We know her as the best bahu on TV but now she may be TV’s greatest crusader. Smriti Irani, better known to us as Tulsi or the BJP party member, has launched herself into a new career and show, Thodi Si Zameen, Thoda Sa Aasmaan (Star Plus). This is not the vehicle you had expected her to choose to drive forward her career. Or is it, given that she is now a politician as much as an artiste? The story is set in a chawl of Mumbai threatened by big bad business with Smriti as the sunny side up facing the misfortunes that befell her family and friends with confidence and rigour. So it’s all about exploitation of the poor by the rich and the little people fighting back. Fairly political in its overtones. However, it makes for a huge change and we ought to be grateful to Smriti and Star for trying to succeed by being different.

Only thing is that Smriti looks far too old and well fed and satisfied with life to be playing the role.

How closely Smriti’s work on screen is linked to it off stage was clear in a discussion (Channel 7) on the ban imposed on ‘A’ cinema and the closing down of cable operations in parts of Mumbai, following a court order banning A films on TV. But then what about all the rest of TV, most of which would fall into the same category, including the soap Irani stars in? Smriti, like most other panelists, felt that there ought to be some codes in place because her children should not have to watch adult scenes — by which she meant violence on news and other channels.

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