You Beep. Beep You. Beep Off. Beep. Beep. Beep
Guess what is it? No its not an ECG beep in the climax of a hindi movie. No it is not a detonator just minutes before it explodes… Its one of our young generation’s most popular reality TV shows, where a bunch of immature kids would abuse, bad mouth, fight and conspire to have their 15 seconds of fame and some cash. Mind you, this is just one of the shows in that category and its success (what an irony!) has made sure that all the channels would be flooded with similar shows in the coming months.
What are these shows trying to preach? ‘Dog bite Dog’ philosophy? Teach our generation all the four, five, six…. And don’t know how many letter words? How NOT to make friends and how to betray if you have one?
Some Girl on the show has biggest nos. of Beeps when she speaks. She doesn’t win the show. She is rudest of them all. But… and it’s a Big But… She is selected as a VJ on the same channel… so what message are they sending to our Gimmick stricken young friends?? Be as cheap as possible, go as down as possible, kick the conscience out of your heart and mind and Lo! You are a winner!!!
When our school going kids would watch all these Pravachan coming from the Judges (what a blasphemy, JUDGE used to be a respectable word) and contestants day in and day out, what would be the impact on them? They would start believing that all this is very normal and this is how a cool (or is it Keeeewl!) life is lead.
I have had a small stint with Media Industry and I know (I guess most of us know) reality part in these shows is only 2% and rest all is absolute Script… the dialogues, the attitude of contestants, their emotions, elimination, return; everything is a part of script.
Change the channel and you will be bombarded with, latest offering from our so very original TV producers, Dance and Music talent shows. It seems as whole of India is dancing, singing, fighting, abusing, flirting and of course…judging. Even news channels are airing clippings from these shows all the time. Looks like Glamour, dance, Movies, songs, news about bollywood stars, these are the only important events happening around the world.
We are shown the marriage of a Pseudo Hero’s star son and a former beauty pageant (Love Me or Hate Me but I find every girl in My Village Beautiful than Her) live on TV, when on the same day one of our Real Heroes, an Indian Army Major, dies fighting terrorists and which, ironically, was being reported on BBC, at the same, a foreign news channel!!
There are hazaar 24 hrs news channels… but how can there be significant news round the clock? So they have to resort to cheap stuff like ‘Aliens are taking away our buffaloes’, ‘Donkeys are committing suicide in Uganda’ (Yes, no prizes for guessing the channel – India TV. Wouldn’t it be better if they changed it to India comedy TV?)
And things they do In the race to report first, Sample this, there was a story on one of the news channels where they showed a terrorist molesting one of the tourists trapped in The Taj during 26/11, later it turned out to be a Mumbai film maker who was just trying to console one of his production team members while coming out of the hotel.
In another case Principal of a school in Noida was falsely trapped and framed (for taking unfair advantage from Girl students) by the sting operator (reporter) himself!! The day is not far when in the race to get the news first, the media will create news, Bad news! because in Media, bad news is always good news.
Leave alone ethics and ideals of media I will give you something to think about the basic responsibility of media towards its nation… All of us might have seen 911 tragedy on TV. They showed us everything. The Planes hitting the towers, the explosion, the fire, people running and crying, fire-fighters, police, etc. But can you recall a single picture where they showed completely charred bodies, blood soaked limbs of different people separated from the torsos, people carrying blood oozing dead bodies and putting them in vans, thick red blood flowing on the road and sprinkled with small papers, wallets, nails, stones???
Am sure the answer would be a resounding NO! ever thought why? It was a perfect example of the ideals, ethics and responsibilities of Media in such difficult times for a nation. Grief stricken people might have panicked by seeing the gory pictures of dead bodies being carried; it might have destroyed the self esteem and confidence of the nation as whole. They did not want the whole world to see ‘THE US of A’ in such a helpless state.
And now just compare this with what they show here, whenever a tragedy strikes. Be it Gujrat riots, earthquake, Tsunami, 2008 Blasts in different cities, 7/11 Mumbai and many others. Our sensitive media would compete with each other in getting their hands on to the most shocking, gruesome, gory, disturbing pictures and videos, so that the whole world will know that we are a country marred by terror, natural calamities and there is no value for human life.
Vaardaat, haqeeqat, ACP Arjun, India’s Most Wanted show twisted crime stories with lots of masaala thrown in… they create so much of negative energy and have very adverse affect on young, sensitive minds. I thought the era of Manohar kahaaniyan, apraadh kathayen is over but no, they have now entered in our households in the form of these prime time crime shows (there’s a show called CRIME TIME too, ripley’s belive it or not but it is true!!)
There was a time when the word Television used to be synonymous with healthy, light, pure, fun, educational, idealistic Entertainment along with some authentic, simple, precise news. And look at it now…it’s a complete caricature of its past.
Where have my Doordarshan days gone ? (I used to be an absolute keeda of TV watching those days) Where are all the shows, which the whole family used to sit and watch together?
Where have ek Kahani, Mr Yogi, Lekhu, Kakka ji kaheen, Talash, Indrdhanush, stone Boy, Super six, ank ajoobe, turning point, , Byomkesh Bakshi, quiley ka rahasya, tarang, laal bhujakkad chacha, Ulta Pulta gone??
Flop Show remains the best comedy serial in indian TV history, not even a single double meaning or vulgar dialogue, no artificial laugh in background and whole family used to roll on the floor with laughter. Today can you imagine a comedy show without the toilet humour?
No detective series could match intensity of Byomkesh Bakshi, till date. Had tears in my eyes when saw the final episode of Stone Boy and It were shows like Turning point and Ank ajoobe which drew me towards science and maths in a fun way! ‘Bharat ek Khoj’ taught me more about my country’s history and its significance than any other history textbook.
Well Abdul Kalaam is right when he says that we should ignite young minds because they are the future of the nation. Absolutely! Ignite their minds with Roadies, with splitsvilla, with dance india dance, jhalak dikh laaja, Bigg Boss, ignite, ignite, ignite!!!
Once upon a time…there was only one channel. Limited transmission time. (I miss that theme tone with DD logo slowly spiraling in, 6.00 in the morning) Yet it had something for everybody… chitrahaar, the Sunday evening movie, the mythological serials, the regional movies on Sunday afternoos, those social messages just before the news, those national integration songs… remember ‘Mile sur mera tumhaara’ ?
But what’s the whole point?… you may say its all about business and there are sub standard shows because there is a market for them… people want to watch them so they make them. TRUE. But that is happening because these kids have not tasted The Real Creativity,real Passion, real intensity. They don’t have anything to compare with. Give them something really Good and they will watch it. Its like people having notion that only Karan Johar movies with mushy romance and emotions are hit in india but I believe that if you really make something passionately and with your heart then a ‘Bheja Fry’, a ‘Chak-De ’, a Lagaan, a Khosla ka ghosla would definitely be a Hit!!
But as far as TV is concerned, I don’t see anything of that sort happening in near future… and that is why I decided something… two years ago… yes, I sold My TV and it has turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. Am so much at peace with myself, my books, discussions with friends and family, writing, creating, learning…
Its always more fun being a ‘Part of the Game’ than just being a ‘Spectator’.
No comments:
Post a Comment