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Chappan bhog
7 months ago
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Big Loss
Recently I bought few DVDs for my brother who is based in UK. One of them was the irreplaceable Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi. I came home and was watching some worthless junkies slugging it out in a house, each trying to out-manoeuvre the other. Worse, I switched to a news channel where I saw a news item where some participants were indulging in fist cuffs.
Somebody told me, this is reality television! I asked someone, is this some WWF? I found out that the participants were part of a Ticket to Bollywood show! Wow, what a come down! No wonder, TV is an idiot box - for idiots, or idiots, and by idiots!
I have a problem with reality television, not just one, but many!
That most of these shows have out-of-work performers who want to revive their flagging careers. Look at Bog Boss2 - a discredited son of a late politician, a discredited moll, an item girl, a politician who wants to revive his career, and few motley models made the starting line-up. And what they do in the house - scheme, scheme, and scheme! Come on, give me a break!
That there is a myth that floats around that these shows unearth new talent. Rubbish, the two real singing talents that have come up in the last decade have been Sunidhi Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal. But they won during the golden days of Saregamapa, which was then hosted by Sonu Nigam and the participants were judged by the likes of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Now you have Himesh Reshamiya, whose knowledge about music is as much as Charles Darwin's knowledge about evolution! But still people watch!
That these shows are democratic in nature! That's the problem! You have participants pleading in their native language for votes. Sometime back, Shweta Kawatra and Manav Gohil bought SIM cards to send responses. You have the actors in that show getting in to a brawl to prove their strength! And you know what democracy throws up - ineptitude! Meritocracy and democracy cannot function in India - at least they have not done so!
That the I&B ministry must act as the Big Brother, and come up with some regulations on what the channels must show. Maybe, everybody will fret and fume at the Big Brother's long hands. But the TV channels only promise self-regulation, and do little!
That it's been a while that I have seen quality sitcoms on television. I remember the days of Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Nukkad, Tamas, and even Discovery of India! I was told that there was a committee at the Mandi House which approved these serials. Maybe bureaucratic in nature, at least the viewers watched some class. Even in the nineties, Neena Gupta and Ravi Rai made some nice shows, like Saans and Sailaab. And these were on primetime!
That I read a piece, where Pritish Nandy wrote about how clever cinema produces clever audiences. He is dead right!
Somebody told me, this is reality television! I asked someone, is this some WWF? I found out that the participants were part of a Ticket to Bollywood show! Wow, what a come down! No wonder, TV is an idiot box - for idiots, or idiots, and by idiots!
I have a problem with reality television, not just one, but many!
That most of these shows have out-of-work performers who want to revive their flagging careers. Look at Bog Boss2 - a discredited son of a late politician, a discredited moll, an item girl, a politician who wants to revive his career, and few motley models made the starting line-up. And what they do in the house - scheme, scheme, and scheme! Come on, give me a break!
That there is a myth that floats around that these shows unearth new talent. Rubbish, the two real singing talents that have come up in the last decade have been Sunidhi Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal. But they won during the golden days of Saregamapa, which was then hosted by Sonu Nigam and the participants were judged by the likes of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Now you have Himesh Reshamiya, whose knowledge about music is as much as Charles Darwin's knowledge about evolution! But still people watch!
That these shows are democratic in nature! That's the problem! You have participants pleading in their native language for votes. Sometime back, Shweta Kawatra and Manav Gohil bought SIM cards to send responses. You have the actors in that show getting in to a brawl to prove their strength! And you know what democracy throws up - ineptitude! Meritocracy and democracy cannot function in India - at least they have not done so!
That the I&B ministry must act as the Big Brother, and come up with some regulations on what the channels must show. Maybe, everybody will fret and fume at the Big Brother's long hands. But the TV channels only promise self-regulation, and do little!
That it's been a while that I have seen quality sitcoms on television. I remember the days of Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Nukkad, Tamas, and even Discovery of India! I was told that there was a committee at the Mandi House which approved these serials. Maybe bureaucratic in nature, at least the viewers watched some class. Even in the nineties, Neena Gupta and Ravi Rai made some nice shows, like Saans and Sailaab. And these were on primetime!
That I read a piece, where Pritish Nandy wrote about how clever cinema produces clever audiences. He is dead right!
The Cook
I watched Bawarchi last night. I have watched it many a times in the past. I watched with amazement how Kaka Rajesh Khanna put up a flawless performance. For the uninitiated, it is a tale of a middle-class joint family, ridden with conflicts and daily struggles, and how a cook played by Khanna brings back the joy into the household. Khanna with his effervescence brings back the old-forgotten family values into the house. It is great stuff to watch Khanna as he resolves each conflict in the household. The line,"Apna kaam toh sabhi kar lete hain, par doosre ke kaam kane se jo anand milta hai, woh toh kuch aur hi hai," remains the signature piece of the movie. Khanna with his ta-ta-daan style is the show stealer!
Kaka was and will always be Indian cinema's only phenomenon. Superstars may come and go. But what Kaka achieved during his glory days during the years 1969-73 will be unparalleled. Today's generation would have seen some potrayals of the once-superstar! Because what you get to see is a sorry sight of a former superstar trying to resort to his gimmicks, not appealing to the newer audience. And that's the problem, and that is the enigma called Rajesh Khanna. That's another post!
Kaka was and will always be Indian cinema's only phenomenon. Superstars may come and go. But what Kaka achieved during his glory days during the years 1969-73 will be unparalleled. Today's generation would have seen some potrayals of the once-superstar! Because what you get to see is a sorry sight of a former superstar trying to resort to his gimmicks, not appealing to the newer audience. And that's the problem, and that is the enigma called Rajesh Khanna. That's another post!
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