SIGHT & SOUND
Alas, viewers seldom complain
Amita Malik

Media coverage of August 15 and Republic Day naturally follows a routine pattern. Particularly DD’s coverage from Red Fort, which now has impeccable camerawork and once a year its backroom boys and girls appear in the mile-long credits on the screen. But what viewers mind is DD’s monopoly of the Red Fort coverage and, to some extent, the President’s address to the nation.

Prasar Bharati CEO K.S. Sarma, who makes pious noises about getting cricket coverage by proper sports channels for free "in the national interest", certainly does not seem willing to share the addresses by the PM and the President.

The government, in the more justified national interest, should make it mandatory for DD to share it with all channels. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Information and Broadcasting Minister Jaipal Reddy, are you listening?

What was different this year? Perhaps, our scientist President’s address to the nation on the eve of Independence. Steering clear of the predictable political platitudes, the President, armed with graphics, charts, statistics and technical skill, gave detailed practical advice on how the country should deal with most things, from earthquakes and floods, to conserving energy and providing education at all levels. Perhaps a little too detailed on too many topics for us amateurs to take in immediately. But the address should be reproduced in print and in handouts to reach the Indian institutions and specialists concerned.

Also, instead of going in for the usual masala films to titillate viewers on a holiday, three channels chose to repeat films which seemed relevant to the occasion. Star Gold showed Swades, about an NRI, highly successful in the USA, who returns to his roots and ultimately decides to uplift a village. Based on a true story, it has Shah Rukh Khan in a different kind of role.

Star Movies chose to show Mr and Mrs Iyer, a fine film with a subtle message about communalism. And Zee Studio chose Autumn in New York, a very gentle and touching film about a young girl dying of cancer.

Of the political films, I liked Zee’s presentation of Jinnah vs Jinnah, a fine reconstruction of the various facets as well as change of political stances by Jinnah. Among a whole bevy of experts, including academics and politicians, I was particularly interested in the observations of Ayesha Jalal, daughter of Hamid Jalal, an old colleague (news editor) of ours in All India Radio before Partition. Ayesha has made a name for herself as an astute and scholarly commentator and author on sub-continent politics. I am sure Hamid, who is no more, would have been proud of her, as are we, his old colleagues.

I had agitated calls, mostly sarcastic, and not necessarily from Bengalis, such as, "Tell your friends from NDTV how to pronounce Amartya Sen’s name correctly." I did not see how, as a columnist, I was responsible for correcting NDTV’s gaffe, but I did it out of respect for viewers who care about these things. All too often, listeners and viewers take things lying down.

The channel took the complain very gracefully when I told about the protests from viewers and that the "Y" in the name was more or less silent and they should either pronounce Professor Sen’s name as "Ommor-tho" as the Bengalis do, or "Ummer-tho" as it should be in Hindi. Thereafter, new announcements on NDTV mostly said Ommor-tho, so did Prannoy Roy in the delightful India Speaks programme, where the generation next asked questions for one and a half hours from Professor Sen. Prannoy was one of the professor’s brightest students at the Delhi School of Economics.

I must register a strong protest against the practice of feature films of two hours and a little over, running for four hours on all channels, to fit in ads, promos, interviews, etc. I spent that much time on Swades and as a result missed many other good programmes. This practice as well as ads taking up more time than serials is a serious menace, and if channels cannot control themselves, it is time the viewers did. But the Indian viewers seldom protest, alas. They are docile and long-suffering as a class.

Tailpiece: Do middle-class Indian husbands really address their wives as "Daah-Ling" as in the zero per cent tobacco ad for paan masala? I certainly haven’t come across any, have you?