Give me back my TV
Tamas, Buniyaad, Hum Log, Malgudi Days, Nukkad, Kille ka Rahasya were some of the television shows we watched as kids. These brilliant works were produced in the period of 1980- 87.
Who can forget the performance of Om Puri in Tamas, or the Family in Buniyaad, Dada Muni (Ashok Kumar) giving the end note of each episode with his classic style “Agale hafte dekhenge ….Hum Log…” or the innocence of swami and the mesmerizing music of Malgudi Days (taaaana naa… na na na na naaaaaaaa ) and not to forget the scary chorus of ‘Kille Ka Rahasya’.
It was the time when we were growing…. Time when having a television set was a status symbol, in a building of 20 maybe 5 had television sets and the rest distributed themselves in these 5 houses, time when VHS player was a luxury (remember hiring it for a night and watching 4 films back to back), time when India won the world cup and Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar were the cricketing heroes, time when one had to wait for MTNL telephones for a period of 6-8 years, time when terrorism was on the peak in Punjab and Kashmir, and the time when Fiat had seen death because Maruti Suzuki had stormed the Indian market. This was also a the time where a big political change happened, Indira Gandhi’s tenure ended (read assassin) and Rajeev Gandhi took over (they say he won with the sympathy vote), a young new prime minister of India. India was at the brink, waiting for something to happen.
Then in 1988-89 it happened, the God’s visited our country and stormed the television sets. People got up early on Sunday mornings, had their bath and sat in front of television. It was the time of Ramayan (Ramanand Sagar) and the Mahabharat (B.R. Chopra). Arun Govil and Deepika became a household name…. people may not know who was the president of India but Arun Govil, he was “Bhagwaan Ram” and Deepika “Sita maiya”. Ramayan had such an impact in people’s mind that Arun Govil’s career started there went to the peak and sadly ended there because people never accepted him in any other role. Ramayan was listed in the Limca Book of Records as the world's "most viewed mythological serial" until June 2003.
Mahabharat- Bhagwaan krishan, the panch pandav, duryodhan, draupadi, only the elders new such names and sometimes we saw them in the photos at mandirs. Those People who had never read a Ramayan or a Mahabharat (majority of the population) were suddenly enriched with the hidden treasure in the books. These characters had come to life and visited us every Sunday; or rather we went to do the “Darshan” every Sunday. Who can forget the endless traveling of arrows from both the sides and then after 1 minute of screen time they banged into each other…. and nothing happened…if ramayaan always started with the bhajan sung by Ravindra Jain then Mahabharat always started with a voice over by non other than “Samay” (time- narrated by Harish Bhimani) with the famous line “Main samay hoon. …Mere pass waqt bahut kam hai phir bhi main samay hoon”
Then came the era of satellite television, Zee TV, the flagship channel of Zee Network was launched in October 1992 in India. Everybody was surprised with the idea that shows will be aired 24x7. Zee TV started with limited hours of transmission and then picked up with 24x7 transmission of shows.
Since its inception the channel has introduced ground-breaking programming like Just Ek Minute, Saapseedi, Tara, Banegi Apni Baat, Antakshari and blockbuster programming like Saregama, Dastaan, Chattan, Hasratein and Sailaab. Slowly and steadily many more channels come into India and people suddenly got a sea of new shows to be watched.
Game shows, soaps, musicals, reality shows, India had not seen all this ever. We came from a time when only one movie was shown every Sunday evening, which was interrupted at 7.30 for national news (no matter where the film had reached whether basanti was chased by daaku or veru was about to get gabbar). News means news.
It was also the time for the launch of Mtv. The youth who idolized the desi Michael Jackson, Mithun Chakraborthy , could now watch the real pelvic thrusts of the real “Jacko”. Artists from abroad started becoming the Indian idols (not the recent one). The youth had a change in fashion, French beard, long hair; accessories became a part of their life. Bryan Adams had taken over Manna Dey, and gay god George Michael had taken up walls in the bedrooms. Hinglish, a new language was born, a mix of English and Hindi. This was also the time of internet, Suddenly the world was shrinking and a statement made by Bill Clinton in America was heard by millions in India sitting in their drawing rooms. There was something more that was going to happen…
It did happen in the form of Kekta…oh sorry…Ekta Kapoor, she came …she saw ….she conquered… she took over the nation by all her shows starting with ‘K’.
