As Mid-Night Hot got too hot for the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, many of my friends have been forced to switch back to Sun TV for mid-night entertainment and artistic pursuits. It is unfortunate that the I&B finds the skimpily dressed FTV models as "offensive content". These I&B people don't understand art. How boring are calenders with only dates to look at. Flowers and sceneries don't make them interesting either. So fashion photographers take pains to shoot damsels and put them on calenders, just so that our dates look interesting. And showing them on TV makes it so easy for us to watch directly in our homes what we otherwise could only see on Hindu temples, our cultural heritage. And why appreciate stones when you have live images to adore. It seems like everything past is to be respected as culture and everything present is scorned as obscenity. What about future? Possibly 2000 years later these FTV videos will be a part of our cultural heritage and will be seen with great respect!
And those Lingerie shows impart valuable education about female undergarments (Though I admit that quite often I totally miss them and watch something else...slippery eyes...Phisalti Nazar...blame it on genes...God is a naughty programmer!). I think all guys need such education. It is very important for sexual equality and mutual understanding. If Amul Macho is Crafted for Fantasies, then...hm...hm...well I don't even know one Lingerie brand :-( Ye to bada Toin Hai X-(.
Reality shows are very popular these days on Indian Television. They make good money too. So what if each one of them is a copy of what's already shown on some western channel? We have concocted our own recipes for their success - 2 item number gals bitching against each other, one bhojpuri hero, a few flop bollywood stars trying to stake their claim to fame and a filmy setting. Yes, our reality shows get more filmy than real. And of course by filmy we mean aamchi Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood, etc. etc. Not Hollywood because filmy when used for Hollywood has a different meaning altogether. It often sounds more real than our reality shows.
One reason why reality shows are not able to sustain their popularity for long is that the Indian viewers miss the visual and musical effects which they enjoy so much in the TV serials. A face turning thrice with dhan dhan dhan of all instruments strummed together in the background and someone shouting the aaaaaaa of the so called classical music work best at expressing the intensity and depth of Indian emotions and bring tears in the eyes of many ladies. And who doesn't love to see ladies fighting with each other? The serials offer that in plenty. In reality shows they are always a little less jhhagdaaloo since they have their careers and image at stake.
Indian producers have a bad habit of getting repetitive. The success of KBC provoked them to start more shows like it. None worked. Even KBC has stopped working. Shahrukh's fake Thanda Thanda Kewl Kewl smiles could not attract viewers. There are many imitations of Indian Idol on various channels. None worked. Even Indian Idol 2 flopped. Most of the winners of these contests are lost in oblivion. Like the Viva gals, who vanished after Hum Naye Geet Sunayein and Jaago Zara. And a few like Sunidhi Chauhan and the Laughter Kings write their success stories by leveraging the opportunities the successes in these contests offer. An opportunity to be Crorepati by answering 15 questions is more than enough to lure the hundreds of millions of people who comprise the Indian middle class. Then there are shows like Nach Baliye with TV-Star-Couples fighting against each other. Since shows like these don't offer any opportunity for the viewers to participate and get rich & famous, these shows have limited success. It's definitely interesting to see our favourite stars try to show their real capabilities rather than those of the characters they play in the Serials. But then, it cannot be interesting and appealing for long. Beyond a certain point, every viewer asks herself/himself - why should I care?
If that is the state of our Entertainment channels, our News channels are not far behind. In fact there is a slow diffusion of News and Entertainment. Gone are the days of DD when a video used to appear out of nowhere in a box that contained the DD logo just to the left of the news-reader. That was magic for me, during my childhood days. News is different nowadays. The news-readers don't just read news. They ask questions to people in those boxes, listen to the answers and ask more questions. It seems they now understand what they read. A lot is done impromptu unlike the old times. This has had two negative effects, besides a few positive ones we don't want to get into. One - the language is no more the perfect-to-each-word kind. In fact it is molested big time, particularly in the Hindi News Channels. Two - the content and the way it is handled often gets pretty funny.
