Reality Shows:
Yes, I know they are as ‘real’ as Pamela Anderson (in)famous assets, but I still cant help being hooked onto almost every ‘Reality Show’ that comes along.
Lately, I have been watching ‘Nach Baliye-3’ *I am rooting for Aamir Ali and Sanjeeda and Alex and Sweta* and ‘Jhalak Dikhlaja-2’ *Love Ronit Roy, Mini Mathur and Cyrus Broacha* with a fervor that has taken my usually slothful self, where watching television is concerned, by surprise.
I have been wondering why my fascination with these dance shows is so intense and have finally come to the conclusion, after detailed and careful analysis, that besides having a shameless voyeur among the many other selves inside me, I love watching non-dancers dance, or try to dance. Also, it could be something to do with the fact that I can make Sunny Deol/Dharmendra, or a corpse, look good and graceful on the dance floor.
Amber-Dhara:
A tele-serial on Sony that got me watching a soap once more, after ages.
A refreshingly different concept, fresh locations and an almost brand new cast, Amber Dhara is worth spending a precious half-hour of my priceless life ;) A story of co-joined twins and set in green and clean Panchgani *though my clever self suspects it could very well be Filmcity or some such Mumbai studio* this serial looks promising indeed. The new girls playing the co-joined twins are really cute and natural and I sincerely hope the rest of the story continues in the same vein.
NDTV Good Times:
Is being touted as ‘India’s First Lifestyle Television Channel’, and from what I have seen of it, I’ll have to agree with their claim.
After ‘Travel & Living’ let me down by concentrating on shows about bikes, bikers and their ilk I was totally heartbroken, because nothing about, or on, 2 wheels interests me much.
But NDTV came along with good times, literally, and super, and unusual, cookery shows, gadget shows, that even a techo-phobe like me can understand and learn from, tiny travel-snippets and full-fledged and informative Travel-shows and my most favorite thing on television, makeover shows.Slainte to good times on television!
Facebook:
Friends send me gifts and hatching eggs, I pet animals and compare myself to movie stars and I am thrilled at being poked, serenaded, high-fived, punched, hugged, dropkicked, head butted, defenestrated *just found out it means 'throwing out of the window'*, bitten by vampires and godknowswhatnot on this wonderful site that I discovered just when I put my hands up exclaiming “Net-Working sites are just Not-Working for me!”
What a heartening change Facbook is from Orkut, a site I was on for barely a month before fearfully escaping, ‘i wants to be your frand/lats make fraandship’, requests.
Loins of Punjab Presents:
A hilarious, well written and well made movie that had me smiling long after I walked out of the theater. Unlike the usual formula ABCD movies/moviemakers tend to follow, this film is based around a singing competition ‘Desi Idol’, emulated along the lines of ‘American Idol’, in New Jersey and attracts all kinds of people auditioning for it. There were no stereotypical characters, no India/Indian bashing and no characteristic twists and turns. Though the film is made on a tight budget, and it shows *and methinks shot mostly in India, rather than the USA as they would have us believe* the new faces, intelligent script and taut direction more than make up for that. My favorite characters were the two gay-foul-mouthed-wannabe-rapper Surds and of course Shabana Azmi. And Manish Acharya, who is the director of this film, also plays the part of a Amitabh Bachchan-crazy, statistic-spewing guy who has just lost his job, is the cutest overweight guy I have seen in a while.
Neil Mukesh:
Coming from a rich lineage of music and velvety voices, this stunningly good-looking grandson of the late yesteryear singer Mukesh, and son of singer Nitin Mukesh chose to make his debut in front of the camera, rather than follwing the tradition of lending his voice to someone in front of it, and boy, what a wise decision that was! Watch this gorgeous and supremely talented hunk in his daringly different debut film ‘Johnny Gaddar’ to see the bright future of Indian Cinema unfurling his various talents before your eyes.
The movie itself was a refreshing change with a fresh storyline, no item-numbers, no predictable twists and turns and more importantly, no Mauritius, Switzerland and London *God! Those locations are so overdone!* Though I thought the editing wasn’t up to the mark and 45mins-1hour could have been easily shaved off to make the pace of this film more thrilling and edge-of-the-seat. Neil Mukesh is one glorious discovery! Though he’s still very young and brilliantly raw, this talented newcomer couldn’t have made a more impressive debut! He is certainly someone I will be watching out for in the future.