Video Killed the Radio Star

In case you dont know... the title of the post is also the title of a very popular song by a band called... (oddly enough) "The Buggles"...

But thats not what this post is going to be talking about... heck I didnt know that "The Buggles" even existed until I googled the song... which I have heard a number of times in a number of places... argh! I digress again...

I wanted to talk about the death of Indipop and the role of Bollywood... but theres other more qualified people to do that... and frankly... I am not in the mood to start a rant which will probably include several death threats and wild accusations of "ALLEGED" plagiarism... Then there will be my usual lamentation about remixes and how the music videos that they make these days take the concept of 'Sex Sells' a little too seriously... I mean... have some god damned pride in your own music for f***s sake... (Please excuse the profanity)...

But... to celebrate the short lived golden era of Indipop (read: The 90's)... heres a few numbers you might enjoy....

K.K. - Aap Ki Dua

Bombay Vikings - Kya Soorat Hai

Agosh - Paisa

Silk Route - Dooba Dooba

Lucky Ali - Oh Sanam

Euphoria - Mantra

Despite my defeatist outlook in this matter... artists like Kailash Kher and Atif are giving me hope... even their music videos dont have too many (or any) half naked woman cavorting in a vulgar manner...

Fly Daddy Fly

Writer: Based on a novel by Kaneshiro Kazuki (Japanese born Korean Novelist).

Director: Choi Jong Tae

Cast: Lee Jun Ki, Lee Moon Sik

Plot Synopsis:

The movie starts off showing us the daily life of Jhang Ga Pil (Moon Sik). Jhang is a salaryman in his 40's and is married with a 17 year old daughter. The family are seen to share close relationships and Jhang dotes on his daughter. One day he receives word that his daughter is in hospital. He rushes there to find her badly hurt... the victim of a brutal assault by a group of young men.

In the hospital, Jhang is approached by a man who claims to be an official of a prestigious school. The man offers him money and tells him that he will also pay the hospital expenses in full if Jhang Pil overlooks the 'indiscretion' of one of his students. The student in question happens to be a rising star in the world of boxing and is also from a well connected family. The man warns Jhang that if he 'raises a fuss' then it would only lead to defamation of his daughter and that they could easily create rumors that would ruin her public image and credibility.

Jhang is forced to accept this deal under duress, but he vows to take his revenge. To prove that he is not a coward and will do anything for his family, he decides to physically attack his daughter's tormentor. When he approaches the offenders school, he drops the knife that he was concealing and causes a ruckus by brandishing it at random students.

Jhang is then accosted by Go Seung Suk (Lee Jun Ki), a rebellious high school student with talent for fighting who proceeds to knock him out. When he awakens, Seung Suk chides him for his cowardice in bringing a knife to the school and sends him on his way. However when he encounters Jhang once more trying to attack the offender, Seung Suk offers to train him so that he can have a face to face confrontation with the boxer.

The movie follows his training and leads up to a final confrontation between Jhang and the assailant. It also focuses on the growing bond between Jhang and Seung Suk...

My Thoughts:

Acting: Well there was a fair share of overacting at times, but I thought most of the actors did a great job and the cast was supremely well chosen since they all fit their roles perfectly, both in terms of appearance and acting ability. Moon Ski did a fine job portraying the emotions of a father who is enraged but at the same time helpless to persecute his daughters tormentor. There were many scenes in the movie where he made me empathize with him. The final scene where he tosses an envelope of money in the face of the school official and tells him exactly the same thing that the official had said to him in the hospital was EPIC! Well... I thought so anyway...

Story: I loved the story. Sure its a bit cheesy and follows the formula of an underdog overcoming the odds, but it was well executed. It appealed to me... it was an example of an ordinary man deciding to make a stand against a powerful foe and deciding that "Enough is enough" even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds..

Overall Score: 85% I would say.

Soap Operas... the 'K' factor and the Decay of Indian Television...

I dunno how the term Soap Operas even came about... but thats not even the point.... Lately... I have given up watching regular TV... like... everywhere... I dont even watch TV in the US... but again... thats not what I am really here to talk about....

