Monday, January 28, 2013

TV This Week ... 28th Jan - 1st Feb '13

Veera

Qabool Hai

Madhubala

Punar Vivah ... I finally saw Akshay speak!

IPKKND ... as always. 

Na Bole Tum Season 2 ... anyone watching this? The new entry Beera was in Mukti Bandhan, he is an okay-ish actor.I haven't seen it this last week at all.

Others ... Welcome if anyone is keeping up with it. I don't think I will be following it now.

200 comments:

  1. Is it too late to post on friday's epi of PV?

    Koi baat nahin, let me bak bak anyway:

    Remember I SAW this on Friday so jitna memory serves me:

    GC's eyeshadow was too evident, don't ask why I noted especially since My knowledge of make up EQUALS Akash bitwa's dialogue in his previous show.

    I really liked GC btw....have to give it to the guy, it takes guts and confidence to play the dad to 3 kids and apparantly expecting the 4th one, Bravo and I am actually liking the actor here.

    Kratika is really good as usual, I used to like her from what little I saw of her in Jhansi ki raani, here she keeps getting better.

    Okay it is a tie between Akash bitwa and Prateek aks the original chota bhai with less dialogues on Friday.

    It is sad to see the original chota bhai getting shut up by his elder bhai as always*sigh, some things never change in telly land*

    One ROFL Moment:

    Yash thinks his dad has kidnapped his son and in return wants him to divorce Aarti. Now Yash comes storming in and spews dialogues and end may says:

    I will get Ansh (the kidnapped kid) on my own and Glares at everyone and declares, he does not need anyone's help in this.

    My faltu comment: Array bhai, tereko help kaun offer kar raha hai, help chodo no one is offering you to come join for breakfast too, sab pet puja may lagay hain...

    Now the usual suspects are THE DAD AND THE BUA.....Which means it is neither so it has to be the elder bro aka pradeep, yaar ek bhai nikalega tabhi doosra aayega na *cough Akash*

    Which brings me to this QUESTION:

    First beta: Pradeep
    Last beta : Prateek

    Second beta: Yash............kyon...P(r)ayash kyon nahin*wink wink*

    So what did Akash bitwa do , not much..thoda style maaring and then carried the kidnapped kid aka ansh back to the house where everyone is living????

    Which proves In Telly land servant NEVER clean the store room.

    A good scene with the kiddo, Have to say Akshay was a natural there, maybe in future there can be a scene where the kid is upset and he cheers him up....sort of softening so the audience gets confused is he a good guy or a bad guy?

    And then he slips the CD on the door assuring the guy on the other side, he will take care of it..

    Bas itna hiiiiiiiiii.......agar it was more, I forgot:(

    last week we touched 135 comments, hoping we reach 200 this week, start watching and bakbaking gals*hugs*

    ps - I do not have any insider info on anything, random declaration....samjhay ki samjhaoon.

    If you ask me to samjhaao, well I will be repeating the same thing, so khud hi samajh lo*wink*

    Oh and I DO wish I did

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  2. Second beta: Yash............kyon...P(r)ayash kyon nahin*wink wink*

    ROFL., Shwetha.....
    What an analysis!

    I watched PV after a long time for Akash bitwa: I saw the 'bachhan ka bhoot' that you menton so often and burst out laughing...got a few glares from hubby who has seen me doing this only with IPK- which translates as ' Are you getting hooked on to another dumb serial?'

    My honest opinion on Akshay's role: He did not really fit in for me. His gaon waala accent was good, but he still looked like a sophisticated person to me. Maybe after a few watches I'll be able to relate better.

    Pratik, is my favorite brother- he coooks for his family- all kinds of yummy recipes- his before- marriage romance track with Paridhi when she was the RJ- was really cute.

    Hmmm... So you think Pradeep is behind the kidnapping? He is a harmless fellow actually..haan haan mein samajh gayee.

    I thought the dad was indeed the culprit: what was that rendezvous in the night about?

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    1. Su: See when it comes to Akash bitwa I am exceptionally biased and maybe the catch here is that Akash bitwa is actually a police guy or a well educated guy who is pretending to be a driver*Where is the logic you ask me, Gayab I say*

      Pratik is the original chota bhai with less dialogues in LNMDJ so it is good to see him in a show and sometimes speaking he he.

      PRADEEP HI HOGA!!

      *TELLY LOGIC*

      The clean shaven guy is starting to grow a stubble and all grey/negative characters have stubbles.

      The conservatively dressed guy suddenly has an extra shirt button open.

      And he was vehemently defending his dad saying what Arti did was wrong.

      Sooooooooooooooo, Dad is not the guy, Bua is the permanent negative character, toh where is the surprise.

      Therefore*dangggggg, I sound like I am proving some academic theory* It has to be Pradeep.

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    2. (applause) perfect telly logic! :D

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  3. Shwetha,

    Yash's elder brother is Pankaj not Pradeep. I think Yash's name was supposed to be Siddharth and Aarti's, Smriti. They later changed it to Yash and Arti. Maybe due to numerology or something (just guessing). GC always wears a lot of makeup (don't know why because it makes him look effeminate). Maybe his loud wife (both in her behaviour as well as makeup) asks him to.


    GC is a reasonably good actor but nowhere near Barun in expressions or Vivian in dialogue delivery. He did a great job in Geet. Don't like him much as Yash maybe because I was quite put off by his character (when he gave a hard time to Arti because he felt she seduced him to sleep with her when the guy was the one who made the first move). That entire track was crap which put me off the show (till then I faithfully watched it and even recommended it to my friends). Now I occasionally catch it on the youtube just to keep posted on how the story is progressing. Since the show clashes with Veera (which I will not give up watching for anything), I will not be regularly following it but will follow your comments to keep me amused.

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    1. *sheepishly* Thanks Opti, gee guess it is obvious how much attention I am paying to the rest of the characters he he, thanks.

      I don't know why it stood out for me that day, I actually checked rest of the male actors and see were they using so much make up and I am getting used to the fact that guys do use Kohl:(

      I never cared much for GC as never watched much of Geet, but I do see he is a very hard working guy. I mean from a non dancer to becoming a pretty decent dancer, taking the role of a dad so early in his career, have to give it to him.

      I used to watch JDJ for Manish and Bharati and after she was eliminated stopped watching, went to the forum to see who won and saw his wife's interview that he would have won anyway without his fans or something and people were furious with that comment saying she is saying this after he won when everyone invested so much of their time and money to make sure he wins.

      Delete
  4. Grrrrrrrrr, IF is not letting me sent pms..

    *Nan* if you read this, all izz well. I do expect you to start bak baking here like Now.

    Hugs to you!!

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    1. Hi Shwetha..

      hope u got my PMs.. Hugss back to you too :) (am very relieved)

      Hi everyone..

      firstly i have been silent reader(stalker :p) of R and R during IPK times.. must say used to enjoy all your takes on the epis .. even now i read the blog to keep myself updated abt the other serials you guys are watching... i myself am not following anything religiously nowadays on TV other than Mahadev(specially after Ganeshji entry) and used to catch up with PV because of Dishank..noticed Akshya too has entered now.. i think the PH has done a very good job in terms of it being a daily soap which they intend to run it for a long time :)

      other than that nothing else ..my most imp entertainment quotient for the day is always Sarabhai vs Sarabhai epis courtesy you tube

      will be going back to silent mode and read all your various uptakes n tippanis

      btw Shwetha .. you had one person in me nodding her head vigorously whenever u praise our Arshad bhai here or at IF redux pages :D

      wud love to continue reading all of you guys take on things in tv nowadays..

      nandini

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    2. Nan, hugsssssssssss!!! and keep bakbaking more:)

      Yaar when I first saw the IPK credit, I was exactly in the order:

      Wow, GH, Hitesh and Arshad Khan, Have to watch this show. So much so never paid attention to LM there, socha hoga koi....And imagine my sheer horror when people said Arshad knows nothing, I was like Woah, havent they seen LNMDJ?

      Yup, PV has a good supporting cast which is utilized well, after all it is not entirely a love story, it has the social drama touch too, so far they have done a decent job.

      I am however surprised by the timing as I feel this should have been in the prime slot if Zee wanted to cash in on GC's popularity. Don't understand why they pushed this show at such a late night slot.

      And its TRP is 2.1, I wonder what is the TRP of other shows at the same time slot?

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    3. Veera :))) is slot leader - 2.6

      BALH is 2.5

      So 10.30 shows have decent trp's. PV has actually been falling, it was higher earlier 3+. Don't know what phase of story that was. But after the IPK fiasco, I always notice supporting cast and parallel stories, and I saw that they had plenty of those in PV.

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  5. Shwethu, I am watching PV just for your commentary ... found that MB was completely boring without your vishesh tippani!

    ROFL ... and I wish you had insider information too!!!

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    1. I am not watching MB, just reading the updates and rolling my eyes

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  6. sorry in advance;;

    "agar arnav day manaya jaaye toh hum sab phoos phoos he baaten karenge" ROFL video.. watch.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=7ay_RnQNDF8

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    1. ROFL ... Krushna - Govinda clan, isn't he? Govinda's nephew? And Ragini is Govinda's niece ... WHY does Krushna dress up so often as a woman?!

      Barun cannot and should not do anchoring ... the guy is clueless!!! :D

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    2. so true dia, barun is supposed to be arnav on stage.. and he just looks like they picked johnny loafer off the streets! yes, he has never seen this brand of madness.. yes, he has never performed in one.. but please, there were rehearsals and stuff, right? what is whith the "i dont belong here" vibe?

      but he's adorable. so he's forgiven :)

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  7. hi..

    NBT season 2 did not impress me much or may be it will pick up.. i used to watch parts of season 1 mainly for mohan-nanhi scenes.. those were adorable..

    MB is kinda tooo filmy for me.. the VD, DD and their Jodi is okay for me..

    I have heard a lot of good things abt veera but have not been able to catch up with it yet..

    and IPK .. actually first time i used to see it bcus that Raizada mansion was also the Gujral Mansion in the first and only hindi serial i saw from start to end and for which i joined IF that is LNMDJ and i used to read Shwetha and her PriDa friends take about epis there..a talented and hilarious bunch :D..used to see some scenes here n there of ipk..i liked that nainital epis a lot, it had the Gautam Hegde brand in its comedy .. so came on IF and was browsing ipk forum when i saw shwetha mention that arnav-kushi wadrobe scene as her fav on one of the redux threads i think.. i was curious bcus i knew our fav jodi was the same of the previous show that we watched .. so saw that scene..liked it caught up most of arnav-kushi scenes on yt and then caught up on old scenes.. i was very interested abt the background story of ASR, but unfortunately the expectations i had from it was not reached at all by the makers.. i loved the first ASR brkdown scene but did not like the second one :( and the way the past was pushed under the carpet .. i lost interest and stopped following the show regularly.. just used to catch up some scenes but skipped most of it..

    btw i was thinking they had the perfect exit plan during that time for Barun.. if they had shown that ASR could not accept Kushi bcus of her relationship to Garima and he walks out and it would hv fit with ASR character too.. it wud have been an excellent open-end opportunity to ease out Barun and they could have continued the story with how kushi picks up her shattered life and heart and becomes a strong personality.. then they could have brought in a second lead or ASR if Barun wanted to come back if things between him the ph/channel had worked out..

    anyways i feel the whole thing was seriously mismanaged..and one thing i always wanted to say but was scared to say it on IF IPK bcus i did not want to create more ruckus than that was already going on there.. i think Gul was only one of the PH team..in 4 lions itself there is gorky and nissar along with her and also IPK had two other ph one that Rajesh Chadda's IMRC and another that Panglosean.. so i think so many things were not working out on different levels.. its unfortunate really how it was all handled.. and a lot of "aag me ghee dalna" work was done by ppl on IF who claimed to have sources.. sorry to say but they are a very pathetic lot and i notice that they are still at it :(

    sorry to have brought up the old issues again.. since its my first post here i thot i will put out what i had in mind.. i have no intention to rake up old issues again.. guess too much water down the bridge..

    hope i did not bore you guys to sleep with my rant.

    take care

    nandini

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    1. hey nandini, welcome ... nice to see you here. We're always happy to 'meet' silent readers :)))

      Another fan of LNMDJ ... :) I used to follow that show sporadically, PriDa was my favourite jodi too, and I started watching Gaurav's new show on Zee (forget the name) because of hum ... gave it up very soon, of course! I didn't realise that RM was the Gujral mansion! Need to take another look!

      As for IPK and the way it ended ...we have had endless discussions on the whole fiasco ... have torn everyone to pieces, Barun, the PH, Star Plus ... everyone! :D And we still can't stop discussing it ... it was one of the most mismanaged exits ever on TV, I think, and everyone had a hand in the fiasco. Including the 'sources', who did the most damage ... and have now gone into hiding :D

      But whatever the PH had thought of, good, bad or indifferent, Barun's leaving was bound to cause a ruckus. And a new lead would have a tough time regardless of whatever story they thought of to introduce him, since no one was ready to accept a new man in Khushi's life. The only way the show could have continued is if they had done a leap ... but I guess by then the PH was just not interested. Or there were too many problems between PH and SP. But yes, Gul alone caught most of the flak, which was very unfortunate, she definitely was not the only person responsible, as there were two other people in her own PH, plus Rajesh Chaddha's PH - I think IMRC and Panglosean are the same. And the name calling was really pathetic - both for Gul, and for Viraf. I feel even worse for Viraf, because the poor guy had not even entered the show! I really like the guy - have watched him in Kismat, which was a good show, and I was looking forward to watching him. Hopefully he will come on a show soon - NOT Kaali!
      Shwethu will tell you that the latest shiddat on R&R is for Sanaya-Viraf :) Until I actually see Viraf in Kaali, I will keep that shiddat alive!

      Keep posting ... hopefully some show will catch our interest enough for all of us to re-start our bak bak here more regularly. Until Sanaya comes back, that is ... once she is back, hopefully in another good show, my bak bak will re-start for sure :)))

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    2. Hi Nandini!
      It was nice going through your chit chat.

      Dia,
      I don't think Viraf is entering Kaali- the sister has already got a love interest. He should not,actually. Kaali looks like a sinking ship and he will probably sink along with it. What I mean is, it was supposed to be an intense drama, and now they have diluted it with romance and comedy. I think SP has really lost it! How did they ever expect Kaali to be liked in the 8 PM family slot???

      When I see what happened with Khamoshiyaan- some things are quite clear. An actor can leave if he wants to after giving his notice- I don't think any contract can bind anyone for a year or anything like that. If they leave in the contract period, I suppose they have to pay a sum as penalty. So, I don't think SP or PH could've made an unbreakable deal with Sobti. Same goes for Sanaya- I think she can leave a show any time she wants to, like Mohit has done now.

      On Khamoshiyan- Mohit drama: I feel: Channel was unfair to PH- should've given more time for the show to pick up.

      PH was unfair to Mohit- If there was no chemistry between the leads, it was because IT WAS NOT SHOWN. The girl is actually OK- I find her much better than Daljeet- and she was getting good support from the senior actors. So, now, it seems like she is going to enter in to a marriage of convenience with Appa Sahib's rival. Apparently she is the price Appa has to pay in return for Garv's silence. And I think they are killing off Siddharth. The show can still do well- the actors are good, the direction is better than average(I prefer it to MB and PV actually.)

      I hope Mohit finds a good show soon.

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    3. Su,
      Regarding contracts ... they are exactly that ... CONTRACTS ... they are not bonded labour. So anyone can leave at any time after giving adequate notice, which is specified in the contract, or at the end of the contract period, again after the specified notice. The only thing is specific clauses - from my own experience, I have a standard non-practice clause when I work in a hospital ... my husband signs his contract with the same company every 2-3 years, so do most of our corporate friends. Even small details like the duration 2 or 3 years, can vary with the locations. In one pace, there was an exit clause that he can't work in the same location for a rival company for 6 months if he resigns - if you think about it, this becomes a really sticky point if you have school going kids or a spouse working in the same location, because it's not just the job you have to leave, but also the city/country.
      Now obviously the location can't be a sticking point for the channels or the PH's, but they might have other clauses which could cause issues if you leave. But NO contract is unbreakable as such.

      The problem with Barun leaving was not because he broke a contract - he didn't, he gave his notice as required and worked out his 2-3 months (I use the term work loosely!) ... the problem was the hysteria created by a)his unclear statements - if he had given notice, what was all that nonsense about going on leave, longish break, health problems, father's wishes - just say straight out that I'm leaving for personal reasons, and let the PH say the same ... it would have caused an outburst but at least the confusion might have been less ... MIGHT ... And here I blame the PH also for leaking the news of his notice - that was completely unethical and out of order ... so basically BS was put in the wrong when he spoke about 'break', because PH had already leaked the news about the notice
      b) the bigger problem - the brainless conspiracy theorists on the forum who floated the stories of BS being kicked off the sets, BS crying, BS being 'forced' to leave, BS wanting to change the script to save the show ... even making up stories about his costar, and how he was being ultra-noble to protect her reputation ... if he WAS trying to protect her reputation, they were doing him no favors by broadcasting the news all over the forum to anyone who would listen ...
      c)the biggest problem ... SP tried to retain him and made the whole thing public because of SPL - and of course the mass hysteria. And then immediately after SPL, they showed the ticker blaming Barun, and then shut the show in four days. Whoever took those two decisions should really be fired for completely unethical behaviour.

      Mohit has not made any such statements, nor have his fans floated any theories ... apart from the basic fact that he's nowhere near the cult stature that BS is, of course! It's cut and dried, he's unhappy with his role, he wants to leave, he's put in his papers. Finished. As happens with most actors. Mohit wants to leave, his fans also want him to leave. There will be no petitions or calls :)))

      Don't think any PH would have any major exit clause about not working with another channel or another PH or anything of the sort. You leave one job, you try for another. He's not great, but he's not that bad either. Most tv shows have wallpapers for heroes. He can easily be one of them.

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    4. Sanaya's position is a little more complicated as she's with the channel, and not the PH. She might or might not have been happy with the script or the show, but she was happy with the team, and she wants to stay with the channel. So if she leaves, she has to resign from Star, which she doesn't want to do. She CAN - she's not bonded labor either, but she doesn't WANT to. Star has the right to take her off a show and assign her elsewhere - which is exactly what they did - they sent her to the US, and then pushed her into Welcome ... am guessing sooner or later, they will assign her a new show, because they won't pay her for sitting idle. If she does stay with them, of course. If she doesn't, then she can snap up a show on any channel ... they will all jump at her.
      The writeup on the Zing magazine said that as far back as Dec when the shoot was done, she was already meeting people, talking to them, so she hadn't taken any time off. If she's a SP/Star employee, that makes sense. After MJHT, she took time off, because she was with the PH then, and she was between jobs. Now she isn't. She's still employed with Star. So she can't leave a show as easily as say Barun or Mohit. Probably because she's sure she wants to stay with TV, she's made this decision ... Mohit also wants to try for movies, and Barun of course does. Neither will want to burn their bridges with TV - they both know the success rate of TV actors in BW. And again, that's where the foolish fans of BS have really messed up things for him - he would have left peacefully, with no bad blood ... now he left in a cloud. But there's no denying the fact that he's a really good actor, one of the best on TV today, and also seems to be a sweet guy (although a bit confused :))) - that will work for him when he comes back.

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    5. Dia, you didn't realize RM was Gujaral mansion? I genuinely thought Khushi would turn out to be a younger Damini, but woh toh Roshini nikli.

