MxMIndia

Category: BLOGS

  • Sports journalists have maximum access and it is about time they dumped their rose-tinted spectacles for some eyewear that is a bit less gullible, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Time to be less gullible, dear sports journalist?

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    When the cricket match-fixing scandal broke in 2000, I was in Delhi assisting with the launch of a cricket magazine. I was therefore surrounded by eminent cricket writers and experts, established sports journalists and budding sports writers some of whom are well on their way to eminence today. Former cricketers were also a common commodity in the magazine’s offices. Not one of them had a clue about the horrors of match-fixing and how far it had contaminated the sport. This is in spite of the exposes by Anniruddha Bahal in Outlook magazine in the 1990s and the dramatic Tehelka expose with Manoj Prabhakar in 1999 (which ended dramatically with Kapil Dev weeping copious tears to Karan Thapar on live television).

     

    Since then, allegations of match-fixing have given way to spot-fixing. Various Pakistani players have been exposed, especially by the British media. But the general sense of disbelief in the past week is nothing short of astounding. I have read some columns this week claiming that the writers knew what was going on in the IPL but I say that’s a load of crock. Or rather, if they knew so much why on earth didn’t they write about it before? I cannot remember a single substantial story or opinion piece about the influence of bookies in the IPL and players being corrupted by betting greed. Have you read any?

     

    All this knowledge after the fact is not just pitiful posturing, it is shameful. The job of the journalist is to sniff out wrongdoing. But sports journalists have fallen short here. Every time, it has been general reporter who has found out exactly what’s happening in the world of sport. This shortfall is also seen with business journalists who cannot see – or report – on anything shady going on in their domain. Every CEO is the greatest and every business house is the best – this lasts even when said businessman is well-known as a dope and when some government agency reveals fraud. Of these speciality journalists, I would say the best informed are the film ones. They may not be able to tell the truth in print because their managements are so enamoured of the glamour world but they certainly know all the gossip.

     

    Sports journalists have maximum access and it is about time they dumped their rose-tinted spectacles for some eyewear that is a bit less gullible.

     

    **

     

    Having said all that (my favourite bumptious phrase), Indian news television was boringly predictable. There was Rajdeep Sardesai being earnest, Arnab Goswami being judge, jury, executioner, Rahul Kanwal being so serious, Jujjhar Singh trying to be reasonable and NDTV bucking the trend by talking about China. You know: that country close by that keeps wandering into our territory.

     

    The usual BCCI bashing is now on and it will come to nothing. TV channels cannot do more than call the same old people who say the same old things. There are some who are preserved in mothballs in TV studios and brought out when anti-BCCI comments are required. I surfed my way through them all and decided discretion is the better part of valour. Anyone else out there watching Grey’s Anatomy?

     

    **

     

    The Times of India did a nice little favour to tennis fans by having former great Boris Becker as guest sports editor which include a long Q & A with him. This was marred by the TOI’s formidable sports reporters not knowing how many Grand Slam titles Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have won so far. And, by what is far worse, some too-clever-by-half  (my conjecture) dimwit, declaring to Becker than serve and volley as a technique was a dying practice in Becker’s day. Becker put the questioner in his place and how shameful is that?

     

  • It all boils down to just one thing: 'Dimag jhakaas hai par sala character dhila hai'.

    Anil Thakraney: Oops! Phaneesh did it again!

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    As the saying goes, the first time you make a mistake, it’s an accident. The second time you make the same mistake, it’s a choice. Going by this logic, iGate’s President & CEO, Shri Phaneesh Murthy, who’s been sacked over sexual harassment charges, is clearly a habitual sex offender. There’s no way of ensuring this man keeps his penis zipped up at office.

     

    Readers will remember the tech hero had been sacked from Infosys in 2002, following a sexual harassment accusation by his executive secretary, Ms Reka Maximovitch. That case was settled out of court, and it cost Infosys a fat packet. One assumed that the man, having burnt his fidgety fingers, would have learnt a hard lesson. Murthy got a second chance to start his career when he joined iGate in 2003, and he did fabulously out there. According to trade press reports, he took iGate’s revenues from $2 million to $750 million inside ten years. And that’s a remarkable achievement in the highly competitive IT sector. Well, all that talent and success couldn’t stop him from having a sexual encounter with a subordinate all over again, and the man is fired, all over again!

     

    We can safely assume Phaneesh Murthy isn’t an idiot. His career record tells us so, and add to that the fact that he happens to be an IIT/IIM alumnus. Why on earth would a man with such powerful credentials make the same stupid blunder the second time? To be fair, we haven’t yet (at the time of writing this post) heard from the man himself, so let’s see what he has to say in his defence.

