TV THOUGHTS: Second birthday for HUM TV's 'pure entertainment'! There's no such thing as originality: Mahesh Bhatt
On the 15th of January, Hum TV, being a Capricornian evidently, celebrated its second birthday and the KESC spared us the frustration of denying us electricity, and one was able to happily watch the channel from time to time. The objective was to get a feeling of the celebrations that the channel was having, minute after minute.
And it kept reminding its viewers that it has been two years of what it described as "Pure entertainment". Indeed that is what this channel has been about, and rather successfully so. So gleeful is its claim that it makes one wonder where does its serious and politically sober content fit in...or is that also pure entertainment? Its political interviews, some of which could easily be collector's items, or the grim candid panel discussions that are at times very absorbing because of the topicality of the themes that are selected.
In fact, to me, it feels that it is a small tell tale indicator that Hum TV could one fine day come up with its latent political and serious intentions. Its present profile could be an interim proposition. For one believes that in a world like ours there is a political agenda to everything. Or is one imagining too far, and too much? It is time to congratulate the HUM TV for completing two years, which have also been commercial successes---and this needs to be read in conjunction with the fact that the group has also come up with another channel called 'Masala TV', which I'm afraid I have been unable to see, the problem being entirely mine, and that of the cable operator.
The cable operator is central to much of our TV viewing, at this stage. Let us wait and see what technology does to our TV viewing habits. To our TV viewing culture. It has already, created a TV lounge and in smaller homes for example it has eliminated the drawing room or what was the living room. The TV has gone into our homes in a strange way. It has gone into the bedroom, and is almost akin to the position of the other woman! Or like an extra marital affair, as some viewers are apt to remark, tongue in cheek. The point that I am trying to suggest is that the TV has not only created the well known couch potato--but quite undeservedly denied the spouse, and the children their legitimate share of family time. More on this point---the size of the TV screen is becoming bigger and bigger, and pushing other furniture items out of the bedroom or the TV lounge and creating what TV set advertising is espousing as the cause of the "home theatre". Or like a cinema hall at home. Whiter the serenity of the environment, and domestic bliss--- and come hither noise pollution! Alas, Alas!
I have said all this at the expense of the Hum TV, and this is not specific to the channel. It applies to them all, really. But to HUM TV goes the credit that in a context where there are so many TV channels (no numbers do I remember here) that it has made its presence felt. There is, in Pakistan, a stage where channels can be ignored, and this cannot be said of several channels, including HUM TV. Well done. Well begun is strong enough accomplishment to be giving it a pat on the back. And team leader Sultana Siddiqui and Athar Waqar Azeem have reasons to be cheerful and humble about.
So the 15th of January 2007, this 'pure entertainment' channel, went on and on, patting itself on the back, with presenters like Naila Jaferi. Reminding us of the contribution that the channel had made in the field of music and drama. In fact that channel has invited viewers to request for their favourite plays from a pre selected lot of plays that HUM has telecast.
And she had many popular TV artistes complimenting the channel on its birthday. I don't know whether at some point in the celebration there was an emphatic mention of the political side of HUM TV but let me assume there was later on which reminds me that I saw a very revealing and candid interview of the veteran politician Hakim Ali Zardari, on this channel, and he didn't sound very satisfied with the political journey of this country, which he felt was still endangered in many ways. Being Asif Zardari's father he was asked many questions about him (Asif) and the answers were frank and reflective of the nature of their relationship. He didn't believe that Asif would be participating in the general elections that are scheduled to be held this year.
Hakim Ali Zardari appeared to be in good health, and was very expressive and recollected history with ease, and to hear him talk of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was to evoke memories of the political storms that the country has weathered. To one question about Asif, he said that he had suggested that being the husband of the Prime Minister he should not reside in the Prime Minister's House, but to this Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had not agreed.
Finally, it would be interesting to see the thematic departures, if any, that this channel will make in its third year, that has begun. For as the days go by the channels grow, and the competition becomes tougher still.
I was trapped into seeing a long play after a very long time, this week. This was a play called 'Bewafa', and was based on a story (or was it a novel) by the famous English writer Somerset Maugham. Channel surfing one evening I stopped at the Geo channel (the entertainment one) and found myself watching a play for a few minutes. It had a mood like the plays of yesteryears that we have seen on TV mature, slow paced, and where the dialogues were life like. It appeared convincing, which is another way of saying that it was realistic.