      From the pattern I am seeing atleast in the shows I am watching, first 3 months a show takes time to settle down including its actors. 3-6 MONTH are the best for All shows and after that it starts going everywhere yet nowhere:(

      I also thought Khamoshiaan was supposed to be a love story, it should have got the 8 pm slot better than kaali atleast.

      Also they did a bluder by axing ek doosray say kartay hain pyaar hum cos it was a very well made show storywise and actingwise.

      7.30 slot's audience has shifted to zee's 7.30 shows. They really should look hard at their programming and not take rash decisions like they have been doing offlate.

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    6. Dia, first and foremost rule of crisis management is that you try to resolve the issue at hand without it becoming a monster. The problem with Barun quitting and serial closing can be a very good case study for Business class - as to how to manage the crisis at hand without getting burned up.

      The way the news was leaked that Barun has kept his papers down by the producer of the show was completely and downright unethical. Your team mate is not going to be with you - you either make a public announcement and work for his exit or keep entirely quiet and try to work out the issue. The whole funda of 'we will give status next week' was so not needed when apparently the next week never came. One thing a good company head should do is that - if a news has potential threat to the stability of the company then it should be handled with caution. That was where the whole 4Lions team went wrong. They knew what Barun was to the show - yet they went on leaking news drop by drop and side by side riling the fandom up with stupid storylines and TOI articles. That was not at all professional and it was clear targeting an individual.

      I do agree that Barun should have been clear from his interviews earlier that he is quitting - but he may have been under pressure from the channel and PH to not disclose the real deal. SP sold SPL only on Arnav-Khushi mania and you think it would have been okay if Barun went ahead and said he is quitting 2 months before SPL. Nope. I don't think so. So he might have done 'I am taking a break, longish leave and then quit'. We never know what talks happened between SP, Barun and PH. For sure there were talks to work things out but why it didn't work out - we may never know.But now he learned his lesson and is quite clear on what he is doing and how he is telling his point of view to the press.

      Fans may have been the trigger but if the PH and the channel wanted to go ahead with the serial, I think there would be no one stopping them. Now if I look at it, PH was not interested in the serial - wanted to wind down from a long time. Channel wanted it to be on air till SPL and once the means were served, they found no reason to put the show on air. Hence the sudden decision and in all both PH and Channel jump dumped the responsibility on Barun and washed their hands off.

      Now SP is understanding what IPK is to them. Today I read that Zee is making headway in Canada by launching Zee Canada. It was lot of potential revenue for SP to have this serial on air. They could have done lot of things and could have work things better but the channel wanted IPK on air only till Feb - until SLB's show was ready. I sure hope they don't do the same thing they did to IPK here too. If they kill another one good serial - SP is going down. I don't think their old horses YRK, DABH and SNS can drag it for long on the TRP meter. Why do I feel that SP will come back with something akin to IPK by later part of the year and if things work out they will try to repeat BS-SI in the cast. SP needs a serial of IPK to make it No.1 GEC channel again.

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    7. Sarada, I hope we don't have to wait for the later part of the year to see Sanaya again. She can make a great pair with any good actor, and I see no reason for her to have to wait for Barun. I sometimes feel I don't want an IPK again ... I want a reasonably good show with a good story line ... as it is, the TRP's and my ratings are not usually in synch, so I would be happier if her show ran on decent TRP's, no more. Too much of craze and hysteria is detrimental for health of the show ... and of the fans :)))

      Besides, please refer to list of conditions for Barun to return with SI, as detailed by most of us on a previous post ... :P
      -he has to agree not to take 11/28/40/45 days leave for movie with random actress who can't act, or even with actress who can ...
      -he has to agree to not take longish breaks
      -he has to agree to get regular haircuts and shave
      -he has to get a babysitter for his wife
      -he has to agree to stay longer than one year
      I forget the rest ... any more?

      This is not even starting on the T&C for the PH :))) For those, refer to weekly shiddats lists ...

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    8. Dia, Even I don't want to wait for sanaya till mid or end of this year. And Barun really needs to know whether he is going to be in bollywood completely or wants to come back to TV. He knows for sure that he is not going to be a lead in the movie - he can't dance to save his life. He would be better doing strong supporting roles - He seems to have taken up a role of a cricket agent in his next movie. Once you are not keen on doing intimate scenes and not good at dancing there are very few movie offers for you. So I am sure BS would be back to TV but I do hope he succeeds in BW - enough of the masala movies - would definitely like to see more of independent movies with good actors in it. Let's see what happens by this year end.

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  8. Watched SBS today after ages ... Asad in a nice silver grey suit ... me going WT* ... that's at least six suits for Asad ... and ASR had only two?! Those too, shiny polyester?!

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  9. Dia,

    Watched Kismat over the weekend (at least most of the episodes). Loved it. It was neat and crisp (only 64 episodes). I thought they could have stretched it atleased to 100 episodes by spending more time in character and story development. Some of the scenes were fairly rushed. Was impressed with the production value (given that it is YRF production that is no surprise). Viraf was good but not very effective in emotional scenes. Barun is still the best for me in those scenes since he had eyes that speak. His dialogue delivery is better than Barun though. The guy playing Kabir is also good, but again not great. In fact what held the show together was the tight script (thanks to Jeffrey Archer). I'm sure IPK could have also been a master price if they had stuck to their original story, cut out the flab and finished it in 100-150 episodes. The longer a show runs, the more is the chance it becomes a shadow of what it used to be. The only exception to this I've noticed is BV but then many would find it too slow moving for their liking.

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    1. I meant master piece and not master price

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    2. Opti, the show was very tight and crisp, I also felt it could have been stretched much longer, because there was a lot more to show. Need to re-watch it to confirm ... I re-read the book over the holidays. Aditya Raj Merchant was not an emotional character at all, and his character Kane in the book is definitely not - I don't really remember emotional scenes, but I do remember I liked both him and Rahul Bagga. I also remember the Aditya's grandmother - she was a formidable lady and was played very well. In the book, both the grandmothers played a very important role in Kane's life, they amalgamated them into one in Kismet. What I liked was that although they stuck to the basic characterization of Kane and Abel in Kismet, the adaptation was very skilfully done to the Indian context ... things like the birth on the day of Indi's independence, changing the Polish immigrant vs old blue blooded American banker family to simple Hindu vs Muslim ... and I liked the additional characters of both the sisters they put in.
      I'm not comparing Viraf to Barun ... they played very different characters - Viraf's Aditya was adapted from an American, so was much more cut and dried, more what I expect a businessman to be like, while Arnav was an Indian from conception to execution, hence the emotional content of his character was far higher. Plus of course all his complexes and insecurities and fears ... while Aditya was a supremely confident man, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, which stayed there.

      BV is far too slow moving for me. Again a show where I like the premise, but the execution is not to my taste.

      IPK - could it have been a master piece? *sigh* there are so many 'could have been's' and 'might have been's' for IPK, that I've stopped thinking about them all. I even wrote a couple of drafts of FFs, and found that I had switched off from the characters ... I like watching the old episodes, but if I had to write an FF, I would write it afresh, or go back to just after the first hate marriage. Gul's interview around that time of how a man realises that he has destroyed a girl completely, and his regret and his pledge to restore her name and dignity held so much promise, and that was consigned to the dustbin ... along with the past and all Shyam's misdeeds.

      Delete
    3. issi baat pe ek scene arz hain:
      ------------------------------------
      aap hume dard dete uska kya? chodiye dard ho raha he
      lekin ek baat aap hamesha bolte he or karte bhi he jise dard ho or chot pohunche
      bcoz tum hamesha se deserve it

      sham overhears..
      "thmhare sath jo bhi hua, tum ussi ke layak ho. infact aagey jaaakar tumhare saath aur bhi bura hoga.. i dont know whats running in your brain but what you want, that youll never get."
      sham goes
      i cant beleive youre the same man who...
      (remorse)
      i wish I could tell everyone about your ghatiya deeds and words.
      what?(tears)
      i'm not going to beleive anythig you say. especially your tears.
      you cant weaken me with these tears..

      no!
      after today I wont show them to you.
      coz I wont shed tears for a man who's stonehearted.

      ENOUGH! (against the wall eyelock)
      door close, hand bruise
      khushee
      naaai
      cry
      I deserve this pain right? so let me suffer..
      i deserve to get bigger punishment..
      -----------------------------------
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ylckWIfPfq4#t=368s

      Delete
    4. wow, jayu, this was exceptional the way you said it:

      i cant beleive youre the same man who...
      (remorse)

      I miss the bg music, it was soooooooo good!!

      Delete
  10. SP is airing the promos of Sraswati Chandra.
    No other info available. Just highlighting SLB's movies and very unclear shots of the leads. The guy looks like Gautam, I think. The silhouette of the girl does not look like Sanaya- actually looks a little short for Jennifer also, I am not sure.

    Any way, the promo is done very beautifully. This source says it is expected to come by Feb end in the IPK slot!

    http://www.filmyfolks.com/kmh/saraswatichandra-new-show-on-star-plus.shtml

    I am looking forward to this. Atleast this story will not change according to the whims and fancies of the channel, PH or audience!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The girl is Jennifer. I saw SBS today - told you so above when I cribbed about Asad's nice suits :) ... and KSG was going on about wifey dearest and cribbing that they should have showed her more in the promo, rather than showing SLB. *rofl* he thought Jennifer was a bigger selling point of the show than SLB? Maana ki SLB is more show than substance these days ... lekin itne bhi bure din nahin aaye uske, yaar!

      I will give it a try. The show is looking good. Let's see how it shapes up. And they're calling it a romance ... I thought the romance was only through letters in the original - wonder how they will manage to show it here.

      Delete
    2. Dia *ROFL* if KSG thinks Jenny is bigger than SLB. And looking at the promo looks like it is remake of the original only - no idea if SLB will tweak it to suit the channel's wishes. SLB's show are more show than substance - agree 100% on that. No idea how far he will hit a chord with the normal audience. Jenny can act but unfortunately whatever I saw of her as Riddhima in DMG - she was just crying only. And one thing I was laughing very openly was the way the promo ended "Romancing soon on Star Plus". Accha kasha romance serial tha IPK on SP, they murdered it and now they are promoting this rona - dhona serial as a "romance serial". Bhagwan hi bachaye SP ke shatir dimaag logon ko.

      Delete
    3. Oh lord, sarada, you spoke my thoughts! One of the reasons I never watched DMG after Jenni's entry was because she cried sooooooo much!!!

      I would like to see SP interfering with SLB's script ... will be interesting! All these creative people have huge egos ... am sure SLB will be no exception!

      SN - I wonder if SP interferes with PKDH script. They are also big producers - Rajshris ... haven't been watching the show for some time, but I did feel that they had taken the focus off the young leads to the older lot, because the youngsters couldn't act. Besides, confession is done ... now the saas bahu drama will start!

      Delete
    4. Dia, Of course SP is going to interfere with its shows now that Zee is the no.1 GEC. Ever heard of Zee being no.1 - it hasn't been no.1 for ages. Earlier SP and colors had the fight for no.1 GEC and for long SP was the winner. Now Zee and Colors are giving tough fight so I really won't be surprised if SP starts to tinkering with their shows. The problem with SP is that all its new shows are flopping. None of the new shows save for Veera has gotten a 2+ TRPs consistently. I don't know what SP will do if SLB's show is also not a high TRP getting one - SLB has a huge ego. He is a good director no doubt but he doesn't like to be working with deadlines(He felt very rushed it seems when he was a judge on X-Factor singing show). So wonder how he will cope up with SP. SP is cornered now and unless it bounces back with a good show, the going seems to be tough.

      Delete
  11. http://www.tellychakkar.com/news/ragini-khanna-vents-against-life-ok-twitter-find-out-why-here-tellychakkarcom

    Now, what is this?
    The reality of a reality show!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. uff the comments below the article was a reality show in itself!
      as someone who watched the five days that ragini was there, i am sure that at the end of the week, ragini did leave a bad taste in the mouth. especially when she gave ONE point for nigar's evening.

      yes, even if 25 people do come out to your house to shoot a day with you, they came invited.. cannot believe them going to the media about it.

      Delete
  12. http://www.tellychakkar.com/behind-lens/little-drama-and-exaggeration-are-needed-daily-soaps-script-writer-ved-raj

    http://rangmunch.tv/index.php/kaelidoscope/writer-menu/item/632-khushi-is-weird-arnav-attracts-ved-raj-writer

    This guy writes for PSH too. And he says SNS was the most difficult show to write for. Can imagine that!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember reading this earlier - the Ved Raj interview on Khushi is wierd... it came out during the Swami track, and I remember feeling really annoyed at the guy. If the writer himself describes Khushi as weird, no wonder her character went downhill. And a guy who doesn't believe in romance, writing a love story - why would Gul even do that?! When he says Gul is still a 16 year old as far as her ideas about romance - I would have to agree. No wonder her heroines all seem that age in maturity most of the time! Gul needs to grow up!

      The first iv - he writes for five shows simultaneously ... good god! No wonder most of the shows feel as though a brain dead person has written them! He sounds it!

      Delete
    2. Somehow with Gul, I always felt she had inferior complex or maybe she has very low self esteem. She has this *alpha male* fascination excessively. Fine we all have it in us - some more than others but still in all her 3 shows she just made her leads dumb down to glorify the hero. In Geet, she murdered the character of Geet when she made Geet forgive Dev and made him marry her cousin sister. In Khushi, whenever there was a situation, it was always Khushi's character that was compromised. It is to Sanaya's credit that she gave Khushi some identity through her acting. With Zoya I have no idea but yeah looks like Zoya is also going to be a dumb character. Now I doubt what she is going to show next in her next venture.

      Delete
  13. Hii Dia n Su :)

    Dia nice to meet another PriDa fan ..i too saw GK's all 3 shows after love ne but did not find it engaging to continue watching it.. infact i always make it a point to catch up anything new of all the six of them..be it CS who is my alltime fav actress btw or GK, KT, Pari, simi or dishu :D and also the crew whose name i remember from the show that is how the Arshad Bhai connection you see :D.. its like they are my "ghar ke bache" :D .. but whether i follow the shows regularly or not depends a lot on story line for me..storytelling is very very important for me

    n reg ipk fiasco.. like u said bottom line was the PH not being very interested to continue..and agree with you about Gul bashing and Viraf's too i saw some of the comments on his twitter id, it was really in bad taste, but i was not surprised bcus those very fans who claimed to be Barun's fans i have come across bashing Barun's wife and calling her the same names as they called Gul...and the "source"girls are all very much there in their chat clubs Dia.. now they are indulging in a much more filthier game is all i can say in public..they are now playing with fire..their last attempt at trying to act as God created a mess .. i dread to think how many lives they are gonna wreck with their new venture of theirs :( i will just pray that God protect both Barun and Sanaya and one thing i would love to say is that i would not wish such kind of "well-wishers" even to my worst enemies :(

    n regarding Viraf in Kali..i think he wont come in that because i think there were 2 roles.. for sister and for the murdered guy's girlfriend.. for first Arjun Bijlani has entered and today in precap they showed some other guy who has come as a saviour for the other girl..

    i have seen Viraf in kismat he did a good job..talking of yrf-sony shows.. i liked Kavi/Shruthi in R.com and i liked Rahul Bagga.. hes a very good actor.. have any of you here seen the serial "POWDER" from the yrf-sony shows.. if not please do watch it.. its got the best pace, styling, tight script, excellent in execution..each actor fitting perfectly in their roles.. if anyone has not watched they have to see it :)

    so other than Barun who i feel has wonderful talent in him the others who can really make a mark for themselves if they are given the right opportunity will be Kavi, Mishal Raheja, Rahul Bagga and of course Gaurav Khanna..but at the end of the day i think actors only can do so much in the current indian tv scenario which is sad so if they venture into the new age multiplex cinema genre i wud encourage them all :)

    regarding Khamoshiyaan its sad that channel is not giving a free hand to PH to tell their story..what is with this Jodi chemistry craze..i think the premise of this story itself is different so they should let the PH tell their story.. this SP never seems to learn :( .. this serial has some of the finest senior marathi actors..given a chance am sure it will do well.. feel bad for Mohit but i guess its better for him to quit and keep himself free so that he can pick a better role than being tied up with a role which has not much future in the story

    and about Sanaya and Viraf onscreen together, frankly i dont mind who Sanaya comes back with but would like to see her back on tv in a good role soon too :)

    i think its Jennifer and Gautam Rhode in SLB's Saraswathichandra.. the promo looks grand as is synonymus with SLB.. dont know if i will watch it.. if its too much of a rona-dhona kinds i dnt feel like seeing

    Hi Opti :) hope its okay if i call you that.. i agree with you a tight script without flab wud have done wonders for ipk

    i guess i took Shwetha's invitation to bak bak here too seriously.. my third post on first day :p

    bye everyone take care .. good night :)

    nandini

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi nandini, welcome to R&R.. glad to see you!

      Delete
    2. I was actually waiting for the new male entry in Kaali ... out of sheer curiosity :) Am not watching the show, but I catch up on news in the forum. I believe Kaali was supposed to be a six month show only - it's based on a real life story, like the first one was, and was supposed to be on the late night slot. They brought it on at 8 pm because they had nothing else ready, it's got the worst ever TRP's for any SP show in a very long while, so now they're trying to make it more suitable for 8 pm by bringing in two young ML's and adding young romance - complete hotch potch! But if they plan to send it back to the late night slot once SC starts, they would have ruined the main story completely in the meantime.

      SP really needs to STOP interfering with the plots and story lines of its shows ... their interference has only brought major catastrophe. I guess it's wise to not bring in Viraf - none of the actors are any good, and he wouldn't be any use to salvage the show - he's not big enough or popular enough on his own.

      I will try Powder - thanks for the recommendation, Nandini. I liked Rahul Bagga in Kismat - actually I liked all the actors, they were very well cast. Except for Kavi Shastri, surprisingly - I liked him in R.com, but in Kismat he had put on a lot of weight and didn't look good at all. He had a very small role at the end, came on as Kane's son. Haven't watched Mishal Raheja at all ... but agree that for actors, BW now provides a lot more interesting opportunities than tv. There are enough niche movies being made with good content which actually do well at the BO - Paan Singh Tomar and Vicky Donor being two recent examples. I was happy about PST also because I find Irfan Khan an excellent actor, and he has been ignored by BW in favour of the Khans and others who can't act! Loved him in Life of Pi.

      Khamoshiyan - another show which SP will ruin with its interference! I thought that Sid-Gauri marriage was always supposed to break, but he would continue to be a friend for Gauri as she struggled with a hate marriage to Garv. I thought he knew that too. Dunno why he's been sidelined so badly. Although (Monaya fans here, don't kill me for this) I still say, Mohit is not a great actor, he's very limited ... having said that, it should not really matter, if you have the likes of Naitik and Ahem in long running shows, the poor guy is better than them at least!
      And again SP and their 're-vamp' - they haven't learned their lesson yet! They need to give the shows at least 2-3 months to settle ...

      Delete
    3. Dia, SP sadly didn't seem to learn a thing from the IPK fiasco. It is still bent on meddling in their shows. First with IPK they felt the hero was too dark and had to tone it down, then they felt the family audience will not like leads living together and hence marriage and finally the story became something akin to 'Too many cooks spoil the broth'. If the channel has an idea about what the shows that it should air, then why do they approve the story/show if they are different. Why don't they cancel the show at the pilot itself. I think SP just wants to play safe by having shows like YRK and SNS. I agree with you Naitik and Ahem can't act even to save their lives.

