Manufacturing News, if not Consent !

Desi Pundit, India, Media, News, TV 11 Responses »
Aug 192009

The person i feel sorriest for in 24 hour news channels is the Sound Recordist. Having to hear our esteemed ‘news anchors’ screech their way through various issues – must deafen the strongest of ear drums.

Of all the news channels, there is none more screechy than CNN – IBN – i can hear it 2 rooms away – when my mother has it on in the hall. i keep wondering why they don’t use an audio limiter .

Over the weekend, they – like every other news channel – milked the SRK controversy for all it was worth, and the decibels were higher pitched than normal. Wall to wall discussions on a non-issue – with the view of boosting up their TRPS’. Nothing wrong in that – so long as we, the audience understand that they are in the business of making money -and take everything that they say with a bag of salt. They want higher TRPs because that means more money.

But, that is not the problem. The problem is hypocrisy. Look at todays’ blog by Sagarika Ghosh, No checks please, I’m a Bollywood star –

Perhaps the wonderfully talented Shah Rukh Khan, beloved of millions, should limit his superb skills to doing what he does best: making great movies and enhancing the silver screen. His lectures on geo-politics, America’s role in the world, security procedures and international diplomacy are a little bit hilarious. So you endured a bit of questioning at Newark because your baggage hadn’t arrived on time, Shah Rukh? So what? As Meghnad Desai said on Face The Nation, what’s the big deal? Be like APJ Abdul Kalam and just get on with it.

I take it that “Face the Nation” is a programme on their channel. and they get Meghnad Desai on – he btw is an Academic, Historian, Economist & widely read – to comment on this ????

Now, given that she and her fraternity & sorority – across news channels – had blanked coverage on this- made SRK into some sort of a martyr, and vilified some poor immigration clerk – i find it kind of absurd that she is trying to take the moral high ground by attacking Shah Rukh Khan. So, they are using him for two days to rail at the American system. And, then they are using him to rail against the Indian system. Manufacturing News if not Consent !

Maybe, Mr.Shah Rukh Khan – or any other celeb- ought to take the Paris Hilton route with news channels. You have used my image, and my name to make money – pay me ! Seriously.

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Posted by gargi at 11:00 am Tagged with: , , , , ,

24 Hour Infomercials ?

Desi Pundit, India, Media, News 27 Responses »
Aug 172009

At first, when my nani called me up to tell me that SRK was arrested in the USA – I thought that they had sent him to Gitmo ! Then i realised it was a 2 hour stop at the airport. I wonder how much airtime was spent on this – and to the exclusion of what ? and how much money did the “NEWS” channels make.

Take one bloated super star ego, mix a nation in the grip of paranoia ; stir in customs and immigration officers who think that they are god ; simmer with silly season ; add a dash of news channels with no ethics, and journalists who would sensationlise their mothers’ sex life if they thought it would get them better TRP’s – and bingo you get ‘……because My name is Khan’ kind of overkill.

The unkind say that this was publicity for the film. I don’t buy that – this sort of stupid serendipity cannot be paid for. It has to happen only when every body f***s up and the News media compound it by forgetting that they are the watchdogs on behalf of the public – and get co-opted by the ruling elite.

On the day Shahrukh Khan got detained for two hours — oh my god, how can someone stop SRK for two hours, hang them, quarter them; no quarter them, hang them — 21 farmers committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh because they couldn’t pay off their debt.

But, farmers committing suicide cannot be sponsored, it does not drive up TRP’s and it definitely is not conducive for off the cuff ranting by our esteemed ‘journalists’. (note: i use the term journalist very, very loosely, and I apologise to any real journalist who is offended at my comparing the lot on TV to them)

24 Hour Blogs – one can say – but that too,would be unkind. There a whole bunch of bloggers whom i follow and whose integrity and intent I respect – even if i differ with them on their views. There isn’t a single TV journalist I can put in the same category.

Since 26/11 I have stopped watching TV news – except for DD. I read papers – sometimes – but mostly I subscribe to various RSS feeds – including bloggers, columnists and news agencies – and I figure what is happening in the world. I get my updates from my mother or my grandmother – who are avid news watchers on the death and disaster and slap to ego that is happening in the world. I listen to them, much the same way that I do, when they tell me what is happening in their favorite soap :)

So if we can’t call really call them journalists, or news channels or even bloggers – then what are they? If you read this excellent piece in The HOOT you will realise that a whole bunch of them are putting out ‘NEWS’ that is not in Public Interest – as they claim – but in the interest of Interested Parties – that they have close commercial ties with. So 24 hour Infomercial Channels – is possibly what we ought to call them. They have the same repetition, the same music that drives you to action, the same kind of ‘we asked 30 people and they said’ mode of driving home their point. So, if they are in the pay of commercial interests and if they are putting out content in the interest of these commercial interests, shouldn’t they be regulated by some body ?

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Other Blogs with a different take on the same issue :
Churumuri on – Is an immigration clerk threat to our sovereignty?
Melissa George’s – Who is this Shahrukh Khan character anyway?
Prerna on My Name is Khan And Hence I was Detained
Shishir Joshi’s My Name is Khan…ummm…..er…so?
Reality Check India’s – We Are Not Outraged

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Posted by gargi at 12:53 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Films, India, Reviews 3 Responses »
Dec 132008
Shahrukh Khan as Everyman !

Shahrukh Khan as Everyman !

The buzz, the glamour, the hype, the smartness, the over exposure, in a way makes us forget what a good actor Shah Rukh Khan  is. And, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is another example of a person carrying a film by their sheer ability.

Yesterday, along with a full theatre at Cinemax Versova, I saw Yash Raj Film’s latest offereing Rab ne Bana di Jodi.

