On Tuesday evening, footage of the Pakistani aircraft's wreckage strewn on Pakistani territory was carried by CNN, BBC and Zee (which didn't identify its location). At this stage, there was no footage from India. Why? You may well ask since the shooting took place at 11.17 am and direct video/broadcasting from the spot is entirely within the realm of possibility. So if you don't or won't get the footage, get yourself a job as a shoeshine instead.

A piquant situation ensued. On BBC, the Pakistan High Commissioner to Britain said (see) there was no doubt where the plane fell. The Indian Ambassador to the USA said, (hold on) there was evidence of the plane flying 10 kilometres inside Indian territory. On CNN, the State Department spokesman, James Rubin, said he didn't know where it was shot (and he couldn't care less -- or so his bored body language suggested), but the two sides should behave themselves (naughty, naughty). At this stage, without any visual support and Defence Minister George Fernandes' nervous performance, India's case didn't look good. The early bird catches the worm: 1-Pakistan, India-0.

Wednesday morning: all TV channels (including DD, STAR News Channel), ran the videotape released by the Indian Air Force of people picking up pieces of wreckage on Indian soil. There was also the midnight arrival of wreckage at Delhi airport -- proudly on display. Things were beginning to look up for India. Pakistan 1 - Indian 1. The video footage, triumphantly paraded by both India and Pakistan had established that indeed, there was wreckage on both sides of the border. What it could not prove was where the aeroplane was shot -- and that was the crux of the matter.

The media sortie organised by India on Wednesday, was a good idea which the sea tides and Pakistan missiles put paid to.

So there you had it: the video footage released by both countries, instead of substantiating their respective claims, simply confounded confusion. They suggested two scenarios: according to Pakistan the plane was shot down in Pakistan and it had the video footage to prove it; according to India the plane was `shot' over India and went `down' over both countries -- and we had the footage to prove it. Neither country challenged the veracity of each other's visual testimonials. Which is all very interesting but it left the viewer less the wiser. What had really happened?

As an Indian you believed our version. As an impartial bystander, you didn't know what to believe. Then you saw the coffins of the Pakistanis and you were reminded of the Kargil body boxes and the futility of all wars.

Tarkash (Zee) was an idea waiting to happen. Always, it was a good notion for the more talented, `arty' film actors to shift from the the larger-than-life characters of cinemascope to the more intimate portrayals of television. With a few rare exceptions including Anita Kanwar, Om Puri, Deepti Naval, Rohini Hattangady, Supriya Pathak, the movement has been in the opposite direction: actors who began their careers on television, fairly leapt onto the big screen the first chance they got. Shah Rukh Khan is only the most celebrated example. By their own admission, TV actors, pant (yes,pant ) to be up there shaking their hips alongside the best or worst of them.

Therefore, the appearance of Naseeruddin Shah in Tarkash is hopefully a herald of things to come: we should see more big stars on TV. As Praveen Sharma, the agonised, amnesiac Indian agent who soothes his nerves by playing the violin, Shah is appealing in his visible distress. You want to know what reduced him to such a sorry sight, who the elusive `Maria' was... Unfortunately, the rest of the serial is a muddle in a puddle, another way of saying its authenticity was false. A female police inspector, on duty, wears a dress with a jacket. Frightfully chic and all that but when was the last time you saw Kiran Bedi attired in either? Then there was the murder scene: commendably, no violence except for the dagger drawn and the faint death rattle; but any one who has stabbed someone (and even if you haven't) knows that when you go in for the kill, blood will spill, splatter over you (at least on your face and shirt); it won't have the good manners to confine itself to the palms of your hand -- as it decorously didon this occasion.