      Khamoshiyan, in my opinion was not promoted correctly. Many people did tune it to see it as a love story of 2 NRIs who were settled in London but then the story went into too many directions at the same time leaving the viewers completely confused. And Mohit was sidelined very badly - no 2 questions on that. I agree Mohit is very limited as an actor - basically he looks good only as a rich guy or a lover role but still he could have done something different in this show. Good that he is leaving.

      So like Su was saying above, it seems actors can leave an show any time they wish unless they are in contract. Usually they don't but there is nothing much a channel and PH can do if they want to leave. SP should seriously stop meddling and dictating terms to the actors and the PH or else it will be left with very few of the actors who want to be associated with the channel.

      Delete
    4. Hi Jaya n Sarada :)

      i will just put in what happened in a very similar kind of scenario but with diff ph and channel.. when Mishal Raheja put in his papers for Lagi Tujse Lagan on colors channel.. there was an equally strong uproar bcus his character in that show "Datta Bau" was literally carrying that show on his shoulders.. the PH(Paresh Rawal is one of the partner in that PH) first tried convincing Mishal... so he stayed back for six months then gave a 2-month notice period.. again there was an uproar among the shows fans and the reason for Mishal leaving was very same given by Barun.. he was dead tired playing the same role and Mishal too wanted to try his hand at BW....so this time the PH and channel could not convince him and they went for replacement in Shabbir Alluwalia..the ppl who were watching it for Mishal slowly quit watching the show and the show got closed down i think 3-4 months down the line..but whatever news about the quitting came was the same from the actor/ph/channel..there was coordination

      why am saying this is i think this same thing would have happened in IPK too if Barun had gone.. but this was a chance which channel-PH should have taken..it might have run for longer time who knows..or since Barun was free for sometime until Feb-April they might have brought him back for some epis or whatever.. there were many options which they might have thought of if they were really interested

      i was not very very attached to the jodi and had almost given up on ipk story too when this whole issue started so my view is more objective, but i do not we can expect that from fans who would have been emotionally invested in the show

      i do blame the people who raked up fans feelings by giving stupid inside info

      when i like an actor i go and read their prev intvs and see their previous shows.. in one of the very early interviews itself Barun had mentioned that eventually he wanted to do movies.. all i am saying is there is no great mystery in him leaving ipk.. he always wanted to work for not more than a year, but bcus the PH were his friends he extended for 8 more months.. though we were in dark about his plans the PH always knew where he stood..so they could have planned well in advance, which they failed miserably.. the biggest problem of this PH was lack of planning and management. PH leaking the news of Barun leaving was very very wrong, they dug the hole for themselves. I really do not know how they could do it, i cant imagine how any PH head could do it knowing how imp Barun was for the show.. were they even thinking..utterly unprofessional

      Barun had maintained he is leaving for personal purposes always..frankly he really looked unwell during the later part... its just that people did not believe him and trusted the people with sources more.. which was very sad

      the only one time i find him at mistake is that he said break instead of quit, he should have been clear, i guess he was really telling the truth when he said he did not know he was so famous, i think he thot ppl will get over his departure and he might not have an idea about all this conspiracy theories first so when he came to know they did that intv with Gul and in that the teaser which came out was Barun mentioning that he is quitting for personal reasons, i really do not know why Gul edited that out.. that was a mistake she should have shown the whole part, but i doubt ppl wud have believed him still as they were busy reading his eyes:(

      he just wanted to go quietly.. he really did.. i find him the kind of person who would want to move on in his life without creating much controversy .. whoever has worked with him has always told that he tries to keep himself away from controversy as much as possible.. i feel bad for him

      Delete
    5. after seeing Barun in ipk, i went and watched his BHPK.. loved his comic timing there, but the epis at the later end of the show did not have proper storyline too, but he still did it

      like he said in his intv with Gul ..y will he speak abt the storyline and create problems for himself that will not put him in good light..Barun crying and all i really had the biggest *head desk* moment.. he worked in a call center for 7 years.. he has seen the real life more than many of the ppl who were writing about him in the forum..he definitely wanted to leave on good terms..he wanted to explore more in terms of his career and its not a crime

      the ones who call themselves his saviour did nothing but make him look like a lying wuss.. i think if these ppl wud not have meddled Barun would not have been bashed so much and each and everything he said or did would not have been dissected so much

      as far as standing up for Sanaya.. i lol when i read it.. Sanaya can very well stand up for herself.. she knows Nissar and Gul from much earlier than Barun.. she has been in the TV industry from much earlier than Barun and she is from Mumbai herself and so has been around with these ppl and also i think she knows better than these ppl with sources as to whom she should work with and with whom she should not be it channel or ph. She will work with ppl who she is comfortable with and will safegaurd her reputation. She putting down papers..she having problems with Gul.. all utter rubbish

      confusion was also added by that Keenel person.. first i thot its GH, but now if i think back it can be anyone who has good writing knowledge.. GH is on very good terms with the channel and PH even today so i dnt think he will do such a stupid thing and get into trouble.. it might have been someone else but surely someone from the PH...it was like washing dirty linen in public .. if i was Gul, Gorky or Nissar i wud pronto filter my staff..do background checks and weed out these kinda snitches..it will prove costly to the PH otherwise

      i think the major harm those ppl who gave inside info did was to claim that Barun has XYZ movie offers, he has offers from colors and zee channel etc etc.. SP and Colors hate each other. who knows which SP agent was trolling in the forum and they would have thought Barun was lying to them . it might have hurt ego of SP and its very obvious SP has huge ego issues.. they waited for the SPl and pulled the plug it was their way of punishing PH and Barun for not being transparent with them and not bringing them into the loop much earlier so all this embarrassment would not have been created during the SPL.

      guess it will take some time for things to cool at the end of the day there are no permanent friends or enemies in the entertainment industry. if tomorrow they find something financially viable SP might work with both PH and Barun again.

      I will repeat what i said in one of my posts yesterday. i will not wish for such well-wishers even for my enemies yaar as those sourceful ppl really did a lot of harm to Barun. if they take a step back and look at what they have done(or doing) am sure their own conscience will tell the truth, but will their ego let them is the question. God those ppl r sooo very wrong on so many levels sometimes i really feel like laughing at the extent they go to prove themselves right.

      i really hope Barun learnt a lot from all these. Even as an outsider i have really learnt a lot from this fiasco. If he is smart enuf he would have learnt too :P.

      i really as a viewer would like to see more of Barun for his talent doing meaningful roles be it tv or cinema :)

      Delete
    6. OMG!!! look at the length of my comments :P

      Delete
    7. And you were fantastic!!!Agree all those inside sources did much harm than good to Barun.

      Delete
    8. *applause* nandini.
      I agree on most of your points.

      'it might have been someone else but surely someone from the PH...it was like washing dirty linen in public ..':

      It could have been any one of the '200 people' whose livelihood came from the show. When Barun decided to quit- they turned nasty. Gul and Co. might easily forgive Barun, they are more understanding- the ones lower down the ladder are unforgiving. And I think it was more of a knee-jerk reaction...the persons concerned may not be that bad- just their actions had far reaching consequences they had never ever dreamed of. In a way, they dug their own grave, when all they wanted to do was lash out at Barun at his so- called 'unprofessionalism'.

      On Gul filtering the staff- well, things went bad for Gul with Geet also. She ended up getting all the blame- Geet fans continue haunting her to QH too - ...

      Gul really does not have to do much to earn fandom's hatred- so, I guess there is no point looking for reasons as far as she is concerned.

      Delete
    9. Zee_News, the lady who gave out the news of Barun's notice first, claimed she got clearance from Gul to do so. So either she's lying through her teeth, or Gul was truly so unethical. Zee_News is completely unreliable, though ... she is Barun's worst basher ... I think she really can't get over the fact that BS/SI overtook GC/DD as most favorite jodi, so she hates them both with a passion, which would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. So she may be lying that it was Gul, but agree with you, Nandini, it had to be someone from the PH. But I still don't understand WHY ... actors DO quit ... if the entire cast and crew knew that Barun wanted to leave and they were okay with it, why leak the news till the PH was ready to do so?
      And then Gul came out and defended Zee_News, but not Barun when he denied the news ... so the trouble started then ... ZN and Gul were both bashed for defaming him, and I think the phangirls never forgave them for making BS look a liar. Hence the backlash and all that poor little BS being bullied by big bad witch Gul fiasco ...
      And Barun compounded it by promptly denying he was leaving ... I can't blame him too much, he must have been told to keep quiet, and he didn't realise that he would end up being branded a liar ... but if his friends troll the forums, then why didn't he come out with a clear statement MUCH earlier? Once he knew what mess the phangirls were making?! That was when he and the PH should have made a joint statement ... instead Gul does a Coffee with Gul morning, where people start reading his eyes and other such crap!

      And now she's doing a Koffee with Sanaya! I'm even scared to think what the reactions will be *Rofl*

      Delete
    10. Nandini, Agree with you on your points. The thing the PH should have done when Barun gave his notice was to hold a simple press conference and should have given out a simple consolidated response - what is happening and what is next for the loyal viewers of the show. Things that were not needed was

      - Deliberate leak of the news to a 3rd party person when most of the creative team were not aware of the news of BS leaving - utterly callous and unprofessional on the part of PH.

      - Forum32 outburst saying "Story has run its course". Doesn't portray the PH in a good light and doesn't indicate that the PH was willing/intended to continue this show after BS left.

      - No need for the spokesperson of the channel trying out different riddles for the IF people to decipher. The PH should have come out and had a talk out in open. No need to do a "Gul on couch" interview too. All the interview did was riled up fandom more.

      - lack of planning and mismanagement on the show. It was very clear the PH lost interest on the show given that the leads had very limited wardrobe and the shooting was mostly in RM - Even gupta house was eliminated in the end. They could have planned a better track to exit the lead out. It was a colossal mistake on PH's part to not understand why their show was such a big hit. Had it been any other ordinary actor who did ASR's role, this serial would have fallen flat and wouldn't have garnered this much of fan following. What were the PH thinking.

      And somehow the channel might have been shit scared too especially after the huge SPL response - They clearly knew that after BS's exit there would be even more of an uproar and decided it was not worth the risk and replaced it. Kaali was supposed to go in 6:30PM slot after Ruk Jaana went off air. It was the same category and frankly Kaali was meant to be a short 6-8 months show. SP always wanted SLB's show to take IPK's place but I think they weighed the pros and cons and decided that it is better to go with Kaali than with the IPK fiasco still hunting them. Also the TRPs not available played to the SP's advantage - they didn't have to worry about No.1 GEC tag.

      What the PH/Channel could have done was to wind down the story with all the loopholes closed and could have taken the NBT route - a second season way. They could have finished off all the loops including past and could have paused at the point when Arnav-Khushi are happily married with a kid. Freeze frame and after 4-5 months they could have continued the story, depending on which of the original cast wants to be in the story post leap and could have gotten a new love story to weave. This would have given the channel and the PH a loyal base to follow the show and this kind of bad blood would have been avoided. All in all a utter mismanagement both on the channel and the PH part. And blaming everything on Barun was downright unprofessional.

      I agree barun should have been more forthcoming in what he wanted and should have clearly mentioned his wish but SPL might have also played a big part in his "longish break - no idea - quit" story given that the SPL tickets were bumped up to 350 pounds only due to Arnav-Khushi mania.

      Delete
    11. cont post 2

      And GH is now no longer with 4Lions PH. QH is not written by GH. He is with MB team, somehow I think the PH did lose out its creative team too in the whole fiasco as bunch of creatives walked out. And I think in entertainment industry no one is completely out for any reason. For the same reason *I know Dia might kill me for saying this* I think if SP is not No.1 GEC after SC's debut also, there is a very high chance/probability that by mid of next year you will have a IPK kind of show on SP with(I am thinking 90%) BS-SI pairing. There is a reason Bollywood repeats hit pairs because you have the ardent fans of the jodi as your ready-made audience. And definitely there is a lot of audience ready for this jodi and SP needs a damn good show to get the No.1 GEC spot. SP always had 280 GRP points plus or minus a few. Now after digitalization, SP has actually lost its viewership and Colors and Zee have picked up. SP needn't look far for the answer. The reason is both Colors and Zee do have the shows that cater to niche audience and that is what is pushing the TRP meter for them. SP has no show which can be correctly called a path breaking show save for Veera and the stupid honchos have the show airing at 10:30PM when it would have gotten good family viewing audience if the show is shifted to 8:30PM or the 7:30PM slot. I expect a lot of changes in SP if the trend of SP going down in GRPs continues.

      Somehow analyzing the IPK fiasco is making me confident for my new job - as a team lead for leading projects. I am learning what all I should avoid when leading a team and also *100 ways of how to not dug a hole for yourself* when I analyze this fiasco and most importantly how to manage a crisis/curve ball in the team during the middle of the project.

      Delete
    12. Nope, I won't kill you ... :P I believe in non-violence
      But read my post above re: T&C for BS to act with SI again ... :)
      With any other actress, I don't care what he does.

      And I hope you're wrong, because I don't want to wait till next year to see Sanaya again. Besides, if she is employed by Star, Star won't wait either. She can come on a show now, within the next 3-4 months ... SP is already floundering in the ratings, they won't wait till next year to get a show like IPK back on air, they will do it ASAP. And BS is not available ASAP.

      Agree with you about Veera, though ... they should push that to 8 pm. It is a beautiful family show and should be seen by kids.
      Forgot ... PKDH is also doing well. So it's the 7.30, 8 and 8.30 slots which are dragging SP down big time. And really badly - they are all around the 1.0 TRP mark ... no wonder SP has lost it!

      Delete
    13. correction in my earlier post - it would be *100 ways of how to not dig a hole for yourself*.

      Dia, I think it was a deliberate calculated move on the part of PH to leak the news to a media person. Zee had very good relationship with Gul during Geet time it seems as she was seen quoting her friendship with Gul very often and then authorized her to leak the information. That was like giving a missile in hands of a mental person. It kind of exploded like never seen before.

      And Dia, my gut feeling the koffee with Sanaya will be the same and why do I feel the objective is to absolve Gul of the IPK fiasco. I don't understand why does Gul need to resort to Koffee with the cast members when a simple press conference would have resolved everything. And also now most of the fans have moved on. Aren't this the same PH which keeps on advocating the fans to move on - I am now seriously wondering who is the one who is stuck in the past behind. I seriously would be pissed off at Gul if she uses Sanaya to just clear her name. Enough of why IPK had to be closed down.

      Delete
    14. Dia, I am very happy that you are a believer in non-violence. We need to have some Gandhiji alive in us(off topic today is Gandhi's death anniversary. I did visit Raj Ghat when I had my Rajasthan-Delhi trip in Oct 2012 and I really felt so small and insignificant to stand in the place of his samadhi. It was a very overwhelming feeling for me. To actually visit the place where the great man was laid to rest).

      Actually I meant mid to later part of this year 2013. Somehow I am still stuck in Dec timeframe and when I meant by mid of next year I did mean mid of 2013. Definitely Barun would know where he is standing when his MAMR releases and I predict if it doesn't take off he would be back to TV. I am okay with Sanaya coming in any show but definitely would not want her to do a routine or a Saas Bahu show. The problem is SP has all shows booked for about 6 months Dia, You have Ekta's show coming in , Daag whose cast is all finalized, sherdil shergill and I think some other show. There is no empty slot available for SP to get a new show. The only shows which will face axe in later part of this year is YRK and SNS. Then there is a chance for new show for Sanaya to come in. I think we all missed out on the bet we had going as to when Sanaya would be back.

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    15. Dia,

      Don't worry about Sanaya - Barun. Don't even think about it for the next 2 years at least.(It took 2- 3 years for KSG to come back, right? This, despite being offered IPK when he was sitting jobless. And Barun is only as good as KSG. But seriously, I think/ hope his movies do well.)

      Sanaya cannot sit jobless till then.

      Gul is coming out woth Koffee with Sanaya? Is she planning to do a show with her soon? :-D

      If so, I want Viraf- OTT Sanaya and Karan Wahi- mature Sanaya. Can't they get her to play twins? (We will both get what we want! :-D)

      Psarada,
      I think GH is the only one who left the sinking ship- I am hoping Hitesh Kevalya will be roped in for the next show. LM is back with 4 lions. He is co- directing QH. The other big names- Arshad and Hrishikesh Gandhi also preferred to stay with the PH. Jainesh was also a writer for IPK, right?

      Delete
    16. :) :) :) .... IPK ki baat hi kuch aur hai... :) :) :)

      After all this time, it is the one topic that gets all of us back into the bak-baking mode.......lovely to see everyone back on the forum and hope all is going well... Not watching much TV except for bits of Veera - luv the kids in there for the awesome work they are doing...will check out downtown abbey next........

      Delete
    17. Su, Jainesh was the writer who was roped in by the channel when Ved raj left. He is from the channel and not from the PH and was not associated with the show from beginning. Ved Raj is also not with the PH any more and so are GH, Janaki and Hitesh. These were the core creatives who were with the show from the beginning.

      Delete
    18. Psarada,
      If Jainesh is from the channel, what is he doing in QH which is aired in Zee? Or he was so impressed with the PH that he left Star?

      And anyway, if you read Ved Raj's interview, the concept is mostly Gul's. She is the one who gives the general outlines. All these other writers might have left because of too much of channel meddling- LM left too. He felt the story was not what had been narrated to him initially. So, he left. Then he returned(prob because nothing else oin TV interested him). And he opted to join QH once he was free.

      Among all the creative cream you have mentioned above, personally, I miss only Hitesh. But then I don't lament too much about it, because the present dialogue writers of QH are doing an excellent job.

      Delete
    19. GH, Janaki and Hitesh were with Sunshine who did MJHT. GH has also been writing SNS for the longest time. They were never solely with Gul.

      I thought Jainesh was from Star. Is he with QH now?

      If Ved Raj has left, all the better for 4 lions. His interview put me off the guy big time. I can't stand people who blow their own trumpet! But besides, I think Ved Raj mentioned a list of five shows he was writing for ... IPK was the only 4 lions one. So I guess all these guys also move from project to project and work on multiple projects. It's not a matter of life and death for them - creative differences arise and then resolve. I know the writer of MJHT season 2 moved from MJHT to BHPH when Rati returned to the show, and the Sajan track was torpedoed.

      As an aside, no wonder the writing of Indian telly shows is so bad! One guy writes for five daily shows ... no wonder they dish out so much crap! When will Indian telly start improving CONTENT of the shows? We have so much richness in our literature - why don't we use it?

      Delete
    20. Most of the creatives writers and technicians in our TV industry move around from project to project, i think some people do more than one show for diff ph/channel and some do one at a time.. for technicians and Production people its usually one at a time i think, but writers i have noticed are more than in one place at a time and space, so no wonder we find almost all the happenings in most of the serial SAME-to-SAME :p

      Almost all of the production ppl, technicians, writers and even actors are good have worked under one roof at any given time be it PH/Channel so most of them are on good terms on each other and when one person takes over work from another they do not take it personally

      i do not think GH ever left IPK per se..since they were still trying to find out a way to move the story and nothing had been finalized he might have not been that involved at that given point in time.