     

    However, two things need to be said right away. Since he’s done it again, Phaneesh seems to suffer from some kind of a sexual disorder, and he must get his head (and other body parts) sorted out. And two, this is yet another wake up call for the entire corporate world, as incidents of sexual harassment at workplace keep happening regularly.

     

    The moot question is: Why would you hit on a subordinate, fully aware of the legal ramifications? Is there scarcity of women outside your workplace? The only reasonable explanation seems to be this: Everyday interaction with the same person, close physical proximity to that person, and if there’s sexual attraction, even otherwise intelligent men can (and often do) slip. Which is why, unless we all work from out of our respective homes, incidents of sexual harassment will never cease.

     

    So then it all boils down to just one thing: ‘Dimag jhakaas hai par sala character dhila hai’. In Phaneesh’s case, that should read ‘Sala character bahut hee dhila hai’. I feel sorry for his wife, she deserves better than this.

     

    Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. He is also Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own.

     

  • As Indian television's biggest annual reality show draws to a close, there are five pressing questions left unanswered. Let me try to deal with them

    Anil Thakraney: IPL 6 FAQs

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Okay, so as Indian television’s biggest annual reality show draws to a close, there are five pressing questions left unanswered. Let me try to deal with them.

     

    Does the IPL have a future following the fixing scandal? Will it shut down?

    There’s no way this tamasha is going to close shop, even if more skeletons tumble out of the stinking cupboard. Frankenstein BCCI has created a huge monster, and there’s no taming it now. The masses adore this monster because the IPL is fulltoo entertainment for the full family. It’s less about cricket and more about all the natak that goes around it. The TV ratings for this year have been good, and the stadia packed to the gills once again (the Delhi cricket ground was full house for the two play-offs despite the home team having been knocked out). And, Sreesanth & Co’s antics had zero effect on popularity. The IPL is here to stay. Period.

     

    Will we see a clean IPL season next year?

    Nope. T20 cricket is a fertile hunting ground for spot fixing, all it takes the bookies and their agents is a few dishonest players to co-operate. And this is particularly easy with the IPL because it’s teeming with players who have either been kicked out of the Indian team or aren’t talented enough to find a place in it. Also, India is a vastly corrupt nation, so to expect all our cricketers to be blessed with squeaky clean genes is being downright stupid. Some boys will sell their souls again, but I suspect they’ll behave more smartly than the three idiots: Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan. Fixing will continue, the procedures will get refined.

     

    Can’t the tournament host, the BCCI, clamp down on fixing?

    Well, according to media reports, the BCCI boss’s darling ghar jamai is allegedly involved in the betting racket, haha. So to expect that organization to follow Gandhian principles is like expecting Phaneesh Murthy to practice celibacy for the rest of his life. It ain’t gonna happen. Therefore what I predict is hyperactive policing next year (match fixing seems to bother our cops more than rapes) and various sting operations by the maha excited media. And yet, the show will go on.

     

    Aren’t sponsors and advertisers furious over the various IPL scandals? Should they not put pressure by threatening to pull out next year?

    Well, ideally they should, but they won’t. That’s because the corporate suits aren’t out to make India a better place, that’s not in their mission statement. The advertisers are only and only interested in one thing: Eyeballs. As long as the IPL continues to draw in the audiences (which it will), the money will keep getting pumped in. In fact, secretly, some of the sponsors must be elated with all the scandals, they help keep the tournament buzzing on the news channels. That’s a much bigger bang for their buck.

     

    Will Rajya Sabha MP Shri Sachin Tendulkar announce his retirement this Sunday?

    No. He’ll be playing IPL 30 too. Am willing to, er, bet on it. 🙂

     

  • Perhaps our news channels should start discussion issues like whether the sun should start rising from the West, suggests Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Pointless debates on News TV

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    I have some suggestions for primetime debate topics for Indian news channels. Should the sun start rising in the West? Should women exist? Should we start to talk sense every night? Should the human species reverse its steps on the evolutionary ladder? O wait, maybe our news channels have already started that process…

     

    The spot-fixing scandal around the Indian Premier League may or may not have captured the public imagination – people still seem to be watching it – but it has certainly consumed our news channels. I just heard this morning on Times Now that this spot-fixing episode is cricket’s worst crisis. Far be it from me to contradict our worthies (but I’m going to do it anyway) but surely the match-fixing scandal of 2000 was the biggest in recent time, where two much revered and successful captains of international teams lost their jobs? But what do I know, eh?

