Channel surfer
By
Randeep
Wadehra
Even as tributes were being paid
to the late Kavi Pradeep (Rangoli, DD) and Sanjeev Kumar (various
news channels) film stars Dara Singh and Shatrughan Sinha were reportedly
hospitalized. And, India TV discovered “mystery” behind Rajesh Khanna’s recent hospitalization
although his friends, family and the hospital authorities denied the same.
Clearly, they wanted to respect the celebrity patient’s privacy. But, such
niceties don’t deter the scoop chasing news channels. India TV aired a
full-fledged “report”, brazenly insinuating that there was much more to the
original superstar’s (a.k.a. “The Phenomenon”) illness than was being revealed.
Aaj Tak helpfully alluded to Khanna’s drinking problem, yawn! Another yawning
moment was CNN-IBN’s sting on black money in Bollywood.
The recently launched Madhubala
(Colors), which literally started off with a bang, has Bollywood for its canvas.
Zamindar Balraj Chaudhry desperately wants a male waris but his wife
dies during childbirth after giving birth to a daughter, Trishna. He vents
frustration by placing an apple on the child’s head and fires at it with his
gun. When Chaudhry’s second wife, Padmini, becomes pregnant he threatens her
with death if she delivers a daughter. With dai ma’s help Padmini, along
with Trishna, escapes to Mumbai where Madhubala is born to her in a film studio.
After growing up, Madhubala takes on film star Rishabh Kundra after she witnesses
an accident… The plot is promising but, given the craving for easy popularity,
it can easily get derailed just to cater to the adolescent audiences’ liking
for “romantic” scenes. We have seen that happening to many a promising serial.
For example, the popular serial Geet (Star One, now defunct) had started
off strongly as a vehicle of protest against patriarchal excesses, but
deteriorated into a series of mushy encounters between Maan Singh Khurana and
Geet. Every other minute she would topple off stools, stairs and what not with
Maan magically preventing her fall; then the two would stare idiotically into
each other’s eyes; actually, such tattered gimmicks have become stock-in-trade
of most of the Hindi soaps for attracting juvenile audiences.
Madhubala too began with a
similar context of patriarchal excesses but already the digression towards
stereotypical romance is manifesting itself. Moreover, certain carelessness is
creeping in too. For example, while alluding to a trapeze artist’s tight rope
walk Mukund’s mother describes it as kartoot when it should have been kartab;
clearly, a case for refresher course in Hindi/Urdu for the dialogue writer.
But such bloomers are not limited
to soaps. Our news TV channels too are quite capable of it; some English News
TV anchors cannot even pronounce Indian names correctly. Admittedly, reading
“recuse (decline to attend)” as “rescue” could be attributed to the
teleprompter’s vagaries but it is unforgivable when Hindi channels use the word
“khilafat” rather than “mukhaalfat” or “virodh” for the act of opposing.
Khilafat was a pan-Islamic movement launched by Indian Muslims – and supported
by Gandhiji – during 1919-24 in order to champion the cause of Caliphate in
Turkey, which was imperiled by the post-First World War developments. It had
failed eventually. Refresher courses in language and history for Hindi TV
journalists, perhaps?
Published in The Tribune dated
July 22, 2012
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