Punjabi Antenna
No freshness in
soaps
Randeep Wadehra

ON HIGH NOTE: Sagarika Runjhun was adjudged the best debut vocalist at the recent etc Music Awards function in Jalandhar
|
Sagarika
Runjhun is the latest vocalist to twinkle on the horizon of
Punjabi music world. In the recent ETC Music Awards function—-
fourth so far—-held in Jalandhar she was noticed shaking her
leg with aplomb to the Punjabi number mainu toon disda,
which was also sung by her. In the same function she was
adjudged as the best debut vocalist and sensational pop singer.
This PU graduate (with honours in music) as well as a trained
classical singer and instrumentalist has already got an album Nigght
Birds to her credit, apart from singing remix numbers for
the albums of the likes of Rakhi Sawant. She has also featured
in various radio shows. Next stop: Bollywood, as playback
singer.
If one takes even
a cursory look at show-biz success stories one learns that fresh
idea-driven productions have a greater chance to succeed than
the clich`E9d ones. This holds true even in the world of Punjabi
cinema and television. Ideas count in showbiz as much as they do
in any other form of human endeavour. Either the storyline
should be new or an old subject may be given a fresh, original
and interesting treatment. But path-breaking creativity demands
a lot of honest effort. And if imitations fail to stir up the
TRPs our channels prefer to shun that genre altogether. This is
precisely what has happened to sitcoms, soaps and teleflms. Talk
shows, however, have managed to survive so far. Whenever quizzed
about the absence of serials and sitcoms, Punjabi channel
honchos claim that audiences no longer want these. True, viewers
had got tired of unimaginatively contrived productions or poor
copies of Hindi originals. The powers that be ignored the simple
fact that original ideas do attract popular as well as critical
acclaim even as the hackneyed ones fall by the wayside. Although
Zee Punjabi and ETC Punjabi do have a sprinkling of interesting
shows, vanity music products predominate. However, the fare
offered by the Mohali headquartered Channel Punjab has more
variety and substance. For example Tadkey, Tadkey
features interviews with film and TV personalities while Punjabi
Talkies features the region’s achievers from different
walks of life. Then there are cultural shows like Waris
Punjab De, Dhad Sarangi, Channan Munare as well as Surjit
Pattar’s Adabi Darwaza. And the channel’s serials and
sitcoms, too, have become popular, viz., Mahendro Mohalla
Aalna, Nun Nahin Hundi Mandi, Swad Aa Gaya, Kada Peeta Barbaad
Keeta, Saude Dilaan De etc. While all these are
immensely popular among Punjabis abroad, even in such remote
countries as Norway,unfortunately, the region’s audience is
being deprived of such rich entertainment, thanks to the
government’s telecast related policies.
|