Some second thoughts

Just when we thought the news was dead and long since buried under heaps of ceaseless drivel...

Just when we thought the news was dead and long since buried under heaps of ceaseless drivel sorry, but it is often that about film actors, cricket players, mythological and supernatural personalities and the latest, most bizarre criminal activity in some corner of the country, we are asked to think 8212; again.

Zee News, like a leading soap character, has been reborn. In its new life, it invites us to contemplate it, we presume. 8216;Zara sochiye8217; it pleads 8212; provocative but insulting to our intelligence as well since it suggests we, and not they, were thought-less and mindlessly watching them. Zara sochiye, Zee, what8217;s there to think about your Monday Manthan which describes how the gods remain cool in summer with chandan, naturally, but any fool would know that, right?

Zee says it8217;s now an all new Zee. Its colour combination certainly is: pale blue, with vanilla yellow, and a bit of black like News X. Cool, yes. New? The next equally visible change is Prasun Bajpai as chief anchor and mentor, there to make us think as of Thursday night. He delivered a long and very likely, sagacious lecture on the grey matter between our ears, in chaste Hindi, momentarily forgetting that he was on the channel which invented Hinglish. A decade after that mix-up, we8217;re unable to comprehend anything that isn8217;t English, every second word. Zara think, Prasun.

There followed a lengthy report intended to make us do that. Political parties allegedly injure, maim and amputate rival party members in Kunoor without a second thought. This was a 8216;khulaasa8217; 8216;yeh khulaasa nahin hai8217; insisted Prasun so often, methinks he protests too much that didn8217;t illuminate anything but blurred parts of the body that were injured, maimed or amputated. We were startled. Not merely by the condition of the injured but that this is what we were being asked to think about 8212; was this new? Was it topical? Where was the substantive, supporting evidence?

If we think about it which is more than it deserves, we8217;d be worried. Seems a somewhat sensational effort to appropriate 8216;mind space8217; on flimsy grounds. Song and dance we8217;re accustomed to and know better than to take seriously. This, we don8217;t know how to react. Zara sochiye, Zee.

And while you are about it, perhaps, your transformation could contain fewer commercial breaks during news bulletins 8212; and more substance? On Sunday afternoon 2.22 pm, there was one news item for every ten ads. The same evening at 8.30 pm there was an 8216;Exclusive8217; 8212; goodie, some food for thought well, it was dinner time!. The only insight was of Kareena Kapoor8217;s legs and Saif Ali Khan8217;s body, in the throes of a 8230; dance.

NDTV 24215;7 has also changed its studio look 8212; less of that startling red and yellow, more bluesy-pink and lavender. Obviously, it8217;s the season of change. It also has the distinction of providing an entirely new genre of reconstructions. Since footage of the 8216;Harbhajan slaps Sreesanth8217; incident has been the best kept secret the BCCI has ever kept, TV has to imagine the incident. NDTV gave us a graphic sketch that saw Harbhajan strike Sreesanth, backhanded with his arm straightened out. That seemed possible if he was double jointed at the wrist 8212; otherwise, bad sketch.

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Have you watched the Barclays ad with the lovely catch line, 8216;She8217;s my gal, she8217;s my gal8217;? Lovely, except that if we were Hillary Clinton, for one, we8217;d want to know why the pocket personal secretary couldn8217;t have been serenaded with, 8216;he8217;s my guy, he8217;s guy8217;?

Lastly, recommend everyone who wants to 8212; and can 8212; think to watch Imagination BBC World. Sunday saw a long, leisurely but knowledgeable investigation into, no, not maimed men, but Vincent Van Gogh8217;s sunflower paintings. What8217;s the equivalent of unputdownable for TV? Now, let me think8230;

shailaja.bajpaiexpressindia.com