Sure, we’ll still see the film stars — during the ad breaks where they’re busy acting out 15-30 second roles as salesmen and in the repeats of their films. When we met Jab We Met last Sunday afternoon (Colors), it w19as for the 144th time this year — we’ve encountered Kareena and Kapoor on one channel on another every day of 2009.

So yes, the usual suspects will be on the small screen but without the entertainment value they have had for the last year. No Left to pull the rug from under the government, no Amar Singh to threaten the government, no Fronts — only Frontline banyans and a government that needs to get down to work. What on earth will they discuss every night in the studio? Policies? Nah...

As for cricket, we’ll have to wait till June for the Twenty20 World Cup. Meanwhile, tennis anyone with those gorgeous bodies, sorry players at the French Open? Otherwise, it’s current affairs of the other kind: while you were not watching, Lord Krishna has grown up (Jai Shri Krishna, Colors) and Zee has introduced a serial about a young girl (what another one?) married off to alleviate her family’s poverty (Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo). Sony is offering a new evening line-up this week: a Jodhaa Akbar lookalike historical, a small towner aiming for an Olympic gold (obviously inspired by our boxers’ performances last year), a man who becomes a woman (?!), four women on a local Mumbai train and Salman Khan’s Dus Ka Dum. There is life after elections, IPL...

... contd.