     

    Right now, all that the investigation has shown is that Sreesanth and two other cricketers belonging to the Rajasthan Royals team took money from bookies to give away runs in particular overs which they bowled. The rest has been a whole lot of speculation and moralistic posturing. Journalists have twigged on to the fact that the Delhi and Mumbai police are at loggerheads. But instead of investigating what that means for this case, we decide to have a debate instead: “Are the Mumbai and Delhi police at loggerheads”. It’s hard to see what purpose such a debate serves. Give the viewer/reader the story and move on.

     

    The moralistic posturing, especially by journalists is even funnier. The issue, as far as I can see, is that three cricketers at least cheated – cheated cricket itself, cheated cricket fans and cheated their franchise owners. Whether they met escort girls or bought Blackberry phones is extraneous to the cheating allegations. The cheating is bad enough by itself. By diverting attention to the fact that bookies exist, the media is diluting the crisis.

     

    I would have expected a greater call for legalising betting but apparently logic and reasoning are in short supply at times like this. Instead, we have the ridiculous hysteria over a photograph of Indian captain MS Dhoni’s wife next to Vindoo Dara Singh who has been accused of knowing bookies. The connections here are tenuous – if they exist at all – and this is nothing but sensationalising.

     

    The police are quite happy to focus on bookies and try and point in the direction of Dawood Ibrahim which means that their job is over since there’s nothing they can do. Spot-fixing – which is extremely serious and needs to be taken seriously – has been buried under parties, bookies, escort girls, clothes from Diesel, pictures of models in email inboxes and Blackberry phones. I would conjecture that it is possible to never go to parties and still be a cheat.

     

    If the media did not get distracted, it could play a vital role in the unravelling of this menace – as indeed Outlook and Tehelka attempted in the past through the efforts of Annirudha Bahal and others. Instead, the media seems to have jumped on to some improbable moralistic crusade and left the real crisis behind.

     

    Meanwhile, preparations for the Champions League are on…

     

    **

     

    The bizarre and brutal attack on a British soldier in mufti in Woolwich by two men ostensibly in the name of Islam has badly shaken up the Western world. Glenn Greenwald asks some difficult questions and raises some interesting points about terrorism in this opinion piece in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/23/woolwich-attack-terrorism-blowback

     

    **

     

    Why have the riots in Sweden, on for five days now, not caught international media attention?

     

    **

     

    And, Roger Federer finally joins twitter: @rogerfederer.

    (I’m @ranjona by the way!)

     

  • What's the IPL minus all the high drama? After all, it is just a glorified, modern day nautanki

    Anil Thakraney: No effect on Brand IPL

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    There is a lot of chatter going on over the impact of the latest scandal on the IPL’s brand value, and the possibility of advertisers ditching this ‘sinking ship’ next year. In response, let me first put up a daily life situation: Have you noticed how the chana vatana sellers suddenly land up when you are stuck at a traffic signal? In fact, they usually arrive when there’s a nasty traffic jam (somehow these chaps come to know of it!). Also, even as the bad jam leaves us in a foul mood, many of us do purchase the goodies from these boys.

     

    Why am I giving you this strange example? Because it’s the same story with branding and advertising. Think of the car passengers as audiences, the traffic jam as the mega event, and the chana sellers as the advertisers. The chana sellers will only go where the crowds are, regardless of the poor emotional connect between the traffic jam and the passengers. And the latter will buy from these guys because they (the hawkers) have nothing to do with the traffic jam. In much the same way, as long as the IPL continues to draw in the audiences, the advertisers will be there because the numbers is all that matters. Regardless of the scams that engulf the tournament. None of the zillion controversies have dented the IPL’s mass appeal in six years, nor will the latest one.

     

    And equally significantly, the viewers will not hold the IPL’s dirty deeds against the brands advertising their stuff during the tournament. This is because the junta isn’t stupid. Even the layman knows that Vodafone, Star Plus, Pepsi, Yes Bank, etc, have nothing to do with the spot fixing mischief by certain players, or the betting by bookies and some shady team owners. Therefore there’s no question of advertisers giving up on the IPL. As a case in point, news channels have been continuously running footage of Sreesanth and gang while they were busy spot fixing. As a result, the logo of the Rajasthan team sponsor printed in their jerseys, UltraTech Cement, keeps leaping out at you. Would that affect the sponsor’s image or their sales in any way? No chance!

     

    As for the IPL itself, as I mentioned in my previous post, this tamasha is here to stay. The format has won the hearts and minds of the Indian masses, and all the ugly controversies over the years don’t seem to have affected its popularity at all. Even if the BCCI, which is under pressure, finds a way to prevent spot fixing in next year’s edition (a very, very tough ask), IPL 7 will throw up its own set of fresh scandals, and it will be business as usual. In any case, what’s the IPL minus all the high drama? After all, it is just a glorified, modern day nautanki.

