Sight & Sound
Capturing trauma with tact

It has become a bad habit with the so-called TV stars based in Delhi to rush to different parts of the country, if not the world, to show off their prowess about reporting on anything from anywhere.

When the reporters from the Capital rush to take over from perfectly good reporters elsewhere who are familiar with the local language and the terrain, they look like self-opinionated intruders just out to prove their superiority.

In this context I take off my hat to all the channels that used their South Indian reporters with great effect and left the Capital’s stars behind.

Since I tend to concentrate on one or two channels, mostly NDTV’s English channel for its professionalism and news sense and Aaj Tak for Hindi, I must apologise to reporters from other channels who did a splendid job as well.

From NDTV I must mention Jennifer, a seasoned veteran, Gilversan Ansary, Sam Daniel, Swathi Swagarajan (who happened to be in Galle), Sanjay Pinto, they also knew the language for interviews. Their colleagues from Hyderabad, the Sudhirs/Maya Sharma from Bangalore, and Nupur Basu, also familiar with the terrain and in some cases the language, did equally well.

Kamini Sahni, who chipped in from Thailand, like Swathi Thyagarajan, supplied valuable local reports. That they report in English helped both on the spot and for reporting.

Going much further was Monodeepa Banerjee, who went to Car Nicobar from Kolkata. Of others who went beyond the immediate region but reported and interviewed with great tact and empathy were Abhigyan Prakash and Sanjay Ahirwal. I particularly liked Sanjay’s interview with Chandrika Kumaratunga where he gave her the respect and courtesy due to the President of Sri Lanka, but asked searching questions about the LTTE and other tricky subjects.

One of the most outstanding and truly exclusive stories filed on TV was by Deepak Chaurasia, back with Aaj Tak, and his plucky colleague, Pallavi Ghosh. They had done a very thorough of the Andamans, Car Nicobar and the rest, but their extraordinary exclusive was shots, mostly long-distance, of the Sentinelese tribesmen who prefer to live on their own. They refuse to wear clothes and are not given to welcoming visitors, although their tribe has dwindled almost to extinction. It was an outstanding report and ought to be of great interest to researchers all over the world.

On a totally different plane it was heartening to see surprise volunteers, such as Vivek Oberoi, normally the target of cruel filmi gossip, doing a solid job of organising proper distribution of relief material and encouraging villagers to take matter in hand. He spoke with dedication and had important facts to share when he faced the camera.

Also in the Andamans and Car Nicobar were actor-director Rahul Bose, visible and articulate on TV, and author Amitav Ghosh. They had been sent by a group of NGO intellectuals in Mumbai to make on the spot assessments of what was required.

Rahul was characteristically described by CNN as "a wealthy Indian" (I am sure Rahul would be amused) and said he had gone to the Andamans to "raise money", a laughable statement since Rahul specifically said on other channels that they would prefer to go directly to de-salinisation plants and manufacturers of such products as generators. He said he would prefer that to money.

On a lighter note in this gloom, most channels preferred to see in the New Year quietly and without fuss, in view of the tsunami tragedy. But I enjoyed the only light programme, but not vulgarly so, on Aaj Tak by my favourite TV satirist Jaspal Bhatti.

He always keeps his leg-pulling simple enough for both elite and ordinary viewers to enjoy. I loved the way he pulled Amitabh Bachchan’s leg about his advertisements of trivia. The best was his take on former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee doing a cricket commentary. Thank you Jaspalji, for introducing some innocent cheer into a year which ended with such gloom.