Aditya Chopra and SRK have delivered the ultimate Hrishikesh Mukherjee film – a story of an everyman, with his everyday issues, who is not out to lead revolutions or beat up bad guys – but who has his own little universe, his own woes and his own issues. and how he overcomes them.

In a bad market, with a sense of insecurity that permates – a movie like this reminds you that things are possible. All you have to  do is try.

The story is very simple.  Two nice people Surinder Sahaney (SRK) and Taani (Anuskha Sharma) enter into a marriage of convinience. Surinder – Suri – an officer at Punjab Power (we light up your life) – has no great expectations of life or love, but he falls truly and deeply in love with his wife. Tanii, on the other hand, recovering from the death of two peole she loved the most – is in a zone where she wants no love.  The story is about Suri deciding to woo his wife. He does that by taking on another persona.

The premise isn’t new. But, the characters are. It is a story of two ordinary people and how they fall in love.  And what they do to find love.

Shah Rukh Khan carries the film. You laugh, and cry and root for him – like you never have. Newcomer Anushka Sharma is believable – and after a long time there is a heroine who can deliver dialogue in normal Hindi. God is the other main character in the film – although s/he is never shown. But the presence in the film is real – which possibly helps to explain loopholes in the screenplay. But, this kind of a film is not so much about screenplay as it is about characters and what they say to each other, and, Aditya Chopra‘s dialogue script is brilliant. The dialogues are real. The characters are real. Some situations  situations may be slightly contrived, but hey, its a film :)

The ethos of the film is very middle class suburban India. Not the elite, the media or services. But, people from the PSU’s, Nationalised Banks – not the bureaucratic elite, but the officers who mind the place. An India which is pretty much tolerant and integrated – go to a Government or LIC colony to see what i mean. And, this is reflected very subtly in the film. It is nice to see YRF that spearheaded the NRI based movie , return to roots.

There is some very clever product placement in this film. check out the integration of Pepsi, Santro and Compaq.

We live in a time where we don’t have much to smile about. Watch this film. If just to smile and feel good.

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Posted by gargi at 3:44 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Links ....

Media, Web 2 Responses »
May 182008

Stuff that made me – in no particular order – think, chortle, smirk, snigger , slurp, nod my head wisely. I shan’t identify which is what …coz it will be fun a year later to figure :)

a) Economic Woman looks at different ways to see the world through worldmapper. The current way of seeing the world – even geographically – is skewed. Europe looks a whole lot bigger than it is, Australia a whole lot smaller. Even geography is politically appropriate.

b) TRP’s (or the equivalent) for Youtube - except that given the nature of the net it will be more accurate than TRP’s (which depend a lot on human intervention in terms of monitoring) – whether it manages to capture the vastness of the TG and it’s propensity to make things up on the net is a different matter.

c) It is nice to see the Indian Government get it right . It has been twice in a row that it has bucked international hype and saved itself from wasting more of tax payer money. The first was a reticence on the SWF . The second was staying away from the $100 laptop project. I remember having a conversation in 1995 with someone who wanted to put a computer in every rural school in India in the next 12 months — and the question I had was basic “Where is the electricity ?”. A vision is a great idea, but as SR put it once — to have sight (of issues) is as important.

d) The trouble with blogging is that you tell a lot about yourself to the world. Sometimes, when you decide to take potshots at others — you also end up revealing your immaturity…. Aamir Khan and the Big B blog ! Both seem to be obsessed with Shah Rukh Khan … I wonder why ? Oops … ok I didn’t read this earlier … That couldn’t have been easy …! Wow – in today’s day and age …it is nice to see such grace.

e) Salary delay for IPL stars - :) As part of the entertainment media they ought to know that normal payment terms are 60 to 90 days after telecast !

f) And, finally – it’s not the age, but the mileage :)
jayasuriya
Image courtsey ( i hope) – Cricinfo.

Sannath Jaysuriya has been having a blast…..

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Posted by gargi at 9:35 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

KBC 3 week 1 - A review

India, Media, TV 3 Responses »
Jan 292007

It rocked. And it rolled. And, as my mother pointed out, the highest density of dimples that any show in the world can ever claim. Man, the smiles and the dimples were out full force – and if nothing else, I will watch the show to see them, feel good about the world and switch off :) The show – Full of energy. Wit. Charm. A departure from the court culture – and it own overt humility and annoying politeness (get to the point, I wanted to scream ) – to a more modern assertive India, that is to the point, funny and not afraid of taking potshots at sacred cows. From the moment SRK went hip hop with ‘Kar le kar le tu ek sawaal’ dancing out one of the highest energy numbers I have seen on screen for a long time, till the end – he was a hit. I loved his opening bit about the use of shudh Hindi. You almost expected him to say at the end of the babel – excuse me please, my name is anthony gonsalves!! I like his style of questioning – a lot more informal, a lot less end of the world in its demeanor. And I liked his conversations with the contestants – light, friendly and very "hum hai na". If talking like Bachchan was like talking to God (as in the Judeo Christian Islamic mythology) then talking to SRK was like talking to someone from the Greek or the Roman pantheon. Possibly a Pan or even a Cupid. Powerful. Yet accessible. Just a guy from ‘our’ neighbourhood, who has made it big – and hasn’t lost his ability to be ‘one’ of us!. What didn’t i like – I didn’t like the over familiarity. Shoulder massages for contestants is a definitely an ugh point. Mein gale lagna chahta hoon made me cringe. Please, please look at something else. The Aap replaced by a Tum jarred a bit. I kind of like Freeze kiya jaaye. And the hi5′s definitely add to the energy. My parents are hooked. Dad sees the show and smiles. Mom gushes. I look goofy. I guess that he works. The only issue is format weariness. But I guess, not much can be done about that!

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