Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that the ABC series Quantico is about a bunch of recruits at the FBI Academy in the US. That’s not why it’s worth excitement. Quantico is the first time an Indian actor has been cast as the central character in an American television show. Glass ceiling, say hello to Priyanka Chopra.
The opening shot of Quantico’s pilot episode shows debris. The camera zooms in on to the wrist of a prone figure. It wears a wristband with a silver om dangling on it. Attached to the wrist is an unconscious Chopra.
Priyanka Chopra in Quantico. Screengrab.
Then Shah Rukh Khan steps into frame. Okay, no. But I did keep expecting that to happen.
What actually does happen is that we’re shown a flashback from nine months ago, when Chopra is seen jogging in Oakland, California. She says bye to her mother, who thinks Chopra is going to the train station, only to go to the airport and take a flight to Washington DC. We then see a number of other people – a blonde woman who seems to be living alone in a mansion; a priest from Salt Lake, Utah; a Muslim woman in a headscarf, in Logan, Ohio. They all behave a little oddly and are all headed to the FBI Academy.
Oh, and lest I forget, we are introduced to five different versions of the American desi accent, courtesy Chopra.
Chopra plays Alex Parrish – which is either the name of a monastery or a rock star — daughter of a woman named Sita, just in case we needed any confirmation that she is mostly Indian. Five minutes into the show, she does what none of our crossover Indian actresses (and I’m not counting Mallika Sherawat here) have done – she has sex on screen, that too with a stranger, in a car. Not just that, she enjoys it and isn’t apologetic.
Lord hail the Indian actress who believes in playing her role without thinking about how it will affect the hypocritical film fraternity and audiences back home! The only other Indian actress to have accomplished this feat is Freida Pinto, and it’s no coincidence that she’s an actress in Hollywood with practically no prospects to speak of in Indian mainstream cinema. God forbid one of our heroines do something as normal and blasphemous as kiss or hump on screen. She would immediately be considered tainted goods, unfit to play the sati savitri female lead in commercial cinema.
No such hangups in either Chopra or Quantico. Back at the FBI Academy, the new batch is given an assignment that requires them to investigate each other. Cut to the present: Chopra is lying in the middle of the debris without so much as a scratch on her. No wonder those investigating what is described as the worst terrorist attack on America since 9/11 look at her suspiciously.
Alex is told that one of her classmates is a terrorist and responsible for this attack. She’s asked to recount what happened at the academy. So she does and with each cut back to the present, Alex and the audience both realise that nothing is quite as it seems. Alex is in danger, she’s probably being framed, and there seems to be no one she can trust.
It’s an extremely taut first episode. There’s banter as well as twists and turns. It’s also eventful and stuffed with issues. Random sex, daddy issues, pedophilia, suicide — Quantico’s got it all. This is a gripping beginning.
That it’s an ABC Production is evident from the first frame. The world of difference that is there between our Indian TV or film productions and American television shows is heartrending. Quantico’s sets aren’t particularly elaborate and neither are its locations particularly striking, but they all feel real. Unlike what we see in our home productions, nothing in Quantico is obviously a set. Even our really expensive shows like Yudh and 24 come nowhere near these programmes in terms of production value.
However, what is most impressive is what Chopra has achieved. It’s not that our Indian actresses haven’t tried to cross over before. Nimrat Kaur, first spotted in The Lunchbox, is brilliant in Homeland. However, she is very much part of the supporting cast. Aishwarya “No Kiss” Rai Bachchan starred in a number of big foreign productions, like Bride and Prejudice, Mistress of Spices and The Pink Panther. Mallika Sherawat writhed in Hisss and has been Jackie Chan’s co-star.
