Dull documentaries
Speaking generally
By Chanchal Sarkar

THE BBC’s Kargil coverage came in for criticism in India, the charge being that it was biased. Presumably the same criticism was mounted in Pakistan. Be that what it may I can find little fault with the BBC documentaries like the current series about the road to war — how World War IIbegan. The series has been presented by an old India hand Charles Wheeler who was the BBC’s correspondent here many years ago and acquired an Indian wife.

So much careful and hard work goes into these documentaries — film clips from the past, interviews, narrative connection — that it must need the greatest of skills from a whole team of people all of whom are very good at their jobs. This war documentary is a learning experience and takes one back to the 1920s and 30s to the beginning of the war in September 1939. The film clips were, of course, seen in Europe and America at the time but not in India. Additionally, there are films from Germany.

In comparison our programmes are so dull and banal. Either that or they are full of song and dance sequences which are hideous. I was surprised to see that, following the Prime Minister’s speech at the Red Fort, there were some film sequences that were really offensive. The early sequences were not bad though they were not outstanding. Then came Bollywood style dance with the refrain "East or West India is the best", really how corny can one get!

When one thinks of the depth of Indian experience there can be magnificent documentaries made on Mughal warfare, for instance, of how the Grand Trunk Road was built, about the Rani of Jhansi, about the work of Nobel Laureate Chandra Shekhar on X-rays, on the victorious raid on the European Club in Chittagong under the leadership of Prililata Ohdedar and so on. All these have marvellous pictorial possibilities and with the right research they can be stunning productions. Our documentaries are short on research and long on talk and longest on the obvious. When I see the sort of programmes we turn out I really shudder to think what the effect will be on viewers, particularly young people.

A gentle journalist

From time to time comes the difficult task of commemorating a colleague. Janardan

Thakur was more a protege than a colleague. When he was stuck in the Indian Nation of Patna I recommended him to the Ananda Bazar group who took him on. He was a

success there and made his name but he had a difference of opinion with the Ananda Bazar people over some transfer, which was serious enough for him to resign then he started writing books like All the Prime Minister’s Men which were something new in Indian journalism. Later he also did a biography of V.P. Singh but that was to order, I think.

He set up a small private feature service of his own. Such things need enormous hard work and are very difficult to get going. So after a while he gave it up and for a time he was Editor of Probe . That didn’t last and he went back to the Free Press Journal in Bombay while his family lived in Delhi. The work in Bombay was very hard, his brother told me. Jannu was a very fine younger brother who could always be relied upon. Fortunately he was also a polite and gentle journalist.

Dignity in death

Delhi has two crematoriums, the principal one near the Red Fort has been out of operation for more than a year. The other one at Punjabi Bagh is highly overworked. What kind of chief ministers do they have in Delhi who can’t give dignity to death?