SIGHT & SOUND
Too much bang bang
Amita Malik

TO put a variation on a familiar saying, both the year-end and the New Year were dogged not by a whimper but by several bangs.

The tragic end of an eminent professor, who laid down his life saving his student from the assassin’s bullets, underlined the futility of the mindless terrorists attacking India’s premier science institute.

Fortunately, most channels covered the incident with decorum. There was less invasion of the family’s privacy and grief, and only the professor’s brother-in-law broke the news of the professor’s heroic deed.

At the other extreme was the incredible incident of team manager Dungarpur making that amazing attack on Sourav Ganguly and then following it up with a variety of falsehoods and retractions. This is where the advantage of TV came in, because the documentary evidence on the small screen was so damaging that one was shocked that Dungarpur’s falsehoods were accepted by Sharad Pawar, a Union Minister, even as one wondered afresh why politicians with no background in cricket, football and other sports bodies should be there at all.

Gone are the days when politicians could deny damaging statements. They have not realised even now that they hold themselves up to ridicule and contempt in the process, when lakhs of viewers can see things for themselves.

The more pleasurable event, if not uniformly top tennis, was provided by the Videocon tournament in Chennai. But that top tennis players do not always make the best commentators was proved by the non-stop reporting of what one could see by Leander Paes. His critical analyses also obtruded on actual rallies while play was in progress. Charu Sharma, acting in tandem with Leander and with the same non-stop backchat with hardly any expertise, made matters worse.

At the time of writing, the Indo-Pak test series and one-day internationals have barely begun. One is glad Doordarshan has not got away with taking advantage of another channel’s coverage by virtue of being the sarkari channel it is not supposed to be. Three cheers for the Supreme Court. Except it is time the SC enforced its statement that ‘the air belongs to the people’. I am afraid the Indian media are still very far away from that ideal.

However, the star wars which have started in the new year promise bitter battles ahead. Rajdeep Sardesai teaming up with CNN now offers competition to the few other English channels in India. It is early days yet and I shall watch it for some time to come to any conclusions. But I am glad that NDTV, which has been a role model for other channels and which built up Rajdeep Sardesai as a TV personality when he came to it from print journalism, will now have to look to its laurels. Some of its newscasters and anchors are far below its usual standards, just as most of Rajdeep’s new recruits, in spite of all the hype, remain amateurs.