Saturday, June 21, 2008

Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani - What say now ?

1999
Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla and Aziz Mirza formed 'Dreamz Unlimited' and their first venture was 'Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani'. The film could not live upto its hype and was largely trashed by audience and critics alike. People could not fathom the idea of media sprewn all over, media war et al. I read somewhere that the film was way ahead of its time.

2004 onwards
It turns out that the film was only 5 years ahead of its time. This was the time when news channels went 24-hour and gradually converted into 'entertainment news channel'. 99% of today's news is crap. And if you think of it, almost everything that PBDHH had shown is true and happening now.
The 'making' of a news, the 'Live Reports', 'Breaking news', anchors switching channels, shameless in-your-face news, the power of sponsorship ... what not. The only exception is India is yet to see the live telecast of an execution but it doesn't look improbable.

I agree that with the advent of enormous media power, investigative journalism etc. , there has been a great increase in the general level of awareness among common people. Now a victim sees the possibility of fighting injustice with the help of media. But the big question is : Does media understand the importance of its power and the responsibility that comes with it ?

Why would a news channel air a daily show called 'Kaal Kapaal Mahakaal' or 'Sannaata' !!!
Why would a news channel air a Breaking News titled 'Maine dekha bhoot ko' for more than 48 hours !!!
Why would a news channel follow a filmstar on his umpteenth visit to a temple !!!

Media has enormous power. And the effect of any power magnifies manifold if one knows when to stop, which the Indian media obviously doesn't. I wish that someday they had a reality check and transform into a powerful and responsible platform.

jai ho

13 comments:

Sakhi said...

Not only the media follows a celebrity for his temple visit, but also he feels cold or heat or whatever!

police commissioner's dog went missing and the ews channle's breaking news was "commissioner ka kutta kho gaya" and when found "commissioner ka kutta mila"!

and you expect the media to have responsibility!

in "aarushi's murder case", a girl who was 14 years or so, was labeled to have inappropriate relationship with the house help...

And you talk about hte responsiblilty of media... You have very high expectations!

But then "aasha amar hai"!

ya phir "aasha amar ki hai!" :D (this was just to lighten the matter, as i think, meine kuchh jhyaada hi bol diya!)

Daroga said...

@ Sakhi
Agreed.
And I don't expect this media to be responsible in its current form. I hope that someday this changes.

Anonymous said...

yeah, hope they change soon... but i know its a far fetched thing!

Zee said...

this sooooo is the hot topic nowadays......the crappiness of news channels! not only do u hear "maine dekha bhoot ko" but also "ek cheel bakra uda ke le gayi" and "romania pe ufo ka hamla"

Daroga said...

@ Sakhi
Amen!


@ Zee
/cheek bakra uda ke le gayi/ ROTFL
=)))))))
slapstick comedies are better than these news channels

Miss M said...

Just stumbled on your blog, from....ummm...haha can't remember from where. Been visiting too many blogs! :)

But you are SO right. Indian media and the unnecessary hype it creates..about all the wrong things!

Just yesterday a friend told me, apparently they were showing on an INDIAN NEWS CHANNEL that some people have reached a conclusion that aliens were abducting all the cattle from the farms??!!! And that people have seen flying cows and stuff???

I mean.........HUH???!! Oh and there was this other time, when for at least 25 mninutes, they only showed on Zee news how a teacher in Bihar was having an affair with his student..and then they went on to show him getting beaten up by his wife and other junta.

Seriously. So not funny.
And a BIG WTF!

Daroga said...

@ Miss-Understood

Welcome to my blog.

That teacher-student-wife story ran for more than 25 days !!! I happened to be at home during that time. It was sickening.

Anonymous said...

Recently, the Noida double murder case, in which a 14 year old girl, Aarushi and the family domestic help were killed exemplifies how offensive our system apart, the indian media can get...they hyperbolized the Aarushi-Hemraj relationship to an extent which resulted in the character assassination of the slain child. Couldn't they have thought of a more appropriate bonding between the two...probably of a one between a father and his child ? Excellent post :)

Lady Godiva said...

you are so very right Daroga... this was something that I had been talking about to my frinds here, but it never occured that I could blog about it too. The last time I went hone, there was this Alligator story which the news channels murdered!!! it went something like this:

"124,000 saal purana ghariyaal,
124,000 saal purana ghariyaal mila,
124,000 saal purane ghariyaal ka shav/fossil (or soemthing like that) mila,
124,000 saal purane ghariyaal ke shav/fossil ki naak,
124,000 saal purane ghariyaal ke shav/fossil ke daant..."

and this shit went on for more than 15 mins... God knows what all body parts they described... I had wanted to see that piece of news.. but I lost patience and switched off the tv.

And three days ater this news... Khali was being postmortemed... coz he had a WWE match after 2 day...lol!!!

The responsible Media!!!

Daroga, looks like you have touched a topic that is equally hated by everyone ;-)

Daroga said...

@ Lavender

Totally agreed. They have a habit of sensationalizing anything and everything. In this case, they crossed the limits of human courtesy by speaking ill of the dead, and that too an innocent one.


@ Godiva
hehehe.. us ghariyaal ke shav ki maa-behen kar di ekdum in logo ne :P
I bet they covered it for at least 15 hours... pehla daant mila, doosra daant mila, pachaaswa daant mila .. too muchh nautanki.
I am not against coverage, but it would be 500 time more effective if it knows when and where to stop.

Lady Godiva said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lady Godiva said...

At times i feel that the olden days Doordarshan was far better... they had 2 slots of half an hour each for news... and that half an hour was always nice, short, crisp, to-the-point news... and meaningful too.

Akshay said...

They say silence is golden - wonder when people will realize that.