View from the couch

Sahara’s Aa Bahen Chugli Karen is one of my favourite sitcoms, mainly for the profusion of acting talent which includes such acknowledged female maestros as Aneeta Kanwal, Himani Shivpuri and Loveleen Mishra. In last week’s episode they all bitched about their husbands on the ‘Nimmi Garewal Show’ (ha-ha, Simi should take that as a compliment) and then tried their best to keep their respective spouses away from the television set during the telecast of the hen session.

The writing in the sitcom is of a higher order than usual. I guess this was the week of comedy because I also loved the guest appearance by the whole Khichdi clan on Sahara One’s Sarabhai Versus Sarabhai, specially since it pitched the two Pathak sisters, Ratna and Supriya, directly against each other. One was suave and snobbish, the other was stupid and earthly. Terrific comic timing, this was a high point of humour on television.

Star World’s Koffee With Karan with Shahid Kapur and Esha Deol was a bit of a damp squib. For once the two guests seemed to have nothing much to say. The host tried hard to prod them into alertness. But no show. If there was anything that interested us, it was those sound-bytes from youngsters on the roads commenting on Shahid and Kareena as a pair. Poor Esha didn’t even have a boyfriend to talk about. Why not sound bytes from Esha’s mom and Shahid’s dad? At least, the show would have acquired the wazzan of wisdom.

The semi-finals of Zee’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa were a splendid showcase of singing talent, the highpoint being the two girls at the end singing Lataji’s Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai. To the one who lost, the judge Pandit Jasraj said, “Never be scared of the sur.” Indian TV wouldn’t know about that. The fiction programming is still swimming nervously in the bottom scales.