When James Murdoch has something to say, most of us usually sit up and listen. As the scion of the billion dollar media giant Newscorp touched down in Mumbai recently, subsequently proceeding to describe the Indian media industry as a sleeping tiger, one whose “$15 billion media industry should have been $120-odd billion ,given its creative human talent and historical depth”, one could almost hear a million hearts heave with collective pride, having got the nod of approval from the master himself. As the owner of the Star TV group, one of the most popular networks on Indian television, Mr. Murdoch Jr may well have good reason for such an optimistic assessment of the Indian television landscape. And who can argue with him about the historical depth of Indian society, which we undoubtedly possesses. However, when it comes to his prognosis on the depth of the creative talent available...well, I can’t help but disagree.
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While the advent of cable TV has undeniably opened up new vistas of entertainment, allowing millions of viewers an escape from the tyranny of Doordarshan programming, it hasn’t quite had the kind of salutary impact on the quality of fare dished out as one might have hoped for, often making you long for the days of Hum Log and Idhar-Udhar on the national broadcaster. Far too many programs today serve the sole purpose of reinforcing regressive stereotypes that have been the bane of our society for as long as one can remember. Some series, in the garb of addressing some larger societal interests, keep serving up just the kind of parochial fare whose sole purpose appears to be to indulge the medieval husband/ brother/mother-in-law that our script writers believe resides inside all of us. With the convoluted relationships of every single character often branching out into multiples of ten, the average Indian family drama can make The Bold & the Beautiful look like wholesome family entertainment, something we could all sit down to enjoy at dinner time. As the camera focuses intensely on the comical expressions pasted upon the heavily made-up faces of the lead characters, for what often seems like an eternity, you can’t help but curse the moment when you accidentally changed the channel during the drinks break of that Word Cup match you were so eagerly watching, only to be emotionally blackmailed by your mom into sitting back and enduring an episode of Pavitra Rishta instead. The less said about our crime shows the better. With our penchant for exceedingly hard-hitting and realistic portrayal of crime, the nine o’clock murder series is guaranteed to leave you crying out with laughter, though I am quite sure the tears will be real..... Further evidence of the complete lack of imagination amongst our script writers can be found in the new found fad of reality shows- arguably the last refuge of the creatively challenged In fact, it increasingly appears that the reality TV genre could well turn out to be the golden goose that can be expected to keep laying the golden egg for some time to come- with its sole requirement of a bunch of fools willing to sacrifice the last vestiges of their self-respect at the altar of cheap popularity, along with repulsive crawling insects found in abundance at every nook and corner of our country, the format seems tailor-made for the Indian market. Sadly however, even in this realm, we have so far relied entirely on imported formats, with the Americans being the preferred source for our daily lessons on How to Get Dumber in Less Than 7 days.
As depressing the scenario may be, a realistic assessment of the opportunities that lie ahead would reveal a considerably brighter picture. With more and more people gaining access to cable television, the Indian market offers an untapped opportunity for anyone capable of serving up even remotely watchable fare. All we need is for our writers/producers to show some imagination and try to look beyond the narrow confines of the four walls of domestic bliss. Whether it actually happens, we will just have to wait and watch. For now, it’s already 8.30 p.m , and I have to find out just who Prerna’s real husband is- no.3 or no.6....