The Plight Of the T.V.

Recently, as I was surfing the channels of the idiot box, I was proven that the only thing that keeps it going are the TRP’s. TRP or the Television Rating Points, in a more layman way, is the report card for these channels and shows the degree of their viewer ship. It also decides who the topper is and which one, a loser.

Let me tell you the story in a reverse order and hence let’s go back in time. In those antique days the only two channels were DD1 & DD2. Let me also remind you of the programs that are popular even today, Humlog-it was a weekly soap of this lower middle class family and the narration was done by the old Ashok Kumar; Buniyaad-this also was a weekly soap; Tamas- starring Om Puri and Deepa Sahi was a story based on the backdrop of partition; news, English followed by the Hindi news. News was followed by Krishi Darshan- based on gardening ,farmers, plants, etc. I can very well recall the Sunday mornings when everyone would leave their daily chores to watch B.R.Chopra’s epic serial Mahabharata starting with the line, “Mai Samay Hoon” which is remembered by people even today. The movies were shown in bioscope i.e. first half on Saturday night and the rest of it on Sunday night, Superhit Muqabla, a countdown show of the latest movie songs. So these two channels manned the whole world of television and the content was holistic with everyone having at least one show to their interest. Gripping real stories, latest bollywood gossip, news, it satisfied all needs.

But today television means those daily soaps not one but hundreds in number, wherein the hero and the heroine sleep with full on make-up as though they have to be at some Halloween party late at night, innumerable news channels that show the breakup of Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor to be their breaking news, these news channels air the repeat telecasts of the various episodes of Laughter Challenge, also they feel it is their responsibility to tell the viewers what happened in those daily soaps in case you missed them, the Saifreena tiff could easily bag the news of the day whereas oil prices, the Gurjar protests, Nepal becoming a democracy can just about get a small space in this world of the so-called NEWS. The serials show all the scandals possible on earth, the craziest of mysteries and the scariest of make-ups, to earn good TRP’s, the never ending award functions where people are awarded for their exceptional work in making the ugly, beautiful; in showing how it is not at all a problem to marry as many number of times as you change your clothes; how killing is a routine and that anybody and everybody can get away with it.

But the world of entertainment will rack in viewers only when it shows what people want to see. As they say, “thought of the times is reflected in its culture”, so do we need to believe that we actually want to see all that is shown these days? Well, the answer is yes.
Everyday when we flip through the pages of our dailies there are various kinds of surveys that reveal the truth. The latest survey showed that the Arushi murder case was followed more closely by everyone than the rising inflation levels which could lead to cutting off of their cable connections. The more spicy the news, the more viewers it has.

To be more optimistic, I would also say that every element has its own pros and cons. While on one hand we have these soaps with actors putting on a mask of make-up before they come on-screen and those spiced up news channels, there are also channels like Discovery Travel and living, DD-Bharati, History channel and programs like Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai which has gained huge audience. Thanks to the makers of Office-Office, Ek Packet Umeed and the likes of such kind which still keeps the ray of hope alight, that there is still some scope of betterment.

But once again, can the ratio of 4 sensible channels to 100 trashy channels act as our consolation?? But as they say, “man is the most adaptable creature, God has ever made”, so therefore we have learnt to live with it.

So thereafter, mankind lives happily ever after and when on a fine sunny day, one gets up to read the newspaper, which was the only lifeline, there awaits us a surprise or should I say a shock. The news paper looks like an encyclopedia, excited, as we proceed to approach it what we see are the various supplements- Soap Opera(with the daily soap gossip), Sansani(with news spiced up as never before so that when you read it, it feels as if one is reading a cheap detective novel), Bolly-Biz(with bollywood gossip) and not to forget the 5-page main paper which seems to be a formality.
Oh! Somebody knocked on the door, guess it’s the newspaper guy.