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Late-risers, set your alarm clocks. The Emmys will be telecast live. The audience has for some years been used to the “And the Oscar goes to…” line, ever since they were shown live on the telly. Now the same privilege is ours for the Oscar of the small screen.
What is likely to heighten our interest is the fact that a number of the nominations this year are familiar shows. Take the nominations for the Outstanding Comedy Series — Arrested Development (Fox), Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO), Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS), Sex and the City (HBO) and Will and Grace (NBC). Three out of the five have been on air here.
The Sopranos, beamed on Zee English, received its fifth nomination for the outstanding drama series, an award it has yet to win. Other nominees in the category include last year’s winner, The West Wing (NBC), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS), 24 (Fox) and dark horse entry Joan of Arcadia.
Favourite faces like Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani in Friends) and Tony Shalhoub (Adrian Monk in Monk) will be locking horns for the outstanding lead actor in the comedy series category. The corresponding five-edged fight in the actress category will have us cheering for Patricia Heaton (Debra Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond), Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City) and Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Karen Green in Friends, in picture right).
The winners will be announced at The 56th annual Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by comedian Garry Shandling, which will be broadcast live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. For us, the date and time to note are September 20 at 7 am, on Zee English.
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| Amrita: Deha vu |
Amrita Arora is one Bollywood babe who is sure going places. She was in Maldives on Sunday, in Mumbai on Monday and Tuesday, and then off to Dubai on Wednesday for the premiere of Rakht.
And that could be just her first step towards maturing as an actress. “Although there are so many stars in Rakht and everyone is important to the film, I must say Bipasha (Basu), Sanjay (Dutt) and me are the most crucial. I play this character Natasha who is a pop singer and the most popular girl in town. Once she goes missing after Bipasha’s prophecy, the whole town is thrown into a quandary. And as Natasha has links with all the men in town, their secrets come tumbling out.”
After Rakht, things get even more off-beat for Arora junior. In another Mahesh Manjrekar film Deha, she plays a model who changes her views on her husband after getting into an extra-marital relationship and in Mahesh Bhatt’s untitled film opposite Emraan Hashmi, she has a split personality, “very much like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”.
“I know I cannot do away with the quintessential girl-next-door image of mine. But I am trying to do different kinds of roles and explore myself as an actress.” So if you see more soul than skin from Amrita in the coming days, you’ll know she’s maturing…
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| Parambrata and Sreelekha in Devdas: One more time |
If Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas seemed too lavish and unreal a world to be quintessentially Saratchandra, try the small-screen version. Directed by John, the love lore to be aired on Akaash Bangla features Parambrata Chatterjee as Devdas, Monami as Paro, Sreelekha Mitra as Chandramukhi and Pijush Ganguly as Chunibabu.
“The attempt is to approach the text from a contemporary perspective, otherwise there’s no point in doing it in 2004,” says Parambrata, looking suitably drowned in despair, wine glass in hand. “And Shah Rukh Khan or anybody else who had played Devdas is not even remotely on my mind.”
Sreelekha, who has stepped into the gorgeous Madhuri Dixit’s shoes, feels comparisons with the Bhansali film are rather unfair. “We are working on a limited budget and there’s nothing of the opulence that was there in Madhuri’s palace. I prepared myself after reading the script and did a little bit of thinking on, say for instance, what sort of a drape Chandramukhi would wear,” adds Sreelekha.
Shooting is on in full swing at Santoshpur stadium, where the courtesan’s house has been recreated with chandeliers, mirrors and a horse carriage hired from Rajabazar. Portions will also be shot at the Baruipur Rajbari.
The five-episode serial to be beamed in the Sahityer Shera Shomoy slot from September 13 celebrates Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s birth anniversary that falls two days later.
At length did cross an Albatross,/ Thorough the fog it came;/ As if it had been a Christian soul,/ We hailed it in God’s name.
Any lover of English poetry would be familiar with these lines from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, based on a sailor’s superstition of an albatross in the high seas being a good omen for the voyage.
In our daily life as well, we have a number of beliefs that centre around animals — the sight of a pair of martins are considered lucky, while a single one is a harbinger of bad things; the driver would slam on the brakes if a cat were to cross the street ahead…
Are these just superstitions, or are they evidence of animal power over us? Are these beliefs based on fact or fiction? Animal Planet goes in search of the truth behind animal superstitions. It reveals the curse of the 1000-year-old Tower of London, which is home to a flock of massive black ravens.
Legend has it that if the birds ever leave, the country will be destroyed. Then there is an even more terrifying tale of the ship — Calpean Star — and the tragedy that overcame it after an albatross was accidentally killed on board. Watch life imitate Samuel Coleridge’s art documented on Animal Planet on Thursday at 11.30 pm.
