Would you ever approach a TV show to resolve a dispute with friends, neighbours, family members or business partners?
Years ago I was addicted to a reality-based court TV show called Judge Judy. Every afternoon, I would tune to in to see a girlfriend ‘sue’ her boyfriend because he had misused her credit card; a man ‘sue’ his neighbour’s teenage son because the latter had driven over his dog while he was drunk, or a 16-year-old girl ‘sue’ her father because he had cancelled an order of a $350 graduation ring without her permission. The real fun in the show was not the stupidity of the cases, the allegations and the people but Judge Judy herself. She was rude, never suffered fools, and made it a point to say it as it really was. And most importantly she liked to have fun on the show.
Sample some of her one-liners or Judyisms as they are called: “Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining”; “Don’t try to teach a pig to sing, it doesn’t work and annoys the pig”; “Either you are playing dumb or its not an act”; “They don’t keep me here coz I am gorgeous and I am 5feet 10 inches.” All this punctuated with “Shut Up” and “I was born smarter than you” would have me in splits especially when the people on the show could not believe that she had just ticked them off on national TV. Some cried, others giggled, and some just wore an open-mouthed-I can’t-believe-you-just-said-that-look throughout the show. Judy also had a bailiff by her side and it worked in her favour to have a sidekick who would snicker at all her jokes and sometimes add in his two bits.
I was sure this kind of concept would never work on Indian TV. After all who in India would dare to squabble over dead dogs, fraudulent boyfriends and penny pinching dads on national TV?
I was wrong. Indians will throng to TV for justice given the sorry state of our legal system. And Indians seem to have “larger” issues. A show like Aap Ki Kachehri Kiran Ki Saath (Season 2 starts on 5 August, Star Plus) has proved to be a real boon even though I feel for show in the reality TV genre, it is much too serious.
As a people’s judge, Kiran Bedi is sharp, to the point and focused like Judge Judy but she is never caustic. She is stern and sometimes looks like she wants to get out of that chair and just handcuff the idiots who refuse to see reason but I’ve never really seen her lose control. Sure people on this show cry, but never because of Kiran. Maybe it is about time she stops controlling her frustration and just vents. I’m sure, like me, viewers would love to see the ‘lathi-happy’ ex-cop swing into action every once in while.
While Kiran does not suffer fools, there are no spiffy one-liners or rude asides. Come Star Plus, whatever happened to ‘entertainment and TRPs ke liye kuch bhi karege’? Give Kiran her very own bailiff, a minion she can relate to and break the intensity of the show. Maybe an ex colleague would work out or a constable who worked with her in Tihar? Sure we want to see her resolve issues, but it would nicer to see the lighter side of the Iron Lady once in a while. After all, we are watching reality TV and not documentaries.