Sunday, February 25, 2007
MEDIA WATCH-1
After a couple of decades, Karamchand (as in the serial and not for a minute to be confused with Mohandas LLB !) is back. And one wonders if this was the very thing that was so fervidly anticipated and which, Truth be said, it had always delivered. In plot, narrative, conversation and investigation technique.
So why does everything look woefully out of place now ?
For starters, its been a long time—after all this was around the time a pimply West German was wowing the world and he has faded from public memory already ! There were no breaks and good ol’ DD got its entire sponsorship at a thirty minute stretch or not at all. I saw the whole thing in black and white so that was considered chic for the time and so were the sun-shades dutifully worn. The music aided the flow of the sparse dialogue and taciturn carrot-chomping had a novelty value. (On second thoughts, much better than merely advising kids, who anyway knew better, on the goodness of veggies). No gizmos were needed to solve fairly simple mysteries and no gizmos existed either. Imagine having to dial M for murder etc. ! And the protagonist was more Tommy than Adam Dalgliesh. Today he’s just a jaded and garrulous fifty year old trying to look cool. The usage of technology that is mostly English-oriented force-fitted into a bewildering Hindi milieu is grating.
The only saving grace is a pronounced unpretentiousness sans contorted frowns signifying furious thinking, and a Kitty who is as blissfully ignorant and contentedly blase as ever.
Or maybe the real reason is that I have become far too cynical to appreciate what used to be an engrossing spectacle before. Am underwhelmed !
A major business publishing house has come out with a daily in a spreadsheet form called lint. Wonder why ? Have not figured out anything new or strikingly different whatsoever ! Perhaps the aforesaid cynicism at play once more.
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So why does everything look woefully out of place now ?
For starters, its been a long time—after all this was around the time a pimply West German was wowing the world and he has faded from public memory already ! There were no breaks and good ol’ DD got its entire sponsorship at a thirty minute stretch or not at all. I saw the whole thing in black and white so that was considered chic for the time and so were the sun-shades dutifully worn. The music aided the flow of the sparse dialogue and taciturn carrot-chomping had a novelty value. (On second thoughts, much better than merely advising kids, who anyway knew better, on the goodness of veggies). No gizmos were needed to solve fairly simple mysteries and no gizmos existed either. Imagine having to dial M for murder etc. ! And the protagonist was more Tommy than Adam Dalgliesh. Today he’s just a jaded and garrulous fifty year old trying to look cool. The usage of technology that is mostly English-oriented force-fitted into a bewildering Hindi milieu is grating.
The only saving grace is a pronounced unpretentiousness sans contorted frowns signifying furious thinking, and a Kitty who is as blissfully ignorant and contentedly blase as ever.
Or maybe the real reason is that I have become far too cynical to appreciate what used to be an engrossing spectacle before. Am underwhelmed !
A major business publishing house has come out with a daily in a spreadsheet form called lint. Wonder why ? Have not figured out anything new or strikingly different whatsoever ! Perhaps the aforesaid cynicism at play once more.