      As Su said the first/highest rung of ppl in IPK would always have agreed to disagree on their views and not take it personally, taking the creative differences in their stride

      More than the ppl from any forum or media, Gul or Barun will be judged by the peers in their industry and by the people whom they have to work with and i do not think ppl from the industry will be very severe on Gul or Barun and consider the mess that happened as a rookie mistake

      Delete
    21. 4lions team have to learn from their mistakes, they have a very good USP for their shows and if planned and managed well i think they can do wonders for themselves and satisfy their audience. Gul is creatively very talented, but she should delegate management/business aspects into more worthy hands then it will work out fine for her. i am hoping they do not repeat their mistakes with QH. I have noticed in the credits that she has brought two ppl i know from LNMDJ into her prod team (Pushkar Kalmarkar and Raj Sinha) and hope they are able to stabilize and do a good job, they both have worked b4 under Shakuntalam so they have good experience.

      Gul's coffee sessions is not gonna help her, i wish she would concentrate on QH.

      I saw in the forum that Barun's interview was again ripped apart by the same set of ppl. I think it was the usual interview, nothing new was said, and he has talked about BHPH and he has actually done well in that serial and he acknowledged it, so i really dont get their anger, i always found the set react really violently for anything from storyline to the fiasco, criticism is good according to me for anyone to grow, but most of the things they say now does not make sense any more

      Delete
    22. i think both Gul and Barun should stop giving explanations..both the set of for/against ppl will not change their minds whatever is said and done.. i think both of them should concentrate on their future projects in order to build a better career for themselves bcus the ppl they have to impress are the large section of the neutral viewers like i find in this blog or outside the forum who will be only interested in what they both bring to the table in terms of entertainment and not much bothered about offscreen issues

      today i saw Jayalalitha's interview on news.. i am not much of her admirer or critic.. i hardly know how she functions, but what she said and how she said and represented her part in the whole "Vishwaroopam" controversy had my attention and put the whole thing under a new perspective.

      i think both Gul and Barun should learn from her :) there is no use flogging a dead horse..whatever said and done IPK is over now its time for them to prove their capacities in their field and impress their peers and the neutral audience..for any entertainer its always their peers and neutral audience that counts the most not your fans or ur haters bcus it must be admitted that Gul or Barun are not yet one of the Khans that his fans alone can make their career.. i seriously think both of them should stop giving explanations.. it really does not matter anymore.

      Delete
    23. i saw that Sarada mentioned "sherdil shergill" some time back i read on some online site that SP refused the whole script or a chunk of it when the producers who i think are "tony n dia" presented it to them and asked them to rework on it from the start.. it was sad to read..so much of hardwork gone waste.. i really dnt get SP .. i think they themselves are confused as to what they want to showcase to the audience.. difficult for any PH to work with such a high handed and fickle channel :(

      Delete
    24. i meant *good terms with eachother* in first comment above..forgive any typos please :D

      bye everyone.. take care :)

      Delete
    25. I read Barun's interview ... I think the guy needs to remember his own words and stop talking about IPK! He puts his foot in his mouth every time he opens it!
      His worst one yet - it's not hard to make a mark here, all you need is to be good looking and speak well. *head desk*
      Dude, that's true for TV actors, but really not for Bollywood, not these days! Look at a guy like SRK, who works like a dog even now ... or Ranbir Kapoor, and even Priyanka, the way they worked for Barfi. Besides, the biggest flaw Barun has as an actor, is his awful dialogue delivery ... does he really not know that?!

      Don't know what his bashers were saying ... they tend to go overboard ... I've noticed his tendency recently to play down IPK and its importance, and he's always talked about the long hours and monotony in TV, and wanting to do new things and getting bored easily. I really don't see him coming back to TV in a hurry ... fortunately for him, there ARE good niche movies being made these days for the non-typical BW heroes, so he can get by without singing and dancing. He may not reach the heights of the Khans or Kapoors, but he seems to be pretty laidback, and might not even want to. As long as he gets the kind of work he likes, he'll probably be happy.

      And *sigh* I WISH he, and Gul, and Sanaya ... everyone ... would stop talking about IPK! I hope to God the Sanaya interview is about HER and her future plans ... I don't want further rehashing of IPK and its ending.
      Besides, I want to know when she's coming back :)))

      I read about Sherdil Shergil getting postponed ... disappointing! The cast has Kanwaljeet Singh and Supriya as the elders from the little glimpse I got - for that itself, it seems promising! Looked like another SGP type of show - and that's what SP needs for the 7.30 slot. Nothing has worked at that slot after they took SGP off! SP really needs to take a long hard re-think as to their new programming ... their creative heads are messing up big time! AND they need to STOP INTERFERING!!!

      Delete
    26. Nandini, Tony and Diya are a good PH, from what I remember, aren't they? Are they the same as DJ's?

      Delete
    27. Dia,

      I didn't know Sherdil Shergil was postponed. I think I saw some promos of the show last month on TV - hmm explains why I am not seeing it anymore and suddenly why Behna going off air rumors are not strong. Sherdil Shergill was supposed to take the 8:30PM slot. I am thinking Khamosiyaan will still be on air for another month or so and would not be yanked off so soon. Hoping things turn out good for the team. It feels hard to see a show bite dust within 3 months of its air date.

      Regarding the interview of barun, I feel he knows what he wants now after the entire fiasco. He knows for sure what kind of roles he is looking for and he is confident that he can deliver on the roles that will be offered to him. He was under confident with BHPH but he has grown in confidence after IPK which comes across now. There are good niche movies being made and he can score well if he makes his decisions well. Like I think he has selected the role of cricket agent in his new movie which would be a strong role and may not be the main role.

      Regarding IPK, he gives credit to the writers for the show and his favorite scene has been the Arnav's breakdown scene. I think people should stop asking about IPK again and again. After all the hard work done(shooting critical scenes in less than 1 hr) you getting blamed for the closure gets to you even if you want to move on and have an objective opinion on the show. Like Nandini says, show is over and done with. I wish people stop asking questions regarding IPK's closure - He doesn't want to say so get the point and move on. And maybe that is why he wants to play down the importance of IPK because now the show closure is very closed tied up with him and he can't talk about it without going over the fiasco and he doesn't want to be dragged in another controversial topic.

      I did follow BHPH when it was on Sony off/on. It was number 1 show for 3-4 months and was raking in decent trps. The show was good enough had lot of senior actors like Vivek, Mona, Himani Shivpuri and even though the show was getting dragged in the end, he did stick up with the show till end. So I would like to think that if he comes back in TV with a good PH(I mean a PH that can shell out stuff and can arrange for a bank of episodes and with good management) he would be able to carry the show till end. In IPK even the senior actress like Abhaji commented that even after 1 yr of the show being launched the team could never schedule the shoots properly. So really want to give benefit of doubt for Barun that he would be able to carry a show till the end if the PH is good and is able to plan accordingly.

      Delete
    28. His worst one yet - it's not hard to make a mark here, all you need is to be good looking and speak well.

      Dia,
      I have not seen or read the interview- but this bit sounded very HUMBLE to me. Seemed to be the same as what he said in Gul's interview- the character was so well written, ANYONE could have done it.

      Poor Barun! He never dreamed it would all come to this- he wanted to leave quietly and now he is being haunted and dissected.

      Actually, I am hoping this is good for him in a way- this way he takes a lot of blame away from Gul- maybe she will thank him later by including him in some project in the future. (Hopefully, a weekend show or a limited episode show.)

      Gul, Sanaya nad Barun always speak highly of each other. Now what is the problem with the rest of the world? Why do they keep pestering them with the same qs over and over again and make THEM ALL GO PANICKY in self-defense?

      Delete
    29. Su,

      Agree with you. Whether Barun wanted to leave or not, he certainly didn't want the show to be closed down and the whole blame be shifted on him. He has always maintained that he had belief in the creatives of the show and that was what he said in the last day shoot of his show. In retrospect he never wanted the show to be closed out but now he is being blamed for something he never wanted to happen. He would have never dreamed things would come down to this.

      Sanaya/Barun have always credited the creatives especially Gul for the show concept and have always acknowledged them for the show's success never have taken the sole success for the show. But frankly Gul has never come about openly praising either Barun/Sanaya for the hard work they have kept in for the show's success. Whenever I read Gul's interview it is always, I have dreamed about this show, I have conceptualized it but no credit for the people who played it to perfection except in passing(kind of like yeah I acknowledge you played well). Waiting for Sanaya's interview to air. I would be really angry if Gul takes the interview only to clear her image and does not credit Sanaya for her hardwork.

      Delete
    30. okay..my thoughts on his intv:
      i did not find anything very controversial or wrong in what he said abt how TV actors are choosen nowadays. I think other than Varun Badola none of the TV actors who are essaying the main leads are formally trained actors, so he is being very straightforward here, yes a TV actor of today will stand out only if there is a very very strong script, most of what is shown on TV specially for male lead does not need much of a talent even in some cases actually....hint: naitik/ahem :p. So, ASR was a blend of very good characterization and talent of Barun, which the creators tapped well. If any other good actor who knew his job well would have been taken up the role they would have worked well too bcus at the end of the day ASR is the joint effort of some 30-40 ppl in Barun's own words.

      regarding working hours he has been maintaining this from a long time so again nothing new here and his role in BHPH.. he has really done a good job i have seen most part of it, specially the last part where his wife meets with an accident, the emotional scene of carefree shravan really was done in a very impressive way, so i guess hes giving credit where its due

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    31. I do feel Barun should very much improve his dialogue delivery. i feel there should be more throw in his voice, so many times i could not get what he wanted to stay be it as ASR or in his recent interviews :P

      i did not find this difficulty when i went back and watched him in Shradda or BHPH, so am really wondering what happend to Barun's voice :)

      i too think hes quite laidback, he just wants to do good work and at a pace that is not too hectic, he might be okay doing films with small prod houses or he might do even a negative role if appeals to him, he seems flexible and not rigid that he should be the sole hero or work only with big ph, etc, etc.

      i think this time he will put in his full concentration on trying to break into the BW mould, it will minimally take at least 2-3 yrs by the time he can guage if his efforts are paying off. BW needs lot of time, if he is serious he should stay focused, no use of again putting legs in two boats it will be unjust to others and he will create more problems for himself too.

      Delete
    32. and yaar forum ka haal math pooch

      i dread intvs of Barun's. Sorry dont mean to be rude or sarcastic, but one intv of his comes and the bashers make topics and start dissecting each of his word left right and center then Barun's fans report and post gets closed then that petition lady comes and gives her pravachan and gyan and then again one more of that bashers toli comes and makes posts about freedom of expression, speech, etc, etc, etc n then the post gets thrashed by mods, everything is quiet for some days and again new Barun intv comes and........

      keeping fingers crossed for Sanaya's intv

      gosh am really bak baking a lot :p

      cyaa all.. take care :)

      Delete
    33. nandini, barun was using his husky voice for most of the dialogues.. we used to call them mumblings.. in a recent video (of the old star parivar diwali show) they call barun's voice phoos phoos.. so everyone in the industry knows that :)

      he does use three or four voices, we can hear in his interviews.. his normal hindi (quiet), shravan hindi, (balwant kaur)hindi, normal indian english and convent school english.. forgot to mention the husky bedroom voice that goes straight to the ..hmm.

      anyway, i think his diction will be better in the movies, because they do the dubbing separately..

      Delete
  14. saw SOTY yesterday.. and am crushing on siddharth malhotra.. when i stumbled upon this spoof, could not stop laughing. try: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enaSFL5eii8

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    1. ROFLOL ... LMAO ... jeez, where did you find this?! Can't stop laughing!

      Mere baalon mein juen ... that was epic! They all look like spoilt rich brats ... are they any good at all?!

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    2. first look, it is an eyecandy movie.. there is a plot, a little set of heart-touch scenes, a lot of boytoy drool scenes(i thought it a bit too much), a ghisa-pita story made watchable by the eyecandy.. like a teen friend told me, when the both of them were on screen, my eyes did not know where to focus..karan johar knows how to showcase his boys!

      rishi kapoor's character broke the story for me. he is playing an openly gay person, crushing on his school sports coach.. gay pride aside, seeing rishi kapoor in that role kinda freaked me out.IMHO it was a bit of an overkill, yet seems like the teen crowd loved it.

      the main cast.. definitely has gone to acting school. except for slight wooden moments, they do express emotion and all. and them looking like that, who cares if they can act? they sure can dance!

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    3. Did anyone watch SOTY on Sony last weekend. It was one horrible movie. Basically I don't know why Karan Johar produced this movie - it was worse than some chick flicks I saw in US. None of the cast could act and no walking around in swimsuit doesn't count as acting.

      And what has Rishi kapoor got reduced to - He was playing a gay Dean but the portrayal was pathetic. He was butt of the jokes and I felt bad to see him act in such roles given that very recently I saw him in Karz(one of my all time favorites).

      And coming to Ram kapoor - He is one guy who will bag the roles of father/uncle to the leads in the coming years. He was too good as a strict business tycoon father. How does Ram Kapoor work in movies(or rather how does Ekta Kapoor work with his movie leave in his serial BALH) is what I felt because he had pretty good meaty role in the movie. And also Ram Kapoor has full fledged roles in "Mere Dad ki Maruti", "Aai" and he did "Ek main aur Ek tu" and "Student of Year" and along with doing Welcome. Seriously Ekta and the whole of BALH team should be congratulated if they are pulling in decent TRPs(BALH is still no.1 show on Sony) even with the lead leaving so many times. Ronit Roy and Ram Kapoor will have a tough fight for the father/uncle roles in the coming years. Both were very good in the movie. Rest I felt will be one film wonder.

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    4. I slept off halfway thru the movie wen it was on sony :P n that spoof is totally hilarious :D

      btw i loved PST too..Irfan Khan is the Best!!!

      have any one of you seen the intv chat..i think on new year's eve..there was an intv on cnn-ibn by Rajeev Masand with Irfan Khan, Aamir Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and the guy from gangs of Wasepur Nawazuddin Siddiqui.. it was too good..

      i think both PST and Kahani were really good.. i did not like Barfi much i felt PC overdid her part..

      btw any of you here like Nagesh Kuknoor brand of films here.. he is one of my most directors among today's generation.. other than 2-3 i have loved all his movies :)

      cyaa all .. take care :)

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    5. *raising hand* I do ... I liked Nagesh's Hyderabad Blues ... but his 3 Deewarein and Dor are just fantastic! I'm sure most people have seen Dor, but if you haven't seen 3 Deewarein, do watch it!

      I haven't seen Iqbal except in snippets on TV.

      Didn't see the intv you're talking about ... I don't get cnn-ibn. Of all the new actors, I like Ranbir Kapoor - he's talented and I think he really works hard on his roles.
      I liked Barfi, but I didn't think it was good enough for the Oscars. I watched 3 movies on consecutive weekends - Barfi, English Vinglish and Oh My God ... 3 very different and very nice BW movies ... what a change from the crap of Rowdy Rathore, Dabangg, Son of Sardar etc. In fact English Vinglish is a film which has more universal appeal, I felt ... the feeling of housewives all over the world of being taken for granted is pretty universal.

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    6. Dia/nandini,

      I didn't see Nagesh's movies being discussed here. How come I missed this out. Nagesh is my favorite director but personally I love Hyderabad blues(partial to it you see as I am from Andhra pradesh and my cousins are settled in Hyd). Dia you ought to see Iqbal - Shreyas was too good as a dumb and deaf cricketer and I personally love the Aashayein song - fills you with such optimism whenever you hear it and it is one of my 'to go' songs when I am down.

      English Vinglish is coming on Feb 3rd I think on ZeeTV. I am looking forward to seeing it. Will give my comments once I watch the movie.

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    7. yes yes English Vinglish tooo..how cud i forget it .. Sridevi was fab :) .. i really liked how she waited n came back only wen she found something worthwhile

      n Dia you should watch Iqbal its fantastic..naseerudin shah is also really good in that :)

      Hyd Blues was fantastic and Nagesh went only from strength to strength as a film maker..have seen Dor n 3 Diwaren too.. first time i was highly impressed with Juhi Chawla.. i really liked how Juhi has made transition in her career..must say very graceful

      Ranbir Kapoor is making all the right choices

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    8. Recently saw 8x11Tasveer by nagesh kukunoor with akshaykumar - ayesha takia. it has girish karnad, sharmila tagore. its a very interesting movie like groundhog day only more serious theme exploring a murder. it was a failure cause pple did not get the idea. its such a nice change to see khiladi kumar in a serious role.
      S

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    9. hii ..sorry dont know ur name :)

      i have seen 8x11 Tasveer..it was really good..infact i was pleasantly surprised by Akshay's acting.. i never thot he could do so well :P ..

      i think Mod is the last of Kukunoor's film..again it was very diff and very well made, but i guess it also did not do that well, Ayesha Takia and Ranvijaya both have done good work in that movie i felt.

      Delete
  15. Speaking of shows, is anyone here watching Downton Abbey? I've recommended it to a few people - in AD, many of my friends are watching it and we're all hooked! Love Matthew ... and love the dowager Duchess - Maggie Smith is simply AWESOME!!!!

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    1. Dia - Happy New Year (although really late :-() .

      I have the Downton Abbey episodes recorded on my DVR, haven't had a chance to watch them yet. But will do so when things get a little sane in AD. I love the series , am an ardent fan.

      Delete
    2. oops ... don't read my last post then :P

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    3. I did :-) but that's okay .

      Indian TV these days is so boring.

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  16. Veera - another thought struck me today ... even though Moti Chaiji is thinking something different.

    The movie "Dushman" - Rajesh Khanna, Meena Kumari, Mumtaz
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dushman_%281971_film%29

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    1. i was really impressed with the republic day play that veera produced... it has been a long time since i have seen any kind of patriotic program, anywhere except DD. the whole act was heartwarming.

      and ranvi's staredown with the duplicate bhagat singh.. he can give ASR a decent run for his money!

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    2. I missed the actual program... will catch it on the re-run. I saw it just when Ranvi gets called on stage for his medal.

      Also saw the new NB promo with the five couples who were earlier contestants ... Gauri Hiten were looking good! Gauri especially was looking lovely! So were Supriya-Sachin and Shaleen-Dolly - why was Daljeet wearing that awful wig? Will try to catch it this weekend :)))

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    3. I watched the republic day program , felt so real just like something we would have done in school back in India.

      Very nicely done.

      This Ranveer actor is something ...

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    4. Sorry , this is Sahana , just in case RD is confusing

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    5. I saw it too, on the re-run ... it was very sweet! Well done! Ranvi was really good! And loved little Veera trotting around all over the place in her tree outfit!

      Delete
  17. Dia,
    About contracts...
    The point I was trying to make is: not everyone can work in a set up like that. Yes, you sign a contract with a 6 month clause etc. when the perks are really good and it is an offer you don't want to refuse. I think these kind of contracts exist more so in the very competetive IT world. For me as a person, I value my freedom dearly and I would consider anything more than the one month clause as 'bond'.And if I employ someone, however small or big my business is- I'd try to make sure I attract the right kind of people who'd be sincere to the institution and provide them the right working atmosphere. It is an utopian concept, sounds impractical, but people have done it- and they have been successful. Ultimately, the employer should make sure the employees are truly happy.

    A distant cousin of mine recently returned from the Gulf - it was his first job after graduation- he had some kind of a contract for a year or something. Poor guy could not come back for that 1 year, even when he badly wanted to return. And now he is enjoying his freedom and does not seem to have any inclination for working for some time.

    Now, employers are different.

    My Q is, if, as an employer, you are confident about the work atmosphere you are creating for the employees - will you feel the need to bind them in any kind of contract other than the universal 1 month notice period?

