the scene - cricket match,
Match is very interestingly poised, India needs 6 runs to win and they have their best batsmen at the crease, to play the last over of the match. Australia has their best bowler who is at the job.
Brett Lee ...starts the run up, Sachin takes stance and is keenly looking at the ball. The ball is delivered at the lightening pace...it lands just between the legs and the bat - a perfect yorker. Sachin putting all his skill he knows, manages to come behind the ball and keep the ball on the and not flying into the slips hands!
Brett Lee, is disappointed, he couldnt get him out, but makes a thumbs up gesture to Sachin for playing that delivery so well! Nobody could have done any better with such a perfect yorker.
While this was the drama going on, the packed stadium and maybe all of the millions in front of TV, boo'ed Sachin. Sachin raised his head and looked at the booing crowd. "What!! do you even understand"!!? was his expression!
Cut, another situation...
There was this IPL match going on, Kolkatta Knight Riders vs somebody else...
Crucial Match, so Shahrukh Khan was there in the stands. Naturally public is only interested in seeing Shahrukh Khan, even I would have done the same, and that is the reason possibly he has come to see the match - if he is there, there will be more crowd to come and see that match, that means more money! Strange...people who were supposed to come to see Cricket, are coming because of a reason not connected to Cricket at all!
What is it that attracts us to the Movie stars? We know that they are fake, they are not real stars like Cricket Players or for that matter, even like you and me, who do things for real. Here I am not demeaning the movie profession, there are zillion real things being done by these movie folks to create that make believe world. But people dont go to view that hard work, people connect to the stars, who actually emotionally create a world which connects to the them. If a movie star bashes up 100 people, we know it is impossible, but then we relate emotionally to that and believe in that to an extent!
The emotional connect, the drama, the make believe world, these are the reasons, we make the movie stars bigger than life. Hence there is more money and more respect around them.
Money is the key, so the media managers started thinking of extending the drama into real life so that they can sell common man by building drama around it...that is why there are reality shows now a days. If marriages and swamwars are happening as part of a reality show, the next thing to that is the live - suhagraat (1st night) orto be a little decent...reality show of death...there can be a program, where you can show somebody's last few minutes or days; how his breathing is slowly stopping and how his family is wailing...can make lot of money - "mauth ka tamasha"
Similar media managers are managing sports in the nation now.
That is why if you remember, the ipl matches were also postponed to South Africa, because of elections in India. Few years back, we would have said what?! Do they dont even need people to come and see the matches? Spectators are not even needed for this game?! Not now a days, it is all about TV and advertisements and packaging it for tv and internet with drama.
Extending this a little further, media managers must realized that current generation doesnt like cricket because it is played all day!! (there used to be 5 day matches in the past also), matches are getting dull and boring, either 1 team plays very well or both will play badly and people dont enjoy so much. All this made can make media managers think, "we have done all this huge MBA's etc, etc...how to make this game more salable, how to make people watch the tv during these matches. then logical answer came from the movie world. "Movie was slow paced..., climax was not even there..., hero shouldnt have died in the end..., heroine should have shown a little more of cleavage..." these are some of the reactions from public who saw some movies! What did the producer and director do with these remarks - he actually started building his stories around these formulas which sell well. So even for these matches, the Media managers said - "let us build the drama..., what if people dont want to see for the whole day, we will make it half a day..., what if each match is not as entertaining as the one that was well played..., we can buy the players and make them or the others excel, so that public will come to the tv..." they are actually creating the drama in the real game.
So in effect may be there is a director, producer and the actors in sports as well, actors are players in this case, who meet before the game and decide that today these few bowlers will only bowl half-wollies, so that the average batsmen on the other side can hit few sixes in each over, for that he will get some huge money. In the end the average batsmen gets the man of the match. So it is actually win win situation.
In the end who is been fooled, it is the spectator...or maybe even he is not fooled, because he got what he wanted, he enjoyed the period of the match. But the point to ask is did he enjoy because he thought this was a game of talent going on and not a drama? maybe he doesn't even care. So it is a win win situation all through!!
Match is very interestingly poised, India needs 6 runs to win and they have their best batsmen at the crease, to play the last over of the match. Australia has their best bowler who is at the job.
Brett Lee ...starts the run up, Sachin takes stance and is keenly looking at the ball. The ball is delivered at the lightening pace...it lands just between the legs and the bat - a perfect yorker. Sachin putting all his skill he knows, manages to come behind the ball and keep the ball on the and not flying into the slips hands!
Brett Lee, is disappointed, he couldnt get him out, but makes a thumbs up gesture to Sachin for playing that delivery so well! Nobody could have done any better with such a perfect yorker.