A popular joke about Indian News Channels goes like this - a guy charged with murder is being hanged. Our samwaad-data is standing by his side with a mike in hand. Now the bakwaas goes like this: Mai abhi uss sthaan-a par-a khada hoon jahaan Kaalia ko phaansi di jaa rahi hai. Aaiye Kaaliya se poochte hain wo kaisa mehsoos karr rahe hain is waqt. Kaaliya refuses to speak, and the scene is pulled back to the box by the left of the news-reader. This gives the news-reader a chance to ask her questions. It would be anything stupid like - Kaaliya ham-a jaanna chahte hain ki aapne aaj subah kya kiya. It doesn't matter. Possibly these news-readers are paid purely based on the number of questions they ask.
And the correspondents, it seems, are paid for bringing breaking-news. It's normally the same accross all channels and has to be something spicy by definition. The recent one, for days and weeks, has been anything related to Aish-Abhi marriage. Another was that Richard Gere gave pappies in public to our very own Shilpa aunty and she enjoyed them and that it had offended the sentiments of Indians. It had to. Public display of affection is totally against Indian culture - so say some learned Hindus. They should get it removed from orkut also as a possible turn-on. At least for all Indian orkutters. Nothing should tempt our playful hormones.
The quality of news has deteriorated. Most of the time the news we are given is not at all the news that matters. Perhaps our news channels are not mature enough to handle 24 hours of news coverage. They often end up relegating items of prime importance, just like what our news-papers do. Probably they assume that Indian audience is too dumb. I guess most news-papers too in India have similar opinions about Indian readers. Added to that, most of our english language news-papers propagate incorrect english and deprecated Victorian usages which the Britishers taught our baniyas and clerks to write applications, letters and reports. Things will get funnier and less meaningful with time if we don't immediately bring in professional standards into our news coverage. It is time that our news-media realized the huge responsiblity associated with their job. The billion people in India deserve a much more mature level of awareness.
Media is like an orchestra. It has musicians, singers, composers, directors, and instruments. We have all of them, and in plenty. We know the notes, yet we play the wrong tunes at times. We have all the instruments, yet we are not always sure how to play them. Our choir sings, but is not directed well. Our composers are confused in their choices of pitch and scale. It's a phase every orchestra passes through. It can't help the noise that accompanies the music that it plays. What matters is how it recovers from it and grows itself in a responsible way. Perhaps each new step has such a phase of irresponsible and immature choices associated with it. Sometimes, such phases take very long to be overcome. But finally, music has the power to teach its composer how to bring it out into the world. It finds its own medium to spread itself.
And those Lingerie shows impart valuable education about female undergarments (Though I admit that quite often I totally miss them and watch something else...slippery eyes...Phisalti Nazar...blame it on genes...God is a naughty programmer!). I think all guys need such education. It is very important for sexual equality and mutual understanding. If Amul Macho is Crafted for Fantasies, then...hm...hm...well I don't even know one Lingerie brand :-( Ye to bada Toin Hai X-(.
Reality shows are very popular these days on Indian Television. They make good money too. So what if each one of them is a copy of what's already shown on some western channel? We have concocted our own recipes for their success - 2 item number gals bitching against each other, one bhojpuri hero, a few flop bollywood stars trying to stake their claim to fame and a filmy setting. Yes, our reality shows get more filmy than real. And of course by filmy we mean aamchi Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood, etc. etc. Not Hollywood because filmy when used for Hollywood has a different meaning altogether. It often sounds more real than our reality shows.
One reason why reality shows are not able to sustain their popularity for long is that the Indian viewers miss the visual and musical effects which they enjoy so much in the TV serials. A face turning thrice with dhan dhan dhan of all instruments strummed together in the background and someone shouting the aaaaaaa of the so called classical music work best at expressing the intensity and depth of Indian emotions and bring tears in the eyes of many ladies. And who doesn't love to see ladies fighting with each other? The serials offer that in plenty. In reality shows they are always a little less jhhagdaaloo since they have their careers and image at stake.
