SIGHT & SOUND
When stars fall down
Amita Malik

IT is not often that a TV star, whom we see week after week lording it on the screen, is convicted for culpable homicide. It cannot get more sensational than that and one can forgive both the channels and viewers for lapping it up. And what of the star? Well, one must admit that Navjot Sidhu did not lose his cool. He kept on the right side of the law by not blaming anyone but at the same time he stated his principles and moral stance. He spoke as loudly as usual but without the usual bravado. There was even a hint of some mild Sidhuisms. Watch the screen and this space for following the public stance of a very public figure. It ought to be highly interesting.

Well, again, it was disaster news all the way. The bizarre accident near Bhagalpur where an old bridge fell on a train, crushing several unfortunate people to death. It was not a pleasant sight to watch and, as is usual in such cases, too much was shown. I particularly remember one shot repeated again and again of a young man peeping through a broken window and stretching out a hand for help. It would have been better if, instead of repeating that shot, the commentators had told us whether he was ultimately rescued or not. Perhaps we can thank our stars that no bodies of dead persons or mutilated limbs were shown this time.

Sanjay Dutt’s interview on NDTV was absorbing

Navjot still taking refuge in Sidhuisms

But surely, when the coverage went on for hours, there should have been some coverage of the follow-up action. There should also have been a critical survey of the measures taken for rescue because there seemed an impression that villagers did more with their bare hands before expert help arrived, later than it should have. It was also unedifying to watch Lalu Prasad Yadav being chastised by his predecessor, now the Chief Minister of Bihar, for irresponsibility in running the Railways. This sort of blame game is untimely and uncalled for. When will our netas learn?

To pass on to more enduring TV genres. I have long maintained that the art of in-depth interviewing is slowly dying an unnatural death with anchors putting more stress on their own star value. They make references to their own greatness rather than focussing on the person being interviewed. Anchors like Vir Sanghvi and Karan Thapar always do their homework but most others don’t. To be quite frank, I seldom look for good interviews on Doordarshan as for years it has followed the practice of concentrating on political correctness and building up its politically correct star interviewers. Such as the one in English who has gone on for years with a smug expression, and is more on camera than the distinguished interviewee and comes with an accent that can cut through ice.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised and impressed when I stumbled on an interview on DD by Mark Lynn with Justice G.N. Roy, President of the Press Council, on its annual day. Lynn knew his subject very well, which is important since the media is watching and he could easily have tripped up on details or missed out on important ones. But Lynn not only knew his subject thoroughly, he also got the best out of Justice Roy and, as a mediaperson myself, I found the interview of absorbing interest. I feel it should have been sent for publication to the Press. DD often publicises the wrong things and misses out on programmes such as these and gets outstripped by the independent channels even when it does good work.

The other interview was with Sanjay Dutt by Abhigyan Prakash on NDTV who is now seen only on its Hindi channel where he is an excellent anchor. But on this occasion, he did a long interview in English with Sanjay Dutt, one of many such on other channels. Where Abhigyan scored was in using his obvious long acquaintance with the correspondingly relaxed Sanjay Dutt to let us see and learn of many details about his troubled mind and his juvenile delinquent phase which he had not revealed to other channels.

Abhigyan did all this without either putting Sanjay into an uncomfortable spot or being unduly sentimental. This is the stuff of which good interviewing is made. And he did it without claiming to be a great fellow himself or out-talking Sanjay, as some of our top anchors are increasingly tending to do.