Nothing OK about this

[1]

Aapko life mein many things ki kami feel hoti hogi, jaise ki nalke mein pani, bulb mein batti, bus mein seat, glass mein daru... But I am sure there is one thing you never found missing — another television channel that churns out the same stories about the same syappas. And yet, of all the things that life could have given us, it had to give us exactly that. Aur irony yeh hai, that it’s called Life OK.

Ok, so this channel is not entirely new — it replaces the old, dying Star One, with one very significant change. There is no Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai.
Life OK has hired hamari pyari Madhuri Dixit to act as the sutradhar of the channel. She appears often, in new-new clothes, to say nice-nice things. Apart from her, there is nothing new about this channel or its shows. There is Meri Maa — a serial about a sad mother, her overflowing pot of mamta and her innocent little girl who is growing up far away from her. Tears, tragedies and overacting all week long.
Then there are two rather vague serials about normal people living normal lives and the token mythological show — Devon ka Dev Mahadev. Going by the looks of it, this show won’t be doing much TRP tandav.
Then there is Saubhagyawati Bhava. Remember that Julia Roberts film, Sleeping With The Enemy, where Ms Roberts was married to a lunatic who would beat her up all the time for no apparent reason. That film inspired a large number of Bollywood atrocities, including Daraar and Agni Sakshi. And now, Life OK will give us a daily dose of one quaking Missus being tortured by her loony Mister. Yuck!
All this nonsense on Life OK is being pulled along by one show and its one helluva cute anchor — Rajeev Khandelwal and his Sach Ka Saamna.
Now we have seen this 21-question torture before, and though it is the same format, there is one crucial difference this time. While the earlier avatar of SKS focused almost entirely on deviant sexual behaviour, this one focuses on corruption and the exhibit every day is one >aam aadmi or aam aurat.
Haan, that same aadmi and aurat who sang bhajans with Anna Hazare, waving the tricolour vigorously. Yes, you, me and hum sab.
I watched a lawyer, a cop and an insurance agent admitting to taking bribes and committing many criminal offences. Chalo, I thought, what can one expect from them. But then came this shocker — Ms Subhashi Bharali, a senior officer with an MNC in Delhi. From stealing money to spying on her boss, from initiating colleagues into bhrasht ways to hurting friends to get ahead, she had done it all, and was convinced that all this was normal behaviour of ambitious people.
Cutie Khandelwal arrives on the show with some inspiring and moving limerick about corrupt Bharat and Bharatiya log. If Cutieji really wants to make a difference, here’s a suggestion: After a sach ka premi has admitted to dhoka, cheating and fareb, and won lakhs of rupees, Cutieji should ask the contestant, “Would you like to give this reward money to the person(s) you cheated?” The answer to that one question would be the real moment of truth — for you, me and hamara mahan Bharat desh.