     

  • Preity Zinta needs a spine of steel to survive reactions to this train-wreck of a movie, notes Deepa Gaholot

    Reviewing the Reviews: Kinder critics give Ishkq In Paris 2 stars

    By Deepa Gahlot

     

    It’s hard to accept failure in the film industry, and any attempt to fight it is judged more harshly if done by an actress. Male stars can have any number of ‘comebacks’ but it is much tougher for an actress in her thirties.

     

    Predictably, Ishkq In Paris became a bash Preity Zinta dart board, and she, kind of, asked for it, as producer, writer and lead star of a film that would perhaps have suited her a decade ago.

     

    The kinder critics gave it two stars, but most went with 1 or 1.5.  Preity Zinta needs a spine of steel to survive reactions to this train-wreck of a movie.

     

    Says Karan Anshuman of Mumbai Mirror, “It is a lamentable moment for Priety Zinta, now in her twilight years as a lead actress in an ageist, unkind industry, that she has to choose a path of safety and ends up with a movie that needs a Salman Khan item. This film could’ve been so much more honest, real, gritty even. That would’ve been a worthy, valiant last stand. Meg Ryan – you could say she was Zinta’s Hollywood equivalent – tried such a thing in one of her last films, In the Cut.

     

    Zinta exclaims (more than once) “I love Bollywood”. It’s a plea really. Bollywood doesn’t seem to love her back anymore. And if the circus no longer has a spot to accommodate your act, by all means set up on the fringe, outside. But don’t show people what they’re going into the tent to see anyway. Be bold, change the act.”

     

    Nandini Ramnath of Live Mint is equally scathing, “Preity Zinta’s career started skidding off the rails in the mid-2000s, and she has struggled to get back on track since. Ishkq in Paris , which she has produced, co-written and starred in, is an attempt to gift herself the leading role that nobody wants to give her any more. Zinta’s trademark bubbliness has gone a bit flat, her late-30s body has filled out, and parts of her face look different, but she remains the liveliest presence in Ishkq in Paris. Her enthusiasm at being back in front of the camera is not curbed by her co-star, who struggles visibly to generate the spark and presence needed to boost his leading man credentials.”

     

    Raja Sen of rediff.com missed the PZ of Dil Se and commented, “ Tragically, she seems almost determined not to act. She straddles the line between French and Hindi clumsily, speaking in a bit of a supervillain accent.  Her eyes sparkle with the eagerness of a jumpy squirrel, even when they shouldn’t. (Really, should anybody’s?) There is a bit too much enthusiasm, too much bounce to her character, who shrugs all the time and nods rapidly and constantly, like a big Preity bobble-head.

     

    Without a cricketer in embracing range, Zinta doesn’t seem to know what to do with herself.”

     

    Aniruddha Guha of Time Out wrote,  “Prem Raj, who made his debut as filmmaker with the dumb Main Aur Mrs Khanna, gets dumber with his second film. For the first hour, the film follows the two protagonists over a night in Paris, as they party, dine, drink and talk. You may want to utter the words Before Sunrise, but that would be blasphemy. The couple here aren’t half as likable, the dialogues aren’t one-fourth as witty and the direction not even in the vicinity of what Richard Linklater achieved. This is merely a set-up – a gimmick, rather – one that goes nowhere.”

     

    Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express quipped, “A girl and a guy meet cute on a train going to Paris, spend a night wandering about the city, and come out on the other side with a status that’s complicated. This one line brief has resulted in so many engaging love stories, that I went in a tad hopeful. This was, after all, Paris and Preity, a city with magic and a girl with sparkle. Who knew what that combo may yield? Sadly, Ishkq In Paris comes off mostly derivative, and wholly predictable.”

     

    Rajeev Masand of IBNlive.com called it misguided. “Ishkq in Paris is the sort of film that inspires its director and its leading man to assume aliases so they might escape responsibility for subjecting us to this travesty they’ve committed to the screen. Leading lady Preity Zinta, unfortunately, is too well known to hide behind a fake name.”

     

  • Ranjona Banerji on the how everyone other than Sunil Gavaskar has responded to BCCI president N Srinivasan's doings

    Ranjona Banerji: The BCCI prez’s trial by media

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The fact that N Srinivasan, chairman of the Board for Control of Cricket in India, thinks that his main adversary in the IPL mess is the media shows how much news television has changed the discourse. Us journalists have always existed, but on the periphery of everyday life, an early morning or mid-afternoon fix that rarely lasted beyond an hour if that long. Now, the “media” is a 24-hour experience and whether it’s being silly or serious, it cannot be ignored.

