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Prepare your US college interview on TV

US Consulate and Channel [V]’s reality show will send two Indian students to US colleges for interview and campus experience.

If you are looking up colleges in the US, you might want to consider the option of trying for a paid trip to three premium colleges in America. Plus, you could be on TV.

The US Consulate Mumbai, in association with Channel [v] India, is bringing College Hunt USA, a three-episode reality show to Indian television in 2013. The show will feature two selected Indian students who will win an all-expenses-paid trip to visit three US colleges for an admission interview and an experience of American campus life. As per rules, registrations are open for Class 12 Indian students looking to study in the US only. Students can register at http://www.channelv.in/collegehuntusa/ and visit the Facebook page www.facebook.com/CollegeHuntUSA for more information.

Speaking about the show, Consul General Peter Haas said, “We are excited to partner with Channel [v] India on this project, where we will reach out to millions of young Indians. Currently over one lakh Indian students are studying in the US and we hope to offer the experience of an American campus and world-class education to many more. Through such initiatives, the US aims to build stronger people-to-people ties and help make the most of all of our young people’s talents.”

Confirming the association, Prem Kamath, GM and EVP of Channel [v] India said, “The importance of education is ingrained in our culture and one of the biggest aspirations is to experience life on campus abroad. We are extremely proud to facilitate such an opportunity for our viewers. We are really excited about the property as we get a chance to show something completely contrasting to our programming, yet so revered by our audiences.”

(Picture courtesy www.outlookindia.com)

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4 Mumbaikars who don’t have set top boxes

We spoke to four Mumbai men whose TV sets still don’t have set top boxes installed, for four different reasons.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The October 31 deadline for digitisation of TV is gone, and several households in Mumbai that didn’t get set top boxes or DTH connections in time, are now bearing the brunt of having blank TV screens. But not all of these houses have been remiss – some did order the set top boxes which did not arrive in time, others got the units installed but the equipment was faulty, and still others were out of the city and could not follow up with their cable operators on the issue.

We caught up with four Mumbaikars who don’t have set top boxes in their homes for four different reasons.

Jigar Doshi, 21, student, has only watched DD National all his life

It was my parents’ decision not to install cable or a set top box. The reason my sister and I were given for not making the switch to cable was so that we wouldn’t quarrel for the remote control to watch different channels. My sister always wanted to watch TV serials and I was more into sports.

Later, while we were busy pursuing higher education, we seldom had the time for anything apart from studies and projects. For the last three years, I stayed in a hostel where there was no TV. So,  cable was not needed at home.

I don’t watch TV daily, and I watch only reality shows and movies that are screened on weekends on DD1. My sister and I were always satisfied with DD1 and except for a couple of times, we never missed cable TV. It was only while awards shows and World Cup matches were aired on other channels but not on DD1 and the next day, in school, our friends had nothing else but these particular programmes to talk of, that I felt we should have had cable TV, too.

It did cross my mind sometimes that we should have more channels on our TV set, and we are now planning to get a set top box installed in a month or two. I don’t think I have missed anything by not having other channels to watch all these years, but yes, there are a certain programmes that are worth watching, both for information and entertainment.

Shivom Oza, 22, film reviewer and writer, is stunned at the channel blackout

There wasn’t a particular reason why I didn’t get a set top box installed. Whatever I’ve heard of all the ‘brands’ of set top boxes, they have been giving unsatisfactory service. Even the DTH seems to falter every time it rains. Cable actually worked fine for me till now.

I watch about two hours of TV everyday, most of which includes the English language news channels, and GECs too, once in a while.

The sole purpose of the government for introducing digitisation was to stop having two systems of transmission, ‘analog’ and ‘digital’. One of the reasons is that with cable networks, most broadcasters lose money since they don’t get to know the actual number of subscribers. So, basically, this is being done to stop discrepancy. However, are the consumers’ needs being looked after? I do not have any problem with set top boxes or direct-to-home services, but why force it on people? A blackout is completely unwarranted.

Though the October 31 deadline had been flashed all along and the warnings had been going on for quite a while, the channel blackout was still a bolt out of the blue. Blacking out everything all at one go was a bit extreme. The best solution, in my opinion, was to let a small chunk of people, who wished to stick to cable television, be. The US has this too. What about households with two-three televisions? Will they get a different set top box for every TV set? What if I get Airtel for all the television sets and it turns out sc****d up? DTH must be growing at a tremendous pace, but most people, who have been using cable-network thus far, are quite skeptical about it.

