Ask no questions, you'll get no lies

etv bangla has this programme called jabab chai, jabab dao which suggests hard questioning for 30 minutes. the build-up to the programme also strengthens such a suggestion. what, however, happened when singer kabir suman and his latest wife sabina took their places in the studio was undiluted adulation, the compere and the audience clearly dying to pay homage to the man.nothing wrong, perhaps, with that except that in this slot one would have expected something else. not an eyebrow was raised when he explained that he had changed his religion as a personal protest against the murder of graham staines and his sons in an orissa village, while it is fairly well known that he had to do it to tie the knot with the lady from bangladesh. even if he was speaking the truth, wasn't the act of jumping from one religion to another itself an act fundamentalism? countless hindus were shocked by the murder but how many of them decided to embrace islam which has as many bigots as the hindutva that is being sought to be imposed on the nation? suman (kabir or chattopadhyay), of course, has become something of a cult figure and such a person is not to be questioned as he kept the audience gaping with frequent reference to brecht, stanislavsky, tchaikovsky and such others. nobody even wanted to know what this 'jeebanmukhi' song was all about and whether he was comfortable with the tag which was attached to him early in his career. it was also not clear why his wife had been invited as only once the compere turned towards her and asked whether she visited the durga puja pandals in the city. thus, no jabab was called for and none given. the only bit of hard information given was that the couple did riyaaz every morning to the accompaniment of an electronic tanpura. to put mildly, the programme was a washout. the week under review had another singer facing the camera. appearing in the talk jhal mishti programme on alpha bangla, indranil sen made no bones about the fact that to him music was something that had to be sold. the businessman in him ensures proper marketing and it was with perhaps justifiable pride that he pointed out that his cassettes of tagore songs sold ten times more than that by others. this was refreshing talk as artistes in this country inevitably tend to pretend that 'filthy lucre' has no place in their scheme of things. having started as a ground engineer, he has naturally kept his feet firmly grounded and unlike others does not seem to have allowed any measure of hypocrisy to cover that fact. the singer with a marketing sense also claimed that he had always been dismissive about the 'jeebanmukhi' stuff "as i had known that this commercial brand name would not last beyond a couple of years". in keeping with the jhal (hot) part of the programme's title, the interviewer tried to sting him on the tongue a couple of occasions. but, sen was clearly far too mature to be scalded — a good straight talking show, shorn of all pretensions. those who feel that the last assembly elections did not settle the buddhadeb vs mamata question should have tuned into the bbc world's hard talk programme in which karan thapar had the two on the hot seat, of course, separately. while the lady ranted and got her grammar all mixed up, the chief minister was quiet, suave and oozing confidence. at the end, he told thapar he would meet him on the same programme five years later.