When Mr Interruptus was interrupted

RETROFIT

Comeuppance or just deserts, call it what you will...

Despite his piercing gaze and discomfiting style of questioning, Iquite like Karan Thapar as an interviewer. Many consider himoverbearing and even obnoxious as he doesn't often allow the man inthe hot seat even the liberty of getting a word in edgeways. Known asKaran Interruptus Thapar, his worst habit is to cut the guest off inmid sentence. ButThapar is extremely professional in everything that he does. I guesshe can't do much about a style which has been carefully cultivatedover time. Rarely have I seen Thapar squirming as he did the othernight when put in the dock by Mani Shankar Aiyar. The only other time,if my memory serves me right was when Pranab babu lost his shirt athim - let me complete what I want to say - he shouted practicallyfoaming at the mouth. But Thapar being interviewedby Mani was a novel experience. I am sure it was novel for Thapar aswell, for Mani was in splendid form and seemed to be enjoying himselfthoroughly.To be honest, most of the interview was up and down stuff till Manidecided to pin Thapar down on who was the stupidest person he had ever interviewed. Boy did that get Thapar's goat. This is when Aiyar hadThapar under the cosh. Now, Mani has the gift of the gab. Moreover, heis extremely well read and erudite. He can be accused of talking toomuch at times, putting his shoes andsocks into his mouth, but then that is Mani. That has also got himinto trouble with his own party satraps. But he carries on regardless,sallying forth, giving vent to his displeasure at just abouteverything and anything. His most recent fulminations were againstSuresh Kalmadi over the time and costoverruns for the Commonwealth Games. And rightly so, for no one wasasking questions of Mr Super Organiser Kalmadi. Not one to shy awayfrom a verbaljoust, only the more gregarious Amar Singh got the better of him in thephysical version.
When he was India's oil minister, his bytes were legendary. Once whenasked whether oil would touch $100 during the super spike, Mani calmlyresponded that he was an Aiyar and not an astrologer. On anotheroccasion, when he was being constantly harassed on the price hikeissue, he answered cryptically - I am neither ruling it in, nor rulingit out. Quotable quotes were the order of the day if Mani was holdinga presser or a briefing. On stillanother occasion when the Cairn's oil find in Barmer was being dedicatedto the nation, witty as ever, Mani quipped that the Cairn Energy guyshad asked him his mother's name in order to name one of the fields and since itwasn't a national secret, he had decided to give it to them. Therewere many such gems from Mani when he was oil minister,. He bought acertain pizazz to the dank corridors of Shastri Bhawan and mostimportantly kept a lot of journos is good humour. In fact the oilministry those days was gushing with stories. There was the ministerMani, his secretary Sushil Tripathi, the DGH VK Sibal and of courseONGC chairman Subir Raha. They were the dramatis personae who kept ourkeyboards clicking. Oil and gas stories abounded, politicking betweenthese players helped and then Mani and his foot in mouth ensured that therewas never any dearth of good stories to recount back in office. ButMani using the instrument of oil diplomacy was extremely successful,unfortunately he got tripped due to a business-politics nexus and wasturfed out to become the sports minister where he was never at ease.As he told me recently, he loathed being the sports minister and wasin a way thankful when the job was taken away from him.
Now Mani as an interviewer was splendid the other day. I was remindedof the barrell full of laughs that Hindustan Times's then oilcorrespondent Deepak Joshi would induce from the bureau, every time hereturned from Shastri Bhawan. Aanyway, Mani was in form going for Karan'sjugular repeatedly. The fact that both of them went to the same almamaters twice over - Doon School and Cambridge - provided theconversation with an extra edge. Of course as Mani reminded Karan andthe viewers ceaselessly with the fact that Mani was much senior to himin both institutions and by the time Mani left them, they weren't thesame. But that was good banter. Karan Thapar was sporting enough to dothe interview on the occasion of the release of his new book - Salt &Pepper. This helped me press the rewind switch and reminded me of thetime when Khalid Mohommed the then resident film critic of Times ofIndia debuted with his first directorial venture. Now my old friendKhalid was caustic and even stinging in his film reviews. So, theapocryphal story told is that when Fiza starring Hrithik Roshan,Karisma Kapoor and Jaya Bachchan was to be released, Bennett ownerSamir Jain got Subhash Ghai to review the film in ToI. Now that was amoment frozen in time for Ghai's review was given prominence and spacein ToI. It was also a scathing indictment of Khalid's work and a caseof tit for tat. All the hapless film producers, directors and actorswho make up the filmi frat appluaded the hit job. They saw Samir Jainas a fair and honourable man. Similarly, Thapar allowed himself to becross examined by Mani Shankar Aiyar. But by his own voilition, Iguess and not at the behest of any promoter, I dare say.
Thapar's in your face style has very few admirers. Sadly, seldom has heallowed his guest to speak freely. And this can be extremely annoying.Not just to the guest, but to the viewers as well. Mani claimed thatthis obnoxious style was his stock in trade. He wanted the programmeDevil's Advocate rechristened 'Screw The Other Guy Show.' Now that wasfunny because it summed up the plight of the person being interviewed.If I remember right, Narender Modi got so uptight that he got up andwalked out from a Thapar interview because he didn't like the tack ofquestioning. Yet Thapar has survived all these years. And he has donewell for himself, the son of a former Army chief as Mani Aiyarreminded him, "you are nothing but a dishonest questioner. Over theyears he has remained one of the most prominent talk show hostsdespite his abrasive and stylised style. There were other moments thatmade the programme. Mani reminded Thapar of how he was once brought tothe studio under the guise of a programme and then cheated assomething totally different was discussed. At the end of it, Maniscreamed, "I felt I had been raped." Thapar has survived Home TV,Eyewitness to become a name to reckon with in news telly journalism.In the past he has allowed himself to be interviewed by Karan Joharand Arun Jaitley, but neither programme was as engaging as the onewith Mani. Finally Thapar had met an intellectual equal.
Aiyar used a simple technique to get under Thapar's skin. Like anunceasing wave, he kept coming at him. He wanted a simple answer to asimple question - who is the worst interviewee that Thapar has beenfaced with? Thapar was flummoxed for some reason and refused to playball. Suddenly he got all coy and self effacing. Which was unlike him.And Aiyar waded in. Sample this - you are nothing but a guttersnipefrom Jaipur House who got lucky to become the Cambridge Unionpresident. Wow. No counter punch from Thapar as the cat had got histongue. After much persuasion because Aiyar by now was punching abovehis weight and enjoying every blow that he was landing, Thapar openedup to give some clues about an entertainer. Thapar gave a long windedand convoluted explanation about his guest without actually naminghim. Aiyar, smart as always quickly caught on and answered that Thaparwas referring to A R Rahman. Somewhere, Aiyar was upset at beingclubbed with Advani, it was all very good fun. Done in zest surely,but a bit cumbersome for Thapar towards the end.
Comeuppance, just desserts, call it what you will. A sporting Thaparhad by the end of the programme become a snorting Thapar for he musthave been fuming at the damage that the astrologer, sorry Aiyar hadended up doing. Verdict 1-0 for Aiyar. The man famed for conductingverbal assaults on his guests had been finally been found tongue tied,diffident and hapless. Aiyar had all the questions this time andThapar was clueless with his pedestrian answers.
(exchange4media)