South Asia’s Ride On The Video Tiger

good that we got satellite channelss.. Now that the different channels serve the people entertainment day in and day out in the different languages.. finally we got rid of the monopoly of the doordarshan and it`s hindi only programmes..

What`s interesting is the amount of ground Indian TV has had to cover in a relatively short period of time. It`s thrown up some interesting spectacles - on the one hand we have the remix videos that are getting all the aunties and uncles hot and bothered and on the other hand MTV is showing an Ekta Kapoor soap! There is the same sense of melodrama and horrendous acting `talent` on display as ten years ago when the Mahabharata with its cardboard sets and tinsel jewels caught the nation`s fancy but the production values are much better (although the make-up dept seems to have swooned into Ramsay brothers` standards).

As for news - there are moments when it is highly entertaining as politicians who have no idea of the power and reach of TV show up to make cakes of themselves. Then there are moments when you wonder who the devil hired the producer as the segments veer haphazardly all over the place so that one moment there is a dead baby on the air, followed by michael jackson and then a bomb explosion. A lot of them need some lessons in sensitivity too.

It all sounds so promising and could have been but wont last the way many think it will. Its like American TV boom in seventies.

harish:

aaj kya ho gaya hay tum ko?

While television is slowly and surely redefining the ethos of a vast majority of newly discovered ethnicities that is basking under the glare of the economic boom, there are also indications that television footprint is not merely uniting viewers to collective sighs and tears over the fate of family fortunes of television characters. assignment from the copy desk: `rewrite with half as many words`;)

One statement ...Gujral...made was astounding...He said that historically Indians were not responsive to visual arts at all.... how can you quote satish and then this? ...Immaterial of the validity of his view......felt the switch was not smooth nor perhaps desirable...had you mentioned hussain`s gagajamini and examined its impact to reinforce satish, that would have been one thing...but to channel the deliberations in a pre-decided but entirely different direction is a travesty of sorts;)

Even as television is spreading a kind of intra-globalisation within South Asia, it is also breeding avant-garde usage of technology to serve some of the more traditional aims of the media. The Tehelka expose` of political corruption in defence deals in the Indian capital was such a case to the point. this is on the surface...wish you had examined in detail what followed...how he was (almost) hounded out of existence by the very babus he was undressing...how without support from some very committed friends he would have disappeared...how some very dark thoughts troubled him...

finally...agree that satellite television is a great equaliser of sorts...within states/provinces and within the region...its tentacles have also spread to ex-pats living in the disapora where they can access gurbani from harminder sahib directly, cricket matches, soaps, aashura majalis and masala news instantly...this is an area that needs to be included in the examination...

rgds

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