after a long, long time, i am actually waiting to be home and switch on the TV.
so what’s gripping my attention these days?
there are two daily serials that i long to watch – Mahabarat and Khatron ke Khiladi.
mahabharat comes on 9X channel at 9 in the night. the best thing about mahabharat is that i do not draw comparison between the old and new mahabharat. this generally happens with remakes of popular TV serials and movies. so when NDTV imagine came up with a new Ramayan, it failed to grip my attention – it appeared as an old wine packaged in a new bottle – the serial has been directed by the same Sagar family.
so why wasn’t i drawing comparisons with the old mahabharat directed by B.R.Chopra?
yes, the story is the same. still the way the director has filmed the scenes gives you a feeling that it is actually new.
not the usual chronological way of depicting scenes from the epic mahabharata. so if the director has to bring the krishna story to the fore, it is not the customary “once upon a time, in a kingdom called mathura …”. in the new version, the story of krishna is brought to focus by Kunti (who is a relative to krishna) who rues about the cruel kansa, the brutal uncle of krishna.
the old mahabharat showed each character as a supernatural being. the new mahabharat shows them as more human.
more so, the story is moving at a steady pace. in a single episode, the director covered six important incidents of the epic – the marriage of pandu with kunti, the marriage of pandu with madri, pandu getting cursed by a sage, pandu giving up the throne and leaving for the jungle, the birth of yudhistra (first son of pandu and kunti), and finally gandhari conceiving through a fairly interesting method – a period as long as two years (according to the serial).
i am loving the serial and bet you too would like it.
however, there are also some points where the serial lags behind:
- the choice of actors is not very good. dhritrashtra doesn’t know how to act. so does pandu. maharshi vyas overacts.
- the pace with which the serial is going is okay for people who have read the epic or seen the old version of the serial. people, who don’t know thru either sources, will be confused or get half baked information.
- the ladies of mahabharat seem to have received the same boon as all actresses of ekta kapoor soaps. they never age. see the mothers of pandu and dhritrashtra. gandhari and kunti appear bigger in age than these two ladies.
about the next serial now. fear factor – khatron ke khiladi is the flagship serial of Colours, a newly launched TV channel.
i wasn’t very excited to see fear factor again. but there was akshay kumar who was first hosting a serial and so it was a must watch. gripped my attention from the first day onwards.
there are 13 female participants, all of them models. they are accompanied by army officers with plenty of experience at stunts.
the stunts are actually daring, puts you on the edges as to what will follow next.
6 episodes have gone by and with each day passing, the excitement is on an increase.
my personal favorites among the participants are yana gupta, nethra raghuram (2 of the most athletic participants). also there are anita (anjali of kavyanjali fame) and urvashi (i have started liking her. its good to see her make faces at the stunts. in last night’s episode, she was seen pleading to akshay kumar for a safety band. ha ha). pooja bedi is good but she tries to act too childish.
6 participants have already left. out of them, i was actually praying for vidya to leave. it was really disappointing to see her pilot – if a participant wins, the prize money goes to the pilot – his dream was shattered – all because of this silly girl who refused to do any stunt – shattered all her reputation of sturdy girl from chak de.
can’t gather any negative points about this reality show.
really a breather from the current package of reality shows that dealt with songs, dance and quizzes. there are so many that i can’t remember any.
so the conclusion is that my prime time views are pretty occupied and satisfying as well. touchwood.