    I think that was what Gul implied too in that iv with Barun- she felt he should move on if he had lost interest. It may not be good business sense at all, but I feel the PH simply did not bother to put down any severe terms of employment- and I don't think they have learned any lessons from it either. Barun, Akshay, Deepali, Daljeet all had the same contract, I feel. And I guess all the actors in QH also have signed similar terms.

    May be, it is because I am biased; I feel the PH really believes in 'strength based selling': you are free to go if our work does not interest you any more. Unlike EK, who will destroy the career of the actor who crosses her path. And this is the point Sanaya also highlighted- she said, all producers wouldn't be as understanding as Gul.

    Off the contract topic, I read somewhere recently that Mohit had come out supporting Barun strongly- something about creative people needing to take breaks or something.

    Yeah, the whole thing has been handled poorly liked Rajan said. When we see WHO is handling every show on their channel badly, we know WHO was responsible for the poor handling!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Su, I doubt it was a 6 month contract or a 6 month clause - it must have been a standard two month clause. We got news in Sept that he was leaving, remember? And I don't think it was a matter of the PH being less severe - I think most TV actors ARE more committed to their shows for a longer period of time ... very few get the fame and adulation that Barun got as ASR, and even fewer decide to leave within 6-8 months - that is a really short period of time for a lead of a show to leave, that too, a show that is doing so well. Am not talking about side characters - they leave all the time and no one even notices. Of course if actors work for a person like Ekta, they are doubly careful not to antagonise her, because she is known to be pretty vindictive. So no one would have expected Barun to be serious about leaving so early on in the show.

      Anyway, that's all water under the bridge now ... but SP needs to pull up their socks sharply and give their PH's the creative freedom they need. Other channels have shows running on low TRP's for aeons, they dip and they recover ... they don't face the imminent axe so brutally that they have to change tracks overnight ... that's what wrecks their shows. And hopefully with the new shows like Kaali and Khamoshiyan both biting the dust with the obvious intervention from Star not helping matters in the least, one should hope Star will learn its lesson to not interfere.

      Of course that STILL doesn't explain why SNS, DABH and YRKKH are getting high TRP's ... not to mention Madhubala ... did anyone see the Sholay episode of Madhubala?! I am still trying to decide whether they meant it to be funny, or it was unintentionally so!

      Delete
    2. Dia,
      I am crying and laughing...
      Crying for Khamoshiyaan- please don't say it has bitten the dust- I still have hopes for it. (though I don't watch it regularly! There was something really sweet about the show.)

      ROFLing- about the sholay episode....It was intended to be unfunny, I suppose. Actually, I first caught the epi after the sholay epi- the one where Malik escorts Deedu outside the police station and tells her she did not do HER bit for the family- finally, he is back in character- and so is everyone else- including Madhu. I was THRILLED! Ofc, felt bad they had killed off the father- I have this soft corner for the villains, you know.

      The exchange between Madhu and RK- 'will she trust me?' 'Ofc, I trust you, silly'- it was actually done nicely. It was almost like the whole creative team changed or something. And then I saw the pre-cap- some 3 reporters covering the sensational news- (RK has lost his popularity or what? Not a superstar any more? )Uffff....

      Madhubaala in the firebrand mode- comes out with some heavy speech- they seem to be writing these historic scenes and the story is fitted around it (or else I can't understand why they had to kill off THE VILLAIN- all he did was make some funny faces-I don't mean that partic epi- but the ENTIRE track!- and hold a gun to Madhu's head and then get killed. I had great expectations, some twists from this mad character. Who kills off a mad man, any way? He is plain mad!Put him in an asylum and allow him to escape later, na!))

      Anyway, I decided I have made my peace with MB- when I saw that sholay track in recap! Boy, am I glad I made that peace! I was ROFL.

      No,it was not meant to be funny. It was an epic scene- did you not see how serious and BRAVE, MB looked with that noose around her neck?

      I have a kosten from the next epi- she says RK saved her life...duh..I thought her mother saved her life!!!!

      'Of course that STILL doesn't explain why SNS, DABH and YRKKH are getting high TRP's ... not to mention Madhubala ...':
      A bigger question for me is, how BV actually manages to be there with this kind of competition- I am loving Jagiya's love track(which I have caught only through the promos..errr...).

      Delete
    3. MB is supposed to be a homage to (or should I say spooof on ) 100 years of Indian cinema. So it is only to be expected that scenes would be exaggerated more than usual, whether one likes it or not. The sholay scene was hilarious to say the least, especially RK flying and then falling flat on his face. I laughed till my sides hurt.


      I loved the scenes that followed that ridiculous scene. The show has a good dialogue writer. Have always loved the dialogues.

      Madhu thanked RK because he did save her life first. If he had not held her up while she was hanging on the rope, she would have suffocated to death. Pads could step in on the rescue act only much later because she was tied up at the time.


      Delete
    4. Ummm, I also like the Jagya and new girl track ... and umm, I have also only seen it on the promos ;))) Hey, it SEEMS like a good track ... maybe try watching twice a week rather than once ...
      Though have to say, I haven't watched BV for aeons! WHY does Colors play so many repeats of Durga Maa and Uttaran and other strange shows ... whenever I switch on the tv, one or the other of those is playing!
      But I did see the Sholay scene ... it was my entertainment of the day. And I swear I saw DD trying to control her smile somewhere!

      As a Sholay lover, I have to say - the original scene really is dramatic, and not comic!

      Explanation for SNS, DABH and YRKKH ... their audience is brain dead and sits in front of the TV automatically at that time ... did Bhabho just give Sandhya YET ANOTHER test?! Disclaimer - This was from the promo again. And sorry to all SNS, DABH and YRKK fans - I watched YRK once upon a time myself. My husband says that I am braindead when I sit in front of the tv, so that's my defence :)

      Actually, I think it's more fun dissing shows than trying to defend them ... :)))

      Delete
    5. the biggest strength of BV, DABH, SNS and YRKK is their continuity..though i do not follow any of these.. i have noticed there is a smooth transition from one plot to another, which helps a long running serial

      Delete
    6. MB has become totally filmy.. i think now they are coming up with leads stuck in jungle scenario(saw it on sbb) :P

      rinse-repeat :D

      Delete
  18. On a completely different note, and since no one here is following Downton Abbey, so I can let it out ... Matthew died :(((( I loved him!!!

    And the idiots killed him in the season finale ... now I have to wait for the next season to know what happens next!

    ReplyDelete
  19. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNPuGTuctig

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. THanks Jaya - that was a lovely piece!

      Delete
    2. Nice one! Ragini makes really good vm's.

      Delete
    3. thanks for sharing Jaya :) .. Ragini's Vms used to be truly entertaining :)

      Delete
  20. if anyone wants to laugh their heads off - and i mean like seriously choke laughing - you have to watch the MB episode of today - it was so ridiculous - it was a riot!

    So the story was supposed to be that RK and MB will try and get the MIL off on account of self defense BUT MB goes on an don and on about women's lib!!! and gender sensitization!!! and gender equality and the recent horrific incidents in society AND to top it all - she actually says I am so proud of my mom for doing this!!!0 - seriously had i been the judge - i would have imprisoned the accused not given them a standing ovation!!! (for in all her argument - it was a loooong speech on the "of course my mom killed the Rasksha and she did a great job" - not "she had to do in self defense")

    After i stopped laughing I actually went all serious and worried - is this is the kind of message you are giving to the youth of your country - that you have to and should take the law in your own hands - if you are a victim - fight back by basically killing off the goons??!!! just imagine what would happen if everyone started killing of criminals at will!

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    Replies
    1. mona, i think that dialogue (dint watch it,)was because the CVs of MB may really support the death penalty of those delhi rapists.. so they thought there should be an act of support and and fervor somewhere in their serial.

      yes, you are right.. somewhere, there is a subculture growing up in india, where the main motto is "the government does not care, you ahve to DIY" among different sections and factions of the youth of our counrty.

      Delete
  21. Hello everyone

    I just popped in to see if if anything has been happening and found you all here talking about our favourite subject IPK, Barun and Sanaya.

    It has been so good to read all your posts and reminds me so much of old times. I have been watching a bit of Veera and Adi and Pankuri, but not on a regular basis. I agree with you all that the little ones are so good, and a pleasure to watch. They seem to be enjoying themselves which comes across on screen. It would be better if they could put it in an earlier spot, I think it would get a bigger audience then.

    Hoping to hear soon that Sanaya is coming back on Star Plus, I will rely on you all to let me know.

    Take care everyone

    Lin

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    Replies
    1. Hey Lin,
      Good to see you back :)))

      Question - has Season 4 of Downton Abbey started airing in the UK? If not, when does it start? Are you watching it?

      Fingers crossed for news of Sanaya's comeback ... I think I need to make a shiddat post for that!!!

      Delete
    2. Hi Dia

      Downtown Abbey had a Christmas special which was really good. Not sure which season has just been on but I will ask a friend of mine who is an avid watcher of the serial and let you know.

      Lin

      Delete
    3. Thanks, Lin ... I will search for the Christmas episode online. Just finished watching Season 3, and I read that they will start shooting Season 4 in Feb this year, so I don't know yet when it will air.

      Delete
  22. Veera ...

    I loved that Baldev's trickery was found out so quickly, and he got a deserving punishment. Loved that finally Bansuri's husband shut her up, that too with her own words. Go, Gunjan!

    Awwww scenes ...
    Ranvi tells Veera 'badtameezi', Veera's face wrinkles, she looks at MC, who knows what's coming and promptly pretends to sleep. The whole MC sleeping, snoring, then proudly announcing her snores are the best, Veera's asking her if she had eaten a tractor, MC's dismay at being found out ... awwwwwww.
    Ratan's smiles at the scene deserve a separate 'awwwwwww'.

    Veera annoyed with papaji for making her Veerji cry. Anybody who makes her Beeji or her Veerji unhappy is in Veera's bad books.
    Veera's prayer at the Gurudwara ... I love all the Gurudwara scenes in this show ... this was no exception.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dia,

      Agree with you. I love Shagufta's portrayal as MC to the kids. The way she pretends to be sleeping when she knows for sure Veera is going to question her was too good. MC loves both the kids unconditionally and that is the beauty of the relationships shown here. Veera is going to be one spunky girl when she grows up. No idea when the creatives will introduce the leap but I really hope this serial is switched to an earlier time until the kids are there in the show. Love to watch their interactions. Ratan, MC, Ranvi and veera come across as the perfect family - one that is so adorable.

      Delete
    2. i just saw yesterday's epi of veera and felt really bad for the wife(sorry not yet familiar with character names). The kids are really cute and adorable. i loved how both of them tell their mother that since they too are missing their dad they will put their Kada/bangle.

      in the precap,. that guy is the father's friend right, why am i feeling that not all is well with the father, has something happened to the father, i really hope not:(

      it looks like an interesting story, but the timings are not at all convenient for me, why dont they shift it to an earlier slot like 9/9:30.

      Delete
    3. sigh...patakhi kaur made me cry today.. twice. what beautiful storytelling.
      that final scared cry from veera, as she was about to fall.. uff. perfect.

      Delete
    4. There is mystery about who the guy Nihal is ... we have speculated here that he is either responsible for Sampooran's death, or he isn't responsible, but does know that Sampooran is dead, and hence has come here to try and help the family, but when he comes here, he finds them all waiting and living in hope that Sampooran will come back, so he doesn't have the courage to tell them that he's dead ...

      The other idea was that he is somehow related to Veera's mother ... but that is seeming less likely to me.

      We've all been cribbing that Veera should be shifted to an earlier slot ... it's a really good show and would do much better than some of the other shows on air!

      Delete
  23. hey, everybody's forgotten QH! honestly, there is nothing much to discuss in last week's show, asad and zoya went to nainital (or whatever obscure place), found out that his mamu was getting his daughter miriam married to the guy who raped her (honor wedding, if you will) zo brainwashes the girl into running away, mamu's ppl capture zoya, bury her alive, asad was left alive because mamu feels senti towards his mooh bola sister's son.. and asad manages to find zoya and Escaape, get handcuffed together, spend 3 days together and come back home.. dont tell any of this to mom..

    mamu comes to bhopal, following info that miriam has come to bhopal... warns asad not to help her.. asad warns zo.. miriam turns up at their house in the middle of the night..zo cant hep but offer protection, in the store room of asad's house..

    meanwhile , raziya's plan to marry humaira to ayan fails because humaira refuses, following ayan's declaration that there is nothing like that between them.. rashid's family decides to leave the mansion following his mom's advice, but raziya privately reminds rashid of some prev blackmail, so they dont go.. ayan calls his dad spineless and leaves house..shireen faints, ayan cancels walkout.

    ayan meets asad, but asad refuses to break his vow, saying his promise to his mom is more important than his love for his brother.

    i'm loving the comedy here.. zoya has started acting more and more like khushi.. and the one liners are hilarious!


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'the one liners are hilarious!':

      J!
      Precisely what I mentioned in a post above. I don't even miss HItesh Kevalya, though I'd love to see his work soon.

      Wow! You've made quite a round- up of the story- now I guess we (he he actually, YOU) can start answering Qs on honour killing and rape and suicide...Gul should not deal with issues she cannot tackle.. ..etc... :-D
      *hugs* and all the best!

      Actually, I think you and me are the only people watching the show consistently.

      Delete
    2. su, yep, i know there are only a few watching it.. that is why i gave a quick recap. i am starting to see KSG and BS are really similar in their andaaz.. the childishness, the seriousness.. no wonder barun landed karan's role in IPK. and that is exactly where i feel the difference between surbhi and sanaya.. surbhi does not have that innocence that sanaya exudes..and hence, when we see her act silly, the audience feels "pagal hain" instead of "awww bitiya paagal hain, par cute hain!"..

      Delete
    3. Mangalpur, not nainital ...
      *pates herself proudly on the back* ... see, I remembered the place! :D

      I saw the burying alive in mud part, then I saw some argument between Asad Zoya, and now Zoya is sheltering Mariam in Asad's house? And they hid the entire story from his mom? Why? And Zoya is hiding Mariam from Asad?

      *sigh* for the same reason that Khushi and Guptas hid the Shyam truth from the Raizadas for so long ... nahon toh story kaise aage chalti ...

      *rofl* at your update, Jaya ... shireen faints, ayan cancels walkout :D :D :D
      Am still not hooked enough to watch regularly ... I catch a scene or two once in a while ... Asad/KSG is good, and I'm liking him (the character) better than I did at the start ... but the big difference is Surbhi ... when Arnav started falling for Khushi, you knew exactly how and why ... here Zoya has been pretty childish and downright stupid all through, so why a reasonably sensible guy like Asad should fall for her is inexplicable.
      And while KSG is as good as Barun, Khushi/Sanaya was far better than Surbhi/Zoya ... I don't get that emotion in the Mitwa here at all ... it's very zabardasti thrown in, and you don't feel the dhak dhak that you felt with Khushi.

      Delete
    4. dia, surbhi-sanaya... exactly what i was talking about in my second comment above. and the song itself does not match.. it should never have been mitwa, because asad did not fall for her yet. he has strange felings around her, but nothing solid (pardon) (uff) (facepalm) (should i delete? no. its funny)

      actually, arnav fell for khushi somewhere after the sangeet.. there was this ajeeb possessive/confused feeling before.. that is where asad is right now.

      Delete
    5. Su, J...well ....i am not watching QH regularly (don't have Zee subscription but i kinda know whats happening with updates and some scenes online...(Su, i know not the best way to watch a serial but atm there is not much inclination at my end) but i do have a certain curiosity about QH....(call it the Gul effect, if u will...hehehe)

      QH...well i don't know the real back story..but i am not finding Zoya the odd element in the so called love story..on the contrary, i am finding Asad the odd element...
      Su, enlighten me on this...whats his real issue about his fighting the attraction to Z...on all accounts, both people are eligible...yes Z has a supposed modern outlook to life, ...is that the cause of friction for Asad, is Gul's hero a chauvinist? i heard him say"i have to stay away from her"..why? whats the problem....Is Gul getting into the trap of building angst for the sake of it?

      KSG appears competent and confident.....Surbhi's emoting..well from what i have seen, the character Zoya is this melodramatic person..given to clumsiness, Surbhi seems to be doing fine as far that brief is concerned but what jars, imo, is her diction and may i say her staccato style of speech delivery..



      Delete
    6. J,
      So, u mean Asad is just chumma fighting his attraction to Z...nothing deeper in that....i always wondered what causes men to fight attraction in reel life...In real life, i thot they just fell headalong into it, gave into the feeling...stayed non-committal or commitment phobic later..thats another thing...but what the heck..it makes for gud copy in reel life....the angry young man....for whatever his worth..

      But somehow IPK always stood out in some sense becos right from the first frame, the apparent distrust/dislike coupled with the physical attraction spoke out aloud (despite the vagueness of reasons)and the refrain just grew stronger with passing days..u could connect with it, empathise with both parties..knew why an Arnav was actually upset with Khushi even when the manifestation was anger....as well as the need for Khushi to challenge him at every juncture almost willing the real man in ASR to surface?

      Delete
    7. Dia, Rekh,
      Sigh... I wish Sandy or Opti were in love with QH the way I am- they say it much much better.

      I’ll try to explain.
      “ now Zoya is sheltering Mariam in Asad's house? And they hid the entire story from his mom? Why? And Zoya is hiding Mariam from Asad?”:

      Asad realised he has some feelings towards Zoya after he introspected on why he had gone mad at the thought of losing her. He knows it is love – and he must keep away from it at all costs. That is because he does not believe in Love- he has declared that to his ammi and Zoya and the whole world much like ASR did to Anjali. IT IS NOT BECAUSE HE IS CHAUVINISTIC. It is just that he has seen the pains of his ammi going through unrequited love and does not want to invite that bane on himself. But he cannot help the concern he has about Zoya’s safety. He waits up for her to return from her usual evening outings (which he resents, but his ammi has never placed restrictions on Zoya- so she is not being a rude house guest), replaces her ipad, mobile etc... And one awkward MITWA moment where Zoya falls on him as she is about to walk out after another pointless argument (totally pointless since he was any way not arguing- she wanted to return the phone and ipad because he continued blaming her for the mariam incident- he just looked down and accepted- refused toi get into an argument with her- *my hero*)- after which he tells himself he is in serious trouble- he better keep away from her. Poor guy!!!

      Delete
    8. Hiding the story from ammi: Asad thought all this was behind them now. Dilaavar maamu had helped Dilshad out in difficult times. Plus he had actually let Asad go quoting his sentiments towards his munh boli behen. Asad thought there was no point in telling Ammi the whole story, because clearly nothing is going to be gained from it- she is only going to feel betrayed by one more relation – when actually the guy has nothing against Dilshad or Asad.

      Actually the guy knows Asad saved Zoya- and he is fine with it right now- all he wants is his daughter back (Back in the burial epi he had said that Zoya was getting punished only because he could not find his daughter- his dushmani is not with Zoya, but SOMEONE had to pay the price for the stain on his family’s honour.) – he wants his daughter back to either marry her off to her rapist or bury her for ruining her family’s honour by running away.

      Now Zoya does not know that Asad knows about the rape story. She had repeatedly tried to explain to him why she had to help Mariam run away- he simply refused to listen. (Jahanpanah does not know that a conversation involves two people.) Asad refused to listen because he felt whatever the reason was, it could have been settled through dialogue.( B...S..t- the damn family was marrying the girl off to her rapist and they would have entertained Jahapanah’s POV over a cup of coffee as the nikah was about to start??? The swine -rapist groom had already arrived.)