Indian producers have a bad habit of getting repetitive. The success of KBC provoked them to start more shows like it. None worked. Even KBC has stopped working. Shahrukh's fake Thanda Thanda Kewl Kewl smiles could not attract viewers. There are many imitations of Indian Idol on various channels. None worked. Even Indian Idol 2 flopped. Most of the winners of these contests are lost in oblivion. Like the Viva gals, who vanished after Hum Naye Geet Sunayein and Jaago Zara. And a few like Sunidhi Chauhan and the Laughter Kings write their success stories by leveraging the opportunities the successes in these contests offer. An opportunity to be Crorepati by answering 15 questions is more than enough to lure the hundreds of millions of people who comprise the Indian middle class. Then there are shows like Nach Baliye with TV-Star-Couples fighting against each other. Since shows like these don't offer any opportunity for the viewers to participate and get rich & famous, these shows have limited success. It's definitely interesting to see our favourite stars try to show their real capabilities rather than those of the characters they play in the Serials. But then, it cannot be interesting and appealing for long. Beyond a certain point, every viewer asks herself/himself - why should I care?
If that is the state of our Entertainment channels, our News channels are not far behind. In fact there is a slow diffusion of News and Entertainment. Gone are the days of DD when a video used to appear out of nowhere in a box that contained the DD logo just to the left of the news-reader. That was magic for me, during my childhood days. News is different nowadays. The news-readers don't just read news. They ask questions to people in those boxes, listen to the answers and ask more questions. It seems they now understand what they read. A lot is done impromptu unlike the old times. This has had two negative effects, besides a few positive ones we don't want to get into. One - the language is no more the perfect-to-each-word kind. In fact it is molested big time, particularly in the Hindi News Channels. Two - the content and the way it is handled often gets pretty funny.
A popular joke about Indian News Channels goes like this - a guy charged with murder is being hanged. Our samwaad-data is standing by his side with a mike in hand. Now the bakwaas goes like this: Mai abhi uss sthaan-a par-a khada hoon jahaan Kaalia ko phaansi di jaa rahi hai. Aaiye Kaaliya se poochte hain wo kaisa mehsoos karr rahe hain is waqt. Kaaliya refuses to speak, and the scene is pulled back to the box by the left of the news-reader. This gives the news-reader a chance to ask her questions. It would be anything stupid like - Kaaliya ham-a jaanna chahte hain ki aapne aaj subah kya kiya. It doesn't matter. Possibly these news-readers are paid purely based on the number of questions they ask.
And the correspondents, it seems, are paid for bringing breaking-news. It's normally the same accross all channels and has to be something spicy by definition. The recent one, for days and weeks, has been anything related to Aish-Abhi marriage. Another was that Richard Gere gave pappies in public to our very own Shilpa aunty and she enjoyed them and that it had offended the sentiments of Indians. It had to. Public display of affection is totally against Indian culture - so say some learned Hindus. They should get it removed from orkut also as a possible turn-on. At least for all Indian orkutters. Nothing should tempt our playful hormones.
The quality of news has deteriorated. Most of the time the news we are given is not at all the news that matters. Perhaps our news channels are not mature enough to handle 24 hours of news coverage. They often end up relegating items of prime importance, just like what our news-papers do. Probably they assume that Indian audience is too dumb. I guess most news-papers too in India have similar opinions about Indian readers. Added to that, most of our english language news-papers propagate incorrect english and deprecated Victorian usages which the Britishers taught our baniyas and clerks to write applications, letters and reports. Things will get funnier and less meaningful with time if we don't immediately bring in professional standards into our news coverage. It is time that our news-media realized the huge responsiblity associated with their job. The billion people in India deserve a much more mature level of awareness.
Media is like an orchestra. It has musicians, singers, composers, directors, and instruments. We have all of them, and in plenty. We know the notes, yet we play the wrong tunes at times. We have all the instruments, yet we are not always sure how to play them. Our choir sings, but is not directed well. Our composers are confused in their choices of pitch and scale. It's a phase every orchestra passes through. It can't help the noise that accompanies the music that it plays. What matters is how it recovers from it and grows itself in a responsible way. Perhaps each new step has such a phase of irresponsible and immature choices associated with it. Sometimes, such phases take very long to be overcome. But finally, music has the power to teach its composer how to bring it out into the world. It finds its own medium to spread itself.
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