Indian television has hit a new low-vicarious and mindless content, which are winning record-breaking TRP's...as someone from the media, my conerns about this present scenario has been echoed in much the similar vain by many colleagues from this field. Here's what a good friend and media professional(who wishes to maintain anonimity for obvious reasons) has to say....
We Indians are obsessed with our morbid fascination of C grade starlets and faded celebrities. And never before have so many of them ganged up together to crowd our living rooms and consume precious prime time slots on the telly.
Last week, whole of India gaped at prima donna of reality shows and presiding deity of Silicone mountain, Rakhi Sawant choose her potential life mate. A week back Urvashi Dholakia, a popular actress in some unpopular serials, gave rare insight into her misdemeanours, dating from her heady adoloscent years to her current bohemian existence. Much like democracy where we get the leaders that we deserve, serials and TRP ratings work on similar pattern. We get the trash because we crave for the trash.
Viewers are left with so little alternative. After a 10-12 hour slog at work, the mind can understandably struggle to cope with howling/bawling Barkha Dutts/Sagarika Ghoshes. Both of them can be injurious to the ear drum but more than that the horror tales of HINI virus from Pune, raging infernos in the streets of Imphal, suicide of a girl raped by boyfriends are hardly the stuff to soothe a tired mind.
Fiddle with the remote and you are bombarded with sob tales of wronged wives and wronged husbands and wrongful mother-in laws. Shimmering sets and glitzy costumes but maudlin emotions and vacuous storylines.
Just when you thought the sports channels will have a bit of adrenaline rush, well the evergrowing multitudes of experts and former players with their cliches and hamming the same old cricket jargons will esnure you do not need lullabies to hit the sack. I was at the receiving end of one such torture recently-trying to generate interest in an eagerly awaited cricket match- the anchor asked one of these cricket experts- so what does India need to do to win the match. The answer could not have been more profound and succint. He twitched his facial muscles, the forehead was creased...and then answered... "Well I think for that India will need to bowl well, bat really well and field well".
So i can hardly wait to head home and switch on the telly to watch some wannnabe star or an underachiever gloat over his bedroom conquests or failed adventures. And if i am lucky attend a swayambar on tv..
