PUNJABI ANTENNA
By
Randeep Wadehra
If you have watched Mukesh Gautam’s classic serial Sajda on Zee Punjabi you would have been impressed with the quality and extent of the research work. Well, the young man who provided the inputs was Balvinder Singh who is presently Zee Punjabi’s Programming In-charge, and is also doing Ph.D. in Sufism. When contacted he revealed that he was “discovered” by Mukesh Gautam, who assigned to him the twin tasks of scriptwriter and researcher for Sajda, and also offered him the post of assistant director. Presently Balvinder is directing half a dozen or so shows for the channel. These are: Aj da Rashiphal, Sitare Ki Kehnde ne, Khabarsaar, Ik Khaas Mulakaat, Xcuse me please and Sohni saver. He also moderates special talk shows.
While watching Straight Talk’s first episode of the year, wherein the SAD General Secretary Mahesh Inder Pal Singh painted the INC in dark hues while presenting his party in glowing colours, one wondered at its lop-sidedness although Ritesh Lakhi did try to keep the proceedings balanced. There is a need for more representative format. Therefore, it is imperative that academics, professionals and other intellectuals share the platform with politicians and bureaucrats on such shows. It ought to be more representative of variegated viewpoints and ideologies.
New Year Eve shows are as predictable as the day-night sequence. Songs, dances and fun(ny) anchoring on shows like Maujan hi Maujan and Jashan-2008, although entertaining, were on familiar lines. However, there were some original, entertaining and thought provoking productions too, wherein creativity manifested itself. PTC Punjabi treated us to sumptuous portions of musical feast from its ongoing The Masters series in the form of virtuoso performances in classical, light classical, folk and Sufi genres.
Zee Punjabi came up with Manthan-2008 – an introspective piece on the happenings in 2008. Moderated by Balvinder, the unusual but interesting talk-show had the entire cast and crew of the forthcoming Punjabi flick Munde UK De on its sets, viz., director Manmohan Singh, singer Amrinder Gill, actor, anchor and dialogue writer Rana Ranbir as well as actors Jimmy Shergill, Neeru Bajwa and Gurpreet Ghuggi. The discussion covered such topics as the Obama phenomenon, terrorism, the plight of girl-child and the state of Punjabi entertainment industry as well as the absence of highbrow literary activities in the region. The animated discussions showed that our filmwallas too have informed opinions on what’s going on in the world. On their collective angst at unrealistic representation of Sikhs in Bollywood productions one could not help wondering as to which community has ever been realistically portrayed in our cinema.
Another unusual – probably a first on Punjabi television – Devinder Pal Singh of PTC News took the viewers on a tour of the newsroom introducing us to not only the highly skilled and talented back-office staff and sophisticated gizmos but also to the various processes involved in collecting, editing and telecasting news. Interesting indeed, and could be useful to students of mass communications too. This particular piece exposed the hitherto unknown aspect of Devinder’s anchoring – his ability to pepper the narrative with funny asides. And yes, the channel too came up with a round-up of the year 2008. The show titled Safarnama covered regional, national and international events of the year gone by with cogent comments from Harpreet Singh, Radha Sahni, Nirmaldeep Kaur and Devinder Singh.
On 04th January, the eve of Guru Gobind Singh’s birthday, PTC News came up with Apey Gur Chela – a well researched and produced historical biopic on the Tenth Guru. Guess who was the man behind this absorbing show? Daljeet Singh, who was featured in this column last week. Well done.
THE TRIBUNE
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