Thank God it is over

BY B.P. Sanjay| IN Opinion | 13/02/2010

For a person living in a small town, the release of MNIK in Mumbai brought immense relief. A fortnight of media harangue came to an end and it may climax with weekend prime shows with the same old panel suspects battling it out in front of assembled audience and their predictable questions-secularism, fascism, holding the city to ransom and ‘Indian first’ arguments will do the rounds with one aggressive panellist from the "other" perspective battling it out.

Media partnerships in show business are glaring. We cannot suspect a collusion and role of so many diverse political and other elite in building up the inevitable interest in the latest SRK film. However, the stakes seem to be high given the occasional references in the media to the commercial dimension if the megapolis does not get to see it on the first day.  In passing one tends to reflect as an opposing rhetoric, why could not SRK bid for the players in the first place. Perhaps these basic questions elude us when the film and its release get caught in a well-orchestrated cycle of media attention. The fact that the Thackerays can hog media attention disproportionate to their shrinking political base establishes how vulnerable our media is to generating news that inherently lacks any value, more so when the channels claim to be national channels. The railway job interview incident, the taxi driver permit issue and the visit of Rahul Gandhi to the city were a few issues that were frittered away and media as is its wont would claim credit for its impact in ensuring that Mumbai’s resilience is above board in times of crises-natural, man-made and politically crafted. The 26/11 incident has already entered the media hall of fame in terms of overzealous coverage to the discontentment of the security forces whose demographic composition is now on the agenda.

 Switching channels one could see absence of familiar faces-MNS, Shiv Sena and SRK -on our state owned network. Sometimes poor cousins can be interesting and appeal with their down to earth approach towards news.  We hop from  issue to issue but it is really time for the editors guild and all other professionals and  news channel managements to silently march towards India Gate (because it is in Delhi) and take a vow that they will give the SS  company a long holiday for three months and more  to focus on other issues that affects the public. We need to reflect: did someone win or who was helped? The Sena surely got extraordinary coverage and the Stockholm syndrome may begin to work.  SRK added sympathy to his iconic status. It might help the film realise profits as critics are already indicating that it is after all not a great film.

 With Valentine day coming up, it is over to Muthalik and company for media news and debates on what ails Indian culture. It is time to review last year’s coverage of moral policing etc to see if we have changed. Wish we had television sets that had extraordinary storage space to enable us to recall the coverage of stock issues and the familiar voices, faces and arguments and generate our own news. Democracy will come a full circle.

PS As it happens after extended coverage-valid or not, hope the anchors sign off by saying that now that Mumbai has watched MNIK the rest of the country can sleep in peace.