This ought to have been a minute critique of the budget analysis on television across channels. However, if there is one lesson learnt from the coverage of the election results earlier this year, it is that two is a crowd and four is overcrowding. When channels simultaneously broadcast similar kinds of programmes, with common people appearing on all, it is impossible to keep track of who appeared on which, when and said precisely what. There were advantages in a one-channel world; the good old days whenwe watched Prannoy Roy on Doordarshan and got the benefit of both.This time you had to divide you brief TV attention span between - (read this in one breath) DD with Swaminathan Aiyar, Vinod Dua, Ashok Lahiri, finance ministers (past and present), officials, to say nothing of London and various parts of the country; STAR News with Roy and T.N.Ninan plus finance ministers, officials and other parts of the country.Zee India with industrialist Rahul Bajaj and ex-Maruti-wallah R.C.Bhargava interviewing ratherthan viewpointing and TVi in the company of Omkar Goswami, experts.You see what we mean?Numbers lead to variety, variety translates back into numbers, in this case double digit ones: a dozen and more speaking on the same subject at the same time, thoroughly confusing the viewer. Infinitely more disconcerting is when you switch channels only to find Yashwant Sinha, who you had just left behind you, back in front of your eyes. It's as if he, the others are following you around. So next time, do inky-pinky-ponky.choose one channel and STAY WITH IT.Meanwhile, media critics watch other programmes.Programmes such as Movers and Shakers (Sony) which is on the air three times a week. The show is trying increasingly hard to look like Tonight with Jay Leno (NBC) with the addition of outside interviews on subjects such as: how many states are there in India?; if you were PM for 24 hours what would you do? Ditto Leno. Also, Suman and his scriptwriter(s) are cracking jokes of the politicalkind. Sonia Gandhi often features as the subject or the butt of their humour. This is sorta seminal. Funnily enough, the other genre of programme which regularly indulges in social satire is the film countdown. Think of Colgate Top Ten (Zee) or Ek Do Teen (STAR Plus): both try, not always successfully, to laugh at the infinite variety of Indian absurdities.Back on Movers and Shakers, there are a few things the show needs ironed out before it becomes a five-day affair. First, either there should be a studio audience which we see falling all over the aisles in uncontrollable laughter or the laughter box should be shut down. Second, the music men on the right hand side of your picture screen should either learn how to sing and play tunefully or let's hear it for piped music. Third, Suman ought to try spending a little more time chatting to his guests rather than to himself. We are barely introduced when it's time for Shaker Suman to sign off. Otherwise, the show is moving along ata pretty pace.Teacher (Zee) needs a lesson or two from Shakers.in making moves. Like Thoda Hai.(Sony) from the same stable, Teacher which was clipping along, is now on a go-slow. Last week, Sachin Khedekar, lying in his hospital bed, did what he does best: lecture his students who sit there with mouths open as the gems fall out of his. His attacker, Ravi Raj, lies on the jailhouse rock contemplating his future before he is bailed out. Which brings us to the jails. There appears to be this one set piece which is employed in all serials and which begs for us to willingly suspend our disbelief from fast whirring fans. Likewise but differently, Teacher is revolving around the person of Khedekar and his character; which is perfectly acceptable as long as something happens.Other serials might consider the virtues of preserving their reputations. Junoon (DD1), Banegi Apni Baat (Zee) are longer in the tooth now than a prehistoric monster's. They were bothadmirably entertaining a few moons ago but like so many Indian zips, they've loosened and are beginning to slip. BAB is caught in an identity crisis. One moment it says this and the other that: first there's this modern Mumbai gal living with a married man and the next there's a young conservative Kanpur lad who's into arranged marriages.Like we said, it's been a confusing week.
