OMG! Could it be that I actually liked an Indian non-fiction TV show? More importantly, could it be that someone’s actually made an Indian non-fiction show which isn’t a reality show or a cooking show? Now that’s truly something to say OMG to.
History Channel’s got a brand new Hindi show which has been advertised across the city with massive billboards from which Krushna Abhishek—Govinda’s nephew—stares down at us. The show, OMG! Yeh Mera India, is the channel’s first fully Hindi series—as far as I know. Their earlier shows which have been made in India, have been multilingual, with a generous mix of Hindi and English. Everyone wants a piece of the hinterland after all. But will History Channel be able to pique the interest of the saas-bahu and Naagin audiences? I think they just may be able to, purely because of what the show is about.
OMG! Yeh Mera India curates the best oddities of India. Going by how many oddities we have in India, with girls whose eyes weep blood to statues which sometimes drink milk to the world’s smallest living woman and now the world’s largest stage—we have enough to fill up many episodes on the series. What I liked though was that the programme kept away from making India look freakish, which is quite impressive, going by the freakish things that happen here.
The first episode which was about 23 minutes in duration packed in four different stories. The first was the world’s largest family which lives in Baktwang, Mizoram. Zinoa Chana’s family has 181 members, including 39 wives, 94 kids, 33 grandchildren and one great grandchild, all of whom live in one house with 100 rooms without killing each other. The second segment featured India’s electric man, Deepak Jhangda, who lives in Sonipat, Haryana. Jhangda is an oddity because he’s basically India’s human electricity conductor as he can’t get electrocuted and can bear up to 11, 000 volts. The third, which was my favourite, was the world’s most expensive bull, Yuvraj, who lives in Haryana. See, Haryana has more to offer than female foeticide and acid attacks. Yuvraj has been valued at Rs.9 crore. He’s 9 feet long and 8 years old and is as large as a hatchback car. He also has super semen and has had 150, 000 babies through artificial insemination. And gets massaged with mustard oil every day. It was all quite amusing. The last segment featured the 2, 500 Haridwar priests who are the keepers of the family records of every Hindu and can trace your family tree back for many generations.
Each segment is around 3-4 minutes long, which is nice because it makes sure the narration is compact and easy. What worked for me was the pick of the stories and people who have been featured. It’s very well researched and curated. I’m quite the Miss Know-It-All, but had no clue about any of the people/animals featured other than the Haridwar priests. Also, by packing in four segments, the producers of the show have managed to ensure your interest doesn’t flag.
The only jarring aspect to me is having Krushna Abhishek as the host of an infotainment show. I get why the channel would choose him because it’s like casting Kapil Sharma as a host of a National Geographic show. The channel hopes that he’ll pull in the Hindi general entertainment channel audiences who watch him. And who wouldn’t watch History Channel or Nat Geo or Discovery unless the channels were showing a special on the evolution of Tulsi Virani’s character and wardrobe through the eight years of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
The problem with Krushna Abhishek—other than that strange hairstyle—is that his loud and crude Comedy Nights Bachao persona is very difficult to shake off. But if anything can shake it off, it is hosting a show on History Channel which, after Comedy Nights Bachao and Comedy Nights Live, is like going from the ridiculous to the sublime. I just kept expecting Bharti and Mika to pop up behind him each time he appeared. To give him his due, you can see that he’s trying to be as understated