If the blackout continues and the government does not relent, what option does it leave us with but to get a set top box? I hope the cable operators protest against this order. How was Chennai given relief? Mumbai being the hub of most television content that is churned out on Indian TV, definitely has space for two kinds of transmissions, analog and digital.

Girish Mallya, 36, print and digital media professional, doesn’t have set top box because cable operator still hasn’t given it

Four years ago, I wanted to get a Tata Sky connection, and bought a dish. We tried to install it in our window, but it was the wrong direction, so we decided to fix it on the terrace. But our building management didn’t give us the permission for it, citing that individual dish installations would cause structural damage to the building.

For a year, I gave IPTV a try. But the MTNL Internet was very inconsistent in its performance. Transmission has to be smooth, especially for streaming. So that didn’t work out as well.

Personally, I don’t like my cable operator and I don’t trust a word he says. His cable services are very poor, the channel clarity is bad. I don’t watch over 30 minutes of TV a day, mostly news, but my mother watches for about four hours daily, and she was distraught on knowing that channels would be blanked out after October 31. She asked our cable operator for a set top box well before the cut-off date was up, but he didn’t deliver it till November 2. She is now travelling and will be back in 15 days. In the meantime, I really am not bothered with having a blue screen on my TV, but she will insist on the channels being restored when she’s back.

Aniruddha Pathak, 30, finance professional, didn’t get set top box out of laziness

My reason for not getting a set top box installed was pretty basic – I was too lazy. But I will get it done soon.

I watch the news on TV, but I watch sports more, and dance-related shows as well. I would say I watch about two hours of TV a day. I stay alone, so the only person facing a channel blackout is me. I don’t have any plans to get a DTH connection; I will ask the cable guy to restore my channels for me.

Not having any channels to watch has certainly freed up my time for other activities. I’ve been on the internet extensively for information and entertainment.

 

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Gana wala song

The hilarious spoof of ‘Ishqwala Love’ from SOTY has got over 3,300 likes already. Check it out.
by The Diarist | thediarist@themetrognome.in

We are frankly amazed by how many filmgoers actually dislike Karan Johar and his films. This is evidenced yet again by this spoof of Ishqwala Love, the sweet and slow number from the filmmaker’s latest offering, Student Of The Year, in which the creators of the video, The Viral Fever Videos, have gone to the extent of singing the track again, fitting in their own lyrics as per the situations in the song. The video is very popular on Youtube and has been liked over 3,000 times in just four days of going online.

The spoof is titled Gana wala song: the Q-tiyatic version, and has some hilarious rewritten lyrics. Check out the video here 

Sample some of the new lyrics:

Gana wala song…

Shahrukh wala, foreign wala, budget wala song,

In phoolon se bhi halke, lyrics wala song,

Gana wala song…

A rather dismal-sounding male voice croons the song, and we suspect, the same voice has sung the female lines as well. The overall effect is extremely entertaining, to say the least.

Two thumbs up for creativity and coming out with a remixed version that looks and sounds really funny in the new context.

 (Picture courtesy: www.santabanta.com)

 

 

 

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Not happening, mate

Our expectations of Masterchef Australia All Stars were sky-high. But the show is quite unexciting and curiously lacking in flavour.
by The Diarist | thediarist@themetrognome.in

At the outset, let me declare my undying love for Masterchef Australia. I don’t even cook, and I don’t prefer any and every cuisine, but there’s something about watching cactus being cooked and cauliflower being pureed with squid ink on this show that really gets me hooked.

Naturally, I was looking forward to Masterchef Australia All Stars, where selected contestants from the first three seasons of the show would participate in an effort to raise money for their favourite charities. Coming right after the awesome Season Four ended in India last week (on Star World), I confess I expected to be taken on a wild ride from Episode 1 of All Stars. After all, these were people who had done it all before – and two of them were winners – so I really felt that the show would be well worth the interest Masterchef Australia generates in the country.

But, no. Thus far, I have been disappointed, and also very bored with the episodes I’ve seen. There’s some vital ingredient missing from this show, a curious occurrence since its four previous seasons have been total paisa vasool even for non-cooks. Much like the judges’ critique for a dish not up to standard, this season has no zing, no flavour, no inventiveness.

I think the show suffers because none of the participants are ‘characters’, like Alice or Audra from Season 4. Or its flatness could be because it started with team cooking, which I find is not always as exciting as individual pressure tasks. Or it could just be that we’ve seen too much Masterchef Australia this year – there was also Junior Masterchef before Season 4 – and we need a long break from the show.

What do you think of ‘Masterchef Australia All Stars’? Send your opinion to thediarist@themetrognome.in.