     

    The BCCI chairman however is railing against the wrong enemy. The media may be annoying – to him at least in this instance – but what the BCCI has done or not done for cricket has to be scrutinised. Whether Srinivasan likes it or not, the revelations that IPL players have been caught spot-fixing, that bookies have full access to cricketers and that his son-in-law is somehow involved cannot be ignored. Srinivasan is lucky that the conflict of interest in the Board chairman owning an IPL team has not come under greater scrutiny in the past.

     

    Monday night on TV, our worthies who have made journalism such a contender were torn between the IPL saga and the Naxal attack in Chattisgarh. The problem here is that the Naxal problem is complex and complexity and television are natural enemies. To just start jumping and advocating “war” on Naxals is not just irresponsible, it is foolish. I did not expect to hear a sensible discussion on Salwa Judum or the civilian militia created to fight Naxals on TV and I was not proved wrong. However, Rajdeep Sardesai (CNN-IBN), Nidhi Razdan (NDTV) and Arnab Goswami (Times Now) all tried to discuss Naxalism? Does one get any marks for trying? Only in Junior KG I think.

     

    IPL then was a much safer bet. Except for the fact that Rahul Mehra (the man who exists to hate the BCCI) was on two channels at the same time, a trick he learnt from Ravi Shankar Prasad and both can teach that to Chris Angel. Anyway, if Srinivasan thought that the media was against him on Sunday, he couldn’t have imagined the horrors of Monday. He had handed himself over as a target and the media, quite rightly, could not look the other way. (Actually Barkha Dutt did appear to look the other way or maybe that was an old issue of that talk show she does being replayed, which was on the food security bill. Or maybe it was just bucking the trend.)

     

    The trial by media was on full swing and even though Sunil Gavaskar tried to defend his friend Ravi Shastri for being part of the inquiry commission and frowned upon a witch hunt, everyone else was less charitable to the BCCI. Which is only to be expected, given the brazenness of Srinivasan’s response. The fact that the BJP and the Congress – both well-represented on the cricket board – are on the same page was not missed by the media. If only they could show the same spirit of bipartisan cooperation in Parliament as well said one studio guest sarcastically. The BJP, which wants a resignation every time the wind changes, is not so sure about Srinivasan, leading to a little spat between Rahul Kanwal and Shaina NC on Headlines Today. Why does Shaina NC come on TV at all? No one is ever nice to her.

     

    Newspapers are no kinder and the Asian Age called Srinivasan’s attitude, “Shameful!” while The Times of India called him “combative”. The fact that Indian and Chennai captain MS Dhoni has been avoiding the media was not missed either.

     

    Srinivasan has made mistakes not just by changing the by-laws to own a team, giving his son-in-law free access, pretending that nothing is wrong, appointing an inquiry commission that reports to him, being caught with whole-scale cheating on his watch, annoying Sharad Pawar, but also blaming the media. Ha ha. This will not end well.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own

     

  • Cricket has given the master batsman everything; it's time to give something back to it, writes Anil Thakraney

    Anil Thakraney: Gavaskar’s silence is deafening

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    For many guys from my generation, Bachchan was the childhood hero. But even at a young age I was smart enough to be able to differentiate real and reel life, and therefore the movie star meant little to me. Today when I see Big B moronically sell us cookies and jewellery (don’t those ads make you cringe?), I am glad I did not make him my idol. My one and only hero was Sunil Gavaskar, and I still admire him for his cutting insights on cricket. I vividly recall Gavaskar taking on the most lethal fast bowlers of this world, wearing only his white floppy hat… that was sheer guts. More than physical strength, it needed nerves of steel. He was THE man to me.

     

    About two years ago I chased him hard for an interview for a magazine. But failed. I can think of two reasons why. Some retired cricketers now prefer to speak only in exchange for money. Or, perhaps my nasty reputation preceded me, and therefore my childhood hero thought it’s best to duck this one. If that was so, he made a terrible mistake. Being a fan for life, my knees will have trembled in his presence; Gavaskar could have had me for lunch.

     

    However, today when I watch my hero desperately play those ultra defensive shots on the IPL scandal, it breaks my heart. This could be because he has been and desires to be on the BCCI’s payroll, and he does not want to risk losing that revenue stream. Therefore in his appearances on NDTV (another paid contract), all he does is side-track important questions, or defend the organization that has ‘Controversies’ enshrined in its mission statement. This man cannot be my childhood hero, this must be an imposter. It deeply saddens me to state this.

     

    I wish India’s finest batsman ever (I rate him above Tendulkar) chooses cricket over money. And takes the bull by its horns. Gavaskar is universally respected in this country, his views will make a huge difference. The IPL mess has put the credibility of the game on the line, and we need heroes like Gavaskar to rise to the occasion. Cricket has given the master batsman everything; it’s time to give something back to it.