While this was the drama going on, the packed stadium and maybe all of the millions in front of TV, boo'ed Sachin. Sachin raised his head and looked at the booing crowd. "What!! do you even understand"!!? was his expression!
Cut, another situation...
There was this IPL match going on, Kolkatta Knight Riders vs somebody else...
Crucial Match, so Shahrukh Khan was there in the stands. Naturally public is only interested in seeing Shahrukh Khan, even I would have done the same, and that is the reason possibly he has come to see the match - if he is there, there will be more crowd to come and see that match, that means more money! Strange...people who were supposed to come to see Cricket, are coming because of a reason not connected to Cricket at all!
What is it that attracts us to the Movie stars? We know that they are fake, they are not real stars like Cricket Players or for that matter, even like you and me, who do things for real. Here I am not demeaning the movie profession, there are zillion real things being done by these movie folks to create that make believe world. But people dont go to view that hard work, people connect to the stars, who actually emotionally create a world which connects to the them. If a movie star bashes up 100 people, we know it is impossible, but then we relate emotionally to that and believe in that to an extent!
The emotional connect, the drama, the make believe world, these are the reasons, we make the movie stars bigger than life. Hence there is more money and more respect around them.
Money is the key, so the media managers started thinking of extending the drama into real life so that they can sell common man by building drama around it...that is why there are reality shows now a days. If marriages and swamwars are happening as part of a reality show, the next thing to that is the live - suhagraat (1st night) orto be a little decent...reality show of death...there can be a program, where you can show somebody's last few minutes or days; how his breathing is slowly stopping and how his family is wailing...can make lot of money - "mauth ka tamasha"
Similar media managers are managing sports in the nation now.
That is why if you remember, the ipl matches were also postponed to South Africa, because of elections in India. Few years back, we would have said what?! Do they dont even need people to come and see the matches? Spectators are not even needed for this game?! Not now a days, it is all about TV and advertisements and packaging it for tv and internet with drama.
Extending this a little further, media managers must realized that current generation doesnt like cricket because it is played all day!! (there used to be 5 day matches in the past also), matches are getting dull and boring, either 1 team plays very well or both will play badly and people dont enjoy so much. All this made can make media managers think, "we have done all this huge MBA's etc, etc...how to make this game more salable, how to make people watch the tv during these matches. then logical answer came from the movie world. "Movie was slow paced..., climax was not even there..., hero shouldnt have died in the end..., heroine should have shown a little more of cleavage..." these are some of the reactions from public who saw some movies! What did the producer and director do with these remarks - he actually started building his stories around these formulas which sell well. So even for these matches, the Media managers said - "let us build the drama..., what if people dont want to see for the whole day, we will make it half a day..., what if each match is not as entertaining as the one that was well played..., we can buy the players and make them or the others excel, so that public will come to the tv..." they are actually creating the drama in the real game.
So in effect may be there is a director, producer and the actors in sports as well, actors are players in this case, who meet before the game and decide that today these few bowlers will only bowl half-wollies, so that the average batsmen on the other side can hit few sixes in each over, for that he will get some huge money. In the end the average batsmen gets the man of the match. So it is actually win win situation.
In the end who is been fooled, it is the spectator...or maybe even he is not fooled, because he got what he wanted, he enjoyed the period of the match. But the point to ask is did he enjoy because he thought this was a game of talent going on and not a drama? maybe he doesn't even care. So it is a win win situation all through!!
So why is anyone complaining also. This is a huge invention by our media world to integrate drama into reality and they need to be given a Nobel Price for that!!
So actually Sachin and others can stop practicing the game and actually be in the good books of media managers, so that they hire them to act in a match. And I think if not for Sachin, at least there are a lot of others who are doing this already.
Our poor Ajju Bhai, who understood this much ahead of his time, was unnecessarily crucified. His only crime was he did it before anyone else did.
There can be a philosophical twist as well to all this - what is all this life anyway...it is also drama, right...just that we dont know who are our managers and who are our spectators.
Reminds me of my small town friend Koti, who told me 20 years back - "Jeevana ondhu naataka le" arthat... Life is nothing but a drama...so true
1 comment:
Anna,
Nice to read the thoughts about the drama, happenings around us and with us. I agree that, even though we do something we like; that is always controlled by some power/person. And for few; some create more drama to make it very interesting. When you mention the point of reality shows. Television has identified very well, what public need. These days you cannot see anything which is not with drama, or some facts.
Finally, that "Maut Ka Tamasha". I am sure, if any person related to television or media reads your blog. He will definately start a show on how a person feels during his last breath.
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