Fresh Air on TV - Anil Kapoor's 24‏

My oldest memory with TV goes back to 1989 if I am not mistaken. Then Superman  used to come on National Television dubbed in Hindi. Every evening I used to sit tight and wished that it never ended. Because post that I had to open my books and study. Which obviously was boring.
Post that two shows, Rangoli on Sunday mornings and Chitrahaar on Wednesday nights were favourites. Not to forget Mahabharat and Ramayan. Though I vaguely remember Ramayan. Mahabharat is what I remember clearly. Sunday mornings used to be fun mornings. From 7 am onwards till 11 we used to be busy with our tv sets with customary yelling of my mom from the kitchen and sometimes some stricter punishments from dad.
Then slowly tv show addiction started becoming oxymoron. Though thanks to Mom, Shanti (Advent of Mandira Bedi) and perhaps the first adulterated adultrous show Swabhimaan (Which invoked some interest since that was the first time I was seeing something which was scandalous) hooked us up for sometime.
Then we grew older. Started graduating from family shows and primetime shows to news, cricket and when alone some glimplese of Ftv and other such channels. Shattered when our Govt. banned them.  Our TV also got all sattelite channels and became technicolor.
I lost touch with TV for almost about a decade except for ocassional cricket matches. Then, The  Newshour happened to me. Trust me its an addiction. Once you watch that show you can not watch any other news channel. You may cringe, stuff cotton in your ears, sometimes even bang your head but would still watch Arnab ranting, "Nation wants to know".
So in one of those shows I saw Arnab interviewing Anil Kapoor. Yeah, I know you would think poor Anil. But then he paid for it and we all know Anil has taken risks in his entire career starting from acting with a moustache! So Anil confidently said that his new show 24 will bring back  young viewers to Indian tv. His statements were quite confident and given the kind of money he spent in the advertising and even risked coming to Arnab's show, I decided to watch 24.
First five minutes it looked way too grim. But post that story started picking up the pace. The main plot started opening up with many layered sub-plots. Anil as usual superb in the gritty role of ATU chief. Other support staffs also casted well. What strikes the most is the portrayal of the Singhania family. Far too many inferences with an existing political family of India to be called co-incidence. I hope it doesnt land up in any controversy.
After watching the second episode I certainly can say that I am hooked. Anil's claims were pretty bang on. I am going to follow the first Indian series... not that I followed any other American show except for Big Bang Theory! I only wish it was a daily show of one hour. Waiting for 5 days for next two hours is little too much.
24 is a racy drama with all required ingredients. Few lines for Anil Kapoor. From Pallavi Anupallavi (Maniratnam's first movie in which Anil acted as lead) till Slumdog Millionaire. At 57 you are still going super strong. Coming up with this kind of action-thriller on Indian TV is a risk worth applauding.
Carpe Diem!!