The drama of IPL T20 cricket

When the concept of IPL was announced, there was cynicism about whether this was a concept that would gain public attention (even after the success of the T20 cricket world cup); after all so many matches in so short a time would maybe cause exhaustion, and people would loose attention after some matches.
However, there is enough to show that IPL has been a success to a fair amount of degree. The stadiums have been full, TV sponsorships of the events (including commercials) has been expensive, and in the biggest acknowledgment of the success in weaning after the young and middle aged crowd, there have been so few movie releases during the time of the tournament, that it seems quite clear that most movie makers don't want to risk a sharply reduced period of ticket collection.
The coverage of IPL T20 cricket on SET Max has been a mixed one, with a lot of use of technology. So, there are a lot of statistics called real time, including the wagon wheel, a steady show of the current run rate and asking rate, plenty of replays and so. One cannot say the same about the people called onto the sets, with many of my friends and colleagues making fun of the quality of people being called upon to give expert comments. On the whole, these are matches to be watched without caring too much about the commentary.
Now, with just one semi-final and the final left, there is a big expectation that the viewership will peak, and it is the good fortune of most of the regular evening and nightime weekday serials that these 2 final games are happening on the weekend. One other feeling I have about watching this one vs. the normal one day matches is that the TV coverage has been slightly more nuanced: So, in the normal one-day coverage, many times you are not able to see the replays of the big shots and wickets since the Ads come on immediately, while here, the ads are somewhat more controlled. I seem to feel that I have watched more TV replays now that in the regular coverage of one-day cricket.

2 websites for catching the T20 cricket:
The official website
Lots of statistics

Video highlights of the first semi-final between Jaipur and Delhi (Jaipur won)

Saloni Ka Safar: Saath Phere - The fall of the father

Creating a drama out of thin area is something that most serials excel in, and this also has the advantage that the serial can continue for several weeks or months on the new drama created. For the purpose of this drama, the serial can take any turn, and make anybody a villain, even the lead character of the serial (take for example, how Gautami, playing Tulsi on Kyunki .. suddenly turned into a negative character when the real Tulsi, Smriti Irani was to be brought back to the serial). In the case of Saloni Ka Safar, there are a few characters who are always shown as positive, such as Saloni, her father Narpat, mother, Bhabo, and so on. However, some time back, Saloni was shown as negative for many months, and now it was the turn of her father, Narpat to suddenly turn negative.
So in a sudden twist of events, Saloni's father Narpat Singh is now shown to have an affair, a major problem, since this causes his family to get estranged from him. All this happened when Saloni and her sister Shubhra are trying to get Shubhra's estranged parents back together again. Both Shubhra's husband Kunjan and his mother Padma Thakurain hate the father because they believe that he had an affair and the child that he is bringing up is actually his. However, in a function to celebrate the marriage anniversary of Saloni's parents, it gets revealed that in fact this girl was not his daughter, but the illegitimate daughter of Narpat and Shyama (whom he used to love before his marriage, but whom he deserted). Shyama later turned mad.
And then things change. Narpat is now hated by all, by his wife who can't believe this betrayal (although a relationship before marriage should not be considered a betrayal), and equally by his illegitimate daughter Kalika, who considers Narpat responsible for all her problems. It's Saloni who tries to reconcile these relationships, first trying to get Narpat (who has left home) and Kalika together, and she finally succeeds, when Narpat saves Kalika's life. And then she brings Kalika home, something that neither her mother nor Samrat likes. However, they have to keep her there, since it has been threatened that Shubhra's life in her in-laws place will take a turn for the worse if Kalika is mistreated. But will Kalika be able to reconcile with Narpat's wife (who hates her) ? What do you think ?

Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar on Star Plus

Jo Jita Wohi Superstar is a show that seeks to bring together contestants from many different singing contests on different channels over a period of time. It is similar in format to the other show, Ustaadon Ke Ustaad (on Sony). The concept is that you get together the winners and the contestants who came close to winning, and then bring them into 2 separate teams composed of the winners and challengers. But it is not so simple, with contestants from both the champions and challengers getting eliminated by voting; you also have the change of a challenger going towards the champion team.
The show has mined all the major music shows of the past, including Indian Idol, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Supersinger, Fame Gurukul (from different channels). The show comes at a time of 10 PM on Friday and Saturday on Star Plus; for the contestants, even if they eliminated quickly, they still get a lot of publicity and when people are trying to generate their name through shows and other appearances, such publicity can do wonders.
I watched an episode of the show that was shown on the occasion of Mother's Day, and all the participants sang songs that were meant to bring out tears, and they did so for the majority of people on the stage (I am a bit cynical, so was wondering whether there would be a contestant or a host who could dare not to show a tear and be considered unemotional ?). It became clear that the show wanted this to be a teary event when they literally encouraged the mother of Abhijeet to go on stage when he was singing, and she seemed very uncomfortable standing there.

Contestants:
Prajakta Shukre, Rahul Vaidya, Vinit Singh, Harshit, Toshi, Aishwarya, Debojeet, Rooprekha, Ujjaini, Ishmeet, Abhijeet, Amit Tandon, Amit Sana, Sumitra Iyer, Ravindra Ravi, Neha Kakkar, Himani, Priyani Vani, Harshit Saxena, Rex D'Souza, Amey Date
Host: Mandira Bedi
Judges: Vishal-Shekhar and Farah Khan

The judges have sometimes been a bit harsh, but they have given some good scores to people, and some of the performances have been great. Some of the latest participants from other shows would not have been able to attend since they would have been under contract to the channels and no competing channel would want to encourage Star Plus in this kind of show.

Videos on Youtube of the 10th may episode:

Kayamath - too much of crying

This show is getting more and more difficult to watch. Previously, it was that Prachi had finally managed to convince Milind that she was a good wife who was faithful to him, and that had taken a number of episodes to happen. Then Milind lost his memory and got convinced that Ayesha was his beloved; Ayesha took full advantage of that to make sure that she sticks to Milind and keeps on reminding Prachi that her time was over and that she should now forget about Milind. So, Prachi, being a good person and mindful of Milind's condition, did not try to impress on him about their previous life; what she did most is cry all the time. In every episode, her face always had that look which would feel that she is always crying.
But then, things started to change. Although there was an attempt by Neev to try and reclaim his lost love, it was clear that Prachi was now totally in with Milind and was always hopeful that things will improve, Milind will regain his memory and then they will be together again (and it is very much possible that such a thing would happen, only that it could take 20 more stretched episodes to happen).
In the recent episodes however, it seems that Prachi would make an effort to make Milind remember his past live (and even the doctor now says that if he keeps in contact with things that he remembers, he could regain his memory); and even though Ayesha does not like this a single bit, Prachi has now developed some confidence and takes steps that would help Milind remember (and the serial does show him remember a clouded version of past events, just that he cannot make out who the person is in his memory).