Call me a traditionalist
This is a pure rant, so you may want to just move on. Call me a traditionalist, but I loathe what I see more and more of on TV these days.
Call me a traditionalist if you like, but when I flip to a news channel, I would like news to see news being reported in an objective concise manner. I don’t want to see the soap opera style drama unfolding even when there is no drama in the situation.
And as if news channels weren’t enough, there are all these Dance competitions these days. Call me a traditionalist, but when I do decide to stick to a channel which is showing any number of these, I would like to see dancing. Not a human relationship drama unfolding between the contestants, and the anchor who continuously goes on and on blabbering all the time. There is a larger percentage of time spent on these things than on the dancing itself.
And wait, the dancing came afterwards. It started way before when it was still only singing that was happening. Call me a traditionalist, but when I am listening to a program such as “Sa re ga ma pa” I want to listed to contestants sing, and not have a verbal duel with each other (“he called me fat”), and not have judges give opinions on a contestants personality on camera. I mean its a singing competition for god’s sake. I don’t care if the person has anti-social tendencies as long as they sing great.
But where did all this start. Traditionally, these things used to be normal. News was reported in a professional way, a singing competition program had its focus on singing, and a dance competition only had dancing. Why is it that more and more these things are introducing drama into their acts. I bet the Saas-Bahu soaps are to blame somehow.
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October 11th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Spiced up programs are in. I bet, your eyeballs would have fallen out if you would have seen “Bollywood ka ticket”. Or have you seen it?? The contestants kicked and punched each other and used swear words all throughout the show.
The Sas bahu soaps are as much as to be blamed as our own mentality. We like everything spiced up!
October 11th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
@amit - yes, of course we have ourselves to blame as well, because if we didn’t watch this crap, then there would be no high ratings for these, and so it won’t be profitable to have all these things going on.
(And no, I haven’t watched “Bollywood ka ticket”. I rarely watch Hindi programs actually, for this very reason).
October 11th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Ok, you’re a traditionalist!
But yes, this is the result of the saas-bahu shit we’ve been subjected to for years.
Cheers,
Quirky Indian
October 11th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
@QI - heh, I thought so… I guess these fast moving times are leaving people like me in a minority…
October 12th, 2008 at 2:30 am
‘Traditionalist’ is the word Bill O’Reilly uses to describe himself, yet I presume that you aren’t exactly in favour of that kind of sensationalistic journalism.
October 12th, 2008 at 2:51 am
@Shane - I think what O’Reilly means by traditionalist is far different by what I do in my post :).
And yes, unnecessary sensationalism would disgust me. But then again, it depends. What they show on India media is really beyond plain sensationalizing it.
And its not just news channels which are doing this now.
October 17th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
@ Vaibhav
You are not in a minority but the majority, however slim the margin, has a duty to speak up. And you have done your bit.
These developments need constant challenge although I do not believe the soap operas are to blame. That saas-bahu shit, as Quirky Indian so eloquently calls it, is a drama that goes on in every household in India, even ‘educated’ ones. The drama depicts what goes on, it does not dictate us to behave in odd ways. But if we do, well, more fool us, no?
October 17th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
@Shefaly - I suppose the dram does happen in all households in India. What I (personally) don’t like in these is the way it is dramatized. I know, that’s the point of a soap opera, before someone points it out - it’s just that I always feel like throwing up when I view most of these.
October 18th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Vaibhav: I would say this is progress as it has been happening over the centuries; some destructive, some disruptive and some adopted. So the way you watched television earlier had to change too because our senses got numb watching the same thing (though packaged differently) over and over again. I am a traditionalist too but this brand of cinema is here to stay - a complete package, which I will call destructive, disruptive but something which has been adopted, reluctantly initially (just like Govinda’s initial movies) but I believe, wholeheartedly later by all those closet admirers who have now come out in the open. Pity, but the voyeur in us will not settle for anything lesser
October 18th, 2008 at 2:14 am
@Neeraj - I guess you are right. I just hope that I don’t get brainwashed into enjoying this drivel.
(oh by the way, I am a Govinda fan
)
October 20th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Traditionalism wins over the nonsense we have to bear with these days. You are a traditionalist. So am I. So are all of us who believe that the TV is only getting worse.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
@Trailblazer - I am glad that I am not alone in this.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Nice article. Thanks.
Eugene
November 1st, 2008 at 10:51 am
Add me too to the list of ‘Traditionalists’…
