And apart from sports lovers in the country who must have been obviously clued to Sania's historic performance; I am sure there are many other viewers who love to eyeball this voluptuous youth icon.
Since, this youth icon makes for a good TRP story, she seems to be hounded by TV crews all the time. The budding tennis star is not just talented but is immensely stylish and of course good looking. Apart from this, Sania's real cool attitude along with her equally cool sound bytes really lighten up the small screen.
The other day, I caught Sania at a press conference on the small screen saying - "Well I have really nothing to lose in life."
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Sania mania aside, the news channels were also busy welcoming Lord Ganesh on the small screen. One got to see beautiful images of Ganesh pandals gearing for the festival and bringing home of the deity by millions of devotees.
Apart from the tones of vermilion footage of the celebrations, the TV crews across channels also traveled across various cities especially to Poona and the Konkan region for different stories.
What the news crews and bureau chiefs of all the news channels need a rap on the knuckles for is their trigger happy behaviour to sensationalise almost every trivial happening, be it the discovery of an innocuous schoolbag outside a shopping mall (a news channel said a bomb had allegedly been found outside a mall and this was repeated often on the news bulletins - for God's sake can they retain their sensibilities) or be it the alarms they keep raising about heavy rains.
Three of the news channels went absolutely berserk flashing pictures of 26/7 on 9/9 warning that heavy rains were going to drench and possibly drown Mumbai.
What the hammering of the message of heavy rains in a supposedly drowning Mumbai did was to send a wave of panic across the city. Colleges decided to shut early, and students were seen running from the precincts of their campuses. A parent said that it was almost like a stampede outside Bhavan's College in Andheri (W) in Mumbai. Offices too shuttered their premises, and hordes of cars just whizzed onto the roads, leading to large scale traffic jams. Trains were bursting at the seams with passengers clambering onto roofs or every conceivable place they could find.
Yes there was heavy rain in some areas, yes there was some amount of flooding in some areas. But nowhere was it close to what hit Mumbai on 26/7.
The news channels are bound to inform, but they also have a responsibility to report in a balanced manner. And not in a manner that can trigger mass panic and in the process a repeat of what happened in the Nehru Nagar slums in Mumbai during the flood panic in July. And what purpose did the flashing of images of 26/7 on 9/9 serve? Can the news channels exercise some restraint please? Influence-able people are tuning in to watch you for God's sake! Instead of simply raising alarm bells they should actually report factually, and try to calm down the situation.
So will the content heads of the news channels please please restore some sanity in the reportage that is put out for the general viewer to see! Yes TRPs are important; they bring in revenues. But TRPs derived out of sensationalized coverage has and could further lead to a heavy toll in the form of lost lives. And that's a cross that could be difficult to carry. Both on the legal front and on moral grounds.
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Gawd…. you need a lot of patience to be an avid soap watcher. Cause, after moving the same track forward and backward, the story seems to be really stuck at the same point. Ditto with Star Plus's late night soap Kahiin to Hoga.
I chanced upon KTH after a long time, since the original Sujal (Rajeev Khandelwal) left. This week I caught the new Sujal, Gurpreet Singh proposing marriage to his ladylove Kashish. And she refuses him since she is actually still waiting for the real Sujal to return.
Well, so it looks like Gurpreet, who's actually Sujal, continues to suffer from amnesia. And the plot is still stuck at Kashish and her marriage. Going back in time, the overall story would run something like t his - Kashish loved Piyush but Sujal loved Kashish. After Piyush's death, Kashish discovers she actually loves Sujal and later when Sujal meets with an accident he reappears in another avatar.
I wonder what's really on the minds of the scriptwriters of the serial. I mean, how many times will Sujal propose marriage to Kashish and how many times will she get married? And how long will this long winded track continue? I am sure it must be getting on many viewers' nerves as it got on mine.
Originally this youth centric soap did create a major splash in the 11 pm slot. Very strongly etched out characters, then the on-screen chemistry between the main protagonists Sujal and Kashish and of course the serial also picked on some real topical issues like premarital sex and unwed motherhood. So, in short it promised to be different from the typical soaps.
But somewhere along the way the soap seems to have slowed down and seems to be stuck on the same track. Time to move on, I guess. Maybe it is generating TRPs but it is also generating a lot of criticism from its ardent fans who want the story line to gather pace and probably pressure Ms Kapoor to bring back the affable and lovable Rajeev Khandelwal.
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Perhaps, that's where Star's TRP raker, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, scores over the other serials. Somehow, in Kyunki... there has never ever been a single boring episode and the plot with its twists and turns along keeps the viewer hooked. And, of course, the characters keep evolving along with the script. In this week's episode of this spectacularly successful soap, there looked like some major changes. On Friday night, I saw some major melodramatic confrontation scenes between Tulsi's children and her bahus. And to top it all, there was Tulsi's saas Savita Virani and Gayatri chachi to add to the melodrama. Looks like this major showdown in the family will now cause a major split in the business and of course the family.
Apart from getting a bit more realistic in terms of showing real time conflicts within joint families, I think the serial is also all set for another leap.
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Caught some rushes of Sony's Crime Patrol after a long time. I think, the docu-drama really stands out from the other crime shows across channels. And the show is definitely not just about sensationalizing crime but in very many ways tries to emphasise on the prevention of crime and real life issues.
The show reminds me of the stark Bhanwar and the short lived Missing on Sony, which were also based on real life issues. Crime Patrol too seems to be shaping up on the same lines by offering a viewing alternative to viewers.
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