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Journalism of Courage
Tuesday night was the night. It was the night for the superhero to zoom into our lives and rescue us from the tedium of soaps. It promised to be terribly thrilling 8211; especially if you8217;ve been priveliged enough to see the promos in which there are these unidentified flying objects floating in mid-air like dead bodies bobbing on water and skyscrapers so tall and fantastic, you think they8217;ve been imported straight from the discarded sets of sci-fi film whereas they8217;ve been created on a computer, right?. One UFO in particular, catches the eye: it looks suspiciously like a bat but is probably the man we8217;re waiting to see: Shaktimaan DD1.
Alas and alack, as actor/producer Mukesh Khanna discovered, there8217;s no shakti at all, just a woman with a weak chin announcing that Shaktimaan will not be telecast and we8217;ll just have to make do with whatever it is that Doordarshan can lay it hands on. No explanations, no nothing. That8217;s Doordarshan for you: earlier, it used to have this apology for an apology which would appear on the screen expressing khed for the rukavat; now we don8217;t even merit that. The screen simply goes blank when something goes wrong and then it turns different shades of colour: on this occasion it was a sort of green and purple. How can DD do the sort of thing which would not be tolerated on or by any private channel? Quite easily. You see, it doesn8217;t really care. About you or any other viewer. And why should it? As a gentleman from the BBC remarked, the real story of Indian television is about how DD is still holding sway. It8217;s not about Mr R. Basu8217;s taste in personnel, nor Zee8217;s taste in programmes or Sony8217;s taste of success; its about DD holding onto the lion8217;s share of the TV audience and the advertising. Being a national, terrestrial channel, available throughout the country, keeps DD so far ahead of the pack that it can do just about anything, show just about anything-without so much as a by your leave.
The point is that no civil society should be exposed to such sex and violence and the violence is as important as the sex, especially on television channels which are impossible to monitor or regulate. Complaints about vulgarity, violence and sexual perversity on TV in films or serials, have rained down like a monsoon shower, but our governments wear an impermeable raincoat and don8217;t feel a thing. It is left to the judiciary once again to intervene. It8217;s been said before but obviously bears repeating again and again until someone in the Iamp;B Ministry listens 8211; we don8217;t need a Broadcast Bill to protect us from such films. If DTH can be banned with a notification, surely cheap, B-grade sex and sado-masochistic films/ shows Indian and foreign can be ruled off the air? Granted this is difficult with cable operators but a beginning can be made with the main channels. If the CBFC is overworked, there are any number of film review guides with the necessary information on viewing age and the quantum of sex and violence in each film. Just use them.
As for local cable operators, by telecasting such films, they8217;re providing the government with its strongest reason for allowing only select, big time players to run the cable networks. Because it8217;s possible to control a few, impossible to police 60,000-70,000.
Children are being exposed to unbelievably perverted human acts on TV. Many perpetrated on women. What impact will this have on children? Do we really want to find out? or do we want to do everything we can to prevent it?
