What Reality TV usually is.
Last weekend, I had the fortune of visiting my parents at home.
Usually this involves unmeasurable happiness on our parts. A couple of
holidays every month doing no study; I’d bet you’re game for it. It’s
like the movie Gravity - weightlessness and a little bit of pampering on
their part.
Remember the time when we used to watch pokemon, everyday, 5 p.m? Glued to the TV screen, I was. I usually watched Discovery Channel and Nat Geo after my father locked those cartoon channels when I was in 8th grade. Thank you, DTH! However, these last couple of years have squeezed out my hunger for TV. Nothing but Arnab Goswami’s ear splitting shout can make me watch TV nowadays. Even the India-Sri Lanka Asia Cup match didn’t excite me enough.
The next day, I was unfortunate enough to sit staring at the Television.
It was Sunday eve. To my lousy luck there was no show worth watching during prime time.
Click. Zanjeer(the new one) on Zee Cinema.
Click. Some Tollywood movie on Set Max.
Click. No Arnab Goswami! Tough luck.
Click. DID li’l Masters.
As soon as my family heard that familiar soundtrack, they all ‘requested’ me to not change the channel. I should have expected that because the moment I tuned to Times Now, a murmur had begun to start.
I couldn’t retort; my family here consists of 8 members, mind you, and I sure was not going to stand against 7 of them. I had to give in.
Here goes.
Delhi Auditions.
A girl, she’s only twelve, is picturised mouthing like a ruffian and acting all grown up.
A boy, 8 probably, dances arguably good.
The three judges of the show sat there - their face coated with layers of make-up. Talk about putting Metamorphic rocks to shame! They then start the audition of the children. A couple of participants come and go. The curtain closes and then again starts the documentary like clips of the participants.
This one is a boy’s.
The boy, 8, acting all cheesy comes up to the stage, dances and then starts the pulling of the leg part by the show’s judges.
A judge asks his name. He tells them. No matter.
Somehow, as if the conversation were rehearsed, they ask him what else can he do. He tells him he can recite dialogues of any actor. Any actor, mind you.
They tell him to recite Sunny Deol. Out comes a barrage of Sunny Deol’s dialogues which you can’t even catch hold because the film it is from, was released some 20 years back. Wait 20 years back, you say? Hell yeah!
So the question arises, how could an 8 year old mouth it as if it had been his? Passion for films? Maybe. But how could he claim to speak dialogues of ‘any’ actor. Seems too good to be true!
The next scenes all show him mouthing some tongue in cheek dialogues, with the judges and the audience, all laughing hysterically. The mechanical, recorded laughter which tries to make us believe that it really is the audience laughing.
Next they tell him to recite a shayari!. He retorts with an explicit shayari with so strong a sexual innuendo that could bring an adult to shame! Only if he could have recited that poem in the English oral! The only shocking thing remaining was they didn’t announce him as the leader of their tribe. The thing about the episode was that it was so fake that I question how could the audience consume all this nonsense?
Smiles. All fake.
Laughter. All fake.
Audience. All fake.
And this was suposed to be reality TV.
I’m not saying that everything on such shows is scripted.
Then where does it harm the audience?
I’m the right person to ask. The people who watch these shows are usually the people with kids. After a good performance, they all expect their kids to be like the ones on the TV show. Some people even put them up in the classes which the kids aren’t interested in and which they don’t care about. Unrealistic expectations of the parents on their kids increase. They are asked to look up to them.
What about the kids on the other side of television?
It’s good that they get their fame at such a young age. But expecting them to renounce their childhood days to daily shoots seems a bad idea. What good memories would they have when they grow up? Not like mine, surely.
Commercialization of children is taking its toll.
The day couldn’t be more far when there’s a show measuring a 6 year old on how good an IIT’ian can he be.
Remember the time when we used to watch pokemon, everyday, 5 p.m? Glued to the TV screen, I was. I usually watched Discovery Channel and Nat Geo after my father locked those cartoon channels when I was in 8th grade. Thank you, DTH! However, these last couple of years have squeezed out my hunger for TV. Nothing but Arnab Goswami’s ear splitting shout can make me watch TV nowadays. Even the India-Sri Lanka Asia Cup match didn’t excite me enough.
The next day, I was unfortunate enough to sit staring at the Television.
It was Sunday eve. To my lousy luck there was no show worth watching during prime time.
Click. Zanjeer(the new one) on Zee Cinema.
Click. Some Tollywood movie on Set Max.
Click. No Arnab Goswami! Tough luck.
Click. DID li’l Masters.
As soon as my family heard that familiar soundtrack, they all ‘requested’ me to not change the channel. I should have expected that because the moment I tuned to Times Now, a murmur had begun to start.
I couldn’t retort; my family here consists of 8 members, mind you, and I sure was not going to stand against 7 of them. I had to give in.
Here goes.
Delhi Auditions.
A girl, she’s only twelve, is picturised mouthing like a ruffian and acting all grown up.
A boy, 8 probably, dances arguably good.
The three judges of the show sat there - their face coated with layers of make-up. Talk about putting Metamorphic rocks to shame! They then start the audition of the children. A couple of participants come and go. The curtain closes and then again starts the documentary like clips of the participants.
This one is a boy’s.
The boy, 8, acting all cheesy comes up to the stage, dances and then starts the pulling of the leg part by the show’s judges.
A judge asks his name. He tells them. No matter.
Somehow, as if the conversation were rehearsed, they ask him what else can he do. He tells him he can recite dialogues of any actor. Any actor, mind you.
They tell him to recite Sunny Deol. Out comes a barrage of Sunny Deol’s dialogues which you can’t even catch hold because the film it is from, was released some 20 years back. Wait 20 years back, you say? Hell yeah!
So the question arises, how could an 8 year old mouth it as if it had been his? Passion for films? Maybe. But how could he claim to speak dialogues of ‘any’ actor. Seems too good to be true!
The next scenes all show him mouthing some tongue in cheek dialogues, with the judges and the audience, all laughing hysterically. The mechanical, recorded laughter which tries to make us believe that it really is the audience laughing.
Next they tell him to recite a shayari!. He retorts with an explicit shayari with so strong a sexual innuendo that could bring an adult to shame! Only if he could have recited that poem in the English oral! The only shocking thing remaining was they didn’t announce him as the leader of their tribe. The thing about the episode was that it was so fake that I question how could the audience consume all this nonsense?
Smiles. All fake.
Laughter. All fake.
Audience. All fake.
And this was suposed to be reality TV.
I’m not saying that everything on such shows is scripted.
Then where does it harm the audience?
I’m the right person to ask. The people who watch these shows are usually the people with kids. After a good performance, they all expect their kids to be like the ones on the TV show. Some people even put them up in the classes which the kids aren’t interested in and which they don’t care about. Unrealistic expectations of the parents on their kids increase. They are asked to look up to them.
What about the kids on the other side of television?
It’s good that they get their fame at such a young age. But expecting them to renounce their childhood days to daily shoots seems a bad idea. What good memories would they have when they grow up? Not like mine, surely.
Commercialization of children is taking its toll.
The day couldn’t be more far when there’s a show measuring a 6 year old on how good an IIT’ian can he be.
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