I am here to talk about the decaying standards of the shows that the Indian Entertainment industry is dishing out these days... there are a few good ones apparently.... or so I am told... but those are few and far between... there used to be a time when we could turn on the television and ALWAYS count on good clean entertainment...

I am talking of the DD, Zee TV era... and some later channels... When shows like Nukkad, Buniyaad, Malgudi Days, Mohandas B.A.L.L.B., Flop Show, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Hum Paanch, Mungerilal ke Haseen Sapne, Fauji etc. used to rule the roost... I would give an arm and leg to have all of those shows on my HDD right now... which is perhaps more than what I would give even or Adachis Miyuki or Hiatari No Ryokou.... the point was... all these shows were great... there was real comedy... there was no backstabbing of family members by family members going on... there was focus on actual happenings in the country... there was a firm grounding in reality and the characters were a good representation of the target demographic... even if they were sometimes over the top or idealized...

I am talking about the days when mothers and daughters in law weren't always hatching plots to have each other killed... when sisters in law actually thought of each other as sisters and not adversaries (at least on TV!)... when the kids showed respect for their elders... when the humor was generally clean... when the drama did not require multiple zooming ins from different angles accompanied by random booming sounds to increase the impact of a scene... when the true 'drama' shows were about real people in real circumstances... nowadays... the characters are all operating at a total disconnect from the 'real' world... in the world of todays TV shows... everyone must be clad in ostentatious clothes and wear a full complement of make up and accessories in EVERY scene... no matter where that scene takes place... there are businessmen who somehow have free time to do so much other crap instead of actually handling their business... office workers who do anything but work... students who do anything but study... doctors who do anything but treat patients... etc...

It does not even matter what a TV show starts out as in India anymore... it will almost invariably devolve into one of those Saas-bahu shows (as I call them)... I hear there are some new shows airing on some channels which have shown some promise... a friend recommended the shows 'Powder' and 'Marriage.com' or sumsuch show to me... said they were pretty good... but she did say that if these were to somehow devolve into a similar formula... even SHE would lose faith in the Indian entertainment industry and its ability to provide good entertainment...

Then there are the 'n' number of 'reality' shows.... I am someone who is of the firm belief that there can be (and should be) no such thing as a reality show... it just does not work that way... unless youre doing some kind of wildlife documentary.... but I doubt that even counts... I dunno... I guess the overly faked 'emotion'.... the 'intense buildups'.... and the 'suspense' really dont appeal to me... people tell me not to knock it till I have tried it... but after subjecting myself to a couple episodes worth of Indian Idol and its 'American parent'... and a couple other 'reality' shows... I have decided that I would sooner take up residence in a Russian Gulag.... (Ok... that was a bit of an exaggeration... but you get my point... )

I guess I have been imposing my own views here a little... what I consider good entertainment is not necessarily what everyone wants... but I just hope that no one out there is merely settling for this drivel simply because they have never seen anything better....

Trust me... Dekh Bhai Dekh still blows practically every other comedy serial I have ever seen... foreign or Indian... clean out the water... and it does so without using ANY innuendo... and not much (if any) slapstick...

Mass Media: A Boon or a Curse?

Mass media is (according to wikipedia): A section of the media specifically designed to reach a large audience. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such as books and manuscripts had already been in use for centuries.
Mass media includes Internet media (like blogs, message boards, podcasts, and video sharing) because individuals now have a means to exposure that is comparable in scale to that previously restricted to a select group of mass media producers. The communications audience has been viewed by some commentators as forming a mass society with special characteristics, notably atomization or lack of social connections, which render it especially susceptible to the influence of modern mass-media techniques such as advertising and propaganda.

So my little blog is also a little piece of the mass media pie. But my question is this... is it a boon? Or is it a curse?

In my opinion it has the potential to be both... and indeed... it is living up to its potential... but not only its potential for being a boon... but also a curse...

The positives of mass media are many... and are of great significance... but its the negatives which I want to discuss here... because it is those negatives which have been gaining momentum over the past few decades...

