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| Life beyond Big B |
| Amitabh is Amitabh and Shahrukh is Shahrukh said one wise old lady, interviewed on the nth channel about the relative merits of Big B and Shahrukh in the new Kaun Banega Crorepati. And who was it who said "comparisons are odious"? It does not really matter. But the hype surrounding the launch of the new KBC took up much more time on the small screen than the show itself. Actually, both the above quotes are true. It was obvious that the producers were intent on giving a new, youthful look to the show, and Shahrukh got exuberantly into the act. He is always jumpy, even in real life and in interviews, and this proved a foil to Big B's sedate graciousness and sophisticated humour. A slight change of language, freeze for lock kar diya jaye and a hug instead of "I quit" added the minor changes of detail. Shahrukh went a trifle too far, perhaps, when he massaged the neck of a nervous contestant and gave a bear hug too many to departing contestants, but since the audience lapped it up, who are we to complain? Bollywood seems solidly behind Shah Rukh and so were the majority of viewers interviewed, particularly the aam log. |
| Old cynics like me did notice that Shahrukh was nervous, he admitted it himself, paid tributes to Big B, and who wouldn't be on such a momentous occasion? Smugness would have been worse and even the jumpiness was very much in Shahrukh's normal style. These are early days, anyway. I have been predicting for weeks that King Khan will pull it off. Just give him time to settle down. |
| It is to the credit of KBC that it attracted so much attention when Shilpa Shetty and London were very much in the top groove, with everyone from Shilpa's sophisticated mother to Farroukh Dhondy at his analytical, cynical best. But her publicity was political and international. |
| Meanwhile, in Jaipur, the cream of India's literati, in all languages this time, held forth in style. Barkha Dutt, who now wants to do everything herself, no matter how may talented colleagues can do it just as well, interviewed Rushdie at length and in case we missed it, it was repeated several times. Then she moderated his stage interview in Jaipur, but the sound was so bad that one could hardly make out what she or Rushdie were saying. Incidentally, his name was correctly pronounced as Roosh-dee by Barkha, the others preferred the way foreigners do, as Rush-dee. He called himself Roosh-die. Incidentally, its frequent repetition does not take away from the well researched and wide-ranging one- hour interview by Barkha, who interrupted less than usual. |
| The Australian Open has been riveting. The big stars being toppled, Murray giving a run for his money to Nadal, and, for our consolation, a woman commentator who talks as much off the point as Doordarshan's. But cricket fans, at the time of writing had been robbed of the exiting match between the West Indies and India, including Sourav's 98. One is only hoping at the moment that Das Munshi will get off his high horse and that the court will decide something that helps cricket lovers. It is a pity that none of the many channels and cameras around did not catch the blow on the back, the push or the slap for Guru Greg. And it was all for the wrong reasons even if it expressed the feelings of many Indian cricket lovers about the way he has handled Team India. |
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