I did not see the start of the play and from the credits at the end, around midnight-which means I saw it for over two hours (?) I noticed that it was written and directed by the well-known Sheema Kirmani, if it is the noted classical dancer Sheema Kirmani I am not surprised. She has the talent to be versatile. It was a very strong play-and the screenplay was well knit-and the cast too did well. The artiste who played the central character of Wafa, a wife whose husband has an affair with her best friend, was just about excellent. The details of how the affair is carried on were shown powerfully and the story line was easy paced, and absorbing.
The extra - marital affair unfolds gradually and the two married individuals have a smooth time until they run into trouble. To enrich the story there appears on the scene a university colleague of Wafa, who had always nurtured a soft corner for her, and whose marriage proposal she had turned down when she was a student. This man from the past complicates the dramatic plot, but does so very gently and with poise. But before this happen the affair is exposed but Wafa defends the husband, in public, but in private tells him that she had known of this affair---and chosen silence and when he got exposed she opted to stand up for her husband's honour.
As if to demonstrate the writer's mission statement about the independence of a strong woman, Wafa walks out on her husband, and announces that she is going off on a holiday with her old friend from university days, when they were both students. This scene was especially unusual and interesting. Any way the long play was one of those that must have trapped many viewers into seeing it, and I have no doubts that it was a play with an unquestionable repeat telecast value. The cast did well, and here was a balance and moderation in the way they went about their roles. Well done, Sheema Kirmani! These are the kind of plays that TV channels should have more ----and more often.
I mentioned last time about the late night show with Begum Nawazish Ali. This was with reference to the Mahesh Bhatt and Meera show. To honour that commitment here is the focus on the Begum. But first her drawing room which is underlined by her time and again. This is where the Begum flirts and does so very openly! ! This is where it all begins, says one naughty viewer! A very interesting point surfaced in the show this week during the conversation that she was having with the Indian celebrity Manish Malhotra and the Pakistani star Mishi Khan (she of course kept calling her Nazi khala!!) Begum Nawazish was told that all those who are invited to participate in the show are advised to stay away as they can be targeted in more ways than one. It is not just that the Begum will flirt, but that she can always be paying compliments without really meaning them. When Manish said this Begum Nawazish was surprised, but like many others, in the past, he too said that it had been a memorable and delightful experience to have been on the show, and come into contact with this "most charming and desirable of women." On this week 's show, for Mishi Khan's fans, it was interesting to hear her reveal the kind of person she would like to marry-that he should have a sense of humour, and be a pleasant person. And by implication, she was in no hurry to wed at this point in time.
Like with the Mahesh Bhatt - Meera late night show this one also had Begum Nawazish laying out a red carpet of flirtation for the young Malhotra, who was on his toes all the time. But the Mahesh Bhatt encounter must surely rank higher. What Mahesh Bhatt said on the issue of originality and creativity is something that needs to be mentioned here and with a big question mark. When charged by Begum Nawazish that his cinematic work was rather plagiaristic (?) In its content - and the source often being Hollywood, he turned around very confidently (appearing plain faced) to say that there was nothing original in the world.
Or something to that overall effect. That everybody was copying somebody and that anybody who made a claim to being original in his creativity was being ridiculous? One obviously didn't expect Meera to challenge him and I am sure Begum Nawazish must have been amused and tickled with this contention. I wonder whether anyone has challenged this assertion he made--- which he possibly did to create some controversy which would be good for the "business of show business".
It was interesting to see the transparent manner in which Meera, the Pakistani actress whose spoken English is always a subject of much amusement and needlessly so, mirror her deepest feelings of love and respect for Mahesh Bhatt, his faith in her talent, and that she will grow and blossom as an artiste with time.
A TV programme like this in society was unthinkable two decades ago, perhaps it was also absorbing to see the manner in which he talked about his relationship with the late Indian film actress Parveen Bobby-whom he described in a newspaper interview like this ---"at the end of the day she wanted what an average South Asian woman wants, :a home, a man to cook for, and to stay at home and have a few friends whom she would very cautiously let in".
PS: Sometimes in this column, I have been unable to include all that I had originally intended to. Dear readers, this is one of those columns! Bear with me!!
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