     

    Throw that helmet out of the TV studios, Sir. If blokes like Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding could not intimidate you, why would you worry about a businessman called N Srinivasan? Be the hero you always were in my eyes. Take him on, and hit him out of the cricket ground.

     

    PS: Terrific idea. Hold an exhibition of posters containing the worst client feedback, and make a charity organization happy. Indian creatives need to do stuff like this. So much better than indulging in dirty scam ads.

     

    Link: http://www.boredpanda.com/sharp-suits-worst-client-comment-posters/

     

    Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. He is also Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached via Twitter at @anilthakraney

     

  • There is a feeling that the media is spending too much time on the IPL scandal and trying to sack BCCI president N Srinivasan and thus ignoring other news, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Who cares about the Maoists’ attack & the PM in Japan?

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    There is a feeling that the media is spending too much time on the IPL scandal and trying to sack BCCI president N Srinivasan and thus ignoring other news. The prime minister has increased ties with Japan which has economic and geopolitical implications. Maoists have launched a brutal attack against a Congress convoy and more importantly against the Indian state in Chhattisgarh. Drought and a heat wave have killed thousands and killed many. Life is not all about cricket, say some.

     

    That may well be true but this criticism is also only partly true. Newspapers have been carrying articles and opinions on all these other subjects – and more. The PM in Japan has been first or second lead on most front pages this week. But news TV is severely hampered by its nature. Focusing on ties with Japan will make TV news sound like those old Films Division documentaries of yore (all right, all those born after 1977, you can wake up now). Further, TV journalism is not equipped to handle geopolitics in India yet – neither the editors nor the reporters have the depth of knowledge or understanding to tackle it. Better to give it a wide berth.

     

    Then you reach the Maoist problem. TV journalism has crafted for itself a character where everything is seen through the nationalistic/ patriotic/ jingoistic prism. Therefore any issue with nuance is impossible for it to handle. There is a background to the issue of this insurgency against the state and without comprehension of that background you cannot provide clarity to the viewer. Many news channels did try to tackle the Maoist issue but it is too complicated for most reporters and the standard of debate on Indian news television has become so low that the importance of the subject was lost in the now expected yelling and screaming.

     

    It might be advisable on subjects like this to stick to interviews with experts one at a time. This gives the viewer the chance to assimilate the facts and assess varying opinions for themselves. Watching Chandan Mitra and Nandini Sundar trading charges no longer makes for entertaining television.

     

    That leaves the BCCI. This story is by far more exciting as far as the nature of TV goes. There is drama, intrigue and the requisite touches of sleaze. You can chase the BCCI president and his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan across the country. You can look for bookies and the “honey traps” they provide for susceptible cricketers. You have people surviving on the edge of the glamour industry providing a bit of cheap tinsel. You have competing police forces. You can thrown in gratuitous references to Dawood Ibrahim (if you work hard enough at this you can write a book and Anurag Kashyap may make a film about it). You have India’s cricket captain and the captain of the Chennai Super Kings MS Dhoni refusing to speak to the media (the temerity of the man!).

     

    Simply put: the cricket scandal was made for television. It allows TV’s best minds to work together and give you reporting, investigating abilities and editorialising all in one go. No print journalist can match it. Print can stick to ties with Japan, Maoists and all the rest of it!

     

    Footnote: For a perspective on the cricket crisis, here’s Ayaz Memon on The Times of India edit page: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-30/edit- page/39602856_1_indian-premier-league-ipl-indian-cricket

     

    And for the Maoist issue, here’s Ramachandra Guha in The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-continuing-tragedy-of-the-adivasis/article4756954.ece

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own

     

  • Graduates have been frantically hitting on their institute alumni for jobs bu some of the desperate ones have been going about this is an incorrect manner, rues Anil Thakraney

    Anil Thakraney: Dear fresh MBA, you’re pissing me off

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Yes, I know it’s tough landing jobs for management school grads these days. (As also for mass communications grads, I would imagine.) The economic slowdown hasn’t ended, many companies have frozen or scaled down recruitment plans. There are too many institutes throwing up too many students, and the market isn’t able to absorb all of them. In fact, this year has been particularly horrid, even some IIM grads found it difficult to get jobs. Who would have ever thought the day will come.

     

    And so, desperate times call for desperate measures. Graduates have been frantically hitting on their institute alumni for jobs, with the hope that the ex students, now at senior positions in the corporate world, would come to their rescue. That’s a correct strategy; the date base of past students is easily available, and some business leaders, for emotional reasons, would offer fresh grads at least an interview opportunity, if not a job. So all kosher on that front.

