Entertainment is important in any
society, and I must admit barring some really miniscule percentage Indian
society is amazingly mediocre and uncouth. One may call it freedom of
expression but these constantly live in the muck and rarely dwell in finesse. Loud
and obnoxious be, how we express and classify ‘our culture’ and get away with
it. This generalizing is not out of context, the popular references are
amazingly horrible. It really is quite difficult to have entertainment, unless
ofcourse you keep your mind somewhere, and that is precisely what they suggest.
But what is mindless entertainment? How that can be entertainment? Indeed even humor
needs to have some sense!! I used to find it extremely difficult to watch
Indian entertainment/movies in my 20s, when you understand the socio-cultural
context. It really is quite obnoxious. The traditional has brahminical
references that put you off while the popular chauvinistic, blatantly crude.
Dance is an amazing art form that
celebrates life, it is firmly part of collective conscience with myriad forms like
classical, folk, tribal so on indeed we even have an ancient treatise
(Natyashastra- treatise on performing art, about 200BC), it may have been
limiting but surely attempted to define aesthetics. What was once space of
expression and integral part of celebration and joy is now reduced to crudeness,
and means of fast money with minimum effort. “Bollywood dance” is another
celebration of mediocrity. Every function has celebrities dancing, now they
even have shows of celebrity dancing. It is as if their presence is not awesome
enough they now have to show some amazing bad dancing to make it a double
whammy on mediocrity. This is emulated by people around, and they keep
inventing cruder steps. It is rarely nuanced nor an attempt to understand the
wonder of body and possibility of sculpting with the rhythm or discipline. This
is dressed up macaques in primal energy, unison seems standard of achievement,
this is their effort!! David Cameron (British PM) was right on the aftermath of
Olympics. This is waste. High forms of art, like sport, need discipline, dedication
and move towards aesthetics that defines achievement. “Bollywood dance” with rare
exception is crudeness personified to ridiculous. Free spirit i.e. against
moral puritanism and chauvinism isn’t an excuse for degradation. Minimum
parameter for adherence to decency must be followed, or else enforced.
Not denying that there are scenes
in movies that are endearing and songs enchanting but one has to go through so
much muck!! On the other spectrum is so called art movie (where crude woman
gestate!!). I have watched enough film festivals…at one point travelled across
the country to catch up with film festivals, and have exposed myself to the
work of great master from Japanese to Iranians (French is overrated…Godard was
omg when you see in the beginning…it is complete deconstruction. I recall being
amazingly excited when I first saw his work but very soon you know he is
getting repetitive, and we really are staring into nothing!!). It is when you
watch brilliant that you know the so called Indian ‘art movies’ are amazingly
mediocre and pretentious. They seem to suffer from delusion of self importance,
and constantly criticize popular as means of self justification. Precisely that
is what they are: Mediocre. It is no wonder nobody watches them and quite
rightly at international level are ignored. It is not at all surprising that
Indian culture –in all forms of art and aesthetics, presence at international scene
is insignificant as it is elite driven. It is different matter that some have utilized
these to manipulate national awards, get credibility and made a business out of
conscience. Incidentally mediocrity is lack of aesthetics, and that itself is breach
on conscience. Surely subtlety is never a concern when there is so much to
grab!
Despite overwhelming mediocrity whether
its obnoxiously popular or pretentious art, Indians do favour excellence
whenever it comes their way. There are few movies that I happen to see on TV in
last few months: like for instance Paan
Singh Tomar, an excellent movie (Irfan Khan was a class act), as also English Vinglish (Wow Ms. Sridevi wow!!) it’s
an amazing debut movie by Gauri Shinde, Pasanga
(a charming Tamil movie that was a box office hit few years back, please make
more like it), eeta (a movie on a fly
in Telugu, it truly was entertaining and made huge amount of money in many
languages. I saw that while travelling in a long distance bus!!). There is hope
in nook and corner but very rare -indeed in Indian context you really don’t
have to be talented to be an actor (indeed even Director); it is matter of
manipulation and destiny.
Now that the manipulators are
going through pangs of conscience after horrendous rape (that incidentally is
common outside Delhi), “these difficult times” they have started to scrutinize
things. Lo we have can of worms…though I ignore these, after all it is
difficult to keep oneself entertained in this mediocre country, let me point to
the Sony TV a program called “Laughter Challenge” –that is very popular and
running for years. In the episode shown
on this weekend –the same day when elite in Delhi were going through severe
pangs of distress, the scene enacted for laughter had the fellow saying
(translated from Hindi, actually he was enacting Bhojpuri) “my sister was kidnapped by 4 goons (not
much laugh, building up for punch line). Good
she wasn’t getting married (much laugh). Now we have to find out who the father is (very much laughter)”.
Anil Kapoor (who is now an ‘international star’, therefore High Value Target
–HVT– for Crude woman & Co!!) found it exceedingly funny, another lady actor
“judge” was hysterical. I don’t blame them if these weren’t “difficult times”
for the elites in Delhi I wouldn’t have pointed. After all entertainment bhe tho koi
cheez hoti hai mere bhai!! Indeed we truly are mindless zombies.
Post script: Crude woman really had some great outing on the
aftermath Delhi rape. What really got her was Bachchan lady sobbing. Wo royegi tho meh gaongi…and she came
out quite viciously. The question here was which has more brand value? Wonder
whether that is sufficient to get her into NCW, atleast sycophants in congress
know what she is playing (et al Bachchan–Gandhi division, that crude woman
knows has high ROI). Now that Delhi is not only national but international the grab
stake has gone up substantially.
Most crime happens after people
get drunk. While I still agree that drinking is a choice that need be exercised
prudently but there is a law against promotion that these scoundrels circumvent
through surrogate ads and events. It is possible that rapists were only having
“friendship ka no 1 spirit” at the expense of victim as ad makers are having
at the expense of people. Scoundrels like ZK’s gene also want us to “change our
mindset against women”. Such is the intensity of culture loot that they are
going berserk; surely his arrogance comes from his hypocrite father/gene donor.
Indeed I saw hoard (mindboggling) of empty liquor bottles in their room at Juhu,
must be complimentary!! Poor Aamir Khan was surely taken for a big ball ride!!
Mission accomplished!! 
