Recycled, dubbed serials rule the landscape
An episode a few weeks ago on"We the People" showed how complex we are as a people. Titled"Mind your language", it was basically a discussion on the proposed three language formula for schools and whether Hindi can be a national link language. From the profusion of views expressed by the panelists and the audience, it appeared that the same old socio-cultural issues keep popping up: Hindi versus English, urban-rural divide, North Indian and South Indian divide, job market and cultural compulsions etc. There was talk of the aspirational value of English, the impact of Hindi cinema, and regional influences as well. Most of the speakers had strong opinions, but a clear consensus seemed unattainable. It was left to Mukul Kesavan to provide a memorable sound byte, saying that each person will learn the language they need regardless of what is imposed on them.
If this group of people, who were presumably all above 18 years, had such diverse views about language and culture, it boggles the imagination to know what children who inhabit a range of cultural and auditory landscapes these days thanks to animation programmes would feel and think about these issues.
In "The way the nankhatai crumbles" published in March 2004 on the Hoot I wrote about the quality of Hindi language dubbing of animation programmes for children. Five years on, here is a relook at some of the issues, mainly the lack of original programming, and the mélange of foreign landscapes dubbed with Hindi translation/transliteration.
For starters, there are a few more children's channels like Hungama, Animax, and POGO, compared to the two main channels at that time, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. The good news is that at least one animation programme Atashin'chi (Nick) now mentions the names of the Indian dubbing artistes, who are by and large doing a good job, so it is wonderful that they receive public acknowledgement of their talents. The other news is that some animation serials (like Ninja Hattori) that were probably translated directly from the original language into Hindi are now also being dubbed into"Indian English", complete with Indian accents. What still jars is the non-uniform"cultural dubbing" of certain serials and the utterly uninspiring quality of some animation serials that are dished out. But perhaps the most disappointing news is that besides the mythology-based animation serials like Little Krishna and Chota Bheem, an Indian presence is sorely lacking.
As far as the non-uniform cultural harmonization that goes on in some serials, it still boggles the mind. Shin-Chan is the name of the kid who lives in
For a country that prides itself on its prolific, technically proficient movie industry, it is tragic that children's animation programming is propped up on a diet of foreign serials, some of them downright indifferent in terms of content like Atashin'chi and Hagemaru. No doubt all this could be dismissed as rants of an adult who does not know children's tastes, but the point is : Is anyone at all monitoring the quality of these serials(and the subsequent dubbing) and their many reruns? Ninja Hattori and Little Krishna are broadcast five times a day, Richie Rich is broadcast three times a day, Chibi Maruko Chan comes on twice a day etc. That is quite a visual and auditory onslaught.
It is apparent that the Indian presence in these TV channels is almost negligible. A quick scan of the schedules of children's channels showed that that five channels broadcast about 85 programmes daily (each programme was only counted once, although some are rerun several times) - and of these 85 programmes, at least 50 that I recognized off-the-cuff as animation serials. Of these 50 animation serials, just two, Little Krishna and Chota Bheem are"Indian" ones. It is ironic that several popular serials like Ben 10, Dragonball Z (and even earlier hits like Pokemon) rely on story-telling techniques that would be very familiar to Indian audiences: different"roops" and the popular theme of victory of good over evil. Where is
Can we stop a moment and look at the signals we are sending to our children? Would adults be able to tolerate such a diet of recycled, dubbed and rerun serials each day? Don't channels have any obligations to maintain a certain ratio of original programming to recycled (i.e.not specifically made for Indian audiences) programming? Or is this recycling and rehashing of foreign serials a simpler option than trying to figure out which audience or language base to cater to in
Adults will doubtless learn the language they need or imbibe nuances of the culture they like, regardless of what is imposed on them. But is it right to expect children to navigate through a sea of hotch-potch and come up with a clear sense of language and cultural identity? Even if television viewing is just a small part of the day's routine, its impact is colossal. It is a disservice to the intelligence of children to inflict programmes on them without keeping in mind such points as originality, and impact on language skills and cultural identity in the long run. Unfortunately, if they aren't in a position to point this out, then we must.