Rituparno is back after years of his immensely popular candid chat show on Bengali television- Ebong Rituparno on ETV Bangla. This time on the new Bengali entertainment channel Star Jalsha in the avatar of wittily named 'Ghosh & Co' at 9 pm every Sunday.
The diference this time is firstly in the setting. Ritu loves a relaxed, 'Bengali adda-type' ambience set in a cosy drawing room with coffee and snacks for his chat show. This time to make it look more real, the title video shows him spending time with himself, preparing for the 'adda' and then receiving his guest(s) for the day at the door. During the conversation (he doesn't call them interviews, and the way they are structured, they are actually not so) tea/ coffee and snacks are served to the guests by domestic help, all recreated in a studio.
The other distinct difference is in his choice of guests. This time the guests are varied, not all of them exectly known for speaking well, and for some of them one really wonders what on earth made Ritu call them for the show. These guests include Bappi Lahiri (with below par oratory skill in any of the three languagues he generally speaks in- Bengali (his mother tongue), English and Hindi), Reshmi Ghosh and Sayantani Ghosh. Bappi loves to punctuate his talk with his songs, and in the one-hour show he must have sung few lines of about a dozen of his hit songs. However the selection of most of the guests does contribute to the show. The list includes Aparna Sen-Kalyan Roy (Aparna looking more gorgeous in her new short haircut), Shobha De-Dilip De, Mousumi Chatterjee and Babul Supriyo of those featured so far and Pritam (music composer in Hindi cinema), Nachiketa, Shreya Ghoshal and Mir among those coming up.
As ususal sitting through Ritu's chat show is a rich experience. He has awesome conversation skill. The way he makes his guests feel absolutely relaxed in order to get candid in the talk is worth special mention. Ritu's guests open up themselves, speak their mind, thanks to Ritu's inimitable style.
Looking forward to a long run of Ghosh & Co.
I too am enjoying the show immensely. Thankfully Rituparno Ghosh is back again with his adda sessions!
ReplyDeleterituparno has a cordial relation ship wid every one .... n dat thing makes the show really cool.. keep writing man..
ReplyDeleteHe has messed by inviting MIR , I never exepected Rituda to be so proud and self consciuos. It was very unfortunate in his part the way he conducted the program with MIR. He is a self centred Aantel. Long live MIR
ReplyDeleteAbhi, you have a point. Though I couldn't watch the episode undisturbed, I was told that Ritu took the issue of Mir's mocking him (Ritu) too far. Though it was meant to be an intellectually stimulating argument, Ritu's self-consciousness about his androgynousness came out. The talk got a little too personal and I guess Ritu wasn't able to hold viewer's attention towards the end.
ReplyDeleteI heard what had happened in that show. Could not watch it.I do firmly believe that Rituparno has basically made himself a cheap character in front of the Camera while at the other end Mir has shown extreme composed behavior like a true gentleman.
ReplyDeleteit was sucha cheap sight to watch rituparno charging MIR with his silly logics in the show..i think it has made matters worse..i personally did not like his attitude on the show!he hardly allowed mir to speak!
ReplyDeleteBefore jumping to any conclusion and asking for Rituparno's blood, must we not think it over once? It's true that Mir was a guest who was insulted. But have you thought on how many occasions Rituparno was an invited guest and he had to put up with Mir's mimicry and mannerism-imitations? As far as I have seen, whenever there was Mir at an award ceremony, he was up to imitating Rituparno. Come now, give respect where it is due. If Rituparno has stretched the limits once, Mir has been doing it for months and years. And anyway, Rituparno was making it clear again and again that he was not bringing it up for himself. It was for people like him. And he was also right about one thing: a man of his stature, knowledge and skills would be anything but perturbed by the comments of an RJ.
ReplyDeleteIt is expected from a person of his stature to exhibit a bit more decency, what if this is a casual talk show. He has taken this opportunity to gain his talk show a cheap publicity. This is a typical sign of downfall. Because this incident implies that success has gone to his head and he thinks he deserves the right to curb someone’s self-esteem in public for a very superficial cause.
ReplyDeleteI am a little bit puzzled....while mimicking Rituparno, there are times when Mir crosses the limit and publicly insult Rituparno for his effeminate manners....Rituparno almost did the same-he invited Mir to his show and supposedly humiliated him publicly...scores settled....why so much hue and cry
ReplyDeleteMir is justifiably taking revenge of his insults by Rituparno ‘Hijra’ Ghosh. In the programme ‘Enjoy Guru’ now and then Mir is very rightly making mokery of this Hijra from Tollywood.Although he is a famous director yet a stigma on our Indian society. Jio Mir! you are doing the right thing. Keep it up.
ReplyDelete….New Delhi
I just agree with Chanchal Roychoudhury.
ReplyDelete