Switching on an emergency

It happened in the USSR, it’s been happening in Pakistan all year. TV news is fighting for liberty.

It happened in the USSR, it’s been happening in Pakistan all year. TV news is fighting for liberty. That’s before Musharraf switched off the private news channels and switched on the emergency lights. We missed them; PTV visuals were deeply unsatisfying — police and cars crawling through the night, while the Supreme Court was in turmoil. You wouldn’t have imagined there was skullduggery behind the camera. Musharraf’s midnight appearance and an interminable speech that tied up his tongue in all sorts of knots, were no sleep-stoppers, either: he lacked everything in eloquence and his emphatic delivery suggested he was trying to convince himself, foremost, of his arguments for the imposition of emergency.

Our news channels picked up the microphone on behalf of their Pakistani counterparts. And the taaza khabar is that they got it right, (by and large). Breaking News was really news and developments, the coverage was unhurried, the tone sober, and the questions pertinent: no, how do you feel about the emergency. Plenty of voices from Pakistan (which only proves that you can stifle the media, but you cannot silence a people), the US and of course India.

If we have to sum up the performances, it would be thus: Musharraf was ruffled, Benazir shrill, Nawaz Sharif collected, Condoleezza Rice critically apologetic and the Indian anchors in command.

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Having said that, there is nothing to beat BBC World on such occasions. Sunday night’s one hour with Lyse Doucet from Islamabad should have been essential viewing for everyone in the television business, for everyone aspiring to join the TV business and for viewers who wanted facts with perspectives without the hullabaloo. The special feature answers the question why so many of us so often despair of Indian news channels — this is how we want them to be.

It’s not about the voices — our channels get the same voices (at least some of them) — it’s about the presentation: Lyse Doucet just cocks her head a little to one side, and then in that gentle brogue sets the scene in Islamabad; then the anchor in London takes over and begins with a series of interviews that includes Nawaz Sharif, maybe Benazir and a snippet from Pakistan Prime Minister Aziz’s press conference. Moves smoothly into a studio discussion featuring BBC’s former Islamabad correspondent Owen Jones and Bilal Rana, the lawyer representing the interests of the sacked chief justice. Onto Washington, back to Doucet who, once again, adroitly shifts the focus — now we have Ayesha Siddiqa on the Pakistani Army’s imperatives… Smooth transitions executed with a calm authority over the subject at hand with keen perspectives. It’s almost perfect.

On the lighter side of television, Star and Sony are in the middle of an unusual battle: while Star channels promote Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om, Sony is rooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya — it’s six pack Shah Rukh versus Michael Jackson Ranbir, The Making of Saawariya versus The Making of Om Shanti Om. Sony and Zee have their own peculiar generational tussle going on: if Sa Re Ga Ma Pa has little ones singing their hearts out, Sony’s Boogie Woogie has mothers dancing off their toes.

Elsewhere, Kapil Dev, wife Romi and their daughter make a pretty picture and Dev a plea for the girl child. Bat on, Kapil da.

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Why oh why, does TV continue to suppose anyone wants to see Abhishek and Aishwarya in anything other than their films? Last seen they were comparing her beauty to the Taj Mahal’s with Papa Bachchan clicking comparisons. No prizes for guessing who is better looking.

Finally, watch Man versus Beast (AXN), that’s if you like to watch an Alaskan bear eat more hotdogs than a man, or one elephant up against 80 well-bodied men and women to see who can pull a jet plane! Well, what’s one to do? If it’s on TV, it’s there to be consumed.