I am talking of the evils like media bias, glorification of immoral and illegal behavior, sensationalizing ordinary events, invasion of privacy, perpetuation of certain superstitions etc etc.

People have told me... if you dont like it... dont watch/read/listen to it... i.e. pretend to be a Deaf-Mute (Credit GITS and the late Salinger). I have tried... Really... I have tried to ignore some of the worrying trends I have seen in the youth of the world today... all a result of the pervasive nature of some of these aspects of the mass...

UNDERAGE DRINKING/SMOKING

I see larger and larger numbers of underage teenagers drinking and smoking everyday... a combination of a multitude of factors... easy availability of tobacco and alcohol notwithstanding, there is also the peer pressure they must deal with... the "everyone who is 'cool' must do it syndrome" as I sometimes term it...

But who are the ones who made smoking and drinking 'cool'? Who defined that? Mass Media... in the form of movies, TV shows, sometimes books... (sorry bout this Salinger... but you did it too...)...

I am not asking everyone to stub out their cigarettes and pour their drinks down the drain... I am asking them to think about why they chose to pick them up in the first place...

CASUAL SEX

It is now considered uncool not to have had a multitude of sexual partners before marriage... again... a trend which was popularized by mass media... particularly western media... which the Indian media has been trying to emulate... (truly a sad state of affairs that...)... This is something I am not as much worried about... so long as it occurs between consenting partners... who really are 'into' each other... but often times I see couples which are formed simply because: "well... all my friends have a girlfriend/boyfriend... I didn't want to be left behind"...

There is a growing trend of competition for the number of 'conquests' that have been made (this holds true for both for men and women)... which is something I cannot bring myself to accept...

Again.... a trend popularized by the mass media... and again... I am not asking all of you lovers out there to run away and elope and get married or practice celibacy before marriage (assuming you ever get that far)... I am asking you to think about why you are doing what you are doing... and think about whether you really want to do it for yourself... or just to be considered 'cool'... and to consider how any insincerity on your part could cause significant emotional damage to your partner...

INSTANT GRATIFICATION

Like they say... all things in moderation... unfortunately the spread of mass media has caused the spread of the "instant-gratification-culture." Everyone wants everything to move fast and to get instant results/pleasure... Not a bad thing to want... but it should set off alarm bells when we see ourselves completely forgoing... even deriding all other longer paths to the same goals...

Relationships used to be built up over time... nowadays its more like a collection of one night stands... Any sport where there is no heavy hitting real time action is considered totally boring... Test Cricket... Baseball... etc etc... The trend of moving towards having everything done in shorter and shorter times is not new, and is certainly not a bad thing... it is part of human nature... It is a good thing to increase efficiency... but sometimes the price we pay for that efficiency is terrible... and we often times dont even realize it...

CRIME/VIOLENCE

People nowadays are exposed to so much violence via the mass media... its phenomenal... I wish I had verifiable stats.... but I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that more people see more violent scenes in one form or another everyday these days... than they did before the advent of mass media... and this is having a startling effect on our youth... even children...

I heard of a terrible case (Thankfully not in India) where a young boy was killed by a couple of 10 year old's in a pretty gruesome manner... I believe it was in the UK...

But even in India... I have heard of several disturbing cases involving teenagers and young adults... rape, kidnappings of friends, beatings, murders even... This is not normal... and it IS a problem we need to face up to... I am glad that we don't have as many guns floating around in India (in the hands of private citizens) as there are in the USA... In the USA... school shootings occur every few months...

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The fact is mass media is so pervasive and so powerful that everything they project has a significant impact on us all psychologically without us realizing it.

Mass media (intentionally or not) implants images in impressionable young minds... when they are not mature enough to make educated decisions about their lives... when they are in their rebellious phase and do not want to listen to their parents even... Now there is the potential to implant both good and bad things... and it is my hope that we are able to get mass media to focus more on the good rather than the bad... It is not a question of age restrictions on media... because its a well known fact that the more you try to keep adolescents from getting/doing something... the more likely it is that they will go to extreme lengths to get/do it...