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| Singing along in their fifteen minutes | |||||||||||||||||
| The media does not confer just two minutes of fame on unsuspecting people like us. It's far more generous | |||||||||||||||||
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| Whoever said it was dreadfully mistaken. The media does not confer just two minutes of fame on unsuspecting people like us. It's far more generous: you can bask in its camera lights for hours, days, even months. And it does not discriminate against the poor, the old, the infirm, colour, caste, creed or gender. Ask old Kunjilal of Betul, Madhya Pradesh, who held the media spellbound for several hours with a fake death threat; ask Karisma Kapoor who can be within a few kilometres of husband Sunjay (like she was last week at a polo ground) or hundreds of miles away (like in Mumbai) and the media records the distance her marriage has travelled; ask Qazi from Kashmir who endeared himself to the media (and viewers) ever since he first sauntered into Fame Gurukul last June with that thing under one eye. No sooner had Kunjilal faded from the screen than Qazi — along with the other Gurukul winner Rooprekha — replaced him. First, the two were declared Jodi No.1 on Sony's singing talent hunt contest, next they were a duet on Aaj Tak in what seemed like a never-ending love song. To say nothing of sporting loser Rex, who, although looked like he would like to burst into tears and tear Qazi away from Rooprekha's side, instead sang Kal Ho Na Ho for Roop and something patriotic for the nation in that hoodwinking style popularised by Rajesh Khanna during the seventies.
There's plenty of drama on these shows but it is, as Rex once said, actually about singing and Sony's producers should take a crash course from Zee which features contestants who literally know their Sa Re Ga Ma and Pa. One man who does not like to sing for the media is Saddam Hussein. He stared malevolently into the camera during last week's televised trial as though he was looking straight at President Bush. Frankly? He reminded one of Kunjilal: more dead than alive, more alive than living. Varun Gandhi did not look entirely comfortable giving Stephen Sackur stare for stare during Hard Talk (BBC World). He was expressionless as though the effort to concentrate on his studiously-careful replies robbed him of all motor responses. It might happen to you too, if you had to make statements such as ''My father (Sanjay Gandhi) had nothing to do with the Emergency''. Varun was asked about Sonia's foreign issue, his relationship with cousins Priyanka and Rahul, his father, his grandmother and each reply left you none the wiser about his genuine opinion on any of these individuals. Would have liked to hear more about his thoughts on BJP and the merry leadership dance or Advani's Jinnah remark but Sackur appeared interested only in Varun's Gandhi DNA. More's the pity. Rahul Gandhi cropped up again when P.Chidambaram appeared on the show. He was asked about Rahul as Prime Minister to which he gave an enigmatic Mona Lisa smile and said Rahul belonged to the next generation - of what? Prime Ministers? The Bihar elections' first round of polling did not excite much enthusiasm in the newsrooms. That's curious; normally, elections are an occasion for maximum TV coverage. Maybe Laloo Yadav's charm (unlike those sturdy vests he wears) has worn thin. The one channel to display boundless energy for the race to Patna was, believe it or not, DD News. Bihar Ka Faisla was a special on the polling and the trends. DD took Laloo seriously enough to employ independent broadcasters - former Sahara hands, Shireen and Aroop - to anchor the proceedings. However, it was a DD News' correspondent (think his name is Subodh) whose lucid, informative reports enlivened the long telecasts. Goes to show, you don't always need outside help. |
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