     

    However, some of the desperate grads have been going about this is an incorrect manner. Case in point, the business management school I passed out from. (This institute shall go unnamed, I don’t wish to make their struggle harder than it already is.) A few students from this institute have been relentlessly stalking me, and to think I don’t even look pretty! Regular e-mails, requests for Linked-In connect, Twitter chase, and the worst of them all… phone calls at odd hours. Even this sort of harassment can be forgiven if, and this is the important point, these dudes bothered to do their homework before going after you.

     

    Because if they cared to do a little research, they would discover, without much effort, that I am no longer part of the corporate world, I haven’t been so for many years. I shifted to journalism nearly fifteen years ago. Which obviously means I have no job opportunities to offer these fresh MBAs. So when they pursue me, they are not just wasting their own precious time, they are messing up my mind, and getting me really agitated in the process. Of course, they can contact me if they, too, wish to be journalists, but that will only happen if they bothered to do their goddamned research in the first place.

     

    I’ll end with a strong message to all new business/communication school grads: The worst thing you can do in this trade is to approach someone without doing your homework. That really sucks. And when you do that, I am left feeling that you deserve to be jobless. Digest this very carefully. And then deal with it.

     

    PS: Ah! Brilliant, brilliant Bourneville ad, loved it! India mein bhi aisa ad karo, bhaiyya. We need to anyway kill the excessive sweetness in our advertising.

     

    Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. He is also Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached via Twitter at @anilthakraney

     

  • Every week, Deepa Gahlot casts a critical eye over media reviews of Bollywood releases… in Reviewing the Reviews

    Reviewing the Reviews: Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani

    Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani

    Key Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Aditya Roy Kapur, Kalki Koechlin

    Written & Directed By: Ayan Mukherji

    Produced By: Hiroo Yash Johar, Karan Johar

     

    After quite a while comes a movie that gets critics divided – what is called “mixed reviews”. The film got ratings ranging from 2 to 4, which is a wide span, and had some loving it, and some blah-ing it with a ‘so what’s new?’

     

    It is a Dharma production, so it is lavishly funded with production values that say gleam. Ayan Mukerji’s second after the universally liked Wake Up Sid is more Bollywood romcom formula than the earlier one, but performances, music and dialogue (by newbie Hussain Dalal) lift it up several notches. The target audience of teens have already given it a big thumbs up, and Ranbir Kapoor has got his Big Opener.

     

    Rajeev Masand of IBNlive grumbled, “It’s a pity the treatment has a been-there-seen-that feel to it because there are some modern ideas hidden underneath all that fluff. Part of what makes Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani warm and fuzzy is the friendship that Bunny and his die-hard buddies Aditi and Avi share, despite their shifting dynamics over eight years. Mukerji understands and nicely puts across the bittersweet qualities that friendships go through, and more often than once I found myself misty-eyed. Even love is viewed rather practically by the four key characters here – it’s nice if you’ve found someone, but it needn’t be the end of the world if you’re not in a relationship. It’s refreshing also that Mukerji doesn’t tie up all the loose ends in the movie; not everyone gets the perfect happy ending.”

     

    Sukanya Verma of rediff.com loved it. “‘You can’t have it all. You will miss out on some things. So why not enjoy what’s in hand?’ recommends Naina enjoying the gorgeous view from a vantage point of a grand fort, just few minutes short of witnessing a breathtaking sunset. Bunny, the recipient of her suggestion, reluctantly agrees. They have a good evening. Director Ayan Mukerji’s second endeavour, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani works exactly like this scene from the movie. You know that content smile you return with after spending time in fond company over effortless laughter and magical connections? That.”

     

    The same site’s other critic Raja Sen was not as impressed. “For this is a very good-looking film. It is a film with almost exclusively pretty people, each primped up and glossed and shot at their most flattering, and every time Pritam’s songs burst through the speakers, Ayan Mukerji’s film gallops into gear like the run-rate when the bowler has a towel tucked into his pants. There’s a zingy energy to the uptempo proceedings, the lead actors are at their most electrifying, and the sheer, heady enthusiasm is deliriously grand. Even the greatest heroine in all the land merrily shakes her caboose. It’s huge fun. What should have been a breeze turns into a pained plod, and while things still look all glossy, the songless part of the movie – the story, we dare say? – remains dismally predictable and awfully contrived, eventually becoming quite a bore. When the songs aren’t playing, however, this is a daftly childish film, one where most actors act half their age and the narrative stumbles forward inanely and gracelessly.”

     

    Shubhra Gupta of the Indian Express was lukewarm too, “It’s been a few minutes since I stepped out of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, and I’m finding it hard to remember what I’ve just seen. This is not the sort of amnesia that you have to force yourself into after a bad, blah film. This is because I’ve seen this brand new film, and its characters so many, many times before. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is a been-here, seen-this, much-too-long glossy creature, and not much else.”