      Asad got to know when Zoya was being buried- as Dilavar led him away- he explained why it was important that the girl got married to the very same guy who took her honour,to preserve her family’s honour. Asad was shocked...and Zoya did not hear this convo.
      Now, back in Bhopal- Asad’s ONLY CONCERN is Zoya. (Aaaaawwwww....) He tells her that she has to inform him as soon as Mariam gets in touch with her and warns her that if she hides Mariam again- no onbe NOT EVEN HIM- can save her. He never tells her that he knows about Mariam’s history and will try to make things right for her, nor apologises for not listening to her reasons back then.

      Now, Mariam comes seeking shelter to Zoya- Zoya KNOWS her father and the thugs are combing the city for her- She and Asad had already tried the police- but that had ended with them in the lock up-Mariam’s bro is coming for very soon- she just needs a safe haven till he reaches- DOES NOT TRUST Asad (who, BTW, is known to make just the wrong decisions, like sending her off to meet that goon- groom Akram and all that drama- well, he is not Zoya’s hero yet.) to make the right decision here- he sounded like he wanted to send the girl with her father- let the family settle their matter- so she hides the girl.

      Delete
    9. Rekh,
      ‘is Gul's hero a chauvinist?’:
      I found ASR and RK chauvinistic in their own ways, though both are modern. Asad- believes women should be mild mannered, respectful, stay indoors after dark, grow long hair etc. So, I’d call him a chauvinist too. Plus he has that OCD – his cup has to be wiped clean before coffee is served to him etc..(J, did you see that cute segment on the eve of Mariam’s wedding when Zoya comes under the veil and wipes his plate, glass, keeps the cutlery in order- because she knows these things are important for him- cho chweet!)

      Actually, Asad is best explained through one scene where Dilshad tells him he is not flexible- he cannot understand Zoya because he cannot see beyond HIS POV.

      On Surbhi- I find her quite charming. If you watch the SBS segments, she is very restless and excited- (J, that explains the glint of humour you see in her eyes..)her personality seems to suit the bubbly, scatterbrained Zoya nature. Sanaya is more mature- that comes through in all her interviews- she is very perceptive, has seen a lot of ups and downs. Surbhi is a Punjabi actress- she does not even watch serials- I guess she is pretty excited the way QH has shaped up. (Really, I feel Gul’s characterisations are the best- BUT if you didn’t like OTT Khushi you will HATE OTT Zoya- like most people already do- I fail to understand why.)

      Delete
    10. rekha, you are right, asad is a confident and competent guy, who has accepted the fact that his father left them.. actually, i am focusing on the dialogues to get the characters here, because the artists are not always acting according to the character sketch..

      asad first met zoya , and thought her attractive.. second, she jaywalked in front of his car, caused an accident. he stamped her careless. after they talked, he labeled her rude. when she came to live in their house, he found out she was a very messy person. that was enough to support his dislike. then she went out to a cricket match, after he banned her..with najma, effectively making his sister disobey him.. while lying to his mom that they were going shopping.

      after all this, he decided he did not like his house guest that much.. later he came to know that she was a girl that ran from her own wedding.. think of the bad name that would have caused her family, while she just thought of herself!

      Delete
    11. Su,
      I get ur explanation about why Asad is fighting his attraction to Z...if its about his general dissatisfaction with love....understandable ...i thot it was specific to Z...so i brought out the chauvinism comment...(therefore, i wondered how Gul will bring about that transformation, him accepting love for a modern woman but u say that's not the issue)
      I don't know RK the character well enuf (so i can't comment) but to me ASR was not chauvinistic.. tho he was arrogant and a mean adversary..."low aukat" dialogues were for women in a certain strata of society..(certainly not a pleasant thing about his personality) and but to me his run-ins with Khushi did not reek of any gender bias...he was plain mean to her treating her as an adversary.

      Yes, if i recall..the one time i was disappointed massively with ASR as a character was after the slapgate when in a moment of rage, he says to K that if she hadn't come into his life...his Di would have been happy with Shyam....for me this was unforgivable becos i expected better from a man who had an eureka moment of atoot vishwas a little while ago...and his trust edifice suddenly cracked up...u could well say that comment was certainly chauvinistic....
      In hindsight, i realise the rot had set in to the story in that phase...so i really don't know...

      Su, i actually like Zoya, the character of whatever little i have seen of her...she seems to fit the " i won't look before i leap" mould well and truly. On Surbhi, her emoting is quite gud but i being a shallow viewer, am distracted by her diction...thats all!! BTW, i gave QH a dekko only becos of U, Su.....

      Glad to see Sandy on the blog...now Su..upto u to get her talking about QH....hehehe...
      And i seem to be forgetting my manners...Hi to Nandini...u have got the blog agog again!!

      Delete
    12. J....perfect explanation....
      Su...talked of Asad's general discontent with love and u about his specific objections to Z...a tidy guy resenting a girl like Z...talk of opposites attract!!
      Thank u for the link on BS's interview...actually a very good interview in my view...gud questions....gud answers...i thot

      Delete
    13. 'the one time i was disappointed massively with ASR as a character was after the slapgate when in a moment of rage, he says to K that if she hadn't come into his life...his Di would have been happy with Shyam....':

      Rekh,
      This is the difference in our perception- he he he- missed you.*hugs*

      This was the dichotomy moment that you kept talking about, for me. This was the one event that highlighted ASR being torn between his Di and Khushi. He did not really choose anyone here- but the pain made him hurt Khushi- because she was th eonly one he could lash out at. It went with the flow of the love story for me, especially since he returned the same night and apologised for it. It was not a big deal for me. (I do say some pretty mean things to my hubby when I get into my Durga avataar, which I regret later and sometimes conveniently forget to apologise for too- well, usually he would've done something to irk me- ...so I am able to relate to it. :-D)

      Delete
    14. he was terribly hurt that his di was hurting.. and that despair made its way into words that unintentionally hurt khushi. i thought that was very well portrayed in the scene..( he did not MEAN to hurt her.. but i felt that needle piercing khushi's heart, as well as if i were her.. )

      Delete
    15. Ok, now I understand Asad and Zoya a little better ... thanks, Su and Jaya! And yes, I didn't like OTT Khushi, I put up with her only because Sanaya managed to make her bearable ... so I cannot really like the scatty Zoya. I get that Asad is attracted to her, but that's just it, Asad is attracted to her because he's the hero and she's the heroine ... I don't see WHY and HOW a man like him can be attracted to a girl like her. Whereas I could see the attraction and the reason for it, with Arnav Khushi - it was better written and acted.

      *rofl* I can see Su and Rekhs are at it again :)))
      I was furious that Arnav lashed out at Khushi that night, but I was even more furious at Anjali's duplicity ... I wish they HAD kept Anjali grey for a while longer, it would have been interesting, and completely understandable - a woman cannot forgive the other woman in her husband's life so easily, so I was happy at Anjali being resentful and possessive, and at Arnav's need to balance. But his methods after that were wrong, and that was where his character destruction happened for me ... he never told the family the entire truth about Shyam, never cleared Khushi's name in front of the family clearly and never took the blame for the suddenness of the marriage on himself. I didn't like the way he blackmailed and forced Khushi to come back when she left over the contract issue - I think we discussed this just a day or two ago. That part was badly done.

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    16. Su...no diff in perception....
      I just felt the writers could have achieved the same result with a bit of tinkering of dialogues...i rebelled at Arnav's choice of words not his need to lash out in pain...
      The objective was K's withdrawal from the scene so as to accentuate Arnav's dichotomy....It was as much about her insecurity as it was about his pain...
      To me the words...that Di would have been happy if she had not come to their lives..was an insensitive comment...usually our words rarely belie our real process of thot in anger...hence we always resort to say "i did not mean it"...while its easy to get away with that in smaller quarrels, i bet it would be diffi if the charge is serious...this is all i meant....
      Oh...Su...u and I have the most atrocious misunderstandings...*rofl*
      I abs agree with Dia on how the part of K coming back was stupidly done in IPK...pata hi nahin chala what the fuss was about....
      Yaar...kar kar diya tum logon ne IPK ke naam par...meri bak bak shuru kar di..ab bhugtho!!

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    17. Dia,

      I agree with you. The track of Khushi moving away - Arnav blaming Khushi even in passing after Di's abortion drama and Khushi holding her fort over the contract issue could have been done better. The object or rather the reason Khushi moved out was she didn't know where she stood with respect to the relationship. They could have explored the sensitive issue - her fears, her insecurity understood by Arnav and he proposing remarriage for their sake(not only for Khushi's sake but Arnav too should have wanted to do it because it was the right thing to do). Then they could have gone with Anjali giving an ultimatum to Arnav to choose between her and Khushi(here Anjali could have been turned grey and not dilly dally between soft Anjali to victim Anjali) and we could have a sibling rift. I so wanted to see a sibling rift and Arnav walking out with Khushi and going to Gupta house and protecting both Khushi and Anjali from Shyam. The entire Dadi drama could have removed off and when Arnav tried to do background check on Shyam he could have stumbled on the past link between Jha-Gupta-Raizada. Could have kept the characterization of each and every actor intact and we could have seen a better show. I never understand why the tracks were so jumped from one aspect to another - mostly it was like things were added at the editing stage - like Arnav says to Khushi to be ready the next day after the whole 'I will not go whatever' track. Why does he say that ? no idea and suddenly you have Raksha Bandhan and both are okay and then you suddenly jumped into Dadi. Likewise in kidnapping drama I felt they should have opened up past of Shyam - why he wanted to marry Anjali ? why he needed the money/riches of Raizada and all that stuff then the next part would have gelled well. Hmm somehow I think too much meddling with everyone included resulted in a khichdi of sorts.

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    18. 'like Arnav says to Khushi to be ready the next day after the whole 'I will not go whatever' track. Why does he say that ? no idea and suddenly you have Raksha Bandhan and both are okay and then you suddenly jumped into Dadi. '

      Psarada,

      This is what I saw.
      ASR blamed Khushi for Di's mishap- she did feel like she was partly to be blamed- packed her bags to leave. ASR returned, apologised-even used the contract as a threat Khushi stayed back. Di's drama contd and Khushi realised that Anjali could not tolerate her any more- she moved out.

      She did not give any reason, so ASR thought she was still upset with the fight they had.Khushi had mentioned the contract again- but all she meant was that their marriage was not real. He did not have to sacrifice his sister for her sake. She did not say that to him, because she had not understood what she meant to him. (That realisation came much later thanks to dadi.)

      He tried to make amends- very nicely at first, when that did not work, he used force and blackmail. Khushi was forced to come back to RM.

      The day after RB- Anjali sincerely thanked Khushi and acknowledged her as her sister- in -law. Khushi had no reason to stay away from RM anymore. She had thought she had come in between brother and sister- Anjali had decided to move on and accept her by then.(Rekh, don't even think about it. I refuse to talk about Anjali. :D)

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    19. Su,

      See the Anjali and Khushi talk happened after Raksha Bandhan. But I could never understand why the whole day Khushi was okay with Arnav - given that the day before both were having a talk about the status of their marriage. No discussion, no talk about what the future is and regarding Anjali I always felt the characterization was never coherent. On one hand she was saying that she wanted her chotte to be free from past demons but on the same hand she called up Shyam to meet her in RM, one who supposedly had kidnapped her brother. What I mean to say was the continuity and growth in characters was never there and it was not consistent. And I still will say, I never wanted Dadi to insult Khushi thereby leading to remarriage track. I wanted Arnav to do it because he felt he has to give Khushi her proper respect in the society and then I always wanted a sibling rift. Both Anjali and Arnav standing up to their respective spouses thereby leading to Arnav - Khushi leaving RM and going to GH. And there the whole past should have been got out. Dadi was not needed IMO. And Su, call me Sarada like everyone does here.

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    20. My take on what happened between Arnav and Khushi that last day ...
      Arnav had already realised that it was his talk about the contract that had driven Khushi away, and that's why she was staying at the Guptas - she was waiting for the end of the contract period, and then she thought the marriage would be over. She hadn't realised what she meant to him ... rather, she had hoped after the kidnapping track, that she did mean more to him ... but he broke her heart yet again, when even after all that, he told her to stay back because the contract was not over yet. So she thought that was all he was telling her to do - stay till the duration of the contract. He never repeated that he loved her and that was why he wanted her to stay, neither did he say that he wanted the marriage to be permanent. Instead, like a fool, he repeated that the marriage was indeed temporary.
      Of course, Arnav meant no such thing ... he knew he had said something unforgiveable to Khushi, about her being responsible for Shyam straying, but he saw that Khushi had taken it completely to heart, and now she truly believed that not only was she responsible, but that Arnav also actually thought so. And so did Di. So he had made her feel that she was the cause of the whole mess, and he would not be able to persuade her otherwise ... while he tried to think of something to persuade her, he had just used the contract as a stopgap measure.

      In that final confrontation in the Gupta house - that topic was finally brought up by both of them, Khushi had been avoiding the topic, because exactly like Arnav before her, she was afraid that if she did ask, he would just repeat that yes, the marriage was just for six months and it was now over. Besides that was exactly what he HAD said, so why ask him yet again?
      But when he brought it up, and pointblank told her that she was running away because of the six month clause, it was finally in the open. And then he told her to come back.
      This is where I feel the dialogues and the scene went wrong. Because this is where the contract actually ended - or rather the issue of the contract ended - it finally was about the real issue - DI. But they didn't bring it out effectively enough in that scene. If you notice, after that Khushi started trying to make overtures to Di - till then she was running away, keeping out of Di's sight ... but once this contract business was over, Khushi did know that the marriage was for keeps, and so she had to make the first move towards Di. And notice that the contract talk never came up again between Arhi after that.
      It was actually very subtly done ... problem was it was a bit TOO subtle ... it should have been brought out a little more clearly. But I liked the way Khushi slipped off the plaster off her leg ... and said that ok, no more lies ... that was when it was done. It was about Di now, but neither wanted to say it out loud.

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    21. Dia, Like you said it was TOO subtle. This kind of things throw out the characterization - one which has been built up for a period of time. Once the contract was up there should have been a 5-10 mins of dialogue from Arnav-Khushi about what this marriage means for them and why each reacted the way they did regarding Shyam. And one dialogue from Khushi - 'Kaash aap hamse ek baar poochte toh shayad hamari shaadi kuch aur hi hoti' and this should have waken up Arnav to the fact that he brutally murdered her dreams of a perfect marriage thereby leading to the proposal of remarriage from Arnav's side. Frankly I have no idea why Dadi was introduced and then she went away as swiftly as she came. The point is when you spend time in creating your characters so much - don't murder them at the tail end thereby leaving a very bad taste for everyone. The very good shows which are going for 3+ yrs score in this department - meaning they have a continuity of the character and the tracks gel in well with each other and in this area IPK sadly flopped big time.

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    22. dia,, thanks for the explanation.. this point had flown right by my head, now is when i finally GET it. and sarada, youre right, this was exactly what should have followed.. but then, dadi was a positive influence on arnav, because, as payal once said, once dadi came, arnav became far more demonstrative in his love.. and shyam calling dadi was indeed a plausible idea... but the execution was so patchy.. and the IF reviewers were vicious in their hate of stopwa, did not give the character any chance of a say.. if dadi had finally seen khushi's good side, just like ASR did, and been manaoed, it would have been sweet..

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    23. Yes, that was what I wanted too ... for Dadi to stay back and see Shyam's exposure, and realise that she had been hoodwinked. And of course more revealing of the secret of the past, what they should have done was make Dadi the villain of the piece, who had separated Garima and Arnav's dad in the first place, or else had contributed to the MU in Arnav's mom's mind ... this way it just seemed that the mother Arnav Anjali idolised so much was a weak woman who took her own life over her husband's infideltiy, never mind that her own daughter's marriage was the same day. And Chachaji and his role was completely forgotten! So Dadi's story was another loop that was opened and never closed.

      That's why they need writers who are dedicated to the show, and not spending their time flitting between 5 different shows. And when you write a storyline, you need to write the entire background sketch for each character before you start shooting ... especially a story like IPK which DID have a lot of scope.

      Delete
  24. Happy New Year!

    I can see R&R and the bak bak gang is going strong. Good to know somethings never change.

    IPK still rages I see...so as Aamir said in Sarfarosh
    "Davaa bhi kaam na aaye
    Na koi dua lage
    Mere khuda kisiko pyaar ki hawaa na lage"

    *ducks to evade any random flying objects*

    Am happily off TV and back to my Zen state of music and books. Not even rewatching that which abruptly ended - TWAE.

    Found a few new things to love, looking forward to a heady crush with a new city but feel good to come back home to all of you.

    Ab Is Pyaar Ko Kyaa Naam Doom? ;)

    P.S: See a new girl on the blog - Nandini Rao. Hello!

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    Replies
    1. Wonderful to hear from you, Sandy.
      Happy New Year! *hugs*

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    2. Sandy *hugs*

      Good to see you back here ... have been meaning to reply to your mail ... will do so soon *kaan pakad*

      *rofl* at the moment, I feel exactly like those words you quoted ... kisiko Iss Pyaar ki hawa naa lage!

      Hope all well ... share your new loves with us, and give us more to do more bak bak about!

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    3. Huggs Su and Dia!

      New loves well next music movies books post I guess :)

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    4. Sandyyyyyyyyyyyyy*Hugs*

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    5. Hii Sandy :) Happy new year to you too :)

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    6. Shwetha,

      The no of y's will give ekta's fetish for k's a complex :)) Huggs bey!

      Hi Nandini,
      I am glad that one more has bitten the bak bak bait :P

      J,
      Hi bey!!

      Anitha,
      Hi!!

      NEW BAK BAK TOPIC SUGGESTION: Its the Valentine Month? What's cooking with the gang here?

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    7. Sandy,

      U come clean with ur plans....u have been talking of new loves...hehehe....
      nice topic tho....

      Delete
  25. http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=3415895
    teamsarun starts their retrospective of their bombay trip

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    Replies
    1. That was so sweet! Thanks, J.

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    2. Awww, that brought back memories ... :((( Thanks, Jaya!

      Want Sanaya back ... NOW!!!!

      Delete
  26. barun's recent interview
    http://www.tinselgupshup.com/news/view/126/White-Knight.html

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    Replies
    1. Pretty decent interview, actually. He highlighted the fact that he was dead tired. Yeah, we could see that.
      And he says it is all acting- a smart channel and PH should be able to offer him what he wants- a character with a substance and a show that starts out with a particular number of episodes in mind- precisely what we all have been screaming for- tellywood has to wake up to this fact if they want Barun on their channel. He is actually speaking for ALL THE ACTORS in television, not just himself.

      Loved the way he emphasised on most of the credit deserved by the creatives. On BHPH being his favorite- understandable- back in SPA Awards, I had noticed that he was not as excited as Sanaya about IPK. He was pretty cool about it even back then. BHPH was his first- and it earned him a lot of appreciation- what cemented his decision to take up acting as a career- so it will always be his favorite!

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    2. Actually *sheepish look* it put me off, sorry to say! Since my new favorite show just ended Season 3 with the death of the lead actor in an accident, and lo and behold, there are NO petitions to call him back, instead we're waiting with bated breath for the start of the next season to see what is going to happen to his widow! I guess the Indian audience *stern look at Su and others* is not ready to accept that a woman can have a life without her husband ...
      *sigh* I just said I loved Matthew, and the next night I saw the last episode of season 3 :(((

      Seriously, though ... one thing which put me off was Barun saying that making it as an actor is all about being good looking and being able to speak well - Su, he was talking about acting in general, not about ASR! Sounded incredibly shallow!!! Unless he meant it was about being noticed ... I don't know, it just sounded totally stupid! Consider that good looking actors are rare on Indian TV and even BW, and the most successful ones are definitely not the most good looking.

