Weekend TV

A series of shows that kept me glued to the idiot box over the weekend ....

TGILC final - The 1 thing that I look forward to on Friday evenings is Laughter Challenge. Had been following it since 'Dwitiya' began in February & last Friday it was time for the winner to be crowned. Like the last time (Sunil Pal), it came as a bit of a surprise, but when you think about it, the judges probably made the right choice. Rauf Lala got to drive away with the Chevy, with the dark horse Rajiv Nigam finishing a close 2nd.

Khayali had been my personal favourite since he appeared as the 1st contestant on the very 1st episode, but his jokes had been getting a tad crude of late, & that's what must've counted against him in the end. He tied for 3rd with Pratap Faujdar, the sardar. Ali Hasan and Irfan Malik, the stand-up comic duo from Pakistan, were good as well & ended up 4th with 2 of my other favourites Dr. Tushar Shah & the 'Puppet Guy' (forgot his name), bought up the rear finishing 5th & 6th respectively .... for me, these 2 were tops in terms of sophistication & talent.

Anyway, the 'Laughter Champions' series will start in about 3 weeks, featuring the winners of both - part 1 & part 2, & that should be something greatly entertaining. Looking forward to watch Raju, Ehsaan, Sunil & Bhagwant back in action.

Germany 2006, the round of 16 - Germany dominated Sweden in the 1st match of Round 2 & are through to the quarters to face Argentina who managed to get past Mexico in a thriller. The sad part is, these are the best 2 teams at the moment (on form) & the elimination of 1 of them even before the semis is a pity.

Englang beat a fighting Ecuador 1-0 with the help of Beckham who bent it like only he can .... good to see him in the thick of the action again. And Portugal eliminated a lacklustre Holland, Maniche scoring the lone goal of the match. The best part is, I managed to see all the goals as they happened & not on the news.

India vs West Indies, the 3rd Test - India have been very unfortunate (in the sense that rain has denied them the chance of having at least a 1-0 lead) in the run up to the 3rd test. But guess what happens when the shoe is on the other foot .... Windies run up a huge 582 in the 1st innings & India fall just 20 short of avoiding the follow-on .... & there's no rain this time. Anyway, Lara didn't enforce the follow-on & with 1 day to go, let's see if India can save this one.

ECW One Night Stand - RAW & SmackDown had really been getting stale of late, & VKM has rightly decided to ressurect ECW with Paul Heyman at the helm. The 1st PPV was good enough, but could have been better. Cena finally lost the Heavyweight title & the extent of the ECW fans' hatred for him was to be seen to be believed. I think it's time he turned heel like The Rock did. Saw some legendary ECW names like Sabu & The Sandman performing for the 1st time & must say I was impressed. Only hope McMahon allows Heyman a free hand at running what could well become what RAW & SmackDown have long aspired to be. VKM is a genius (at least at this), no doubt about it.

Canadian GP - Who else but Alonso? Renault's running away with the titles & there's nothing that the Reds or the Silver Arrows can do about it (Schumi's 2nd & Raik's 3rd place finish notwithstanding). McLaren's title hopes are vanishing fast with every race & where would Ferrari be without Michael? Hats off to Renault though, what a car!, what a driver! & what a race!

Besides these, also managed to squeeze in Phir Hera Pheri .... it isn't as funny as the original, but that's maybe because they've repeated too many of the lines from that one. The 1st half is quite good though. The film has done well & I hear they're planning to come out with a 3rd part .... let's hope they bring back Priyadarshan to direct it.