Beautiful People

For the longest period, at least since I can remember, Indian television did not have too many chat shows - and by chat shows I mean, a one-on-one with a celebrity where everything is unscripted and "real". I remember we had Phool Khile hain Gulshan Gulshan with Tabassum as the hostess and I was maybe 10-12 years old then but I was a fan of the show. In more recent times, we had Simi Garewal's Rendezvous which was another big hit and for a while the only show out there. Of late however, we have been subjected to chat shows on every channel and it suddenly seems like everyone is a chat show host. Of the myriad shows out there, I particularly loved watching Vir Sanghvi's Star Talk and Karan Johar's Koffee with Karan (2 hosts with completely different styles by the way, but both completely entertaining). It's been a while since I saw a chat show of similar calibre - I did enjoy Sajid Khan's Sajid Superstars and Farah Khan's Tere Mere Beech mein and continue to watch On the Couch with Koel when time permits but I recently discovered CNBC's Beautiful People with Anuradha Sengupta and it has fulfilled the need for my weekly dose of celebrity pop culture- at least for the present.

Anuradha Sengupta does a great job as the host and interviewer. This far, I have watched the episodes (links added for your convenience) where she interviewed Rajkumar Hirani, Shobhaa De, Amitabh and Kareena Kapoor and I must say that I like her style (and her subjects too - it was an absolute delight to see Sanjana Kapoor on tv after a long long time). She does not mince words - be it in relation to addressing the interviewee's latest controversy as she did with Raju Hirani or in confronting them with their propensity to only go after "soft" targets as she did with Shobhaa De (on a side note, Shobhaa De by the way looks completely weird - I have a feeling she got herself one Botox injection too many and her forehead appears to be rendered immobile - for her sake I hope she does not go the Dolly Parton/Priscilla Presley way), Anuradha Sengupta does her job thoroughly. She asks the questions most viewers would want to ask, she does not shy away from pushing her subjects to reveal more than they would originally want to reveal and does a good job with her research. I for one, am excited to have discovered this show and will continue to explore and watch all the episodes out there.

For the folks out there who are like me and enjoy a good tete-a-tete with interesting conversation, this will be a fun watch. Watch it on CNBC in India or online at www.youtube.com.