I don?t feel at home with Reporters. The look is too glossy, too unreal. The channel head sports a muffler. The editor Kabir is usually in a jacket (wonder why the tie is missing?.? Ananya, the girl on the field is in designer outfits! The channel office is uncluttered and more like a chummery than a newsroom. Just how swish can we get!

Has anyone has seen the lady reporters on their beat? Barring those covering the party scene, who dress up for the occasion? The girls in the field are dressed in regular pr?t- a-porter. Some times their hair is pinned up and before they face the camera to report, it isn?t uncommon for the cameraman or a colleague to remind her to run a brush through and rearrange the dupatta or scarf. The only ones in glad rags on a channel are the weather girl and the show anchors. The men who appear at news hour wear a jacket and a tie, but if only one were to wander into a news studio, the anchor will be probably be dressed up from the waist up, his jeans and? sports shoes are well hidden from the camera.

But no, Reporters has just gloss, and we are waiting for the grime. Sure the news room politics and story killing are part of the profession and the plot. But get real with the ambience and the story. Where is the news story that reporters kill for???

Whether Kabir Sharma?s character is modeled on a Goswami, Sardesai or Sharma is hardly the question. How authentic is Kabir Sharma?s character? What?s the back story? ?The latter was swiftly spun through in the first episode. Kabir Sharma can?t just walk out of one job and into another, as though he is the best journo in town!

If Reporters is to be an attention grabbing series, the makers have to ensure that there are news stories within the plot. So far it?s all newsroom vengeance. Can we please have a better script?

Very recent episodes of Dil Ki Baatein Dil Hi Jaane showcased the emergence of a new young talent. The sequence of emotions and anger that Mahima Makwana displays had one sit up and notice.? She plays Disha, Anandi and Ram Ahuja?s teenaged daughter. The outburst was controlled; expressive eyes and voice modulation were resorted to. Surely, a casting coup. There will be much more, where it came from, as this is just the beginning. ??

Maharana Pratap has completed 400 episodes. Contiloe Entertainment, the makers also have Jhansi Ki Rani to their credit with 520 episodes. It must be stated, that this production house has not one, but two historicals on air. The other one being Chakravartin Ashok Samrat. By no measure can such a feat be overlooked. Both the serials are differently placed in Indian history. One is the golden age of the Mauryas and the other is a tale of Rajput valour with the saddest end.

The production needs of both are mammoth; the execution perfect and there is absolutely no criss-crossing of casting. Both are perfectly shot, edited and presented. Just how large a team Contiloe Entertainment has at its fingertips is unimaginable. Other than the two historicals, they have Adalat and Savdhan India among other shows.? They haven?t compromised on quality on any point and that?s why 20 years on they are still in the business.

When the saas-bahu melodramas overwhelmed prime time, there was a joke about some production houses that if there was a death scene in one of their soaps, someone from another would also die and likewise with weddings or Satyanarayan pujas. Cheaper to recycle props and the junior artist playing the pujari, I guess. The days of multiple soaps and stock props are history.

Producers like Contiloe, Arvind Babbal and Gurudev Bhalla have raised the bar, by putting quality and authenticity before popularity and milestone episodes.?