SIGHT & SOUND
Thrills on the screen
Amita Malik

Someone remarked the other day that we have got nothing but thrills on the small screen. So I tried to assess how far this was true. The Malegaon case, involving a senior Army man and woman claiming to be religious, is certainly becoming, if not exactly of the James Bond category, exciting enough. Equally thrilling for those involved are the Delhi local elections, with the mysterious death of one of the contestants leading to all kinds of speculation.

These national events have even overshadowed the Prime Minister’s visit to an important international conference. The statements he is making about India’s involvement in it do get the headlines but the news is not telecast in detail.

Malegaon explosions: The case, if not exactly of the James Bond category, is full of suspense and drama

In the middle of all this we get one of the saddest human interest stories—a two-hour-old infant getting singed to death because of a defect in the heating apparatus of his cradle.

To add to the misery of the parents, they were not even informed of the accident in time, or they might have shifted the infant to another hospital. One often wonders if these exposures on the small screen, which are watched by lakhs of viewers, ever lead to some positive action to prevent such tragedies in future. One has a sinking feeling that after the initial fuss, nothing much changes.

So much for the power of the small screen. On the sports front, India was the favourite from the start and not many thrills were expected from the India-England cricket matches. Unfortunately, the encounter has started on a dull note, and only the swashbuckling sixes and much else by Yuvraj add an occasional thrill from the actual field.

In this context I would like to ask Doordarshan some questions which have been bothering me for some time. Whenever I tune in to DD Sports, which is usually in passing, I find that the channel is showing some fencing event. Why fencing? It is not exactly a popular sport in India and I wonder how many people watch it.

Yuvraj’s batting provided thrilling entertainment

Then, again for some unknown reason, I find that DD Sports keeps on showing sports events which took place in 2006.

I can find no logical explanation for this except that DD, which usually screens events which it gets for free, has to wait for contemporary events to make their way and cannot screen them immediately precisely because it gets them free.

But then, who bothers about topicality in sarkari organisations? With such dearth of light entertainment on the small screen, I wonder why we do not have more programmes on animals.

I often watch a whole channel which is devoted to the pranks by animals, but it is a foreign one.

I sometimes watch with amusement the relay races for dogs, which are really obstacle races of the most difficult kind.

Their anxious owners egg them on to perform the impossible, and it is revealing to watch the competitive spirit in the animals.

The only animal event I could find on the small screen last week was the highly prestigious competition between German Shephard dogs, mostly imported and sometimes foreign trained.

The only dogs one sees otherwise are the police dogs which accompany their masters whenever there is a crime or accident, and one must admit they provide a heartening picture of discipline and good behaviour.