But Chopra is the first to helm an American show, and that too one of Quantico’scalibre, playing a role that is not defined by her ethnicity or colour. This is a role which could have been played by a Spanish, Mexican, British, Asian, African or American actress. But Chopra is the one playing it. This is no mean feat. ABC is the home and creator of popular and acclaimed shows like How to Get Away With Murder and Scandal. Both shows are pivoted upon women played by black actresses. To have landed a primetime drama series on a channel like ABC is laudable enough. Chopra has successfully also pitched herself against women like Viola Davis of How To Get Away With Murder, Claire Danes of Homeland and Kerry Washington in Scandal.
Usually even when we land a big production, our actors choose roles of shrinking violets and refuse to kiss or show any sexual behaviour on screen – because it’s against our sanskriti to do so. Never mind whether the role actually demands it or if it’s a perfectly normal and natural element of human behaviour. This conservatism has kept them from getting meatier roles. Chopra is the first one to have taken on a role and treated details in its personality — like the random, casual sex in the car — professionally and normally.
Quantico isn’t some tawdry production, like Hisss which had Mallika Sherawat fornicating with a snake. With it, Chopra does Indian actresses a huge favour. She shows international audiences that they can play regular women with the same aplomb with which they play the artificial characters of Bollywood. Whether other Indian actresses will be able to follow her lead remains to be seen and the fact that they haven’t as yet makes Chopra’s portrayal of Alex Parrish all the more applause-worthy.
So whether Quantico gets another season or not – and going by the pleasantly surprising first episode, it might just get a second run – I’m impressed by what Chopra has managed to pull off. Who knows, maybe Priyanka Chopra will do for Indian actresses what Washington and Davis have done for black or African-American women on American television? So a big cheer for Priyanka Chopra, for doing herself and the rest of us brown women proud.
My only request to Chopra: Please decide which of the five accents you want to run with for the show and stick to it. Unless of course that’s another secret that will be uncovered in Quantico — which of the five accents is Alex Parrish’s real one
Hit-and-run case: Procedure
for collecting blood sample not
followed, Salman's lawyer tells
HC
Mumbai: The prosecution in the 2002 hit-and-run case, in which Bollywood star Salman Khan was convicted, could not establish conclusively that he had tested positive for alcohol and the records in this regard were suspect, his lawyer on Monday told the Bombay High Court.
According to the police, Salman, driving in a drunken condition, rammed his car into a bakery in suburban Bandra on 28 September, 2002, killing one person and injuring four.
Salman Khan in a file photo. AFP
"The seal and vials (of Salman's blood samples) were not preserved and this creates a doubt whether the blood samples were that of Salman or someone else's," said his lawyer Amit Desai, arguing the actor's appeal before Justice AR Joshi.
It wasn't clear whether the police constable in fact delivered the samples from JJ Hospital to Bandra police station (to be passed on to the forensic lab); the prosecution also did not examine the constable who brought Salman to the hospital. "All this puts a heavy burden on prosecution to prove that Salman had taken drinks," said the lawyer.
The prescribed procedure for collecting blood sample after a mishap was not followed nor did the police obtain Salman's written consent before taking blood sample, he said.
In the Emergency Patients Record or the casualty register at the hospital, Desai said the word `alcohol' was included by drawing a mark but the carbon copy of the register page shows the word written at the bottom of the page.
"This indicates that the word `alcohol' had not been omitted inadvertently," the lawyer submitted.
As the seals and vials of the blood samples were not preserved, only labels were available for the record purpose, which can be used only for identification, said Salman's lawyer, adding that this raises the question whether the samples, which tested positive for alcohol, indeed belonged to Salman.
Signature of the concerned police officer of Bandra police station was not taken to establish that the hospital had handed over the sealed samples to police, said advocate Desai.
The records were manipulated to show that the actor had taken drinks before the accident, he alleged.
Salman's defence is that he had not had drinks at the Rain Bar where he and his friends had gone on the evening of 28 September.
On May 6 this year, the sessions court here sentenced the actor to five years in prison for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. He is currently out on bail.
Arguments on his appeal would continue on Tuesday.
Salman Khan finally has an
answer for why he won't get
married
Bollywood actor Salman Khan says that marriage is not for a lifetime.