ItyaAdi 
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As a professional music composer of Bengal I would like to say that the background music and the background song of Ekta Kapur’s Mahabharat is not all up to the mark. There is no mythological touch in it. Actually no body knows what type of songs was at the time of Mahbharat. But in all previous mythological bollywood movie the famous music composer like Vasant Desai, C.Ramchandra, Chitragupta, Laxmikant-Payrelal, Kalyanji-Anandji , Rajkamal selected few Ragas like CHANDRAKAUNS, MALKAUNSE, DARBARI-KANARA, KALAVATI, BHAIRABI and by applying frequently in their composition( Of course the songs are modern, commercial songs) in mythological movies like SAMPURNA RAMAYANA,(1960PROBABLY) PAVANPUTRA HANUMAN, (1958 probably), MAHBHARAT(1965), HARISH CHANDRA TAARAMATI(1964 probably), HARIDARSHAN(1973), HAR HAR MAHADEV(1970 probably), B.R CHOPRA’S MAHABHARAT they establish a “ mythological touch” in a mythological movie. It can not be physically defined. It is a precedent. It should be realized by heart. Particularly the songs composed in raga CHANDRAKAUNSE AND MALKAUNSE are considered to be the most effective in mythological hindi commercial movie. The music of Ekta Kapur Mahabharat failed to fulfill these criteria. It is just shouting and full of noise. I have not seen the name of the music composer in the title. But who may be he should take lesson from our previous great music composers whose name are mentioned above by listening to their music. I also composed many tune in many devotional and mythological music video and tele-films. I always try to give mythological touch in my composition. At least it should be different from a song of a modern movie.
thanks a lot for the critical comment on the music composition in the new mahabharat.
sorry but i don’t have as good a sense of music as you. but yes the songs of mahabharat were sweet and echoed in our minds since long. even ramayana.
the new mahabharat lags in this and many other aspects. but what i loved in the new serial was it presented the same old thing in a new manner.
i hope u will agree with this.
the best part of khatron ke khiladi is obviously akshay kumar……
he is the best host yet i seen…
the big advantage of this show is that the indian women are watching this show instead of sas bahu serial…
gr8 to know that. that adds one more feat to the show by akshay kumar. otherwise it was difficult to deviate the attention of indian women
wl have to take my words back on mahabharat.
hey they are moulding the story of the epic according to their whims and fancies.
no mention of kunti’s boon. no mention of how yudhistra and bheem were born. at the time of arjun’s birth, it’s the slokas that tell how indra comes to give kunti the child. who understands slokas here.
i don’t think there was any mention of how balram reached the womb of nand’s second wife.
madam ekta kapoor, i understand that it is your serial and u r the master here. but plz spare the epic. let it proceed in the way it originally is. i and hundreds of people who regularly see your mahabharat will b very obliged.
Everybody should watch the mahabharat mahasngram showing at ndtv imagine. It is quite good serial . At least far better than Ekta Kapur’s Mahabharat. The costumes used are good, the actors are good though Sri Krishna looks like a lady. At least it respect the old imagination lying in the mind of the public years after year regarding the portrait of Arjun, Bhimsen , Karna etc.I have seen only the episode of Karna Vadh. Ekta Kapur shouls watch this serial and learn how to make an Indian mythological movie not AMERICANISED MAHABHARAT.
The figure, make-up, the hair style of the two securities standing in front of Yashoda’s door to protect child Sre Krishna in Ekta’s Mahabharat are horrible. The General imagination of a muscular man of that period is that, he should look like a PHAELVAN with huge body and muscles. Here the securities are looks like a school/college boy of a English medium school/college and they have come from JIM. After looking their hair style everyone will think that they regularly go to beauty Saloon to adjust their hair. Ektaji please don’t spoil our one of the great epic.
ekta u better run. udayan won’t allow u to rest in peace until u make the changes to ur plot, direction, characters etc. now even i agree, as i talked abt in my last post
hi im pankaj from Rajasthan im the big fan of Akshay Kumar i really want to take participate in his program plzzzzzzzz color tell me how can i take participate in tat plzzzzz AKSHAY ur my inspiration nd ur great really really great plzzzzzzzz help me i wnt to take risk in life like u i want to participate in this plzzz tell me
hey pankaj it is good to see the junoon u hav to meet akshay and the adventures in life. but lemme b frank, i m not that big a personality who can get u an entry to the show or arrange a meeting of u two people.
and please keep me out of this. i can’t perform any of the stunts they show in the show.
