Indo-Pak drama, literally
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SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY speaks to filmmaker-TV producer Rajeev Mehra, who is dishing out from this Friday on Star Plus's "LOC," a love-hate drama between an Indian and a Pakistani on British soil.
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Time for "LOC"... Rajeev Mehra in New Delhi. —Pic. by S. Subramanium.
FILMS HE has made quite a few. "Chamatkar," "Ram Jaane" and "Jaal" are some names that you can relate F.C. Mehra's son Rajeev Mehra to.
And as Chief Executive Officer of the banner Eagle Films, Rajeev, though is easy to keep in mind these days as the producer of tube shows, comedy clearly being his might — a genre that generally goes awry on TV in others' hands.
With a shy smile, flashing the salt and pepper look, often thinking before talking, middle-aged Rajeev, however, looks more on the soft-spoken, restrained side than anywhere near comedy. "I didn't start off on television consciously as a comedy serial producer. I still don't look at myself as one. But I always end up as one, as so far the best scripts I have got for TV are all comedies. Also, I somehow am not comfortable doing the typical saas-bahu soaps," he clarifies. You don't need to look comic or be comical to produce successful comedies but what you need to set in motion is, Rajeev insists, "good action and quick reaction to it." So be it his earlier productions like Zabaan Sambhal Ke, Khatta Meetha, Kissa Kursi Ka or the ongoing Shararat on Star Plus or Office Office going great guns for so long on SAB TV, Rajeev looks for instant viewer reaction.
And now this Friday, rolling out his latest show at 8.30 p.m. on Star Plus, LOC - Life Out of Control, he says the rules are the same. "There is no point hoping that ratings of it will go up in coming days. It has to be instant. If it can't make you laugh, then it is the biggest tragedy of comedy," he surely shows that he knows what he is looking for. Breaking new grounds, LOC rings around the fictional `Indian Restaurant' in the high street of London and two of its cooks - Gurpreet Singh Malick, an Indian and Chand Mallik, a Pakistani. What follows is a constant war of words and action, each trying to have an one-up over the other.
"I thought of doing the serial because it is time that both Indians and Pakistanis should take themselves lightly vis-à-vis each other and one way of doing it is to laugh at each other. As we do it, perhaps we shall realise that how much of us is similar to theirs and how futile is this Indo-Pak tussle," states Rajeev. About its success, you realise, he is quite sure about it. "So, the serial is for an hour. Normally, a comedy on TV runs for half an hour," he says.
Seasonal shows
Moving on to discuss as to why comedy on Indian television can't generate enough viewers and why it is a successful genre on Western TV, Rajeev goes on to blame the evolving Indian television industry to an extent for it. "Unlike the West, our comedies do not make seasonal runs. We tend to run comedies till it is done to death. But abroad, they do a series for a particular season and then go off air to fill in their banks. In India too, it shall happen as we grow more and more," he reasons. Also, that TV producers' "laziness" in finding talented writers for comedy is another reason, he adds. "Till Office Office became a hit, nobody knew its writer. So, one has to look for new talents all the time," Rajeev is quite clear about it.
Those on the look out for a career in comedy script writing should now know which door to knock.
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