Salman, 49, who is considered one of Bollywood's most eligible bachelors, was asked at the press conference of his upcoming TV show when he would 'get double.'
Salman Khan. PTI
The actor quipped, "I have got double since Maine Pyaar Kiya and now I will turn triple for Sultan. Marriage is not for the lifetime. In which generation are you living in? Not happening."
He later asked the reporter, "You want me to get married temporary or permanent?"
When he was advised not to get married, Salman said, "Nice debate. Some saying get married, some saying don't get married. Are you all trying to convince me or demoralise me?"
The format of this season of Bigg Boss is Double Trouble. The show will go on air from October 11 on Colors Channel.
Salman is looking forward to his next release, Sooraj Barjatya's Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, and has begun training for his film Sultan which is being produced by Aditya Chopra.
Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon
review:
The biggest joke is that Kapil Sharma's debut film was to be
a comedy
Thriller specialists Abbas-Mustan do a David Dhawan and Kapil Sharma does a feature film version of his comedy show. Without a single funny line. The result: a one-man show that might have worked with yesteryear’s Govinda and the Sajan Chale Sasural genre. With Sharma in every frame, giving the same pop-eyed look and rattling off dialogues like he’s reading fine print in a mutual fund advertisement, Kis Kisko Pyaar Karu is about one man and his three wives. That’s four comedy shows in one. Only, the actual comedy shows on TV are better.
Depending on your sense of humour, this film could be a comedy or a tragedy. For Sharma fans, the answer is clear. For others, the only funny moments in the film come with Sharat Saxena as Sharma’s on screen father , explaining his own infidelity with a lyric from an old song:
“Ek hawa ka jhoka aaya,
Toota dali se phool
Na pawan ki na chaman ki,
Kis ki hai yeh bhool?”
Kapil Sharma in a still from Kis Kis Ko Pyaar Karu.
Sharma plays Kumar, whose own predicament is explained as a series of accidents. Biwi Number One, Juhi (Manjari Phadnis), is dumped on Kumar by a dying father.
Biwi Number Two, Anjali (Sai Lokur), is forced upon Kumar by a deaf don brother, Tiger bhai (Arbaaz Khan, accompanied by a roar in the background score). Biwi Number Three, Simran (Simran Kaur Mundi) traps Kumar when her own groom runs away.
Since Kumar wants to be a good husband to each of his three wives – this means a good morning kiss to each of them and bushels of lies throughout the day – his lawyer buddy Karan (Varun Sharma) advises Kumar to buy three flats in one building. Less commute, more time to philander.
And so it is that Kumar moves in to Cocktail Towers with his three wives, each of whom thinks she’s the light of his life. The husband resolves his morning goodbye by standing at the building gate and waving at all three wives standing at their balconies, one above the other.
As might be evident, this film is not about logic. It’s about how smart Kumar is when it comes to managing his lies and keeping the truth from his three wives. So we gloss over details like the fact that we have no idea what exactly Kumar does for a living, other than wear reflectors and carry briefcases. And we’re expected to laugh at the strategies Karan resorts to in order to save his buddy’s rear end. So the falling of an underwear from one wife’s washing line to another wife’s balcony is explained using Newton and gravity in a joke that makes sense only to the makers and the maid who drops the underwear.
Kumar deals with his marital stress by dancing away with a girlfriend, Deepika (Elli Avram). So when Kumar is not hiding from one wife or the other, he is busy hiding all three from Deepika and her dad. The film rushes through escapades in a mall when everyone from the wives to Deepika’s father and Tiger bhai land up and play hide and seek. Lame April Fool jokes come into play and juvenile antics grow with the full moon on a Karva Chauth night.
The one good thing about KKPK is the pace at which Abbas-Mustan keep the film moving. Given more believable situations and lines, they might have done better. Meanwhile, if the sight of Kumar hanging on a wall and bringing in the moon, makes you laugh, go watch KKPK, but at your own risk.
