India Masala

Paathshala: Punished for three hours

If any real-life kids went to the school shown in Milind Ukey’s “Paathshaala”, you can be sure they would hardly get any studying done. Instead they would be busy dancing, singing, ogling at teachers, romancing and participating in reality TV shows.

The teachers in this school aren’t any better — they also sing, dance, wear inappropriate clothes and generally do everything but the things you are expected to do in a school.

Director Ukey may have wanted to make a film on the ills of the education system (like “3 Idiots”, “Taare Zameen Par”) but instead manages to make a manual on “how not to make a film”.

“Paathshaala” starts off with the principal of a boarding school, Aditya Sahai (Nana Patekar), calling his staff and telling them the school would be undergoing some changes in order to “progress”.

These changes include the students giving up studies and participating in reality TV shows so that the school gets publicity (Yes, really).

They also involve the kids being made to participate in auditions for TV ads and cruel directors who want the kids to get hurt and cry so that they will get higher TRPs. Where do they come up with such things?

As you can imagine, “Paathshaala” is an incoherent mess of a film which takes a serious issue and manages to run it to the ground.

Rahul Mahajan searches for the perfect TV bride

As India heads into wedding season, yet another celebrity is hoping to get hitched — with millions of people watching on prime-time television.

Rahul Mahajan follows in the footsteps of Bollywood starlet Rakhi Sawant and will choose a life partner from among 16 candidates in a reality TV show.

Mahajan features in the second season of ‘Swayamvar’, which made a much-publicised debut earlier this year with Sawant being wooed by 16 men from varied backgrounds, each trying to portray himself as the perfect bridegroom.

Sawant did choose a winner but didn’t marry him at the end of the series, insisting she wanted to know him better.

Unlike Sawant, who sceptics say misled audiences in a publicity stunt, viewers will be hoping to catch Mahajan tie the knot in an elaborate televised ceremony.

Few details are available about the show, announced at a press conference on Tuesday, except that Mahajan will make his choice from among 16 potential brides living under one roof and taking part in various tasks and challenges to impress him.

Mahajan, 34, is an unlikely celebrity. He first shot into the limelight in 2006 — getting arrested on drug possession charges just weeks after his politician father was shot dead by a disgruntled brother.

Are Indian audiences ready for the truth?

There is something addictive about watching ‘The Moment of Truth’, the American TV show where contestants have to tell the truth to win cash.

Contestants go through a polygraph test to determine if they are lying while answering a set of questions based on their lives.

I must admit to feeling a certain thrill when contestants are exposed as adulterers, cheats and liars as family members and viewers look on.

When the show’s Indian version ‘Sach Ka Saamna’ premiered on television this month, I wondered if the questions would be as personal.

And they were.

A woman was asked if she wanted physical relations with someone other than her husband.

She answered in the negative but the polygraph test proved she was lying.

from India Insight:

Star seeks groom on TV and other soaps

A new reality show in which a bunch of suitable men vie for the hand of Bollywood starlet Rakhi Sawant is an interesting twist on the prevailing custom of Indian men choosing their brides.

"Rakhi Sawant ka Swayamvar", which harks back to the ancient tradition of princesses choosing a groom from a line-up, began airing on Monday night, pitting more than a dozen men from varied backgrounds -- and with varying singing and dancing abilities -- wooing Sawant, a colourful personality known more for her antics off camera.

It may be yet another publicity stunt for Sawant, who claims she will marry one of the men at the end of the series in a traditional wedding ceremony.

It may be yet another move by the channel, fighting for eyeballs and advertisers, to score high TRPs - or Television Rating Points that show how popular a programme is.

Still, it offers some respite from the female stereotyping on the Indian airwaves: from ads that show women as being incapable of any decision save the right cooking oil for the family, to shows that glorify child marriage and female foeticide under the guise of ushering in social change.

A soap featuring a child bride married at the age of eight claims it "very sensitively portrays the plight of children who are unwittingly forced into marriage, in the name of tradition".

A brief blink-and-you-miss-it disclaimer at the end of the show says child marriage is illegal.

Shah Rukh Khan meets a “rappist”

I missed the first episode of ‘Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain‘ – the Indian version of an American reality TV gameshow – but millions in the country tuned in on April 25 to watch actor Shah Rukh Khan and a bunch of kids torture contestants with questions lifted from school textbooks.

At work the next day, a colleague kept distracting me by bursting into giggles every few seconds till I couldn’t take it any more.

“What?”

“Shah Rukh Khan (giggle)… There was this (giggle) dude from Indore on the show who sang (giggle) Hindi songs in English and some rap in between”

“So?”

“Shah Rukh introduced him (giggle) as the first rappist (giggle) on the show”

“Rappist?”