For the love of the nation
Aamir Khan’s television debut show Satyamev Jayate can, perhaps, trigger a tidal wave of social change and succeed in consciousness raising
Aradhika Sharma

Aamir Khan with K.Madhavan, MD, Asianet Comm, Gayatri Yadav, EVP-Marketing STAR India in Kochi for the launch of Satyamev Jayate

India is "rab aasre" we say, as we shrug off our responsibility, passing it on to God or the government or any convenient scapegoat. Thank goodness Aamir Khan does not take the same jaded path. He stands up and decides to shake up the country, forcing people to awaken to all the horrid social evils that gnaw at its fibre. He uses every tool in the book — emotion, anger, drama, research, real-life episodes — and he grabs people by the scruff of their necks and makes them listen.

The prediction is that the show is going to become a Sunday habit and maybe, just maybe, bring about that glimmer in people that can turn into a tidal wave of social change. We saw it happen with Rang de Basanti, and if the first episode of Satyamev Jayate aired on Sunday, May 6, is anything to go by, there is likely to be a deluge of Tweets, Facebook updates and pressure groups demanding change for the issues that Aamir will take up one Sunday after the next for 13 weeks.

Amen to that!

His promotional song says it all. His song of love for the country, the title song of the show, speaks of his deep devotion to his country — Tere Ishq ka Junoon hai`85 and states his intention clearly — he’s going to do his best to change things. Says he, "Iss sansaar ko badloonga tere liye." The song is a romantic one, seeped in love for the country. There’s nothing jingoistic about it; nothing aggressive. Yet it is so passionate, so honest and so very touching. In that sense it’s rather Sufi. Composed by Ram Sampath (the music director of Delhi Belly) it’s written by Prasoon Joshi and sung by Keerthi Sagathia and Ram Sampath. For a week in May, the song was played in 300 theatres, right after the National Anthem. Now does that say something, other than the fact that it’s the most expensive promotional for a TV show?

When Aamir Khan takes to television, of course he has to do it with a difference and with a bang. Satyamev Jayate is the first show ever in the history of Indian television to be aired simultaneously on a private channel network STAR and a national broadcaster Doordarshan. Dubbed in several languages, the show is being telecast on various channels of STAR and Eenaadu television.

The promos have been curiosity evoking, not the least because it’s an Aamir Khan production and we’ve learnt to expect nothing but the best from him. But he didn’t give away the format of the show in any interview or promo. Marketing maverick that he is, the gimmick has worked wonders. The show grabbed eyeballs and got acclaim from the critics and audiences alike.

In spite of pressures from the producers of Satyamev, who wanted the show aired prime time, Khan stuck to his guns that he wanted it aired on Sunday, 11 am —the family TV viewing time. He is known to have said "I wanted to telecast my show on Sunday morning. I want each family to watch the show and connect with it. We have watched Ramayana and Mahabharata and they used to come on Sunday morning."

Aamir’s first episode was about female foeticide. He brought in real women with real stories to tell, displayed statistics, did some audio conferencing, got in social workers, journalists, people working with government bodies, people working with NGOs. One may have thought that one knew it all, but there were facts that jolted us. Aamir managed to evoke horror and pity, sympathy, sadness, pride and even laughter in a show that is hard hitting and deals only with facts and truth. Yet people’s eyes were damp. No mean feat for a community that weeps only when a saas is particularly mean to her bahu!

The really positive things are his appeal to muster support in terms of writing a letter (to be signed by viewers through SMS or online) to the Rajasthan government to fast- track a case against several defaulting (practising) doctors caught in a sting operation, by two journalists several years ago and to garner funds for an NGO, Snehalaya. The episode ended with a positive message.

We’ve seen stars on TV — several of them. Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Govinda, Akshay Kumar, Karan Johar — hosting reality shows, conducting quizzes and talk shows. Amitabh Bachchan, of course has immense sympathy for the underprivileged, but no one has really used their star power to try to effect a change in society. Aamir uses his power, stature, persuasion and skill to do just that and that’s what makes him a class apart.

Aamir’s show is likely to be a movement. Khan has that about him, to be able to take up ideas and make them a cult, to inspire not just emotion, but action. We saw that in the immense success of Taare Zameen Pe, when people woke up to the truth of dyslexia; in The Three Idiots, where he questioned our system of education, in Lagaan and Sarfarosh, which evoked nationalism in different ways and, of course, in Rang De Basanti, which got together lakhs of people to pressurise the government to bring a murderer to justice.Aamir has again trodden where no star has stepped before. Immense amounts of research, the best in the industry as his production and music teams, superb promotional. Aamir seems to have done it again. This time, it’s for the people and for the country.

So, can we say ‘All is well"? No, not really. Not yet. Not till Satyamev Jayate: Truth alone prevails!

HOME