Though the first one was ‘Hum Panch’ and not ‘Khum Panch’, she cashed on the trend set by film director Sooraj Barjatiya who caught the pulse of the audience with the so-called shaadi ka cassette ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’ and ‘Hum Sath Sath Hain’. Ekta bought all this family drama to television sets. People loved her shows, they showered her with all the praises, and she became the new businesswoman on the year and the year again. The TRP’s got bigger and better, Other production house soon started following her, now they knew ‘kya chalta hai aur bikta hai’.Suddenly on all the channels at prime time one saw gaudily dressed woman bitching and using loads of glycerin. If one would pick all these shows and intercut with each other, audience would not even come to know. Thanks to Poojas and festivals, which are throughout the year, if not, marriage was always the safest bet. God in TV is also working over time…that too without payments…. in Deewaar when Vijay (the big B) goes to Shiv temple and says ‘khush toh bhut hoge tum….’ one actually see the god is not happy…now days he is waiting for lines to get over so that he can go home. All actors acted as if there was no tomorrow and reacted to silliest lines as the world was going to end.
Crew in today’s TV:
Actors: The one who can rattle a page of lines in one go.
Writers: One who does not think and writes everything he has seen or heard in movies and television shows till now. Cliché is the in thing…
Directors: An A.D. who has learned to yell ‘Action’ and ‘cut’ and one who can deliver 10 –12 minutes of footage in a day…if can finish an episode in a day, he is the best!!!!
Creative Directors: Frustrated Directors!!!
Producers: Apna Sapna Money Money Money……….
Now the Audience waited for something new to happen in the show… then they waited for it to get over… then they waited more…and more and more…Zzzzzzzzzz… Oh its still there…then they prayed for it to get over, (but remember… god was running between studios) then they had no option but to watch them, they were addicted to television sets, they accepted whatever was given to them. The channels packaged and repackaged the same shows over and over again…Ekta created history, She Changed the Face of Indian Television. (For good or bad is for u to decide) and she changed in such a way that it is difficult (not impossible) to bring back my old television.
Now the blame game begins, producers say channel demands it channel says the audiences demands it, audience says…huh??? Me …no!!! But in the larger perspective these shows rake in the TRP’s…means the audience is watching it (or is it rigged…). There is one more side to it. These television programs get the funding from the products which are advertised in between these show, which are more or less the family products….I am not saying anything….am I???
There is another interesting circus where all the TV ‘Parivaar’ gathers to honour each other, best actor, best writer, best saas , best bahu, best bhai , best doodhwala, best bhajiwala and so on. I don’t believe they have the balls to do it and face themselves in the mirror next morning…and when one visits them they have it all at display with a smirk on their proud faces.
In the time when people abroad are making series like ‘Lost’ ‘24 Hours’ and ‘Heroes’ we are still making teen bahuraniyaan, nagin, or bhabi and a lot of other shit. Television has become very regressive…I really don’t want to talk about the news channels and the voices and idols India has…
Now the best part… I am a Director doing television shows (take a breather and laugh for a while) I try and do shows which have a start and an end, but what the hell I am still doing crap work. I m waiting with my scripts ready to do films, so that I can at least enter a world where I can narrate my stories…but its still a dream (we will talk about movies some other time)
…. As an audience I would say earn your money guys but don’t kill the television. I demand to give me back my old television programming where there was a thought and a storyline to a television show; there were brilliant writers, actors, directors, and equally sensible producers…. I know it all starts with the channels so a special request to them too “Meri TV Mujhe Vaapis De De Thakur…”
Regards to all offence to none,
Nitin Kakkar.
