There is no reason why humour cannot be subtle and real. If only TV shows could understand that…
Two shows started last night on SAB TV. Classed as comedy, Tota Weds Maina and Hum Aapke Hain In-Laws. And we made the mistake of watching. Call it snob values or discerning taste, it was an experience we are not going to repeat. Both shows were not slapstick, except verbally, but they were so over the top that our ears – and eyes, if you extend the metaphor – were ringing by the tenth minute of viewing. Of course there is room for improvement, even a whole mansion of rooms, but only if the funny ha-ha-hysterical-ha is toned down and the characters better etched.
Tota Weds Maina starts with a rather pop-eyed young man, a large dog and a tennis ball. Two minutes later, the young man is dirty stained and scratched, his clothes torn, his idiotic demeanour still idiotically cheerful. He goes home to be greeted by his as-idiotically smiling mother and they do a little run-around the tulsi plant with some fond mum-son chirping. The lunacy travels into the kitchen where a stout, mirror-obsessed lady is hen-pecking her….err…idiotically slavish husband. Everyone is loud, garishly dressed and painfully happy. Shudder. Perhaps Kavita Kaushik will present some redemption in this one, but we do not hope too hard.
Hum Aapke Hain In-Laws begins with a song, a la a Rajshri film. The husband (Karan V Grover) and wife (Pooja Pihal) run around the house warbling, the entire housing society – painted in a delightful pale green and delectably neat (where can we buy homes like these, do tell!) – bright and sunny. As they stand, the loving couple, on the balcony, to the right and left wait parents, one of each spouse. There is a sulky child who wins an award from an (oh, how we cringe, but we have to say it) idiotic school principle, even as the rival family looks daggers. Both in-law fathers vie for supremacy, one in a casually desi way, the other in a rigid (coff coff) military fashion. Could it get worse? We hope not, but there are no guarantees…yet.
So does television hold any novel joys for us these days? Unfortunately, perhaps not!
Catch Hum Aapke Hain In-Laws at 9:29 pm and Tota Weds Maina at 10:29pm on SAB tv from Monday – Friday
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