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
Ekta Kapoor’s much talkedabout show, Kahaani Hamaaray Mahabhaarat Ki, will go on air, earlier than the scheduled date. So now viewers can tune in to the epic from July 7 onwards, instead of the earlier schedule of August 15. The show is slated to be a daily and will be aired on prime time from Monday to Thursday.
This change of schedule has taken place because Balaji Telefilms are way ahead of their deadline and have already built up a huge bank of episodes.
Although Ekta Kapoor remained unavailable for comment, a spokesperson of the channel says, “Yes, we had earlier announced the date of the telecast as August 15, to buy time as it is a big and ambitious show. Also, we wanted to ensure that we have a proper bank of episodes before we begin telecasting. Now that we have built up a bank of episodes, we are ready to go on air from July 7.”
http://kapoorekta.com/KahaniHamareyMahabharatKi/index.htm
Thank God! BR Chopra gave us a good Mahabharat for our children. Imagine had Ekta Kapoor’s was the first & only Mahabharat! Our kids would have thought that 6 packs were compulsory for every warrior and tatoos for every women.
i agree
Ekta Kapur has brought the westernized fashion “Six pack Ab” in her Mahabharat. All characters (Male) exhibiting their open body just like ‘DARD E DISCO. WHAT IS THIS? Does Ekta think that these types of Americanized culture in Mahabharat will attract the young generation? If so then I will say she is wrong. Today’s young generations are not so cheap. Ekta should be punished for producing and spoiling our culture. All characters of Mahabharat looks like the character of modern age. One always expects a sort of super mundane aura to emanate from the mythological characters presented before them on the screen.Ekta pl watch feature film Mahabharat by pradipkumar padmini and dara singh,then watch B.Rchopra’s mahabharat, then mahabharat Mahasangram and learn how to make these types of serial.
in colour channel , Krishana serial is very good. .Good song..good music…heart touching…
I never missed any episode of this serial.
Ekta…please watch this serial and learn something…
I can not stop my laughing when i see the Shakuni character and krishna character. they are looking like Joker, playing drama.
Following serials are very good to watch….i will rate Krishna serial as First,
1. Krishna : Colour channel, 8.30 p.m Mon-Thu, 8.00 am on sunday
2. Tarak Mehta k Ulta Chasma on Sub TV, 11.00 pm Mon-Thu
3. Balika Vadhu : Colour Channel,
4. FIR : SUB TV
5. Mohe Rang de : Colour Channel,
6. Mai Teri Parchai : NDTV imagine
7. Remote Control : 9X ( it is stop)
I will add more one,
8. Mai Kab Sas Banungi” on Sab TV.
hey kamlesh u seem to have a fairly similar interest as me. i like most of the serials mentioned by u.
1. balika badhu is a hot favorite. and i recently checked that it has the second highest TRP. the first was of Bidai (i don’t much like the serial that seems a duplicate of Dulhan)
2. Mohe rang de is also good. but i don’t much enjoy it. anyways it is better than the boring patriotic serial on DD.
3. i liked krishna in the beginning. but recently it has turned very boring. i don’t know y they cudn’t hav taken a boy who cud speak. this boy is very sweet but doesn’t even lipsyncs with his dialogues.
4. i have always loved the FIR serial. but these days i m not able to watch it bcoz of odd timings
5. mai teri parchai is really very sweet
6. remote control is really a breather from the current crop of boring serials. but they are now starting i liked supriya pathak. also loved her in khichdi.
7. didn’t have a chance to watch ‘mai kab sas banungi’. but the promos tell it wl b good. anyways in sas bahu comedies, that are few and far between, ‘tu tu main main’ is the best.
8. also tarak mehta seems to be a boring comedy
so now u have my thought on the various serials u suggested.
colour channel is very good prdict and most sireal very like me. bhalika vadu serial is very good this is india caltural most ifect india pepole.
yeah colors is really good. better than the competition