HUM PAANCH on ZEE TV

Ekta Kapoor is the doyenne of Indian television, a brand in herself – creator of the successful Balaji Telefilms that now produces various kinds of content from feature films to TV serials to webcontent. She is most famous (or notorious depending on your viewpoint) for producing ‘Saas-Bahu’ daily soap operas the most famous being ‘Kyunki Saas bhi kabhu Bahu thi’ about 2 decades earlier and in the process also creating many super star talents.  These were for primarily the satellite television but Ekta had been doing TV series for DD earlier a lot of them equally successful.

Plays by IPTA

IPTA was a cultural organization that I hadn’t heard of till I got into the theater scene, and even then (& now) know pretty little about.

The Indian People’s Theater association, from what I could gather was part of a movement that seemed to be grassroots driven to encourage talent, and spread awareness (or some such lofty ideal).  However like all good honest intentions it seemed to wander off eventually into territory far away from what it was meant to be.

Munich, Fauda and The Bridge of Spies (& Badlapur)

There’s a common thread to these (& Badlapur too).

The movies Munich & The bridge of Spies come from Steven Spielberg, while the TV series Fauda comes from Israel.

Satyajit Ray Presents 1 & 2

Doordarshan is India’s legacy national TV channel, owned and managed by the Government.  This was the only TV station available for my generation in our childhood and we therefore had mostly limited choice and terrible stuff to watch.

Yet, sometimes they’d get it right.

One such was when the almighty Satyajit Ray, possibly India’s greatest film director, collaborated with his Son Sandip Ray, to produce a TV series aptly named… “Satyajit Ray Presents” (SPR)  They produced another sequel a few years later named SPR2.

Priya Tendulkar – India’s first TV superstar

Television in India bloomed pretty late and even after it took off it took forever to get traction.  Today some of the best talent in India work in television, right from production to scripts to acting – and this is across both Hindi General entertainment to regional TV content. I think Indian talent is among the best globally and they work hard and try and be as professional as they come.

However the first ‘star’ in the true sense (at least for me and folks of my generation) would be the late Priya Tendulkar.

Musical Great - Vanraj Bhatia

Vanraj Bhatia is one of the most prolific music director of the Indian film & advertising industry and chances, are very few know or have heard of him.

But in terms of music he, IMHO would be there among the top, and I loved his music and found it superlative and on par with the best in the world.

My love for cooking - Assembly Jobs

I have been unsuccessful at cooking as a kid, and young adult and only after getting married did I manage to launch into making food that usually resulted in some edible success.

But for me the joy is in the journey, the process where I visualize how I am gonna go about the dish (as much as a vegetarian can make) and then start doing it. The result is usually very far from what I had initially planned to do but all the sweat, elbow grease and passion result in making it far far more tastier than it actually is.

I like mostly making North Indian curries - the Chhole, Rajma, Dal makhni etc. but what I absolutely love making are the dishes that involve “assembly jobs”.

RIVER – BBC TV Series, possibly the best cop drama

I have just completed watching the entire six episodes of the BBC  TV series River and was just blown by how superlative this series was.

TV series are the new addiction replacing books and cinema (and also given that for me, good or actually any theatre is not easy to access right now). TV series are easily accessible and every episode not just one as the earlier appointment viewing format did. Thus binge watching is more the norm and can be satiating too.  

The craze nowadays is to find out a TV series that’s good - Kind of like waiting for the next book from a renowned author.  You are on the lookout for a series that one can watch over the weekend or savour over a few days, say, while travelling. So one is following opinion leaders for ‘leads’ – mine include folks like Poonam Saxena, Vir Sanghvi, and of course Twitter where the new young  millennials initiate the trend on the latest TV series craze.

The reason for this ambling is to highlight the fact that despite this being a past time for the last few years, I have missed the RIVER TV series, and a search in my social media also suggests most haven’t seen it.

Which is a pity, because RIVER  beats them all and IMHO one of the best well produced series that I have had the pleasure of viewing.

Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister series

There are very very few books converted into TV series or films where you can say the TV series/ film was as good or better than the book. 

IMO the Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister TV series is one such rare example.

Sai Paranjpye and her “Jaadu ka Shankh”

If you belong to my generation or the prevous, there’s a good chance that you have seen and enjoyed the works of Sai Paranjpye but an equally good chance that you barely knew who she was. Since DoorDarshan was the only channel available those days, and Sai Paranjpye somehow had cracked how to deal with bureaucrats from both the films division departments as well as the Doordarshan, she did a lot of work with them which we got to see on television and boy was it good!.

Not judging a book by its cover – Ronin and Narcos

Two of my favourites Ronin the movie and the TV series NARCO Swere ones I had a chance to see early but missed, because the posters and communication didn’t appeal to me.

But finally when I did see them, each one was a superior pearl that was not to be missed.

ETV Marathi, ZEE Marathi and Home Minister

The language Marathi is part of my culture and something I am immensely fond of, even though I cant speak it. My mom’s from Aurangabad, and this was the lingua franca at her home, even though Konkani was our mother tongue (Konkani, which is very very very similar to Marathi)

But the influence of Marathi was everywhere. Most of the best Bhajans (IMO) are in Marathi.  I have spent a lot of time in Maharashtra, and the neighbouring Goa has similar cultures to my community of the GSBs

The Golden Girls – an absolute delight

I had first seen an  episode of the Golden Girls at my colleague’s home when we were doing some project work outside office and she invited us home. The TV series used to come on daytime, and I got to see it, and loved the episode and remember all of us laughing out loud, though almost all of us were seeing this for the first time.  I promptly forgot about this as I didn’t have access to TV those days

The genius of Mindy Kaling

Dr. Mindy Lahiri (created and played by Mindy Kaling) inhabits a parallel universe created solely by herself - and I really badly want to get in!! 

Its a charmed life and she is reveling in every moment of it, and surprisingly its worked as the Mindy Project is one of the most popular series of recent times.

                                 

The Big Bang Theory (TBBT)

I know I know – the series has tanked.  It’s a bloated turkey weighed down by itself, and the high expectations and boy, it currently beats even soap operas with its facile treatment .

But it used to be good once upon a time – and those times live on thanks to repeats as well as those DVDs and Youtube uploads.

There’s a lot going for the big bang theory. In recent times its possibly IMHO one of the most creatively written comedies I have experienced.  (somehow 30 rock and HIMYM just didn’t tickle me and I got supremely bored in some episodes – I mean, I’d rather watch the current episodes of TBBT)

Nigella Lawson

Ok let’s get the obvious out of the way. As the stand up comedians say, ‘‘it’s impossible to talk about ____  [INSERT BUXOM CELEBRITY’S NAME HERE] without using your hands”.

And yes, that is a prominent aspect that strikes you – the abundant, bountiful, wholesome, hearty goodness – a figure like the Venus de Milo sculpture and the voluptuous women from the renaissance paintings.   (It ‘d be easier and less offensive for women to describe her – Seema Goswami, an editor with HT described Nigella’s cleavage ‘quivering like a well set blancmange’).  So yes, that's the obvious that everyone knows and likes, but there's a lot more...