Televista
We miss those simple serials
Amita Malik

As I surf channels, I usually come to the sorry conclusion that most of the serials now showing are simply not worth the effort. They are singularly lacking in good scripts. I only find over-dressed actresses and actors who look alike and as if they have just come out of a beauty parlour. Bad acting, poor direction—in other words, hardly of the professional standards a country like ours is capable of. One of the reasons is the number of channels which are coming up in rapid succession. There simply aren’t enough writers, actors and actresses and specialised directors who know the difference between the (intimate) small screen and the (for the wider public) big screen.

Pankaj Kapur gave a splendid performance in Karamchand

When one is watching in a small room on a small screen, such subtleties as the power of silence, an imaginative close-up and naturally spoken dialogue should mark out the medium as different, and the need is to keep its identity. I referred to the plethora of channels which cannot cope with quality any more. Which is why I must be among many viewers who are looking with nostalgia at the revival of what can truly be described as the classics of earlier TV, thanks to the initiative of the channel, Times Now. More surprisingly, some of these serials made their mark on Doordarshan, and they did not always need big names to start with. In fact, they began with largely unknown actors and actresses who then became stars of serials. My particular favourite, Karamchand, made a welcome reappearance. It was a joy watching Pankaj Kapur, whom I consider one of the finest actors, giving his dialogues firmly tongue-in-cheek with the delectable Susmita Mukerji (Kitty). Wonderful innocent humour which the whole family could enjoy.

Those were simple, down-to-earth serials, contemporary and with problems involving us all. Hum Log and Bhoodan. One does not need to be reminded who acted which part, because those characters are now a part of our lives. Govind Nihalani came much later with his shattering depiction of how Partition affected human lives, let alone its after-effects. Tamas, although controversial at the time, has passed into cinema and TV history. The vividness with which it came across and the superlative performances by its hand-picked cast place it among the rare films on Partition as compared by the dozens on the Holocaust made by top western directors.

Awards, especially the local ones for TV, have become so monotonous and predictable that one hardly gets excited by them any more. One can anticipate which channel will get which awards and from which organisation it will get them. So it is always a pleasure when an Indian or an Indian channel gets an international award. We must congratulate Karan Thapar, sometimes controversial but always watchable, for the Asian award he got this year for his interview programme. Although Dr Rajendra Pachauri received the Nobel Prize in Oslo for the organisation he heads against global warming, it was good to see an Indian, dressed in formal Indian attire, doing namaskar before receiving the prize and making a good speech, to which the distinguished audience listened with rapt attention. Chak de, India.