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Saturday, February 11, 2006 |
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Saturday, February 11, 2006 |
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SIGHT & SOUND Well, it is not DD but Sahara One which has revived Buniyaad and it warmed my heart to see shy Lajjoji confessing in front of her mirror that she had a crush on her tutor, Masterji. This serial brought a whole host of faces which later became famous and even now dominate our TV screens. The serial’s technique as well as the story— of a typical normal, happy family hit hard by the Partition but struggling to rehabilitate not only itself but an entire uprooted community in a refugee camp — may seem dated. But this is the stuff of which real life is made. It will not only bring back nostalgia to the older generation, but if the younger generation chooses to watch, and they should, it will show them what their parents and grandparents went through so that they could enjoy their present peaceful lives. In other words, Buniyaad is a TV classic, and should be treated as such, in the same way as we watch film classics. With still another new English channel, Times Now, cobbling up, the competition is on. I shall now mention a few commonalities between CNN-IBN and Reuters-Times Now. Both are urban-based and concentrating on investigative journalism among other baits for viewers. Full marks to Ruksh Chatterjee and colleagues in IBN for a sustained, documented and chilling expose of our coastal security in operation Water Rat. Times Now, on the other hand, verges on understatement in its expose of how Dravid turned down his chance of including Sourav Ganguly in the One Day International, because he was terrified of upsetting Greg Chappell. An eye-opener. At the time of writing, Times Now is going at the Navin Chawla expose hammer and tongs. But I must warn both new channels about making extravagant claims. Times Now claimed that its programme on gays was “the first ever” on Indian TV. Rubbish. Barkha Dutt took up the subject long ago, with even the parents of gays speaking up bravely. NDTV still continues to inspire and sustain both new English channels. And I am enjoying the reappearance of my favourite broadcaster on defence, Maroof Raza, formerly of NDTV (as are the most solid presenters on both channels) for his weekly programme Line of Duty on Times Now. Last week Maroof was in Siachen, which has been spoken about several times before. Maroof, however, took us back to the beginnings and the history of Siachen, explaining that its airlifts were the longest running air operation in military history. He spoke about the subtleties of various weapons and recorded the memorable observation of an outgoing officer, that he was “lucky he survived the cold as well as enemy bullets.” Swati Thiayagarjan’s Born Wild is a classy programme which deserves the highest national and international awards. Her programme on the lovable langurs, which enjoy an affectionate relationship with humans, and her foray into the wetlands where reptiles of rare breeds flourish were among the best programmes she has ever done. Since the Bedi brothers, there has been nobody like Swati on Indian TV. She is fast becoming a David Attenborough in her own right. Here are some observations of an exasperated TV watcher. When Sagarika Ghose says “Right”, she means “Shut up, I will do all the talking”. And when Srinivasan Jain says “Right”, he means: “I’m looking for my next |
I think mine was the first, if not the only, column to suggest to Doordarshan that instead of forgetting its cultural responsibilities and joining the saas-bahu rat race it should revert to its roots and revive its early serials, such as Buniyaad to get back its status as a public-service channel. 
