Thursday, August 9, 2007

The last laugh

I spent the last week watching movies like never before. Blame that on the week-long Osian’s Cinefan festival in Siri Fort. Unlike my friends, I didn’t get to spend all week—sun up to sun down—flitting through audis one to four, but I did manage to spend two-and-a-half days doing just that.

Watching movies made by brilliant directors can be terribly exhausting. More so, if they’re all on death, exploitation, rape, murder, genocide, homicide or some such morbid topic. Now, don’t get me wrong. I do believe that the wrongs in the world should be highlighted. More so by the educated and creative sections of society who can actually do something for them, or inspire others to right the wrongs. But in a week-long film fest, how much of depression is one expected to take?

I know no one asked me to watch such movies. In fact, my parents were quite upset that I was spending such a huge amount of time watching movies! But I went there with the intention to learn something about film making and different cultures…and learn I did. For one I learnt this weird fact that old Japanese couples sometimes collect garbage from other people’s houses and dump them in their own. In fact, they love living in that filth. Don’t ask me why…even the director who’s movie apparently showed this aspect of the Japanese culture did not know.

But let’s go back to the umpteen number of movies on death. The reason I wanted to write about it is because I do believe that in trying to project the absolute reality of life…which is death, we probably tend to forget another important aspect of our life…laughter.

Throughout the festival I was aching to watch a comedy. In a way I did. I saw the premier of Rajat Kapoor’s Mithya starring the famous duo Ranvir & Vinay, along with a gamut of character artists. So much so, I felt that the movie was just another extension of Bheja Fry that I had seen a couple of weeks ago. The treatment was very much like that of a play, but again…even in that the character came to terms with life and everything else at the doorstep of death.

By the end of day three I felt sick. I felt as if all the joy in the world had been suck out of my life. Now, all directors can take this as a huge compliment, because their films had affected me so darn much, but seriously, a little levity…some joy…some laughter…ONE just ONE happy ending would have done. I was so down and out and desperate that I had to go and watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on the same day.

You know what’s funny? After these three days, I was reminded of this one film/media seminar that I had attended, where everyone was talking about depicting real life on the big screen and its importance, when this one woman at the front of the auditorium stood up and said “I go to watch a film to escape from my real life. I love the fact that no matter what everything ends on a happy note and that there is some unrealism in the film. There is depression, difficulty and sadness around me, why would I want to pay money and watch the same thing. So, I really don’t think that that kind of cinema is something to be derided.”
At that time, along with so many other ‘intellectuals’, I thought that this woman has gone crazy. I know better now. So much better that I kind of agree with her.

So, what happened to all the comedies in the world of cinema? Does everyone really think that comedies aren’t as important as realistic-tragic cinema? I hope not…for as Lizzy in P&P had once said…“I dearly love to laugh.” And I truly don't think I can handle another movie with death, exploitation, rape, murder, genocide or homicide for quite some time to come.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Newspaper boo-boos and their possible repercussions


Working on the desk of a newspaper organization may not be as glamourous as being a reporter. Bringing out exclusives, meeting up with he rich and famous, dodging the talons of the mafia and the government to get out a scoop or receiving accolades for doing a fantabulous story are not the things that a sub-editor has the opportunity to do. Standing in the middle of the Kargil war giving an eye-witnessed account or exposing the corruption scams in the government is very much part of the glamourous-but-hard life an in-the-field reporter.


In fact, sitting in front of a computer, checking grammatical errors, doing dollar-to-rupee conversions, selecting pictures and finally making the final product that the readers would see and read…the product that would bring laurels to the reporter, while the sub slinks in the background, is hardly anything to be compared with the racy job a star journalist.


ALTHOUGH…being in the background may not look as interesting and fabulous, but that certainly does not take away the importance of the sub-editor’s job. In fact…(and a wicked grin now adorns my round face) people in the outside world have no clue as to how a mere sub can simply change the course of history. Albeit the act of doing something like that may be completely unintended.


In today’s electronic era, when the debate on ‘the survival of the newspaper’ is growing hotter by the moment and newspapers are increasingly being generated as e-papers, the archival value of the written word gets incremental. This makes the sub’s work all the more important. Take for instance, any mistake that may have gone into an article because of a sub’s callousness, or just by sheer confusion, a sub manages to commit an error of commission, THAT error stays in the paper not only as hard evidence for time immemorial, but also every time someone googles (and c’mon face it…the site has become a part of our lives; how many of us actually go to a library to research anymore! — the omission of the question mark is deliberate) anything related to a topic, there is a huge chance that the person searching for information may get the wrong information, just because of a sub’s lack of focus. Thereby, starting a whole chain process, wherein that false information has a chance of being repeated ‘N’ number of times unless one is very careful.


Now, face it…isn’t that scary or what???


But then, here’s the funny bit. If it does ever come out that the information printed was wrong, it isn’t the sub who will be blamed for it, it is, in fact, the “star” reporter—whose byline went with that story—who will be at the butt of all jokes and subject of ridicule. And while all this goes on, the subs sit meekly on their chair slinking in the background and shielded by a shroud of anonymity.


Imagine the craziness that can ensue from such a mistake committed by a person on the desk. How about a situation where the sub was part of a well-established and highly respected newspaper, and years later, someone digs out some data for a project from the Internet and blindly follows them, just because the person trusts that particular publication…a sub’s minor mistake of, say wrongly converting lakhs into millions, thus, changing the numbers significantly, acts as the basis of an entire report in the future, thereby possibly affecting some major decisions. (Now…I do realize that I may be over-reacting, but this is a possibility nevertheless.)


Imagine what power a single anonymous sub-editor has in those dainty li’l fingers.


Oh my!