Above all, it is what passes for entertainment. Not the 12 o’clock, one o’clock or any other clock ‘news’.

We can’t tell which Hindi ‘news’ channel offers maximum ‘entertainment’ but certainly, last week, Star News provided the most startling and unedifying spectacle. On Tuesday, judgment was delivered in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case. R.K. Sharma and three others were found guilty of her murder. That night, Star News fictionalised the crime with extraordinary bad taste and dialogues/actions straight out of a Z-grade Bollywood flop.

Here’s a sample:

A young woman, supposedly Shivani, visits what is supposedly the PMO where R.K. Sharma’s look-alike is admiring a file like it’s Playboy magazine.

RK character: Come, sit, tell me what’s going on?

Shivani character: Dhamake ki khabar.

RK: (plaintively): You come here only for news?

(He hands over a file labeled St. Kitts in capital letters.)

Shivani: Wow! Thank you Ravi.

RK: Sirf thank you?

Shivani: Now, now, you’ve become very naughty.

Next morning Shivani is shown glowing a lovely pink, framed between roses, sent by her ‘naughty’ admirer.

Next scene: Restaurant.

RK: What are you doing tonight?

Shivani: I am at home

RK: Come with me to party.

Scene: Bedroom. Shivani in bed with a magazine and a baby who is large enough to be two years old. Makes a phone call.

RK: Hallo?

Shivani: Where are you?

RK: Congrats on the kid.

Shivani: I have given birth to a child and you are not happy? Why are you ignoring me?

... contd.