Peepli Live…Ofcourse

People, Politics and 'Media- The Greatest Tragedy of India'

You must watch this film, not for how good is the cinematography or direction or the dialogues (it's more of slangs to be better) but for how and why the Media is loosing it- the faith, interest, dignity, honour and truism it had been carrying and gaining since it became the fourth pillar of our democracy, the ‘Prajatantra’.

Prajatantra in English is democracy means classlessness, equality and freedom that has now become an excuse to misuse the power of the unethicals.

Movie narrates how the news becomes news, how small news in a small newspaper becomes breaking news in all the TV channels and then how it is shaped/cooked/sensationalised and manipulated as per the requirement.

Mumbai teri jaan

I remember when I was in Mumbai as an intern to a news channel around 3 years ago…I had this urge to join any TV channel asap to atleast get a break and then flourish. I used to dream and imagine the expression on my parent’s face when they would watch me on the television. Suddenly I got an opportunity to cover Sajnay Dutt’s Tada case when thankfully the chaos there made me realise electronic media isn’t my cup of tea and then Bollywood’s biggest of all Abhi-Ash wedding coverage made me make my decision iron strong. They look beautiful just on screen but honestly I felt like a Dog for the first time standing at Bachchan’s gate in scorching heat for hours and have nothing much to report except for the decorations and the names of guests arriving! Then the stupidity of reporters saying “Sthiti abhi itni dardnak (WHAT?) nahi hui hai ki Amitabh ko police force ki zarurat pade, aap dekh sakte hain darwaze pe jo gende phool ki mala lagi hui hai wo (phalane) dukaan se ayi hai lagta hai) !!!! huh!! I thought if I will just have to blabber about everything that’s of least concern but the news and then exaggerate for nothing then….should I…?

Then arrived Abhishek on a horse and suddenly the crowd turned crazy running on road to touch and see him. Police force started thrashing even the media persons in confusion, I have no other option than showing my college identity card (no press card was given to interns) and escape to a corner. Here I am trying to explain that things are not all that sophisticated and polished as they are portrayed.

And Peepli Live shows it- the truth half said.

I tried to watch the movie not as a mediaperson, just an audience who waited for quality movie to garbage the thoughts of idiotic and fictional movies in the dump yard behind my brain. The hyperbole of electronic media in the movie scared the poor farmer to move!! I mean the media was behind his back even to the field to check the colour of his excreta! For God’s sake!! But yes, this is what the media is actually doing. Digging stories from garbage and dead graveyards. The farmer then disappointedly disappeared till the channels wale declared him dead..lol

I say…

No sooner I turn on the news channel, my mood turns off, my conscience abuse me for encouraging their TRPs and I decide to blog yet another post.

It disturbs me because I feel that I belong to it and it belongs to each nerve of me now. The time isn’t too far when people would stop appreciating and believing us, we probably don’t understand the fact that we exist exclusively on their BELIEF, and we are betraying that belief by CREATING STORIES. This film has been made to convey a message not about farmers, village, illiterates or politicians but Our Media whom we believe what they show. And saddest part is media thinks, “Hum wahi dikha rahe hain jo Public dekhna chahti hai”. C’mon kuch aur dikha kar to dekho guys…something substantial?

I hereby conclude in a poignant tone that electronic media depicts the saddest picture of Journalism among all its streams of Print, TV, Radio and Web. In my opinion Media has become the Greatest Tragedy of India and would soon become in your opinion too.

From This to That, that to There and to Him...

I Guess Jade Goody wouldn’t have got after death publicity (or space in newspapers and TV channels) , if at all she weren’t a racialist and a participant of Big Brother....defame also has its own advantages....not that she was a bad human, reports say that Goody was equally compassionate to orphans and needy Indians. May Lord rest her soul in peace.
Possibly I would have opined on few of the hot national, international, regional and personal updates?? Like..

*Varun Gandhi
*Ipl
*Nano
*Banning black glasses in cars
*Summer
*Water
* LS elections ofcourse
*Terrorists in Pakistan !!!! ( Well this would cover a ‘space’ for itself )
*Sanjay Dutt banned for LS elections and many more bla blas.. but I suppose News Channels and Newspapers are already leaking with them. Therefore, I dropped.

