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Journalism of Courage
Do you relish the sight of a very dirty toilet bowl being cleaned during your dinner? Insouciant Pepsi people like Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta may say, ‘‘What’s there?’’ but sensitive souls may shudder revulsion. When cleaning agents like Harpic journey from USA to India, they forget we have different toilet manners. There, they clean the toilet bowl and sit down to a cuppa. When was the last time any of us cleaned the above mentioned vessel and/or then sat down to a meal? So while the sight of actor Aman Verma, cheerfully, displaying the products skills (at prime time) may not keep Americans from their hamburgers and milkshakes, it sure puts Indians off their dal-chawal.
Or consider Preity Zinta’s posterior in the Pepsi ad. Undoubtedly, it is a most superior creature, shapely, er… cheeky and she wiggles it better than perfection — certainly better than Saif does his — but since when do nice Indian women, even pert impertinent ones, disturb the bottomline?
Jhatak-matak is delightful on big screen backsides but what of the pious Parvati, Kkusum or Prerna — popular female TV characters whom, we are told, embody modern Indian womanhood: do you think they would ever permit themselves a wiggle? Nah.
Ads are, quite literally, shaking up our well-established notions of behaviour. In a current HIV-AIDS commercial, two men are traveling on a cycle rickshaw when one suggests, lewdly, that they detour to visit a brothel. His companion is not morally outraged by the suggestion, merely concerned about contracting the disease! Is this what Health Minister Sushma Swaraj means when she says we must stress the need for sexual abstinence for AIDS control?
Television could be the first place for men’s reservation. Forget about TV serials, news channels abound in female anchors, reporters and increasingly, women make the news. From Mayawati’s birthday cake to Uma Bharati’s mandir cake, from Sushma ji in the time of SARS to Mamata B in the time of cabinet reshuffles, from alleged dowry victim Nisha Sharma to dead poetess Madhumita — women are grabbing the headlines.
Last Monday, it was Ameena’s turn. Even Doordarshan couldn’t resist her temptation. On and on it went about her wedding to a much older man, years after she was sold and rescued from the clutches of another much older man. It wasn’t clear whether we should be happy or sad for the girl, but certainly DD thought she deserved prominence, right up there with the other movers and shakers.
Aroona Irani has caused a few ripples herself. Yes, aadmi and aurat log the incredible, the impossible has happened. Pammi yanked Tulsi’s seedhi pallu, Anu pulled Parvati’s long hair and all of a sudden Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thhi and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki have been stopped in their tracks by Irani’s Des Mein Niklla Hoga Chand, which took over the top spot in the viewership ratings. The in-laws-outlaws may reassert themselves next week, but for the moment K stands for ‘Knock-out’.
We absolutely adore the Viranis and the Aggarwals (we do, we do) however, recently, the Ks have become rather fantastical. For 20 years, Kyunki’s Mihir has been secretly visiting Australia and the ‘dead’ Mandira Bedi (doesn’t Tulsi ever look at his passport?). Mandira is mentally unstable and noble Mihir cares for her but tells no one, not even her grieving brother. One night Mihir allows ‘mental’ Mandira to seduce him (!) and the result is Karan who hates Mihir because of his mother – but hadn’t Mihir been looking after his mother? In which case, why does he hate him so?
Des Mein… has its own absurdities. Anu convinced Dev he had cancer. He ‘‘killed’’ himself off so wifey Pammi could begin a new life. Except he doesn’t have cancer so now he is driving back thick and fast to Pammi and who should he encounter along the way but Anu driving straight at him. Result? He’s in hospital with amnesia and a bandaged face so that Dr Rohan, who is now engaged to Dev’s Pammi, can give him the face of apna purana Mihir, Amar Upadhyay… Watch the rest yourself.
