The systematic murder of the cultural references and memories of 80s' Generation

Blame it on the “times they are changing” phrase, the generation born in early 80s and the one who started following desi MTV version in 90s, have of lately been so busy in earning and making a mark for themselves that there is a whole set of their childhood memories that is being systematically usurped by the…by whom...actually – I don’t even know where to put the blame.

My dear single screen cinema halls are being wiped out slowly in the name of “intellectual” audience sitting in those posh, grossly priced multiplexes and thinking that dancing on a song or clapping on a dialogue is “oh so low society…”. And the same “intellectual” set of people still paying to watch timeless classics like Wanted, Blue, and Kambhakht Ishq. The obscene prices of Parking, Pop-Corn and Cola. But oh I forgot, my generation is so busy in deciding their “salary package” with the new company or shouting on his/her junior subordinate “ke yeh sab ke liye time kiske paas hai…just pay, relax and enjoy. Its just the weekend. Chill…..


Test Matches too will soon go. I read someone commenting, “Test matches need results for surviving these competitive times”. I remember sitting in Baroda’s IPCL stadium watching Ranji Trophy matches leisurely and since there was no commentator there, I used to sit on the balcony stand and give a commentary for an audience of 14 to 16 odd people. The match was being played between Baroda Vs. Saurashtra. Agreed, even then the audience was not there for a 5 day match but now the debate is out there. People are debating whether to put an end to the Test matches. Its scary.

Indipop, the songs and the bands on which I grew up have all either vanished or merged with movies. Has anyone of lately heard an album from Silkroute, Euphoria, Indian Ocean, Colonial Cousins, Sonu Nigam, Altaf Raja, Mika or even the genius rap guy Baba Sehgal. Agreed some of them were not talented enough, but they had an audience – an Altaf Raja was always appreciated by a certain audience. Today, Indian Ocean, Euphoria keeps performing their numbers in Delhi, Bombay etc. at Live Concerts. Baba Sehgal supports himself by acting in some mediocre serials. Mohit Chauhan, Sonu Nigam, Alisha Chenoi etc have all submitted themselves to films. Where did Remo Fernandes disappear?
I don’t know what happened to Magnasound – the wonderful company who supported all these upcoming artists. Infact such is the situation today – that the desi MTV and Channel V have become everything but Music channels.


Television is not the same – people expect over the top humor, crass acting, lavish sets, spick & span costumes and make up covered faces, either the characters or the background music are permanently shouting on top of their voices, and before you know the camera would have completed its Zoom-in-zoom-out ritual every ten seconds. Newspapers too have followed television.

Even the kids today are so tv. Their mothers have got them systematically trained. I can tell you of so many instances where the kids I have met are asked to behave in “cute” fashion. They need to have a pet toy with a cute name. They need to be wearing flashy frocks and t-shirts. They need to recite the latest songs on TV, speak in English with guests and have to have a hobby when asked – all this while you are still a kid. I heard a kid saying: “Morning school, afternoon dance classes, twice a week French learning classes and what not…They are trying to make their kid look as if I have come there for an audition of a reality show: The Rockstar Kid of 2009.

Train journeys are no more fun for my generation. Infact, people on facebook no more travel by trains. But ironically, they are always busy on discussing the lowest flight fares.

They all want a t-shirt of Che without actually understanding what he stands for. If probed, who’s that on your T-shirt, some may even go on to mistake Che as some music band rockstar. Rockstar he was, but in a different sense altogether.

And finally if you are on facebook, then you have to put it across your friends that “you are happening man”. Life has to consist of all super hit moments – weekends, free gifts, getting high, holiday, watching a rubbish movie, Play Station, speaking the “F” word is so cool and showing the middle finger is very very cool – oh wow – my generation. You know what, you do not have the power to paint or write/create a poetry. By the way some do try to defy the norm and say I paint or I am a poet – but mostly it is for the heck of it. I am yet to come across a genuine one and then Arvinda Adiga expects that "if we teach every child how to paint, that will be the end of the poor in India" Keep dreaming Mr. Adiga. Even if we learn to paint, it will be 3 to 5 - monday, wednesday, friday.


Its like the dialogue in the film Fight Club when Tyler Durden speaks:

“God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.”


Basically I know where to blame now – to the root of all this is the one major divide: There is no middle class left in India – ether you are Elite India else get into the section called Delete India. And every life problem, every diminishing cultural pattern has its root in the above thought. Try connecting it. Of course, I am sure you don’t even have the time to complete this article in one sitting. Your mobile ring must have come up twice, your chat messenger would have pinged twice and oh did someone hear about Google Wave. Its so cool man.. I am on top of technology…aaaaAAArrrrgh…

Shut up….Shut Up…

Blank…

Monotone…



© Copyrights 2009 www.bhaandgroup.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. Hardik Mehta

Television finally makes some sense amidst nonsense

One of the startling facts that I got to know was that a very very hyped show on Sony's flagship channel couldnt manage a sponsor for one whole week of its running time. And now the best part, if you are unlucky enough to watch that show, you yourself will conclude that its the most bizarre, stupid and ridiculous reality show on television right now with the choicest of dumb people on it. Half of them dont happen to be celebrity also. No wonder they dint get sponsorship, after all corporates have better brains than some people in television think.

But since a few days I have been observing that amidst this tunnel of dumbness, the other associate channel of Sony - SAB has slowly but surely come up with some good 'light' humor-based serials. They have unleashed an array of shows that are both harmless and entertaining.

Take for example the show Tedhi Baat hosted by two great funny men of television - the amazingly straight-faced sardar and the legendary Shekhar Suman. They both of course along with the script writers of the show, keep the fun going, and the kind of humor sprinkled with satire is really great. Shekhar suman in his different avatars is still so good, he brings people from everyday life and adds the masala of exaggeration and voila i was rolling on a few one-liners. And like every good writer the show itself has so much self reflexive humor. For eg when Suman comes as a babu of Meteorological department, he replies back irritatingly to the question posed by Gurpal
"You have been wasting your whole show on a section that is given only a minute's importance in news bulletin, and there too beautiful girls have to keep that one minute going, so why is your whole show dedicated to weather? Are you nuts?

The another interesting fact of these new shows are that a few of them are bringing back the good old comic actors who have occupied a certain space in our television corners of our minds. Yeh Chanda Kanon hai has Tiku Talsania playing the high court judge with his trademark comic timing. The show always has a fresh episode every time it airs and the same two judges fight for it. Its a good concept.

"Thank you Jijaji" is another serial that has the great Jaspal Bhatti with his always wonderful creative title cards like Misdirection, Production Out of Control, Background Noise, Script Piracy, Sets and Upsets etc. The first episode started with a rocking Bhatti couple discussing the doorbell jisse current lagta hai.

There are some more shows on the line up on SAB but these three are the ones that I am going to follow. But then how can my write up be without some complains, there are a few downsides of these shows. Some of the limitations include poor production design, bad jerky editing and at times terrible background music effects coming from an amateur Casio keyboard. But all of this is something that you can overlook, if you have quality content being served. and as i said earlier Quality content that is harmless and entertaining. SAB surely has started some sort of trends on it.

I m hooked.


© Copyrights 2009 www.bhaandgroup.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. Hardik Mehta