How Low U Can Go

Last night I was watching the American Idol. Don't know why I was watching it. May be we all have some morbid desire to watch someone humiliated. It's just like watching Nascar races. A majority watch them expecting there will be some crashes and then all the news channels play them again and again. Anyway, coming back to the American Idol show, it seemed all stage-managed. And boy, they were really mean. They are usually mean but this time they were picking upon the physical appearances. Simon was calling a guy that he resembles some animal in Africa just because he had big eyes. There was another contestant who was overweight and Simon asked him whether he was wearing Randy's pants! And Paula was giggling like a stupid hyena! Well, if it comes to physical appearances, Simon's face resembles a stunted hippopotamus, Paula looks like an old iguana, Randy looks like an aborted fetus of king kong! I would equally blame the contestants too. They are plain idiots. Why should anyone allow or encourage others to pass personal remarks! Most of these idiots know that they cannot sing. And singing is not the only thing in the world! May be this was all added just to play to the gallery. After all nothing sells like controversy. But again the American Idol already has enough guaranteed viewer ship. It doesn't have to stoop this low to gain the ratings! In any case, one idiot makes it and 100 idiots watch it. So, am I going to watch it next week? May be or may be not!

The other, somewhat related, incident is Shilpa Shetty's Big Brother show or fiasco! Why on earth does Shilpa Shetty has to participate in this show?! I can understand the desperation of American Idol's contestants for that 2 minutes of glory to be on national television! But why Shilpa? why? And why complain about racism? What the other contestants did is unpardonable but why does Shilpa Shetty has to take it. She can walk out of the show. No, that doesn't amount to relenting or yielding ground. That would have been a graceful exit. These two incidents brings one thing to the fore. Whatever position you are in, basically everyone of us are animalistic - some little and some more! And yes, everyone of us is a racist. It just comes out some day or some time!

For instance take the north south divide in India. Since, we are talking about media, I'll limit to the film fraternity. Indian cinema doesn’t mean the Bombay industry alone! Recently at an IFFI there was a serious gaffe involving a Kannada film-maker Girish Kasarvalli and Kannada actor late Dr. Raj Kumar. The organizers had no clue how Rajkumar looks, they simply used the photo of a living Girish Kasarvalli that went with the obituary of the thespian Dr. Raj Kumar in their souvenir. When the Kannada industry protested, there was some apology and the souvenir was withdrawn and re-released without a mention of the regional film industry. This sort of things happened earlier too and nobody is immune. At yet another IFFI, Telugu actor Chiranjeevi came in for some discourtesy himself. At least, he voiced his displeasure openly. But then why did Chiranjeevi act in a Hindi film? Similarly, why did Rajnikant, who always used to maintain that he’d rather be a king down south than a guard in Bollywood went on to play insignificant roles in multi-starrers? Similarly Kamal Hasan, Nagarjuna (remember his roles in Khuda Gawah, Mr Bechara!!!). They all cite one reason - went in search of wider applause.

For the "elite" from north of Vindhyas, whether you belong to AP, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka or Kerala, you’re a Madrasi, your English is accented and your staple diet is idli/dosa sambar, and you eat very hot/spicy food! A TV newsreader will take great pains to pronounce a Polish or Russian name right but give them something like Balasubramanyam and he/she is sure to be tongue twisted. A recent incident - one of my friend's wife (of course, she is from the north of Vindhyas) was asking me, pointing to Balaji's (Venteshwara Swamy) calendar, who is he? The next question was, do you people (people in AP) worship Lord Ayyappa? She also asked whether Tirupathi is in AP or Tamil Nadu. And she is a medical doctor, and I always thought that people who hold professional degrees are usually well "educated" and quite "aware" of general knowledge! Wrong I was! But again, I didn't know whether she was trying to be "American" or she was just plain ignorant and those were just innocuous questions! So, is ignorance really a bliss?