Chitrahaar in spandex

Advani mouthed many platitudes during his televised press conference celebrating three years of the NDA government. The contrast between Advani’s and A B Vajpayee’s style was palpable. Where Vajpayee is dilatory, infinitely slow (sometimes painfully so) but witty and eloquent, Advani was direct, pragmatic, neat and precise as his white moustache. Rapid of speech, he was seldom amusing or expressive and rarely answered the questions. Asked what was the likely shape of the NDA for the next elections given that some allies had fared poorly in state assembly polls, he replied that even if the BJP had a majority, the NDA would still continue.

Serials: Here’s a change. Suddenly, there are serials about men, well, with men as lead characters. Aati Rahengi Baharein (Zee) and Virasat (Sahara) lead the return of the male. Too long have men been props — something women lean upon when they can’t find a railing or sit upon when they can’t find a seat. In Aati Rahengi…, a young man is the centre of attraction as he tries to woo the woman he loves even though she’s promised to another. Virasat concentrates on the lives of three brothers more than the women in their lives. This shift in gender perspective is refreshing because much as everybody loves women, we like men too.

Plenty of them on MTV but by a peculiar coincidence, they share the same dress sense: it’s strictly jeans and T-shirt for Cyrus Broacha, namesake Cyrus or even Vivan. Once in a song, the tedium is relieved by a shirt. The females? They’re strictly and straight out of Fashion TV. Mini, Nafisa, Natasha dress to attack their bodies with your eyes — tight trousers, skirts and navel-dipping skivvies or more recently, shoulder-less, strapless tops which, you suspect, rely on their… ahem… for support. Why the differentiation? Don’t viewers like to admire sexily-attired men?

Think of MTV, think of music, right? Yes but now it stands for masti, music and movie television too. Throw in a little cricket and you have a youth channel which appeals to other age groups.

Music: TV has reinvented itself considerably since the early nineties when it had foreign pop-rock music and aroused fears of an insidious cultural invasion. Approximately a decade later, MTV is a sophisticated Chitrahaar with a dash of panache (and inanity), essentially devoted to Hindi film music, films and film stars. It has successfully bowdlerised MTV’s conventional format and made music TV fun TV. Watch MTV Fully Faltoo arguably our best satirical show. Last year, it had a screamingly funny take-off on Lagaan and currently it has a marvellous one on Devdas. There’s the actor who has perfected Shah Rukh Khan’s mannerisms to shrug, there’s the moment ‘Paro’ sits on her nuptial bed with, ‘‘kya karaon bhai, mujhe budha mil gaya’’ playing in the background and finally Devdas sprawled outside Paro’s house beside a dog where a sign reads, ‘Devdas and dogs not allowed.’ Only MTV Bakra comes close to Faltoo for a good send-up.

Also, MTV has popularised ‘snippet’ shows like Know More (about singers, actors) , MTV Soul to Soul (travel), Full Toss (cricket), the delightfully named MTV One Tight Slap and karaoke with Kya Bolti Tu. These relieve the monotony of pure music. MTV wants you to enjoy without any sanctimonious efforts to educate. Thank God for that.