Desi Television

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I almost got an overdose of desi when I was in Chicago. It didn’t help that my friends lived in the desi hub of Chicago — Devon Ave. or as it is locally called Gandhi Marg or Jinnah Road depending on which nation you hail from. But the real extent of desi dose came via television. My friends have subscribed to the desi programming channels offered by Star TV and not once did I see any American channels when the TV was switched on. Except for a few minutes of college football when Texas A&M was battling TU (yeah, we lost but we gave them a scare), Ash and I got a generous helping of Desi TV. Mostly, we watched Star One and I was surprised by the variety of programs and lack of quality (or maybe I am over critical). My best moments were during the KBC promotions; “aaj bhi padke hai umeed ki doori, don’t lose hope is the moral of the story” is definitely catchy and the advertisements in form of short films on persisting losers are hilarious. I loved the way the wannabe actor plays dead when he falls ill as a kid. It made me laugh each time I saw it and made me regret that I didn’t pull off that stunt as a kid.

The other shows, Nach Baliye and The Great Indian Laughter Challenge were so-so. Indian standup comedy has surprisingly not matured beyond the corny imitations of famous actors and clichéd mimicry, made famous by Johnny Lever. It is no longer funny when a hundred different mimicry artistes imitate now-long-dead Sanjeev Kumar. Of course, the Hindi ‘haasya kavi sameellan‘ touches for standup comedy is definitely a welcome change and can be hilarious due to regional idiosyncrasies. The 24-hour news service offered by Star One is pathetic. I have not seen NDTV or Aaj Tak so I’ll not generalize my opinion on other news channels. The stories tend to repeat themselves and do not go beyond mere reporting into analyzing the issue in depth although the correspondent reporting the attack on their own staffers’ car in Delhi seemed pretty incensed and passionate. The speech by newscasters was halting and unbecoming of anchors; it almost made them seem at a loss for words.

I know that when in India, I am going to be subjected to a much higher dose of desi television so this was just a subdued trailer. Don’t mind the occasional rants if I don’t like something.

“Desi Television” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=1013] was published Wednesday, November 30th, 2005 at 6:38 pm by Patrix, filed under Television, and tagged as desi, diaspora, entertainment, India, Television. Both comments and linkbacks are closed.

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http://saltwaterblues.blogspot.com SwB
Greetings P! You must be looking forward to India.
…oh and something tells me you’ll have a lot more to say about the wonderfully creative advertisments we get to see on Desi TV! :)
m
…..and when you shut off the tv thinking you escaped it- you hear it in the cab…….or in the street……..or in the restaurant……..recurring music and tamasha…….doesnt leave you alone for one second…….hmmmmmmmm……..mumbai here you come.
http://twilightfairy.rediffblogs.com Twilight Fairy
hmm..well it’s not *so* bad.. that’s why you got a non-stop dose of it in the first place, in lieu of amriki tv, right? There might not be many great programs ..but then they cater to a very different audience from what amriki tv does..such media is always driven with what audience wants, what gets more TRP’s ..if they want cheap thrills with silly mimicry, that’s what they get, if they want silly game shows or ugly talent hunts or saas bahu vendettas which span a 100 years with the cast changing as often as the sets, that’s what they get again .. but there are definitely some things you wont get in amriki tv..I am going through a round of “getting used to it” too.. but what I missed the most was creative ads :p :)..
stopped “really” watching TV long time back..
http://saltwaterblues.blogspot.com SwB
hey P, can ypou give me the link to that architecture blog u recently set up. … And how does one locate something in your archives?
http://gratisgab.blogspot.com Gabby
Visiting after a looooong time…Good to see you ranting away. Some things should never change :)
http://dilse.blogspot.com deez
alas it is strongly indian, even if sub-standard, and know what, they want to keep it that way. anything else wld be a “cultural abberation”.
http://usctrojan98.blogspot.com USC Trojan
For some reason, when I am in India, I hardly ever watch TV. There were times when I saw some cricket just for the sake of watching something, but it was weird, I had to tell my parents ‘Enough with the TV, let’s talk!’ :-)
Those stooooopid soaps are an addiction for those who follow them!
http://www.mumbaigirlonline.com MumbaiGirl
Star One is bad. You can watch NDTV online (www.ndtv.com) if you register and pay them some money.
http://indsight.org/blog Charu
personlly, i found the star one progrmming refresing – after the single track bollywood centric shows and saas bahu serials we have been seeing all the time on all channels so far. my expectations wrt these stage shows were not mcuh so i was actually pleasantly surprised to see that channels were alteast trying to berak away from tested formats and try something new…
http://www.mumbaigirlonline.com MumbaiGirl
I agree with you there Charu. It’s the news-now there are so many channels for news, don’t know which to choose from!
http://ipatrix.com Patrix
SwB, hmmm…so are the advertisments good or bad? I guess, I’ll know in a short time. BTW the ‘other’ blog is urbanplanningblog.com
M, the omnipresent television, eh? :)
Twilight, maybe it isn’t that bad or maybe I just saw the wrong stuff. If the television channels showed what the audience really wanted, we would have a slew of porn channels.
Gabby, nice seeing you here..Baby doing good?
Deez, Ouch! substandard and Indian..doesn’t sound good.
USC Trojan, yup. who would want to waste time in front of the idiot box anyway when you are in India? But somehow I end up doing that coz everyone else is busy.
MumbaiGirl, I expect NDTV to be better. I always had liked
Charu, Yup! Actually I liked most of the stuff on Star One and probably it has to grow on you. I am bound to get a generous dose when I am in India.
http://stylestation.typepad.com Jinal Shah
Yep. For those of us who cannot afford Desi programming yet, we resort to hindijoy.com. For 10 bucks a month, I get full access to every show from Jassi to Fame Gurukul.
http://ipatrix.com Patrix
Jinal>, I guess online desi television would be an answer for those without access to cable but now I am not much of a TV guy. For the shows I really want to watch, Bit Torrent zindabad :)
Jason
NDTV 24×7 is now available on DirecTV, ironically in the HindiDirect Package (even though it is an English language channel). I believe it started up on November 29th, which I take it would have been right after you were watching Desi TV in Chicago.

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