     

    Sanjukta Sharma of Live Mint commented, “Ayan Mukerji’s Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani runs on an unmistakable, foolproof formula: The story is secondary; the song, dance, costumes and stars are supreme. When executed cleverly and with good actors, this formula blurs the difference between trash and art. We, unapologetic Bollywood lovers, willingly suspend disbelief and surrender, let Bollywood transport us from the dull funk of life.”

     

    Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV wrote, “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is a bright, breezy and brassy film designed for easy consumption. What it certainly is not is ballsy. For all the big ideas about life and the dilemmas of youth that it tosses up in the air over a runtime that’s 20 minutes shy of three hours, it always opts to play safe, vacillating between thoughts of rebellion and acts of conformity. The characters spout familiar platitudes to each other: live your dream, get a life and move on, stop pitying yourself and learn to love thyself…We have seen and heard it all before.”

     

    Shubha Shetty-Saha of Mid-day was not upbeat either. “At two hours and 40 minutes, the movie is a tad too long but while the snail-walk pace irks at places, it works on other occasions. What really bothers is the cliches that the filmmaker indulges in at times. To cite one instance, why does a ‘good’ girl in a Hindi film always have to prove her worthiness by burning the gas stove and cooking parathas for an entire army of strangers even when she is supposed to be holidaying? The characters are no novelty, they have been seen umpteen times earlier. But it is the treatment that makes it ‘alag’ and the credit must go to the director with a mature, sorted head on his young shoulders. Watch this at least once. It feels like a slow dive into the depths of emotions, at times fulfilling and at times uncomfortable.”

     

    Karan Anshuman of Mumbai Mirror was disappointed too. “The film itself doesn’t move ahead except for a time jump between the halves. It stays within the quadrangle of its leads and the characters in their orbits. Often there is more to the philosophy of the film than what meets the eye, but it is often masked or nullified by booming Bollywood elements. It is only in the second half that a plot kicks in and the real conflict finally takes shape about 15 minutes from the end. It’s too late to touch you in a way it could’ve.”

     

  • In the advertising context, Pawar's return sends out a strong signal to the rest of the ad world: Take your chances, buggers. Keep encouraging scam ads, you will be rewarded.

    Anil Thakraney: And, Bobby Pawar is back.

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Good for Bobby Pawar. The Ford scandal during his last job at JWT doesn’t seem to have dented his reputation one bit. He’s now been lapped up by Publicis, and life goes on as usual. Hopefully this time around, Pawar will set up tight controls within his agency to monitor ads created solely to win awards.

     

    Incidentally, right after the Ford howler, I had a drink with a few ad pals, and as it often happens, we ended up talking shop. Everyone unanimously agreed that Pawar will be back in action, very soon, at another large agency. No, this wasn’t the consensus because the man is talented (which he must be), but because we all felt this is what happens in India, somehow the powerful people manage to survive scandals. Look at politics, for example. Despite a series of scams, the tainted leaders remain untouched. And the few who do get sacked, find their way back into the power corridors in good time. India is a forgiving nation. So that explains it.

     

    The negative outcome of this situation, of course, is that it encourages rubbish behaviour. In the advertising context, Pawar’s return sends out a strong signal to the rest of the ad world: Take your chances, buggers. Keep encouraging scam ads, you will be rewarded. And if you do get caught with your pants down, chillax for a while, take the much-delayed holiday to that exotic location. Sooner or later you will find yourself back in the saddle.

     

    Before I wrap up, two quick points on Bobby Pawar: I don’t know the man at all, have never worked with him, haven’t even had the opportunity to say hello to him. So I have no personal grouse with him, it could have been any other creative director in his place. It is also quite possible that he had no knowledge of the controversial Ford ads created by his juniors, and therefore wasn’t personally responsible for them. Perhaps Pawar’s a great guy, and good luck to him on his new assignment.

     

    My only little problem: That it will be business as usual in the Indian ad world. Like nothing ever happened. Sad.

     

    ***

     

    PS: My shortlist for the next season of Bigg Boss. Feel free to add your recommendation: S Sreesanth, Gurunath Meiyappan, Pavan Bansal, Phaneesh Murthy, Chandresh (Jupiter) Jain, Ankeet Chavan, Mrs Ankeet Chavan, Ajit Chandela, Suresh Kalmadi, Niira Radia, A Raja, Sudipta Sen, Abhijit Mukherji, Vindoo Dara Singh, Kshitij Thakur, N Srinivasan, Varun Gandhi, Justice Katju.

     

    Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. He is also Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached via Twitter at @anilthakraney