Finally comes a channel for urban India

With the increasing number of daily soaps using the same old saas-bahu formula, I had lost hope that the cable TV would ever introduce something that would cater the urban cities. But then Reliance TV made a tremendous attempt to bring in CBS network to the major cities of the country and as a part of this alliance, the urban audiences have got an all together new channel called LOVE BIG CBS.

I would not be wrong to say that until the launch of this channel, there was nothing interesting in store for the urban crowds. At present, due to the wide reach of the cable TV, the television has become an industry that targets the rural parts of India by designing concepts that go down well with rural India and in turn result in high profits for the channel. Everythings just too commercial.

The whole thing is that ke bhaiyya, sabse bada rupaiyya.

But amongst all this, the people who suffered were the poor and hungry urban audiences. Poor and hungry, due to the reason that, since so long, we were deprived of classic urban entertainment.

 The fact that even today on facebook I still find people giving their likes and comments for shows like Small Wonder show the kind of entertainment the urban audiences ONCE liked. As a kid I saw serials like Small Wonder, I Dream Of Jeannie, Bewitched etc. but then, since the time the television industry was affected by a virus called Ekta kapoor, I could do nothing but simply browse and turn off the set.

But now with the introduction of LOVE BIG CBS, the urban crowds have something to cheer about. The list of programs that are aired on this channel speak for themselves. The Oprah Winfrey Show – the greatest talk show to have ever hit this world, The Late Show With David Letterman – best stand up show with the ultimate David Letterman hosting it. Then we  have seasons of Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond and The King of Queens. These three shows display pure situational humour hard to miss out on. 

Another interesting thing that I noticed about this newly launched channel was the way it had positioned itself in the market. It has termed itself as a channel for the ‘Urban Contemporary Couple’. The positioning in itself explains the channel’s aim of being launched in urban cities.

LOVE BIG CBS is real entertainment and real fun. After a long time, has come a channel, which has made me addicted to it due to the kind of programs it is offering.

 Hopefully the channel very soon widens its reach so that it is available to a larger chunk of urban audience, as at present, it is only available on limited cable networks.

Royal Wedding – A Royal Boredom

WE ALL KNOW WHAT LIES BENEATH THE CAP !

After being in the news for months together, Prince William finally got hitched to his love, Kate Middleton, in what could be termed as the most high profile weddings ever witnessed on planet earth.

The most talked about thing in this wedding was the live coverage that made this wedding a world event. All the channels were flashing only one thing, ‘Royal Wedding - William marries Kate at 3.30pm today in Westminster’. The enormous hype and publicity was enough to get me glued to the television screen. And then what I saw were, amazing visuals from London, n number of old men and women, great cars and superb online editing done by the men in charge of making the coverage reach millions of people.

The sad part though is that, it never felt interesting. Being an Indian, I love drama, I love when the unexpected happens, I love when people fall, I love when people forget what they have to say and I love when one person hits another and fights happen. Yes, we love entertainment. And all while when I was watching this sad, dull, boring wedding, how badly was I waiting for one such thing to happen. This boredom from my side, I guess was pretty normal. Sometimes we can’t relate to certain things and this wedding was one such thing.

By the end of it, I didn’t care who on earth was invited to it, I didn’t care whether the Beckham’s were also present at the function and nor did I care about what was on the menu. All my heart wanted was something that would make me watch the event which never really happened. Wish the wedding would have being more fun for me. Now that’s just my personal opinion. And not all might agree. But then since it was on my TV, which I have, to purely entertain me, I would have wanted more fun to it.

So to make it interesting for me, I started imagining  whacky things happening at the wedding. Kate Middleton falling in the aisle was one such thing. The news channels also had one weird and catchy headline flashing, ‘Prince Harry is the best man’. This was probably the best lines to play with. I imagined the headline to be changed to, ‘Prince Harry the best man – Kate Middleton’.  And then I was waiting for the couple to kiss, the royal kiss. Wanted the kiss to go horribly wrong so that I could laugh my ass off. All this is not because I am still against the Britishers for ruling over us, but it was because of the sheer boredom the entire setting brought to me.

The wedding, in short, was not for me or may be, not even for the crores of Indians. And this is what probably makes it one of the most stupid and a ‘waste of time’ event to have ever being aired on Indian news channels.

The Munni-Sheila Effect

The latest news that caught my attention was the decision taken by the Mumbai Police to ban all its officers from having raunchy item numbers as their ringtones. The reason given for this decision was the fact that ‘they thought if officers had raunchy numbers as their ringtones, it might not instill confidence among the people who come to the police station with their complaints’. This is more amusing than it sounds. I was taken aback when I read this coming from the Mumbai police department as a reason for their action.

The country has been busy hailing the police force of the country for the kind of work that it has done over the past few weeks. Be it solving the kidnapping case of an infant in Mumbai or rescuing a year and a half old child, who was kidnapped by a maid in New Delhi.

According to me, in both these cases, what mattered to us was not what ringtone these police officers had when they set out to work but the commitment they showed to crack the case. Now amidst this, when we look at the decision taken by the Mumbai police, we can only think about what relation does setting ringtones on a cellphone have with people going to police stations to lodge complaints.

The Mumbai police should understand the fact that whether its ‘munni’ dancing when the phone rings or ‘Sheila’ sizzling when a hawaldaar gets a call , it hardly matters to the common man. What matters to us, is the fact that the work should be done and it should be done on time and with efficiency. As long as the police delivers the goods, all is well for the aam janta.

We don’t mind whether Pandu’s ringtone is munni badnaam hui or Sheila ki jawaani, provided, he and his men save our abla naari.