      And secondly, he spoke about ASR becoming monotonous by Feb, when he first wanted to leave ... when ASR had just about started to change, so I did not get that at all! If he felt ASR had already become monotonous for him by then, when there was so much ASR still had to go through, did he contribute anything to his character at all after that?

      I honestly feel that TV the way it is will not hold much attraction for him today, and if he remains clear about these conditions, he might not hold much attraction for producers, unless it's for weekend shows. The success of TV shows is measured by their longevity ... in India, they are unbroken, but even in the West, successful shows are ones which go on season after season ... FRIENDS went on for ten years, and the same six actors kept us entertained with the same six characters for that long. I don't think they ever said they were brain dead, or fed up of their characters - they knew very well that those characters made them millions!
      So am now not sure whether it was the gruelling hours that bothered him, or acting the same character for six months - if the former, then a better PH might do the trick, but if the latter, then what? Cameos in shows?

      Anyway, as I really don't see him coming back to TV this year at least, I guess the question is moot for now. He's clear as to what he wants ... the question remains whether he can change the system enough to get it. If he can, good for him. Enough on Barun and his choices ... let's move on!

      I wish there would be some changes for sure ... seasons in shows for one thing, with breaks for Diwali and other festivals ... if in the West, they take Christmas breaks, our Indian actors should be entitled to their holidays too. But much more importantly, as Sanaya also said ... CONTENT ... like we discussed above, with the same writers writing 5-6 shows each, content has become crappy. Even 4 lions, which started off with fresh content - Arjun, Suvreen Guggal, Geet, has now fallen into a rut - Geet, IPK and QH are all variations on the same theme. In that sense, SLB's Saraswatchandra is at least a step in the right direction, although the choice of novel is very doubtful.

      Enough on IPK ... we move on to the next target - SP.
      If SP doesn't get Sanaya back soon, they are on my hit list. At the moment, grown up Veera is my hope - they can shift the show to the city when Veera grows up and have a mixed rural-urban scenario for a while. No harm dreaming!

      Delete
    3. dia, i feel that he did not gel with the character ASR.. is why he left the show.. yes, the character gained him fame and all that, but his heart was not in it.. if he knew the script and the length of the show(500 episodes), he simply cannot say he signed on the show for just a year... he knew the character was the mainstay of the story, he could not have missed it! now it makes sense, what he said during SPA.. anyone could have played that character, it was written so well (please, accept some other actor as ASR, allow me to go!)

      overworked in a job that he did not particularly like.. so he jumped at the chance when movies called. makes sense.

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    4. Yep, I guess so ... pity, really, they auditioned so many people for the role, they got a great actor, and he lost interest in one of the best written male roles of Indian telly ... I wish more then ever now that they HAD let him go last Feb, when he first wanted to ... I think SP played heavy uncle at the time, and he also agreed, because he was getting good money. If he'd left at that time, they would have had to replace him, and got a more committed actor, and the PH might not have lost interest so soon. And we might have got some of the story we were promised.

      All that is okay, but I hate a story being left incomplete ... I would dearly love to know what the original story they had planned was ... before SP started interfering, and the Barun fiasco happened ... the role was so well written that I tend to agree with Barun, any decent actor could have played it!

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    5. stern look at Su and others*

      LOL.
      Oh no! Stern looks for me and patience and gandhigiri for others! What did I do to deserve this? *hugs*

      Yeah. I guess I am a little too unreasonable about it. Notably, this is where I firmly disagree with GUL AND SANAYA too. (Now, I can get Anandi moving on...Akshara moving on...NOT my dream couple. )

      Yes. ANY DECENT ACTOR could have done it. KSG would have rocked- why did that idiot want to sit jobless for another 18 months? Viraf , Gautam Rhode and many others too, probably. (But I am glad Barun did it- it was nice getting to know a person like him.)

      But NO ONE could have done Khushi- NOT DD., not Surbhi, not Pratyusha, NO ONE. Only Sanaya could have brought so much life into a character. She made me fall in love with Khushi even when I did not believe in her.

      I saw that teaser of Gul- San interview. This is a 'dream come true' for me- two of my FAVORITE media personalities- and I mean it- I am really not a die-hard fan of any of the BW actresses and have not followed any woman director as closely as I have followed Gul. So, seeing both of them together is a real treat for me.

      Gul, don't be a fool. How can you let her go?

      Has anyone thought of this?

      Gul wanted to tell a story.

      The first time, the channel shut down.
      Next time, the show shut down.
      What will happen the third time? Will she be third time lucky?

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    6. Totally my theory, no firm proof or rationale whatsoever.

      KSG was roped in.......All was set, it was then that trouble erupted for KSG in the form of everyone finding out that as a married guy he was having an affair with 2 other women..jen and nicole. So in such a scenario, there is no way Star would have entertained such a guy who was in the midst of a PR crisis. So they must have said, get us someone else. So the easiest way to talk about the replacement was that KSG had prior commitments aka movie.

      Anyone debunk this, as I said this is just what I think must have happened.

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    7. Dia, if you really want to know what Gul's original story was, you would have to SEE ALL here shows...As every show is a mere extension of the other.

      See they say, People never found out about Maan's past.
      We know Arnav's past.

      About blast from the past further, you have to see QH. So watch all her shows, you will get the full story in installments.

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    8. *rofl* Shweths ... as usual I think you've hit the nail on the head! But for that, Zoya has to hide a deep dark secret from Asad, and there has to be a hate marriage between Asad Zoya ... abhi tak she hid Mariam, and I think he already found Mariam or suspected she's hiding her.
      Also I think the shatir dimaag is developing slowly with each show of Gul's ... Asad does seem to be smarter than Arnav in this regard!!! He figured out that Zoya was acting weird ... that was a tough one, considering Zoya is pretty whacky to begin with! :D

      Btw, KSG was roped in, the first articles had him paired with a new girl. Then he was dropped - I think it WAS because of his personal issues ... so they got Barun. Again I think Nissar knows KSG from DMG days, and I know the creatives of DMG loved him for his acting. When KSG sorted out his personal problems, they got him back on board ... the guy is lucky they stood by him and gave him a second chance. Vaise he came back to DMG 2 when it was sinking so I guess it's been mutual.

      Anyone watching NBT 2?

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    9. Shwetha, I agree with you in the sense Gul takes stories that she couldn't show in her previous show and tries to show them in the new show.In a way she is going around beating the same bush. But like Dia says it would be little impossible to show hate marriage in QH and take the story extension after Arnav-Khushi's hate marriage and show it here.

      Shewtha, your logic is really mind-blowing in why KSG was not roped in for ASR. But may be it makes sense - Guy had the worst PR anyone can ask for and it would have been tough for the audience to accept him as a flawed yet good human being. I think his image started to improve only after his marriage to Jen and maybe that is why Gul again offered him lead in QH you know once he started scouting for roles in TV.

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    10. okayyy, can i please put what i felt :)

      i think what really excited the reluctant Barun to take up the show was the script and i think the original story was very diff, even in intv with gul they both seemed terribly disappointed that they could not do what was actually planned.

      if we see the tag line who knows may be ASR would have been phased out with another positive lead who might have been KSG entering for kushi.

      like i said no one holds grudges when their works get taken over and if this was the plan then it would have worked well for all concerned parties, Barun would have been let off to pursue his BW dreams and the PH would be happy to work with KSG who was their original choice..and All happy :)

      BUT, the Star parivar awards totally changed everything..SP seeing how famous barun/sanaya as arnav/kushi had bcm became greedy and played the big boss and may be SP did not let it happen as they found the arnav/kushi jodi as a golden eggs laying walla goose that too in international market

      correct me if am wrong, but Gul stared conceptualizing QH sometime after SP awards right or was it earlier..

      okayy this is my theory only, please bear me :D

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    11. for me the hightlight of this intv was this:
      "TG: You have played some interesting characters on television but would you consider Arnav as a turning point?
      BS: Ummm...I don’t know. Career wise, I might be in a better position to answer that question a year from now. However, if you talk about numbers then yes, IPKKND is the biggest show I have been a part of. It was a massive production and I received so much love and appreciation from the viewers. So in those terms…yes, this was a huge show for me."

      he is clearly acknowledging that ASR is one of the roles which will stand out whenever his work on TV is considered, but he also knows that whether he will be able to sustain on its fame is something which he will know only after his future ventures materializes. He very well has the idea of how fickle the audience is. i think he knows that ppl who liked him as ASR may not like him in his future roles, so he knows where he stands and that is good for him.

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    12. Absolutely right Nandini.....

      Also, the fact is any male actor having some semblance of ambition of playing roles of some substance on television (at a later stage or even on a diff medium) will recognise the danger of being typecast in roles like ASR...even if we accept that it was fairly well-etched role, there is nothing stellar for a hero on Indian television....as is so evident.....if he had stayed on...he would have reared kids, handled parenting issues and after a couple of time leaps,and eventually performed the wedding of his children, all the while looking into Khushi's beautiful eyes...i don't how that sounds to others...but for a shallow viewer of a romantic story like me, it sounds like the death-knell of an epic romantic tale. So, in a sense, it seems better to have a start to end finish tales esp based on themes of romance

      Ok, by no means am i stating that there is no market for other interesting themes beside romance(veera is a case in point) its just that there has to be right fitment of role to actor..Somehow i can't imagine 28-30 year olds playing fathers to 12-14 year olds.... i don't watch BALH but my sense is Ram Kapoor/Sakshi Tanwar atleast look right for the parts they play.

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    13. Okay, can I just make a point here ... the feminist in me rearing her head ...

      No one is denying that Barun had the right to move ahead in life and follow his choices.

      Then why did people not grant Sanaya, and the rest of the cast, the right to make the choice to stay on? Why then does it become all about Arhi and their pure love story which should not be sullied? If you grant that Barun had all the right in the world to move on, because the story or the show didn't excite him any more, and he was getting offers that excited him more, then Sanaya was excited about the new track which would show the growth of Khushi (hopefully) and anew innings for her ... why is her choice wrong? For both of them, Arnav and Khushi were just characters, Barun felt that he had given all that he could to Arnav, but Sanaya still felt she wanted to do more with Khushi. Khushi's growth was definitely not yet complete ... she had a lot more growing and maturing to do. And that's why Sanaya was very clear she wanted to stay on and the show to go on. Why are her choices then put second to the wonderful love story? Barun chose something else over Arhi, why not Sanaya? Just because she was continuing to play Khushi, and people couldn't bear to see their fantasy world disrupted? Barun was the first to disrupt it ... for his own career ... why can't Sanaya disrupt it for hers?

      This is where the double standards arise ... which I do not like.

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    14. rekha, i think you are mistaking 4L with Balaji..

      IPK was called a lovestory in 500 episodes.. from the beginning. we almost reached 400.. and the other 100 could have been the BFTP. so IMHO there would have been no time leaps. also, if they kept to the original premise of the story, ASR was much darker.. barun said so in his interview with gul. it was slotted to end in feb, and so it would have.. almost two years.

      now considering that we are in february and the last three months went by in a blink, nothing special would have happened if sobti had not quit.. i think they would have ended the show right on schedule, whether they told their story or not.

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    15. Dia,

      what you mentioned has nothing to do with being feminist, its about fair play, majority of the cast/crew wanted to continue until feb so they could have been given a chance though i doubt the PH would have done any miracles or wonders considering they had already lost the plot, but the bottomline is that they wanted to go on for some more time and test waters, which they should have been allowed to do, when colors could have let LTL go on without Mishal Raheja, SP could have taken the risk too, but i think SP was pissed off with this whole offscreen drama on the online forums that was fanned bythose sourceful inside informers, i really dont get why they did what they did, no one absolutely gained anything out of it, it was a big loss for everyone actually

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    16. Nandini,
      That's exactly the point I'm making. Call it feminism, call it fair play, the fact is that people now are defending Barun's right to move on, yet the same people (I'm talking on the forum, not here) were strongly criticizing Sanaya when she said she wanted to stay on, she was ready to romance another guy etc., and bashed Gul and LM for thinking of a new love story for Khushi. Either you talk real life for BOTH, or you talk reel life for BOTH ... you can't defend Barun's right to move on, when you know that has effectively ended the Arshi story, and in the next breath attack the PH and actors for wanting to stay on and start another story because the Arshi story has ended.

      Whether the PH would have done justice to it, is another matter ... SP's decision is yet another - I said then, and I still say, SP made two very stupid decisions at that time - one was downright unethical and below the belt, and that was the ticker blaming Barun - HE didn't hold a gun to their heads and tell them to end the show ... but his fans on the online forums did, especially those 'sources' who created the mayhem which did play a role in SP's decision ... the second stupid decision was to pull off the show at four days notice ... they could have instead given it two months notice at that time, and given the PH a chance to salvage what they could Considering that the PH had been dealing with an unsure male lead for the last six months, they did deserve that much. For that second decision, SP has already been served its just desserts - Kaali has dragged them down off the top spot, and I feel that Khamoshiyan and Behna have been affected by that - most people watching IPK stayed on to watch Behna, IPK stopped, Behna also plummetted - many people (including myself) tuned in early for IPK and caught the last few minutes of Khamoshiyan ... and might have started watching the show because of that ... that audience was also lost.

      And for the first, I hope Barun does do well in BW, that will show SP the finger for being so nasty to him when it wasn't really his fault (well, not all of it!) Karma is a bi*** !!! A lot of people were affected by those two decisions - Barun had his second line of defence, so he's ok for now, but Sanaya lost a plum role on the leading channel, and it will take her a while to come back.

      Delete
    17. Dia,

      I was only talking about male roles on Indian television and choices....BS quitting is only the subtext in the point.

      If u r asking why San and others did not get to exercise their choices, when BS quit...to me the question can only be answered by the medium. It would be strange in my view, if one actor's decision to quit infringed or undermined a co-actor's individual choice.

      The prerogative to continue with the serial was with the medium. If they felt competent they should have made the plans and carried on with it...They had all the powers to do so...including the backing of the cast and apparently the PH too..It was surprising that forum opinions of a few thousand faceless fans counted for a leading GEC to pull the plug on a TV serial which was fairly successful. Not for me to comment if their decision was solely guided by these demands, and i remain surprised at a leading GEC handling the end of IPK in a thoroughly silly manner.

      Yes, for me IPK meant ARHI, i won't deny that ...but i wouldn't have demurred if it continued without Arnav or Khushi becos its an individual's choice...there was always the remote and frankly how can i say how it would have been received if it had progressed to that part....for all we know it may been well received by the people even after BS's exit but thats a call the leading GEC refused to take...so for me it was the party that had to put the money where its mouth is...that can best answer this question

      J...i am not sure if got ur point right on 4L and Balaji..if u meant that 4L wouldn't have done the things that Balaji does...my point was not about 4L at all...it was about the channel- SP and their methods of self-preservation on how they may have wanted to turn IPK into a YRKKH...(responding to Nandini's earlier post on SPA)

      Delete
    18. i agree with Rekha that IPK wud have definitely become YRKKH part 2 bcus of SP interference

      regarding them taking abrupt ending decision, i think somewhere the forum opinions did contribute to some extent because frankly speaking IPK never did well by the standards of domestic audience. If TRPs were considered as the evidence of its popularity, IPK mostly catered to audience outside india, so forum opinion did make a lot of difference in business sense for SP and their international sponsorers

      also the news leaked by ppl with inside sources revealing that Barun has got xyz movie offers and plum offers from the biggest rival of SP, the colors channel did not go well with them i feel

      somewhere SP felt insecure about all these and like i said before this abrupt decision i feel is more of their ego being hurt for keeping them in dark and out of loop by PH and Barun in this whole issue until it all came to their notice when things really heating up in the forum and ppl actually started calling their call centers.

      most of the time SP gives longer notice period than 4 days, i dont remember any serial being shut down in 4 days. i can think of no other logic other than the huge ego issues being played out here. SP is famous for its ego tantrums, it acted in a knee-jerk reaction and not as a leading GEC with business ethics or sense at all bcus after IPK its really losing its spot very badly and it can be clearly seen

      and i agree with Dia, its unfortunate for Sanaya as it will really take some time for things to fall into place for her, hope she comes back in a good show soon for the hard work she put in for IPK inspite of how her character was butchered

      Delete
  27. someone's cellphone video
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4TBll489go

    ReplyDelete
  28. Hey!!!
    how is everyone??good to see so many discussions going on!!

    i have not watched any show after IPK ended...am getting my updates here :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Ani,

      Good to see you. Just crash landed here after eons myself.

      Delete
    2. Hi Anita!

      We are supposed to be moving on, and yes, this is a part of moving on....
      *hugs* and welcome back!

      Delete
    3. Ani: *Hugs*good to see you.

      Delete
    4. Hi Anitha, Nandini here, joined the blog this week, but used to be a silent reader :)

      Delete
  29. Is it only me, or do others also feel that Gul is overrated (ducking from Su's chappals!) - no but really, i have reasons for saying so:

    - she cant do math, we already know that - Ayaan was about 2 when he first came to Asad, that time Asad's mom was having her daughter. BUT Ayaan's sister is elder than Ayaan's, how?

    - Gul can concentrate on only one lead at a time - we saw that in IPK and now again in QH-
    Asad was coming across as a well etched character he had his old fashioned hick ups but he was fair - he cared about 'doing the right thing' - hence he sent the creep (don't remember his name) - Zoya's fiance to jail! etc
    Then, Zoya was the silly crazy character - (sorry can't get the pizza on sofa out of my head!) - she was supposed to be sweet but crazy but came across as spoilt/ rude coz she did not respect the people who housed her

    Now - Zoya is coming across as a strong girl, standing and helping the wronged and the hero is basically quite spineless (takes after his dad, does he?) He saw what almost happened to Zoya yet said/did nothing. HE knew why Mariyam was being married off and that she was without support or money and he does nothing??? (ok i get it he wants to protect his family but he still could have helped the girl once she landed on his doorstep) - and this guy was the one who wanted the worst punishment for Zoya's finance's family!!

    Gul NEVER closes loops - what happened to the budding friendship between zoya and Asad's dad? asad had mentioned his mom worked - where? how?

    Guess why i am annoyed is at her attempt to now show the dad as being grey not black - saying there was a reason why he stayed back 17 years ago - but the fact remains the SSW was secretly married for quite a while - then when the truth came out - he had the audacity to get his kid from wife 2 to be looked after wife no 1 and then walked off again!!!!

    Plus how come all families in the serial are creepy - forcefully marrying off their daughters and the only good family is the hero's? (that too his immediate family - his dad is ssw!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mona, please to read Shwetha's explanation above ... for answers to all these kwostins, you have to wait for the next serial :D

      Delete
    2. hahaha - ok then should wait for the next one and considering her attention span is not more than a year, the next season (read series) shouldn't be too far off

      Delete
    3. Mona,

      Basically of all the 3 serials Gul directed, only IPK was little logical in the sense the story was tight(at least till the middle of the show) and the loops were getting closed correctly. Somehow Gul always has this tendency of opening up something and then immediately she jumps into another track altogether when the TRPs come. Have seen a lot in Geet. And in Geet too I felt that Gul could concentrate only on one lead at a time - either Geet was shown as strong woman or Maan was shown as strong. When Geet was strong, Maan convinently had accident/was a complete jerk(and all that) and when Maan was strong Geet was shown to forgive her rapist. It is like assassinate one character to glorify another. Somehow only in IPK I felt both her leads were equal match or maybe Barun/Sanaya rose about the characters written on the paper.

