Trials and travails of a family

HOW does a woman react when an absolute stranger walks upto her and claims to be her daughter? The result is shock and confusion. That’s exactly what happens in Kanyadaan.

Raksha Mehra has just found a suitable groom for her daughter after she was rejected by a number of boys. But even as the engagement ceremony is on, a young girl walks upto her and says she is Saakshi, her illegitimate daughter.

To cover up her past, a shocked Raksha lies to her husband Gautam saying that Saakshi is actually her friend’s daughter who is all alone in the city. Gautam gets taken in by the story and asks Saakshi to move into their house.

Now Raksha is in a dilemma. To give one daughter legitimacy, should she risks the other daughter’s chance of a happy marriage? Will she tell the truth to Gautam? Will the Mehra family survive this turmoil?

And therein lies the suspense of this gripping serial on Sony every Tuesday to 8.30 p.m.

Back to the roots

A certain mindset seems to have developed among family- oriented serial makers that everything about nuclear families is bad and black and all is well with the traditional joint family.

While both may have their merits and demerits, in UTV’s Sangharsh Mile Sur Mera Tumhara there are no shades of grey. Everyone seems to be pining away for a joint existence. The serial is the story of three brothers Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva who have grown up in a village but prosper under different cultures. Shiva and Vishnu have got married and one settles in the US and the other in Mumbai. Brahma stays in his village.

However, both the brothers decide to return to their rural roots. Will the traditional values of Brahma go hand in hand with the Bambaiya culture of Vishnu and the Americanised ways of Shiva? On the face of it all external elements try to separate the trio. If you like tear-jerkers watch the serial every Saturday and find out what happens next.

Creatures of the earth

Did you know that insects outnumber humans by 200 million to one? Or that house mice have been found living even in deep-freeze stores? Or that if two flies bred and all their offspring survived, within six weeks they would total 30 million?

Creepy trawlies is a special week-long event that airs from October 24 to October 30. Filled with quirky and infomative programmes about insects, mammals and reptiles, the series offers an off-beat look at the creatures we love to hate.

It includes various segments like Swarms — cockroaches, locusts, rats and flies, Hunters — timey arthropods armed to the teeth with an astonishing array of weaponry designed to kill; The Rat — who is both our nemesis and possibly the key to our survival; The Housefly who has tormented humans since eons and The Ants.

Get up-close to these Creepy Crawlies who make some people scream and others cringe. Yet still they slither, crawl and buzz around us everyday. Now they are on the small screen as well.

Kamaal ka singer !

When he sang O Oh Jaane Jana, he managed to win your heart — but not hers ! With his second album Suno To Diwana Dil, he is determined to win your heart once again but will he win hers?

Winner of the 1999 R.D. Burman Award for the "Most Promising New Talent", this pop sensation brings you a combination of eight scintillating tracks in Suno To Diwana Dil.

But more than the album it is the funky video which catches the attention. The stylised video has been directed by Ravi Udyawar and a breathtaking aerodrome hangar serves as the ideal backdrop.

For this guy from London, music happened overnight. "It was a make or break situation for me. I had decided that if singing worked, I would go on, or else I would simply go back to England and pretend this never happened."

A superhit debut album, an exciting award and playback assignments ranging from O Oh Jaane Jana for Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Aayo Re for Jaanam Samjha Karo, songs in Hello Brother and Aryan among others, have dispelled notions of Kamaal Khan’s return to England!

Out of the world!

They are once again going where no one has gone before. The crew is ready and Star Trek: The Next Generation is ready to take over the controls of a spanking new space ship.

The storyline is set 85 years after the space journeys of Captain Kirk and Spock — the original Starfleet crew. Curiously it is dated near the beginning of the 24th century. But all the same it enhances the effect of the story.

So don’t miss the voyages of the new Starship Enterprise on Star World. And find out for yourself why this highly popular series has withstood the test of time.

— Mukesh Khosla