DesiDabba - Boss, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaye

I was watching the second run of Karamchand on Sony a few weeks back, and started wondering about the other detective serials that we see. There is the strange CID, but my memories went back to that serial from long ago, Byomkesh Bakshi. It brought back a lot of nostalgia. The year was 1993, and satellite channels were just picking up. Doordarshan was still watched by a number of people, and here comes this non-flashy detective serial, starring Rajit Kapur. The director was Basu Chaterjee, which was another plus point about the serial.

The series was based on a detective created in 1932, by the Bengali author Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. The detective was picturized in a film (Chiriyakhana or The Zoo) by Satyajit Ray, starring Uttam Kumar in 1967, and the movie is typically known as one of Satyajit Ray’s not so better movies. And then came this series, and the series was what made the character of Byomkesh Bakshi famous.

Continue reading ‘Doordarshan Nostalgia: Byomkesh Bakshi‘

Last night Star Network went ahead with a re-run of Koffee With Karan’s this pathetic episode instead of the regular broadcast (on Star World and Star One). The reason was simple, on Star Plus we had the telecast of IIFA 2007 Awards and obviously no (smart) channel would like to cut down its TRP by competing against its sister channel.

Talking about the IIFA 2007 Awards, I thought the whole affair was pretty jazzy compared to many other Bollywood award ceremonies we have. I mean seriously who really cares about the awards itself (besides the actors, directors & producers), from an audience point of view I am more interested is watching who’s wearing what, who’s doing who, who performs what, who’s sulking and other masaladar features of the Hindi film industry. The credibility factor in such award ceremonies is totally non-existent, basically the hosts have the difficult task of pleasing everyone especially big stars and so we have more award categories and segments just to fit them all.

Continue reading ‘IIFA 2007 Awards Ceremony : Entertainment To The Core’

No, it does not mean that the serial will end. A serial, running at the prime time of 10 PM every day on Star Plus, is too hot an item to terminate. Putting a new serial in at this time would be like opening the slot for rivals to try and put something better on Zee or Sony to take advantage. But, if one looks at the serial, this is a good current position to try and bring the serial to an end.

For the past long time, the serial has been moving on the leg of one story, the conflict between Parvati/Janaki (Sakshi Tanwar) and Trishna (Mita Vashist). The current conflict has its roots in a story developing over the past several years in the serial. Parvati and Om (Kiran Karmarkar) had a happy marriage; then they suddenly revealed that Om had to get married due to circumstances to Trishna (she was mentally disturbed) and Om owed many debts to her father.

Continue reading ‘Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki: A Good Place To End It Now’

Himesh Reshammiya is out to conquer the world. He’s already made a killing in the songs-for-Emraan Hashmi market but now he’s got his eyes set on the big screen as well. That’s right folks, come June 29th, The Himesh’s debut feature, Aap Kaa Surroor – The Moviee – The Real Love Story (did I miss a tag?), will make its presence felt around the world.

I’ll watch. And why not? It features songs like this one:

Continue reading ‘The Himesh Takes Bollywood’

Which serial am I talking about? Well, for watchers of the Indian serial drama, there will be a number of people who know exactly what I am talking about, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, one of the longest running serials (if not the longest running serials) on Indian TV. And one of the biggest stars to emerge from this serial has been the character of ‘Tulsi’, the daughter-in-law who holds the entire family together. The characters has been incredibly popular across the world. As an example, Afghanistan runs a dubbed version of the series, and feedback is that even though the portrayal is typically Indian, it is reasonably clear to some of the situations in other societies.

The character of Tulsi so far had been played by Smriti Irani, who has been in the serial for around 40 plus years of her life (the serial has gone through two 20 year leaps), so she has played a young bride, going on to play a grand-mother. Smriti Irani has become very known and popular through this serial, in fact going on to become a politician representing the BJP.
And now?

Continue reading ‘Finally, Tulsi changes actresses’