One can understand it takes a lot of creativity to keep a news hungry population well fed 24x7. Creativity because, there isn't enought actual events occuring that can qualify as news. So, what the news channels have to do is pick a topic or personality that the people can connect with and magnify a seemingly trivial matter to an extent that it becomes a national issue. Some weeks back, lady luck presented the scribes with an opportunity they couldn't say "I'll pass" to.
Shahrukh Khan stood up for the Pakistani cricketers; yeah, the same ones he chose not to pick, and then made a couple of statements that were no longer important to anyone. The crouching tiger of Maharashtra (in desperate need for mileage) pounced.
In all fairness, the above sequence of events deserve no more than 120 seconds of air time; but the 4th estate dropped everything else there were doing and whipped up a story so big that every ticker on every bulletin only ran non-stop updtes on the Sena's demand for a retraction. With so much media attention the Badshah Khan't really let discretion be the better part of valor, can he? So he quipped back and what followed was absolute pandemonium.
Now let's take an objective view of what happened. The actual events were and would have remained mere sparks, had it not been for the media Stoking the fire. But it wasn't to be. Now my TV set is full of images of dumb people alleging their support to the actor and explaining to me that how "elements" like the Thackerays are bad for the Nation.
What baffles me is how come no news channel; while interviewing the public bumped into a person who thought that Thackeray was right in his anti-pak stand. Isn't it the same public that took to the streets post 26/11. Isn't it the same news channel that ran a campaign called "lest we forget." But when a politician tried to rein in an amnesiac actor, we all termed the politician the Bad guy.
Let me ask you this, if SRK had said he wanted Pakistanis to play in IPL on 30th September 2008 (4 days after 26/11), would his thought find resonance in your head??
Moral of the story : Don't let the media color your thought.
PS - A week after I initially wrote this blog, Pune got bombed and the controversy saved MNIK from bombing at the box office.
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Well written. Especially,, the parts in the last para. I, too, was , mad as hell when "SRK" flapped his tounge like a starving dog (in this case starving for attention), & went to the extent of calling him unpatriotic. In fact, I had suppported the Shiv Sena stand that Pakis should not be permitted to participate in the IPL.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, when i supported the "crouching tiger's" view, he slapped me acroos the face, teaching me a lesson, by rioting on the streets & stoning a bus & creating a racket! Back then, I had clearly stated, I too, found SRKs comment in real bad taste, but tat does not man we go pelting stones at innocent people & threaten cinema owners.
And who do u think is more guilty than any one? SRK? NO! Shiv sena? NO! The common man? In a way, i guess. But wat i know, for sure, is the so called state govt (a govt of eunuchs) who never enforces the law & stands by idly.
No matter wat we say abt all thse hooligans; be it the sena, the bajrangdal, VHP, Sambhaji brigade, blaming them is foolish as u KNOW u will never vote for them, but u vote for a family (anyway, I'm drifting)...........wat did the CM, Ashok 'rao' chavan do back then? Instead of ensuring he booked the thackeraya, the gave total police protection to the cinemas & many cong leaders themselves - instead of doing their bloody jobs - indulged in an act of watching the movie (which i havent watched & guess never will) in unision. Where are our protectors?