Paranjoy’s Idiot Box
Amita Malik

WHETHER he writes or broadcasts, there is a thoroughness about Paranjoy Guha Thakurta’s work which is unmistakable. Books, articles and frequent theses have been written about the effects of television on the social scene, but I found a half-hour programme he has made for Doordarshan which he calls Idiot Box or Window of Hope very interesting viewing. It had an attention to detail, an all-round picture, essential statistics and a general clarity of thought. And all compressed into half an hour, which is not an easy feat.

Under the broad outline that in a country with such a low level of literacy, people who cannot read and write can still see or hear, he explores what exactly TV has meant to India. I do not agree with him that the statistics for radio and TV are anything like equal. Radio is still far ahead of TV and also of cinema. After all, a transistor costs far less than the cheapest black and white TV, but since his research is confined to TV, we can argue about statistics later.

I am glad that he has more about the disturbing aspects of TV, because I think these by and large matter more than the comparatively lesser good effects. And I am also glad he went into specific detail about specific programmes with which viewers would be familiar. Such as a programme for children which led to at least two deaths of kids trying to emulate the feats of our local Batman and the subsequent protests after which the hero had to show the tricks of his trade as also warn children about the dangers of trying to copy his daring feats. It was also apt that when discussing the possible dangers to which over-enthusiastic reporting can lead, he questioned both Barkha Dutt about her alleged carelessness of using a satellite phone during the Kargil war leading to danger to our troops and Nalini Singh, whose coverage of a now much-discussed episode in Bihar has been closely questioned.

About the sex and violence which recur on Indian screens, he has some frightening and staggering statistics about the frequency, in seconds, of violence on the screen, juxtaposed against equally staggering statistics about how many hours children spend watching TV. As I watch much more TV than Guha Thakurta, I must tell him that the few snippets of porn scenes he has shown pale into insignificance compared with what goes on after midnight. This trend used to be confined to the South Indian channels, but both Hindi and Punjabi channels have caught up pretty fast. And the moral police in our I&B Ministry, busy looking at plunging necklines on foreign fashion channels, keep on sleeping on the issue of the far more explicit sex on Indian channels, possibly because of their political clout, at least in the South. Quereshi, DG Doordarshan who has been shunted out to make place for a more pliable head of DD prior to the elections, and some eminent social scientists give their views, which lends the expert touch. Thakurta’s own comments are also thought-provoking and show deep concern for the subject. And he balances the window of hope with the idiocy of the box, with the detachment the subject needs. The programme has already been screened on the big screen at India International Centre. I feel it should be shown more widely to the TV moghuls in the country. Ironically, our elite opinion makers are more addicted to the more independent and lively private channels than to Doordarshan. Otherwise it would have reached a much more important segment of our thinking viewers.

There is little space left for discussing the glut of new serials, some of which are at least a little different. But anyone channel surfing at random will find a monotony in the themes of the typical domestic ones, an alarming drop in acting standards and a deafening over-use of music and sound which do not cover up the paucity of ideas. But the fluctuating standards of NDTV’s 1 to 1 lifted a bit with the presence of both Raveena Tandon and Milind Soman, who chose to be natural and relaxed.

Tail-piece: The US Tennis Open was, as usual, ruined by ads, though not as bad as Doordarshan’s. The worst was an ad for Pizza Hut where a most unpleasant man adds horrible obscene noises to his consumption of pizzas. It was not funny but just in very poor taste. Pity the moral police don’t look into distasteful ads at times. On the other hand, I am never tired of looking at the MRF ad, where a little boy with a dog is almost run over, and then waves his thanks in the rear mirror to the blushing driver. The changing landscape, from an awesome downward drive on a hilly road beside the sea, to the flat plains of our near-accident, make it a visual pleasure. The human interest aspect of the ad adds to its appeal.