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The script of the plot stays the same though the actors are refreshed periodically or changed altogether. But that doesn’t dampen our news channels. Whenever high profile bilateral meetings take place, the media works itself into a lather of excitement. There are moments, when, seduced by the media’s infectious enthusiasm and energy (reference to context CNN-IBN and NDTV), we think that the whole issue will get off the ground and move towards a more positive direction. But the damn thing will just not fly. It is like trying to inflate a tyre with a hole in it. This time round, it was Qureshi, that consummate actor, who was the centre of the overloaded coverage. The latest in the line of innovative Pakistani politicians, the Foreign Minister undiplomatically damned India, Krishna and Home Secretary G.K. Pillai in one breath. Like an established thespian, he recycled old myths, created new ones, while enunciating each vowel clearly, and rolled his eyes, almost as if he took stage lessons before appearing at a joint presser.
Messages of an equally sinister kind were also found back home when miffed supporters of the RSS invaded the offices of Aaj Tak and Headlines Today. The channels were being "punished" for running an investigative undercover story on a local BJP politician, exposing how he wanted to target Muslims. Whatever the merits or the demerits of the story, as panellist M.J. Akbar sensibly stated on Headlines Today, it certainly should not have resulted in violence and intimidation. But there was no stopping BJP spokesperson Tarun Vijay’s hyperventilation. On the positive side, you could say he displayed the virtue of consistency, claiming repeatedly that the protest was peaceful and entirely justified. This, while close-ups of an angry mob were being telecast. But his theory got muddled when he was confronted with the most basic of questions. Was it justified that media offices should have been attacked in this manner? The answer always ended up in a diatribe against the news network that carried the original story committing, as Vijay emphasised, a "greater violence against truth." With so much spin and convenient tautology, my head started to feel like the inside of a washing machine. You know when a particular film is about to be released, how the main protagonist of the show is splashed all over the channels. So it was with Akshay Kumar, who, this week was on Aaj Tak’s Seedhi Baat, a special guest on Chak Dhoom Dhoom, and on the various entertainment segments of news channels. In Seedhi Baat, Kumar was not clearly at his best. He did, however, add a serious note to the proceedings when he advised the channel’s male viewers to undertake regular PSA tests to prevent prostate cancer. Was Kumar’s excessive publicity a curtain raiser to his about-to-be- released film, or his entry as Master Chef on the show to be aired shortly by Star Plus just a huge coincidence? Please sms your answers and win nothing. In the same manner, Indian Idol on Sony promoted a Three Idiots special with director Rajkumar Hirani and actors Aamir Khan and Sharman Joshi as special guests. You didn’t have to wonder too long why this stellar guest list was in place. It is an attempt to whet the viewers’ appetite to the film being telecast by Sony on July 25. New game shows came in the form of Big Money on Imagine TV. Host, actor R. Madhavan, is witty, breezy, and the show, based on a quiz format, is like cerelac, easy-to-digest entertainment. Besides, there is a pot of gold. Winners get Rs 1 crore. |
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YOU could say that it was
a TV week full of messages — some insulting, some mixed, some
emotional, others simply flashy and noisy. Topping the list was the
External Affairs Minister’s visit to Islamabad. Since saturation
coverage is the official favourite pastime of our near and dear
channels, we were overloaded with images of the various meetings held
between S.M. Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
For most of us passive observers, the Indo-Pak relations story is
beginning to show its age, but it still remains an effective platform
for assorted headline hunters.
Some might say that
Krishna looked flummoxed, sitting besides Qureshi, but I felt he looked
dignified and full of equipoise. The channels displayed their incurable
addiction for sensational headlines such as "Indo-Pak spat",
"The plot thickens," etc. Qureshi was everywhere and
ultimately nowhere — like a web without a spider.