So lets talk nothing in particular but personal updates in a purely personal way. Because according to people here (or say considering my age and all) the ‘updates’ are particularly about ‘Are you d engaged...when are you planning to get married?’ and things like that. I wonder what update would they want after I marry....lolzz...I feel sickk. To marry is so very important I realised lately or you would be strangled to death with a rope of stupid questions. Not that I don’t want to marry or something its just that.....well... M I answerable to everyone?
Of course not dude !
‘I am like your mother, you can tell me; Don’t you think its late?; What do you waaaannntt?; Do you like someone?’ Hell lot of answers they want to know for their nose-poking questions. How on Earth could I explain this is just not the time....., why, they would ask and I give a damn to explain why. I came across a few real traditional families who want their not-eligible-sons to be tied into nuptial knots and I found a few things irritably common in all of them, don’t know if all the marwaris come from same genes but one thing I know and scream about is ‘I am not like you people, have mercy.’ Everything in them makes me really indifferent, uninterested, unresponsive and all ‘un(s)’ towards them.
Okay I was talking about the common features or questions or looks or whatever.
*Hobbies: Agh! The common-est and most disgusting question ever heard...can’t they just ask it in some other way like....’what I like or dislike’ or what interests me most or what I do at leisure time?
What if I reply that I love to freak out, surfing, friends and partying...naah they don’t want to listen this. What interests them is mehandi, stitching, cooking and those oldie stuff. Am not against all this but am for freedom to speak, hear and everything. Actually they keep changing, I concluded.
*Job: Well we are traditional people and don’t believe in girls-at-work funda. But don’t worry, we are affluent and there’s a lot of money here. Huh!!?
*Driving: Arrey we toh have drivers at home and above all, gents in the family are the dominating factors, so they drive. Okhayy!!?

They have many more issues like these and I don’t consider them to be really important. Now comes the common looking guys...fat stomach, fat glasses and a fat rather swollen mouth filled with gutka I avoid to peep in or I would be baffled looking at iron stained teeth, by god! Some of them have such big nose that I imagine myself flying in from one nostril and out from the other. Lolzz its hilarious, I feel like laughing my lungs out at that most serious state. I concentrate on the humour part to compose myself. Maan..God knows that I don’t really hate all the traditions and all but imposition is what I can’t stand. Why can’t the trends be changed a bit. Why is this authority to decide is always given to Men, I am trying to rule over here at my time. We girls expect from the compatibility part all other things are secondary.
Oh, I forgot to mention the most wanted stuff, The Dowry !! Before they decide to see the girl, they want to know ‘Party kitne ki hai’ or ‘Kitna lagaenge’. What silly jargons. Luckily I haven’t come across such things yet or I would have cleared them with party kitne ki hai.
Aahhh....this personal update thing doesn’t seems to be a good idea here...it gives me a feeling of ‘lifelessness’ and am not lifeless c’mon.
Good idea! How about Books and Movies? Sounds Interesting ( atleast better than the above(s). Very lately I have got this habit of reading books followed by watching the motion pictures of the same that tells me so much about writing and filming at the same time! Undoubtedly I find the writing part i.e books more arresting than the films.
Lets say ‘The Kite Runner’, read the book and you will come to know the beauty of writing, watch the film and you will know the kindness of editing. Seriously, sometimes the zeal of converting a book into a movie kills the whole concept and life of the story: My opinion.
Movies like ‘Message in a bottle’, ‘PS, I Love You’, ‘Marley and me’ and many more didn’t give me the same feeling when I finished the books. Somewhere I couldn’t find the characters were justified. Yet am enjoying this new hobby of mine, (hobby again??) it activates the rational and emotional glands that gives a lot of space to myself for myself. I was always fond of reading and to collect books but hardly spared time to read them, I felt cruel to leave them unread.
Then came this guy or ‘The Reader’ whose views, maturity, knowledge and wisdom inspired me or say who fixed up a reading instrument in my braino to read books. Good, better or best ones. Unlike Journalism the guy very un-forcefully and secretly gifted me with one of the best habits in world. Reading.
And today, I starve for books. Gimme more and more, possibly I would end up opening a book store one day. That’s a dream I never realised before.
‘Books are your best friend in life’ they said, but I said, ‘What about the best friend who brought books into our life’??
Cheers!!