and get wide-spread audience participation, since that also helps the TV channel earn a lot of money from the huge number of SMS targeted at the show.
Sony has had its own Indian idol, and has now come out with another musical contest, and this is slightly different. Indians of all ages have listened to the music of Kishore Kumar with great pleasure, and it is the songs sung by Kishore Kumar that form the basis of this new show called 'K for Kishore'. The show appears on Friday and Saturday on 9 PM; it started on 21st December 2007, and will continue for 10 weeks. There are a total of 12 participants and they will slowly start getting eliminated, with the winner getting to make a music album.
The show is hosted by the singer Babul Supriyo and TV actess Rajeshwari Sachdev; the judges being all experienced people, Bappi Lahiri, Sudesh Bhonsle, and Kishore Kumar's son Amit Kumar. In addition to this, there are celebrities invited on the show, with some of them being Leena Chandravarkar (Kishore's widow), Asha Parekh, etc. The participants are divided into 2 teams:

Baangru Team

Chetan Rana
Saurabh Ghosh
Nayan Rathod
Chintan Bakiwala
Suhas Sawant
Kshitij Wagh

Jhumroo Team

Apurva
Vinod Seshadri
Sameer Memon
Arnab Chakraborty
Harsh Vyas (Eliminated on January 05, 2008)
Pramod Rampal (Eliminated on December 29, 2007)


See a video of one of the contestants singing a great song 'O Mere Dil Ke Chain'



In addition, watch more videos on Youtube.

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: Hum Log (1984)

Hum Log was the show that started it all, the craze for serials. Doordarshan was the only channel in India, and people were slowly moving towards the concept of watching television for entertainment. And it was Hum Log that started it all. Starting on July 7, 1984, the show became widely popular. Written by the famous writer Manohar Shyam Joshi (who also wrote Buniyaad), the serial took the life of a family who could be any other family, a family that a large number of people could identify with.
The serial could seem a bit boring to kids, but was very engrossing to adults. It was also different in the sense that till then, most serials had to end in 13 episodes, and Hum Log was the first one that went way beyond 13 episodes.
The serial also had a very popular actor, Dada muni Ashok Kumar who would appear at the end of the episode and summarize the serial as well as give a brief speech. He became extremely popular, and received a large number of letters on a daily basis. And the irony was that he was supposed to do this only for the first 10 episodes or so, but the success made this happen for the length of the serial.
The story of Hum Log revolved around the everyday life of a north Indian lower middle class family, with each episode focusing on the triumphs and tribulations of one or more of the central cast members. The serial took everyday conflicts and tensions in relationships between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, siblings and cousins as the basis of each story, and also incorporated a fair amount of elements such as nationalist issues and patriotic pride, family planning, gender relations and communal harmony. All these also became central to the definition of Hum Log as the story of an 'Indian' family.
The following were the main characters of the serial:
* Basesar Ram: was the father and was an alcoholic. Played by Vinod Nagpal
* Bhagwanti: The mother was a housewife and used to sleep in her kitchen itself. Played by Jayshri Arora who was also seen later in Chandrakanta.
* Lallu (Lalit Prasad): The eldest son, unemployed and looking for a job. Played by Rajesh Puri
* Nanhe: The younger son. Played by Abhinav Chaturvedi
* Badki: The eldest daughter, Played by Seema Bhargava
* Majhli: The second daughter, Played by Divya Seth
* Chutki: The youngest daughter. Played by Loveleen Mishra
* Dadaji: Retired teacher and the grandfather, Played by Lahiri singh
* Dadi: Grandmother, played by Sushma Seth

Jhoom India on Sahara One

There are many a reality shows that have been seen on the various Indian TV channels by now, with the list being something like Indian Idol, Sa Re Ga Ma, Voice of India, Nach Baliye, Jhalak Dikhla Ja, Little Champs, Big Boss, and so on (you name the concept, and there is a show on that). Sahara One came out with its version, called Jhoom India. The concept being: teaming up a singer or a music composer with a well know artist. Hence, you have the following combinations.
* vinod rathod and roshni chopra,
* jatin pandit and chhavi mittal,
* akriti kakar and varun badola,
* vaishali samant and sharad kelkar,
* parthiv gohil and apara Mehta,
* madhushree and sachin tyagi,
* sunjeevni and shekhar suman,
* sudesh bhosle and mrinal kulkarni,
* jolly mukherjee and shama sikander,
* suresh wadkarr and shweta tiwari

As with the other reality shows, this show also has its fair amount of controversy, when in an episode, one of the judges Mahesh Bhatt walked out when one of the participants was rude to another judge Shabana Azmi. The third judge is Anandii of Kalyanji-Anandji fame.

You an get a recap of earlier episodes at this link.

At this point, there are a total of 3 jodis left:
1. Roshni Chopra - Vinod Rathod
2. Sachin Tyagi – Madhushree
3. Varun Badola - Akriti Kakar

The show appears on Sahara One on Friday and Saturday at 9 PM.

You can also watch some videos of Jhoom India on Youtube.