| | | Pankaj Kapur and the new Kitty, Sucheta Pawashe in Karamchand |
In the world of television soaps, sudden 20-year leaps are a common phenomenon. But Detective Karamchand has made that jump quite literally… the carrot munching, eccentric detective played by Pankaj Kapur makes a comeback to the small screen exactly bees saal baad. Then, we simply adored the character, those were DD ruled days, when most of the prime time programming involved stuff like 'Krishi Darshan', 'Aaparyana Pahilat Ka?', and 'Aao Maari Saathe'. Karamchand was like a breath of fresh air for entertainment-starved audiences, his quirky-cool attitude was a roaring success. The detective's trademark line, 'Shut up, Kitty', was part of daily conversations inside office urinals, college canteens, local trains and bus stands. And carrot sales went through the roof in the mid eighties.
Cut to 2007 AD. Indian television has gone through a mega revolution since the time, there are now 100 channels to choose from, and the quality of entertainment is both attractive and varied. And being a sharp thinker, the detective must know he would now have to work extra hard, gobble down a lot more Vitamin A, and be far more appealing, to recreate the Karamchand magic. Sadly, however, going by the first episode aired last night on Sony, which was about a murder in the laundry, our homegrown Sherlock doesn't seem to have done his homework. So while the sleuth retains the eccentricity, the quirky mannerisms and has got himself a brand new dumb Kitty, he's chosen not to evolve with the times in terms of the tools, techniques and the execution process. Karamchand continues with his ancient, low-tech and simplistic ways in his solving of crime, and therein lies the rub. We need a young, tech savvy, smart-arse geek to play the new world Karamchand, that's the persona the new gen would want to see and connect with. Think how silly it might have been, if Bachchan had been cast in the new Don (which was also remade twenty years later), instead of the hot and happening SRK. Would never have worked.
Yes, Pankaj Kapur is a very fine actor, and he does try very hard to impress. But we rather see him as an ageing underworld don in a Maqbool, than as a jaded detective in a crime serial. The makers of new Karamchand overlooked one very important change between then and now: There was no remote control then, but now it's held as a weapon of mass destruction in the restless audience's hands. Elementary, dear Watson? |
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