Aspi has acknowledged on a couple of occasions now that he misses TV’s resident fighter cock. I’ll admit that I’ve missed Javed Akhtar’s (The Drift’s Judge Javed (JJ) - our favorite angry man) spectacular phataakas too! So with not much hope beyond some entertainment from JJ’s angry antics I went back to Mission Ustaad.

Lara still looked utterly glamorous, Rahman was still awkwardly inarticulate (but much less so than the beginning), the polished Simone Singh still wore strange anarkali kurtas and the singing of the four jodis was still top notch.
But...here is the giant let down: JJ seemed to be imbued with the kindest and gentlest of spirits. I was astounded, my jaw dropped and I was filled with bitter disappointment. I come back to see Mohammad Ali’s TV equivalent dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee and he turns out to be a lamb, bleating the most stultifying saccharine compliments.

Well, what brought about this transformation? I’d be holding back much valuable information if didn’t reveal the objective of the weekend’s shows - to spread the message of universal love and bhaichaara. Nope, that is not part of the UN’s MDP; those number eight and have clearly been exhausted in eight weeks of programming. This is TV after all and what show that can draw a half way decent audience can terminate in eight or nine weeks?
I’m not running down the need for bhaichaara, but here is an objective that any real project other than a TRP grubbing TV show would have a huge amount of difficulty operationalizing and developing meaningful metrics for. It of course afforded me much entertainment, though it was overshadowed greatly by the emergence of Saint Javed!

After the first jodi’s (Naresh Iyer and Shweta Pandit) rendition of “Pyar karne waale pyaar karte hain shaan se”, a sher ke tarah garajta hua JJ emerged. “You make lofty speeches, yet you sing populist songs that represent the lowest common denominator. You have no conviction in the goals and yet you hope to reach the UNO with these pathetic offerings” ...he thundered at the dumbfounded young jodi. I leaped off my couch in joy screaming - he’s baaaaack! The light of battle was back in JJ’s eyes and the glint of enjoyment was back in mine.
I paused the show to stick a bag of popcorn in the microwave. Entertainment should be savored with all the trappings! For the rest of the evening, JJ did not disappoint - he was the ultimate equal opportunity sher. He tore into all the jodis equally indiscriminately!

Before I get completely carried away by JJ fever I should add that the Bhramastras (original compositions sung by the jodis) were pretty good and perhaps musically I’d missed something by boycotting Mission Ustaad for so long. I’m away on a trip next weekend, but I just may come back to catch up on the next khufiya objective (which we’ve been assured of by the suave Simone Singh) and hopefully more enraged JJ. I’ll keep you posted.
Also:
- The One Minute Therapist believes JJ has turned into his own critical father
- Saritha suggests some V-day love for JJ
6 comments:
Gang, looks like Google is modifying its comments interface as I'm typing this.
If you are logged in to Blogger, cool - no change it seems. If you use openid like Amrita does, no problems either.
Rest of everyone use the "Name/URL" section and keep your URL empty, its optional.
Some of you also use Anonymous and type in a name later which is fine also.
sidekick, great to have you back on on the Drift doing MU.
You have that wicked tendency I like a lot - which is to take something ho-hum and have fun with it.
Mind Rush sez:
Sidekick, entertaining read! I do wish to offer an answer to your "mind-probing" title question.
I once read Javed Akhtar's autobiography. He lost his mother early on and then longed for his dad's approval.
The One Minute Therapist thinks that JJ has turned into his own critical father. That's who you see thundering at the participants. Makes me think he must be very critical of himself too.
Sidekick, what great fun Ive had reading ur post.I can imagine u rubbing ur hands in glee as JJ finally did what u wanted him to do:).
And as I mentioned earlier about Aspi;s post on Dmd, why do I ever need to watch MU, when u can provide a complete-entertaiment-post instead. Keep posting!
Mind Rush, perhaps not a surprise then that JJ was one half of the famous duo that created India's angry young man. it is interesting that at least as a dad JJ seems to have slayed his demons --- Zoya seems the prototypical angrezi educated young indian, reluctant to speak in hindi lest she embarrass herself (I think!).
maybe JJ would benefit fm advice fm the love chakker?
Great write-up,sidekick.I just finished reading it.
If not for you,no one would have even bothered to watch this show:)
And may be like you said,Mindrush can send JJ some flowers today and also a dard-e-poem.How abt a jadoo-ki-jhappi?
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