Jai Shri Krishna

There’s one daily soap that has me glued to the seat every night - “Jai Shri Krishna” on Colors channel. This is the story every Hindu child in India grows up listening to. So there isn’t much of a surprise as far as the storyline goes.

Barring a few leading characters, the rest of the cast either delivers dialogues with a wooden expression or overacts on a Richter scale :-) Krishna, Balram and Radha (I wonder what is she doing so early in Krishna’s life!) have dialogues that are too philosophical for their ages. Sage Narada with his constant praising of Lord Vishnu particularly gets on my nerves. And the character of Krishna’s maternal uncle Kansa is getting more comical day by day – maybe because the majority of the soap’s audience is kids.

But it’s the little cherubic Krishna who has me wrapped around his tiny finger. I just love the way he is harassing Kansa – a mischievous smile lighting up his baby face every time he scores a point. Normally, I balk at any lines with even a hint of philosophy in them. But I am all ears when he tells Balaram that what goes around comes around, that Sage Durwasaa needs to be taught a lesson because sometimes the wise also forget the path of righteousness and that he cannot hasten the death of a friend’s long-suffering mother because she has to live out her Karma.

And when the same friend turns to Krishna for some money to get medicines for his ailing mother and this re-incarnation of God, who controls the whole world, Himself spreads out his hands in front of his father to ask for money, I got a lump in my throat. I normally turn up my nose at any instant help from God depicted in so many daily soaps but Krishna’s tiny outstreched hands melted my heart like the butter He is so fond of :-)

Oh, well, I have always been partial to Him anyways!