 

 

 

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‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ trailer

We missed seeing the classic Shahrukh Khan spreading-his-arms trick. Everything else is, well, to put it mildly, just about meh.
by The Diarist

Within a day of it being uploaded on Youtube, the trailor of Yash Chopra’s forthcoming film Jab Tak Hai Jaan had garnered 15,533 likes.

We mean, come on!

It’s not like this is about to be very revolutionary in terms of plot and treatment. There’s Shahrukh Khan, romancing two women (both really, really younger than him) and looking quite the dude on a bike with fuzz on his face. We think he needs to put on some weight first, but it was nice to see him after a long while. We have, naturally, blanked out the disaster that was Ra.One. As far as we are concerned, that film did not happen to us at all. *suppresses shudder*

 

Interestingly, nobody in the entire trailor says a single line of dialogue, while Shahrukhbhai mouths off some lovely lines throughout. We were very thrilled with this development. We will probably watch this film with a heavy heart when it releases on November 13, owing mostly to leading lady Katrina Kaif’s presence in it. And while nothing can be done about her being in the actual film, we are about to throw a party over the joyful blessing of not having to hear her say a word in Hindi at least in the promo. May we reiterate at this point that apart from admitting she is really pretty, we have always been flummoxed by the blankness of her on-screen presence?

We’re guessing that in the film, Shahrukh uncle gets jilted by one girl and shacks up with another, the another being Anushka Sharma. We like Anushka a lot, especially how tall she is, and the fact that she is probably playing a news cameraperson (considering how Shahrukh leaps out at her while something explodes just behind them. She is seen holding a camera, which was how we guessed her probable profession.) Meanwhile, Katrina prances about all over the promo looking gorgeous and showing off a pair of toned legs.

Nothing about this promo surprised or stunned us. Well, except for the soundtrack, which is the handiwork of A R Rahman. If we didn’t know who the composer was, we would have guessed Salim Suleiman. Yes, that is a broad hint.

All in all, not being diehard Shahrukh Khan or Yash Chopra fans, we were left cold by this one. We’re not expecting much from the film, either. And no, we’re not ending this piece with a contrived Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, because we think the film’s title is stupid.

The Diarist is a film junkie, and if you’re reading this, chances are you are too. If you’ve noticed a  new promo or film worth checking out, write to The Diarist at thediarist@themetrognome.in.

 

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The ‘Talaash’ trailer

Aamir Khan always hugs his projects close to his chest (and probably locks them in his bank vault before release). So it’s nice to see a trailer that actually makes the wait for his next film slightly worthwhile

by The Diarist/ thediarist@themetrognome.in

At the very start, let us say that we liked this promo. No, it’s not a very slick one or anything, but it gives away just enough to hook you.

 

It was also nice to know that Aamir plays a not-so-young (or scrupulous) cop in this one, though we still think he’s a little tiny to convincingly look the part. Also, his moustache enters the room before he does. However, this film seems to be a crime thriller, or at least a serious police drama, so we’re guessing that these obvious anomalies will be forgotten a few minutes into the storytelling.

A film actor’s speeding car crashes into the sea, and obviously, by the time the car is fished out, the man is dead. But is this really an accident? Meanwhile, there are other characters in the background – call girl/escort Rosy (played by Kareena Kapoor, hinting that she can help with the case and then canoodling with the inspector in a hotel room), the inspector’s wife (Rani Mukerji in seen-before victim mould. She plays the wronged wife, from what we gather) and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who obviously knows something about the case.

We are still a wee bit apprehensive about booking tickets for this film when it releases on November 13, because director Reema Kagti’s first outing, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., is a film we still haven’t understood. Of course, Aamir would weed out any ambiguities or elements that displease him in the film, so we’re betting on his sense (read: constant butting into every aspect of the film’s creation) to take this one home safe.

May we add that after the blitzkrieg of Heroine’s promotions, we were thoroughly sick of seeing Kareena’s face, albeit for a few moments only. A similar hailstorm of promotions was not planned around Aiyya, so Rani Mukerji still engaged us. Aamir did not really engage, but at least he’ll have worked hard on the role. What we want to see is Nawaz playing a strong character, on par with Aamir’s (yes, surely we jest) and how his role plays out in the face of all the others.

All in all, we’ll go watch this one with a little trepidation. We hope we won’t be disappointed.

The Diarist is a film junkie, and if you’re reading this, chances are you are too. If you’ve noticed a  new promo or film worth checking out, write to The Diarist at thediarist@themetrognome.in.

 

 

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