Friday, September 10, 2004

 It's Jassi's Day Out! She is going great guns. After having a postal stamp on her, a Jassi clothing line will soon follow. And what more? Will she make the Gandhiji of popular culture or at least the face of the urban Indian woman?

Behen ji in braces has beaten all the glamorous soap opera heroines making them unable to remove this stain on their reputations and their TRPs. She has been awarded an honour that would not have automatically been Tulsi's even if she had managed to beat Kapil Sibal, and won the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat.

 
Jassi is in a class of her own because she is so fallibly real. Jassi on a stamp puts the 'stamp' on the importance of soaps to the psyche of India. It might as well raise the price of the programme's sponsorships, or the business of India's orthodontists, or the sales figures of the local post office. Though not the equivalent of a Padma Shri, it is an inspired marketing gimmick. But even if such limited immortality stems from an exchange of money between the producers and the P & T department rather than official national recognition of her contribution to Indian society, it is still significant.

That's not all. Well, you too can dress like Jassi. A Delhi-based designer Satya Paul is soon launching a 'Jassi' line. Puneet Nanda, Satya Paul's son and the designer of the line says of the collection said that Sony thought of this idea and they were looking for someone who would be able to serve as a sounding board and be able to support the whole thing. Satya Paul Design Studio was an appropriate fit, he added.

 Paul describes the line as "daily wear and relaxed evening and semi-formal wear. This is a ready to wear (prêt) designer line for everyday use - cotton, linen and blends with conceptual design and simple ornamentation. It is an effort to create a refreshing contemporary design with the parameters of ease of wear and care."

The line is not exactly what only the character of Jassi wears; it is based on the look of what the various characters would wear. It features simple and contemporary style lines, informs Nanda. There are not only a good measure of salwaar kameezes but also what one refers to crossover fusion and some western silhouettes.

The line will be sold out of the chain of Satya Paul stores and Shoppers' Stop stores. Any buyers for Jassi's staid, buttoned-up and long sleeved behenji salwar kurtas? 'Jassi Jaise Koi Nahi', magar Jassi jaise dikh tho sakte ho?

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