      Somehow for a person who claimed that she is going to break some myths about muslims with her serial, Gul is exactly reinforcing the stereotypes if she is showing honor killing, forcefully marrying off their daughters in this show. I do hope she has a plan and a solid story in the show and it is just not lather/rinse/repeat in QH.

      Delete
    4. i'll tell you what i know.. i have not researched any of this..
      1. ayan is the oldest.. he calls his sister 'nikhat' = he is definitely older.

      2. asad sent zo's kidnapper-wannabe-husband to the police, after hearing her story from his mom.. her silliness has almost disappeared, she was as serious as she could be in that time. he found a new respect for her, and remorse for the way he sent her to peril.. so he went there and rescued her.

      3. asad and zo went to the police straight after their run-in with mamujaan.. there,ulta asya were accused and jailed.. and managed to escape handcuffed to each other..

      4. asad knew firsthand what mamu was capable of.. and did not want that shadow on his mom and sis. s he warned zoya that miriam may try to contact her, but it is his house, and please do not put his family in danger (actually, zo was already on mamu's hitlist, A did not want zo to be targeted again..)..because this was dealings beyond the law, and asad being righteous, could not help.

      maryam has a brother in dubai and she is going to go off to dubai in a few days.. till then, asad wants nothing to do with that baggage. when maryam comes to the door, hungry and afraid, zo melts and grants her shelter.. but since she already agreed with asad to keep miryam away, she hides her.. and yes, yesterday asad found out miriam,(did not shout at zo) arranged for her to stay at another relatives place.. called and confirmed with zoya that miriam had indeed gone..and the final scene had dilshad bringing miriam into the house. (the promo shows a random gunman shooting the trio D-M-Z inside the house.)

      Delete
    5. sandy, great to see you back! anita, wherever have you been?? a LONG time since we saw you.. have you changed shifts again?

      sorry for the vague defense of asad, i did not watch the mangalpur episodes yet.. so am cleless what exactly happened there.. su, help!

      Delete
    6. Monu,

      Hello Hi Bye Bye - Youjj expecting logic - daat deve ka pari!!

      Huggs :)

      Delete
    7. Sandy - hey - so glad i get to hear a daat!! missed you - so u have moved to a new city? hope all is good in AD, change can be exciting and taxing by turns - hope you are having a ball :D:D

      Delete
  30. Did Azad not accuse Zoya of being selfish? Now that she is being selfless, risking her life for Maryam, he has problems with it? I felt he was a little too impersonal with Maryam, especially after he knew what she has been through. Yes, it is taking a huge risk keeping her in his house but he is no longer in Mangalpur where his uncle may wield clout with the police. He is in Bhopal. He could have well ensured that his uncle and his goondas do not trouble them. Instead he tries to pack her off to another relative to hers. Now would her father not look for her there, considering it is his relative? If he felt she would be safer there, I would have appreciated if he himself had gone to drop her there rather than ask Zoya to take care of it. For heaven's sake she is his cousin, not hers. If anything he came across as more selfish (only concerned about his family) than Zoya was.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. he did not ask zoya to take care of it.. he arranged his driver to take miriam to the other house in the morning, and called zoya to confirm that M had indeed left.. now i'm waiting to to see how dilshad got hold of miriam, and why she brought her back!

      Delete
    2. Psarada, Opti - exactly - Gul assassinates one charter to accommodate the other!
      Psarada - fight stereotype? she seems to be building off old ones and adding new ones!

      Jaya - i get his defense but i don't get how he can stand by injustice done to weak little girl who has an alley in her brother - so he basically had to help her only for a few days - i mean - he really is not the 'hero type' if he cant help a damsel in distress and he is now coming across as a very just person (though he did come across as one earlier - when Zo was the dumb blond) so basically Gul cant have two clear characters - one at a time is her motto!

      Delete
    3. Mona, Did you not see her QH launch videos, articles. The one thing she repeatedly said was that she wanted to break myths regarding Muslims and show a different light of the community. I am not seeing anything here *Disclaimer* My QH knowledge is what I read here on bak bak. I agree with you she is not fighting the system or anything - rather she seems to be reinforcing the old and too pretty strongly. I think given the way the country is now reacting to the honor of women especially after Delhi incident, I would have been happy if she showed women in a better light but doesn't seem to be happening.

      Delete
    4. Opti,
      ‘Now that she is being selfless, risking her life for Maryam, he has problems with it?’:

      Why does he have a problem with it?
      If you didn’t notice, Mariyam gave the answer: It was because of his concern for Zoya. He can only remember Maamu’s threat to Zoya’s life and Mariam can see that concern in his eyes.
      If anything he came across as more selfish (only concerned about his family) than Zoya was:

      Asad looks out for his family, FIRST AND LAST. He is not a do- gooder like Zoya. But she will drag him in to doing the good that she intends to do.

      And you are mistaken if you think he was worried about his family’s safety- though he says that- it is very evident that he is concerned only about Zoya’s safety.
      Regarding getting police help- do you think that is going to stop people bound on honour marriage and honour killing? Zoya did ask for police protection, but that is not the answer.That is a sure sign to the father that the girl is hidden there- and from then on they will follow her wherever she goes- (Asad wants to whisk her away, not letting Maamu even get a whiff that she was hidden in his house) The girl has to be hidden somewhere- when Asad talks about sending her to the other relative’s place- well, he must have spoken with the said relative and that person AGREED, knowing Mariam is going to be safe with him(which means father has already come and gone and will not suspect that party again, when he has his eyes focussed only on Asad’s house.)

      And like J said, Asad arranged for the car- he merely told Zoya to make sure she gets in that- even through that convo, he is fearful of Zoya’s safety.

      Delete
    5. Sarada,
      'The one thing she repeatedly said was that she wanted to break myths regarding Muslims and show a different light of the community.'

      What are the myths?

      As far as I know, it is about people following Islam being very rigid and unaccepting of change ( I believe you cannot generalise a section like that- but I do hear that a lot)- and in Dilshad, Zoya , Najma, Nikhat and Ayan- that myth is being dispelled.(And the complete contrast is Maamujaan Siddiqui who proves it is not a myth- but those kind of people exist in ALL religions.)

      Asad is a little rigid, I think that is supposed to be his flaw- his Ammi keeps chiding him for that.

      Are there any other myths?

      Mona,

      He is not a knight in shining armour- NONE of Gul's heroes are that. They are all supposed to be flawed.

      And a little bit of that flaw goes a big way in defending himself and his family- actually, I am really happy you are supporting Zoya here- :-D

      Delete
    6. "I think given the way the country is now reacting to the honor of women especially after Delhi incident, I would have been happy if she showed women in a better light but doesn't seem to be happening."

      We have not discussed QH here, so I guess your understanding of the show is very limited. Disclaimer noted *wink*

      Dilshad- a woman who has single handedly brought up two gems of people and goes about life cheerfully, in spite of the misfortunes she faced. Her only fault lies in the fact that she is too forgiving, but she does not pine for the guy who ditched her- she cares about him, but makes sure he stays away from her.
      Zoya- an orphan do-gooder, a slice of the new gen ( I can see a lot of my niece in her even as the messy house guest)- seemingly irresponsible and irrespectful, but makes an impact where it matters.

      (don't read too much into that- I love her as the crazy scatterbrain with her head full of weird ideas to teach Mr. Rude 6 Packs a lesson or two about respecting women- I love her for that.)

      Najma- the sister who is fiercely protective about her Ammi, cannot forgive her father or his second family, yet understands her bhaijaan's bond with his half- bro...who loves her bhaijaan to bits, she considers it an honour to be orderd about by him (typical cute sis), yet does not shy away from defending Zoya (Hmmm...I think that happens only when she sees she has the support of her Ammi)

      Nikhat- the sister who does not want her 'happiness'(read getting married to the one guy who has loved her in spite of her colour) to create a wall between the brothers- because she is proud of the fact that they have proven half brothers can be thicker than own- brothers...does not shy away from sticking up for her brother's rights- even if it means she has to go against the elders in their orthodox family...

      And last, but not the least- Humeiraa- a silly little girl who fell prey to the social networking system and almost got molested- was lucky enough to be saved by her best friend, Ayan-...foolishly went on to believe he reciprocated her love- chose to think about ending her life, not out of disappointment, but out of helplessness that their situation might force him into a BONDAGE-...and finally, LET HIM go as an act of love- when he was offered to her on a platter.

      I see a lot of strong women characters here and Gul has already dealt with one evil- that of the social networking system- in case you are not aware, this is ONE evil WE have an answer to (unlike rape and honour killing which have no real answers, only ideal answers...)- use it carefully. I think that was a good message to send across to the youth.

      Hmm..regarding rape and honour killing, I guess you have only one answer- IT IS WRONG, but we can organise protests and rallies- sadly, things have not changed much- A VERY REALISTIC picture, I felt.

      (Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see the rapist groom hanging- but after the way our legal system has let us down with one stupid 'minor' clause....I don't have anything much to say.)

      As Zoya said rightly- "yahaan ki Government kya karti hai? Allah Miyaan- what is wrong with this country?"

      Delete
    7. Sorry, forgot to address the last post to Sarada.

      Delete
  31. Dia,

    Tony and Dia are the Dj's only..

    i found this article in TOI online edition today:
    http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-01-31/tv/36658396_1_sher-dil-shergil-diwakar-pundir-ulka-gupta

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. one more TC news, dnt know how authentic it is, its abt another SP serial... lagta hai SP ke grah gati sahi nahi hai :P :P

      http://www.tellychakkar.com/news/swastiks-mahabharat-star-plus-will-see-delay-launch-channel-asks-shaheer-sheikh-look-other

      Delete
    2. They need to do a havan or pooja or something like that ...

      Or even better, sack their "Creative" team which seems to be the most NON creative team going!

      Somehow I am looking forward to Sherdil Shergil, even more than to SC ... I like both Kanwaljeet and Supriya, and DJ's is a decent PH. They did Maryada ... of course they also did Choti Bahu *rofl* what a range!

      Delete
  32. Dia,

    1. yes, the marriage was just for six months and it was now over. Besides that was exactly what he HAD said, so why ask him yet again? :

    This is the argument I never got. This is how I felt, and it was not subtle for me.: Khushi is NOT A FOOL. She could see that Arnav wanted her back. Only thing was that HE couldn’t see that Anjali could not stand her any more. He seemed to think that Di was fine. And Khushi knew that Di was not fine- plus – If Di was NOT FINE, ASR would SUFFER later for going ahead with their marriage- I don’t think Khushi had a doubt about WHAT ASR WANTED, she was just not sure if IN THE LONG RUN the siblings would be happy with that decision. Afterall, Arnav knew her only for a few months, he siblings went much much BEYOND that. And all the while, ASR was happily blind to Di BECAUSE HE TRUSTED HIS SISTER TO HAVE FAITH IN HIM- BIG MISTAKE!!!

    2. But I liked the way Khushi slipped off the plaster off her leg ... and said that ok, no more lies ... that was when it was done. It was about Di now, but neither wanted to say it out loud.:

    Dia, I feel ASR NEVER GOT WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS. He thought Khushi was angry about him bringing up the contract thing-and he knew his actions were sufficient for Khushi to realise that he loved her and wanted their marriage for keeps. DI WAS NEVER BETWEEN THEM AS FAR AS HE WAS CONCERNED.(Hero had a lot of misconceptions about his Di- that is why he was shell shocked when she demanded Shyam back.)

    Dadi: The minute she entered, IF murdered her. I could only hear screams of ‘we want Arhi together’ after that. I really could not see what the mass hysteria was about. Didn’t we all know she was a cranky old woman who had left her grandchildren, had been hoodwinked by Shyam, was stubborn and blind enough to refuse letting Arnav marry her daughter’s murderer’s daughter- I mean, she was just that- cranky and old- why did people want her out the moment she stepped on the screen?

    I know why, actually. Everyone was fed up with Anjali and just wanted Arhi together.

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    Replies
    1. Some random thoughts:


      Why did they not give closure to the contract issue and Arhi never had that heart to heart talk that EVERY ONE wanted?
      Because after that it’d be stupid to let Arhi separate...and separation is what they had in mind at that point in time. (And that heart to heart talk has to come only just before- they lived happily ever after- you will see the same in QH also.)
      Barun had talked of leaving since Feb, BUT HE NEVER LEFT. They always had a hope9 rayther were very confident, knowing he will not leave a successful show) that he’ll stay back. IN Barun’s own words, he put his foot down around November (that was at the and of all the talks- but the confusion started @ end of sep- oct), and it started looking clearer that Barun might actually leave. The AUDIENCE wanted no more of Shyam. He had to BE OUT. So they rushed into remarriage and rushed up Shyam track.

      Now, I can imagine the confusion in the writer’s mind. Should they give closure to Arhi or not? (SP and PH were having meetings one after the other with Barun and Sanaya- there WAS ALWAYS A CHANCE HE MIGHT COME BACK AFTER 4 OR 6 WEEKS) -Should they just finish off Arhi with Arnav walking out of the marriage? I think they chose to give Arhi a fairy tale ending for the time being- (Barun wouldn’t be around for RTR and reunion- so scrapped that-)
      Sheetal was brought in again, as Barun’s exit vehicle- complete with the son- ASR wouldn’t be that heartless if he had a son from an affair, plus Barun could return back later after RTR- but they chose to make Sheetal black in the end- BY THEN it was clear that Barun DEFINITELY WANTED AN INDEFINITE BREAK- so the best thing was to finish off ASR and move on to Khushi.

      Gul has said many times that THEIR SHOWS ARE HERO- CENTRIC...and that IPK was an extension of Geet in a bigger platform. She says the similarities are intended, they were conceived so. And at least a few of us felt IPK was much better than Geet, so, it definitely was an improvement.


      WHAT WENT WRONG?
      Only Barun wanted to leave. Sanaya, Gul(perhaps- since people say she is a baby- killer, I am not sure) and THE WHOLE TEAM WANTED TO CONTINUE. INCLUDING STUPID STUPID SP......BIGGGGGG MISTAKE-
      Ideally, I feel this is what SP should have done the moment they realised Barun was not coming back- given the PH a month to wrap up the show nicely, closing all the loops- THAT THEY DID NOT!!! ( But the way it ended was the best for Barun- he’d have had a huge headache for that one month)

      Ah! I must say this. When I see the confusion that goes on in QH forum...some people hate comedy, some people hate drama and want only romance- people have already started imagining Zoya taking over as the woman of the house with Dilshad injured and going on to IMPRESS Asad- *head desk* *head desk* * head desk*- when will people actually get what Gul is trying to tell?
      I guess, when she stops being subtle- OR when people learn what the character is about (Zoya is an extension of Khushi, I bet).... Should Gul change her style of story telling? I would probably stop watching if she does that, (because I love the way her characters speak through their actions, and their noble thoughts- they don’t look sacrificial to me- for eg. Humeira wants to let Ayan go, because that is what true love does... ) but she’d have a sure winner in her hands like YRKKH or SNS or DABH. I feel Gul can do a BV if she sets her mind to it- but she is not interested- she wants comedy, because she is light hearted as a person, and when Sanaya says there IS NO OTHER character she’d rather do than Khushi- she speaks from her heart- the actor and actress know what their characters meant.

      Delete
    2. Su,

      Only one thing I feel in the entire IPK mess - the makers were not clear on what they wanted to show in the serial. The promos suggested that it would be a love-hate relationship between Arnav and Khushi and there was never a third angle to the story - at least I didn't read any from the initial promos. Okay serial starts and it is a hit then the makers are confused what to do next. I sincerely felt the story they had in the initial draft was a love hate relationship, culminate into marriage and then past coming up and maybe a separation. They didn't have anything beyond that.

      May be they watered down ASR due to SP pressure but at that point if they had indication of Barun moving out and if they had intention of moving the story with second lead, then they should have introduced the second lead and should have built some story around him. See the whole point was Arnav and Khushi chemistry was hit due to BS-SI's portrayal and Gul or rather the PH got the hen which was laying golden eggs and they completely rode only on BS-SI's scenes so much that they completely neglected other pair Payal - Akash and Anjali too(given that Anjali was the central character in the initial draft). This completely made the story only Arnav - Khushi centric and I strongly feel the story of second lead was a last moment thought - something they thought of to keep the show on air for another 2 months. It was not what they wanted or rather what the story was in their initial draft. If it was always in the initial draft we wouldn't have gotten Hamesha, the DM's signs or the telepathic conversations. This was also one of the reasons why fandom was completely riled up - most felt that the story they promised was something which was different. And hence you have the complete mess on/offscreen.

      The PH had golden chance to take this story to higher levels. If they knew of Barun's leaving in Feb then they should have at least planned correctly always thinking what they would do if ASR were to be eased out. Like they say in management classes -"prepare for the worst but hope for the best". They didn't do anything like that and frankly the serial rode only on BS-SI's chemistry. Otherwise this was the only show which didn't have a decent outdoor shoot, decent location for shooting(they always shot in RM and seems like they had only one room which they kept on changing for Anjali/Shyam and Arnav/Khushi) and very limited wardrobe.They practically showed no celebrations/no festivals on a grand scale(at least what the other PH are doing in their shows) and no promotions at all.They didn't have any promo for remarriage and the remarriage was done in 1 episode.

      What I feel is the PH had hit jodi on their hand and they completely let go of everything, they didn't have backup plan and they completely rode on their leads and so when the lead wanted to walk out due to him being burnt out, the whole house collapsed like house of cards. Anyway it is all in past now. We can just discuss but I doubt the PH is even feeling 1/10th of the feelings we are feeling. For them it was a show which raked them huge profits and now they are happily going on with their other shows and only we ardent fans who loved this story are wishing -'kaash IPK on air hota'. I have read so many good FFs on IF wherein the writers weaved such good logic into Shyam's doings and Arnav's frame of mind and what could have happened next, that sometimes I feel the amateur writers did much more justice than the creatives. Aah all water under bridge now.

      Delete
  33. Aha!

    Is there no end to shatir dimags?

    QH: Rashid bought his daughter Najma, a doll that has a hidden recorder- like 20 YEARS back!(I really need to corner my dad on this one) and should I even wonder what super battery the makers used in the recorder...it works even now!

    What do you do to stop a murderer who just shot your host:

    Run behind him yelling, STOP STOP...and Ruko.... *ROFL* - seriously, the only thing that held me from bursting out laughing was the sholay scene from MB which was what I compared it with...and anyway, I ended up laughing at the memory!

    Got to watch the recap of that Sholay scene - I saw the bit where RK comes flying...(Hey, but I was impressed with the flying bit) and caught how RK saved Madhu ..which later paved the way for Pads saving Madhu. So, technically RK saved her- I stand corrected.

    BTW, very poor acting by VD theer- when he shouts 'Balraaaaj...'- no shock, no horror, no fear, no anger...looked bland.

    I liked that bit of the blood trickling down Madhu's face (nicely done- I mean, not original , but very decently done)- though I wondered if a man who was just shot wouldn't pull the trigger of the gun in his hand as reflex reaction, (just like I wondered about Zoya shouting STOP STOP..ROFL again.)...

    High time I stopped asking questions....

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