The summer of 2016 is over and a new season on Indian television begins, which means being subjected to a new wave of reality programmes. There are so many such shows on Indian stations now that reproduce the same tired old format, it’s hard to tell one from the other.
This year, the smart people at MTV India decided to add a social activism twist to the formula. MTV's Angels of Rock features four rising female Indian singers – Shalmali Kholgade, Anusha Mani, Akasa Singh and Jasmine Sandlas – travelling across the country to find "inspiring stories of real women" and turns their experiences into new, collaboratively-created songs. And they do it riding Enfield Bullets.
Women’s rights are a hugely contested issue in Indian public discourse right now. While the New Delhi gang rape in December 2012 led to a spate of discussions about the toxic levels of patriarchy and sexism in Indian society, recent years have seen a backlash as anti-feminist voices loudly defend male privilege. With the Indian film and TV industry publicly divided on the issue – many Bollywood celebrities have come out to say they support women but not feminism, whatever that means – this could have been an important television show.
Alas, the producers have chosen to go with the fluffy, non-threatening, Girls’ Day Out form of female empowerment that a fairly sexist industry loves to roll out anytime its social credentials are challenged. They’ve even got an all-female crew for extra Brownie points.
Still, the basic idea behind the show – a mixture of feel-good girl power, travel, music with a dash of social consciousness – isn’t all that terrible. It ticks all the obvious interest areas for Indian youth. Despite the buzzword salad of “sisterhood” and “celebrating womanhood” that accompanied its launch in partnership with Unilever shampoo brand Sunsilk – always a warning sign – you can’t really go wrong, right?
Wrong. The show’s pilot, which premiered on July 31, veers somewhere between a self-congratulatory branding exercise and a grad school film project. It starts off with a cheesy montage introducing the four Angels before bringing them into the MTV office to give them a chance to express their delight and gratitude to MTV. The rest of the episode covers the four women getting to know each other, learning to ride motorbikes and smiling as if their lives depended on it.
The Big Brother-style cutaway interviews add almost nothing to the narrative, with the "women riding bikes lol" trope doing all the heavy lifting. The interviews with family and friends that are supposed to give us insights into the people these four musicians really are end up being nothing more than hagiographic vignettes about how "adorably crazy" these women are.
I lost count of the number of times “really beautiful” was uttered. The icing on the cake was a launch concert where the live sound of the artists is replaced by studio recordings. Very rock.
The second episode, released last Sunday, is marginally better as the action shifts from the four stars to the actual stories they’re supposed to cover. The gang ride their bikes to Ahmedabad at 20 kilometres per hour. On the way, as if by coincidence, they stumble across a dhaba run only by women; dance with a dandiya crew; and have a long conversation with women who set up their own community radio station, Rudi no Radio.
Unfortunately, any depth this story might have provided the show is alleviated by cutaways that focus purely on the Angels and their inability to deal with strong, successful women who “don’t look like them”. They may be well-intentioned, but all the gushing about how rural women can also be empowered comes across as entitled and patronising rather than expressing any real sense of sisterhood. The buzzword soup continues, as the Angels say all the right things about empowerment but then make foot in mouth comments like, “How do they know so much?”.
Angels of Rock tries to be a lot of things and remarkably, fails on all fronts. The music element is tacked on, with the songs composed and performed in every episode sounding like filler tracks that you forget even before they end. There is none of the information about local life and culture that you'd expect from a travel show, and even the "fun, successful young women hanging out" camaraderie seems contrived and performative.
Please MTV producers, give teenage girls some credit. You could have made a great show that was both fun and engaging and which hit home with a social message to boot. Instead, you brought us Angels of Rock.
Bhanuj Kappal is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai who writes about music, protest culture and politics.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Sreesanth's India bowling career
Tests 27, Wickets 87, Average 37.59, Best 5-40
ODIs 53, Wickets 75, Average 33.44, Best 6-55
T20Is 10, Wickets 7, Average 41.14, Best 2-12
If you go
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.
The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
The specs: 2018 Jeep Compass
Price, base: Dh100,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.4L four-cylinder
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 184bhp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 237Nm at 3,900rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.4L / 100km
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Juvenile arthritis
Along with doctors, families and teachers can help pick up cases of arthritis in children.
Most types of childhood arthritis are known as juvenile idiopathic arthritis. JIA causes pain and inflammation in one or more joints for at least six weeks.
Dr Betina Rogalski said "The younger the child the more difficult it into pick up the symptoms. If the child is small, it may just be a bit grumpy or pull its leg a way or not feel like walking,” she said.
According to The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in US, the most common symptoms of juvenile arthritis are joint swelling, pain, and stiffness that doesn’t go away. Usually it affects the knees, hands, and feet, and it’s worse in the morning or after a nap.
Limping in the morning because of a stiff knee, excessive clumsiness, having a high fever and skin rash are other symptoms. Children may also have swelling in lymph nodes in the neck and other parts of the body.
Arthritis in children can cause eye inflammation and growth problems and can cause bones and joints to grow unevenly.
In the UK, about 15,000 children and young people are affected by arthritis.
UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
Results
4pm: Maiden (Dirt) Dh165,000 1,600m
Winner: Moshaher, Pat Dobbs (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer).
4.35pm: Handicap (D) Dh165,000 2,200m
Winner: Heraldic, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
5.10pm: Maiden (Turf) Dh165,000 1,600m
Winner: Rua Augusta, Harry Bentley, Ahmad bin Harmash.
5.45pm: Handicap (D) Dh190,000 1,200m
Winner: Private’s Cove, Mickael Barzalona, Sandeep Jadhav.
6.20pm: Handicap (T) Dh190,000 1,600m
Winner: Azmaam, Jim Crowley, Musabah Al Muhairi.
6.55pm: Handicap (D) Dh190,000 1,400m
Winner: Bochart, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
7.30pm: Handicap (T) Dh190,000 2,000m
Winner: Rio Tigre, Mickael Barzalona, Sandeep Jadhav.
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Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day - 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227 for four at the close.
The specs: 2018 Opel Mokka X
Price, as tested: Dh84,000
Engine: 1.4L, four-cylinder turbo
Transmission: Six-speed auto
Power: 142hp at 4,900rpm
Torque: 200Nm at 1,850rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L / 100km
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Angela Bassett, Tina Fey
Directed by: Pete Doctor
Rating: 4 stars
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
