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Journalism of Courage
Playful is not an adjective normally associated with Doordarshan. Still, there was hockey on DD2, there8217;s the Independence Cup Cricket in Bangladesh on DD1, there8217;s going to be Philips Super League football8230;..
We might be getting a lot of stick on the level playing field of astro-turf but DD has won a few hearts. India versus Germany. Picture quality: improved. Sometimes almost as good as a satellite channel8217;s the ultimate goal; commentary: much better. At least Dr.Sumant Raman, Muneer Sait and Anand Phillar speak English as opposed to gibberish. But in the second match, the two commentators spoke by rotation as opposed to in tandem. And there was a certain, though understandable, lack of enthusiasm in their voices as they said, 8220;there8217;s a lot of excitement in front of the German goal.8221; Difficult to sound excited when your team is trailing 2-0. Camerawork and replays: a bit iffy: DD8217;s long shots nearly matched the Germans8217; but sometimes, the replays interrupted the run of play at crucial moments: in the first match, while we were busy admiring the replay of a beautiful reverse shot from Dhanraj Pillai, the Germans had scored what proved to be the winning goal.
DD8217;s election coverage. Many usual suspects. Nalini Singh, Ramesh Sharma and Pritish Nandy are back; so is Jyotindra Jain and TV Today. Pity that DD is not bold enough to try and do more of its coverage by itself. Its programmes may not be as slick or clever and informed as a private producer8217;s but the attempt to carry off a 72-hour live show would have shown that the largest television network in the world had some self-confidence. Jyotindra Jain, NICNET, DD8217;s OB Vans and regional centre crews, in any case, are always available to DD. What it needs are a few well-known editors/journalists to anchor its efforts, a back-up research team and a fleet or cars to ferry guests to and fro from its studios. Mr Gill has said that DD might try next time. As Shakespeare said in an entirely different context, if it t8217;were done, t8217;were well it were done quickly.
Would you like to be a witness to the prosecution and defense of a murder? Last week, Dateline NBC delicately reconstructed a gruesome murder in smallish town America. The story was told through TV clips of the scene of the crime, eyewitnesses in the courtroom Court TV, the prosecuting counsel, the accused and finally and most unusually of all, the jury after it had given its verdict. Quite compelling. Why doesn8217;t someone in India give it a try? We have enough crimes and many have been solved. Imagine doing a Charles Sobhraj, the kidnapping and killing of the Chopra children, or murder of badminton player Syed Modi? Murder may not always be easy, but it8217;s invariably fascinating.
