I do not like habituated TV watching that leaves no aftertaste and so am watching it far less than usual and also because this is exam time and I would like to discipline myself before I discipline my son. We end up watching food shows though as he hopes to cook professionally some day and one of our favourites is David Rocco’s Dolce Vita, a beautiful Italian food and life experience on Fox Traveller. I don’t much care for the kind of food he cooks but want to be reborn in Italy after watching him cook against some of the must stunning backdrops. His Amalfi adventure took us to lemon groves where apple sized, pale yellow lemons can be picked right off a branch and eaten whole with their thin, sweet skins! The bursting with colour local markets, impromptu street parties, sweeping vistas of hills, oceans and picture perfect cities, all brought to life by Rocco’s deep love for his country, its delightfully free spirited people, his interaction with his twin daughters and beautiful wife, make one hunger for something more than just food. He makes one long for life.
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Top Chef is back on AXN and so is Padma Lakshmi who is always beautiful, always aware of it and never really tangible as a warm, real person or a mentor. Maybe, that is a wrong word to use because this show is not about mentoring at all but clinical judgements passed on by self-important judges who watch the chefs from the other side of the table with cold, disapproving stares. If food is about joy and making connections, it is not obvious here.
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Annie Sibonney’s From Spain with Love, again on Fox Traveller is not so much about cooking as it is about travelling, sharing and experiencing diverse culinary experiences with friends in a throbbing country. It sometimes appears to be too personal a journey and after a point, it gets boring to see the host flitting from one pub to another and sampling jokes and tapas through the night with her pals.
Food Safari again on Fox Traveller has fascinating insights into global cuisine though host Maeve O’Meara distracts with her strange T-shirts and even stranger exclamations when she tastes something nice. We love Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson on Travel and Living eternally because they are hands down.. the two best cooking show hosts in the business. Effortlessly charming, joyful and always connecting with their food and those watching them cook.
Indian television on the other hand is a bit depressing these days and I can’t really remember the last time I looked forward to a show or watched it from beginning to end. I am watching V-The Serial occasionally though one can’t miss the irony of a music channel now relying on soaps to survive. I have serious issues with the titillating violence and sexuality of Gumrah-The End Of Innocence even though it is meant to warn the young of losing their minds over family issues, love and friendships gone wrong and addictions and I can’t sit through their other bubble gum staples but V- The Serial is interesting because it craftily twists reality TV. Though it is supposedly ending on March 7, I watched a few episodes and wondered how Ekta Kapoor pulled this one out of her hat after all the other junk she routinely recycles and clutters prime time with. But then, I looked closely and figured, this is the next step in audience manipulation. Though this serial claims to be based on the lives of TV stars, it is not shot in real time but as a story recollected, am sure with necessary additions and deletions. The audience, for most part may not know that and will believe they are flies on the walls of homes where well-known TV personalities unravel.
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It is safe to say then that though the characters are known by their real names on the show, their stories are not completely unvarnished. For one, most of them have airs of superstars who are chased by a battery of cameras on their way to private parties (really?) and have issues with their ‘fame’. But they have interesting love lives and are forever falling in and out of love and moving on or getting stuck. Of the actors, I like Raj Singh Arora because even in a story as make-believe as this, he is real, not pretending to be a star and likeable.
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The other stand out actor is Vikrant Massey who catches your eye no matter how many actors are around him. I have not seen him in any other TV series though he has done many but in this one, he just steals every scene he is in. For a young actor, he has that rare quality you don’t sometimes even see in very big stars..a sense of self. A rootedness and a poise that is a cut above the other wannabe superstars in this show. He speaks very well and does not play to the gallery. The fact that he is making his cinematic debut soon in Vikramaditya Motwane‘s Lootera bodes well for him and us. I was told he is a trained ballet dancer and that makes him even more interesting.
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The star of the show is the writing though. Easy, normal and flecked occasionally with great insights into modern mindscapes as when Vikrant asks a woman in an unhappy relationship, “So how does it feel to be so numb? To feel neither joy, nor sadness? Feels like death, doesn’t it?”
Yes, even in junk, you can occasionally stumble into food for thought.
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Reema Moudgil has been writing on art, theatre, cinema, music, gender issues, architecture and more in leading newspapers and magazines since 1994. Her first novel Perfect Eight ((http://www.flipkart.com/perfect-eight-9380032870/p/itmdf87fpkhszfkb?pid=9789380032870&_l=A0vO9n9FWsBsMJKAKw47rw–&_r=dyRavyz2qKxOF7Yuc )won her an award from the Public Relations Council of India in association with Bangalore University. She also edited Chicken Soup for Indian Woman’s Soul and runs unboxedwriters.com. She has exhibited her paintings in Bangalore and New York, taught media studies to post graduates and hosts a daily ghazal show Andaz-e-Bayan on Radio Falak (WorldSpace).