Reality Shows or Morality No Nos????

The hottest topic these days among my colleagues during lunch hours invariably happens to be the discussions on the mega successful shows Rakhi ka Swayamvar (RKS) and Sach ka Saamna (SKS). Though I have been watching SKS from its inception, I purposefully kept myself away from RKS, for the simple reason that I just can't stand that lady who seems everything but REAL. But I use to hear so much about her weirdo drama and about the bunch of morons involved in the bid for their prized catch, that it compelled me to have a look at the show once. And funnily my first rendezvous with this mega irritating aka mega successful show happened while watching one of the 24*7 news channels, which believes in telecasting all the rubbish stuff except some really useful and meaningful news items, obviously so, because the real meaningful stuff hardly fetches them any moolah when compared to the revenues earned from these melodramatic soaps.

So while watching the RKS for the first time I found it so genuinely fake, irritating and made up that it well and truly compelled me for a second watch. And there on I started following RKS religiously, not because I was mighty impressed by the concept of the show or for the fact that I am a big Rakhi Sawant fan but for a simple reason that it so highly dramatic, unreal and disgusting that it makes you laugh on the stupidity of the characters involved. And the funniest aspect for me still remains the fact that the entire lineage of all the grooms are involved in this drama, but not a single mention or a glimpse of the bride's parents has been shown yet, as if they are pretty sure that their daughter is fooling on with the entire nation J. It really can't get any HILARIOUS than this. But no matter what, I believe if it is consistently making you laugh, for whatever reasons whether for its magnificence or for its stupidity, for me it qualifies for entertainment.

Now if I talk about another chartbuster reality show Sach ka Saamna which is actually the desi version of Moment of Truth, I believe it is doing particularly well, however it is not as good as the master copy but still if we rate it in terms of shows on Indian Television I feel its a wonderful and a very fresh concept. Though it is quite evident that the makers of the show are leaving no stone unturned in attracting maximum attention and hype, be it starting the show with not so popular Mr Hussain who would have spent more time of his life in establishing all possible untoward relations with whosoever came across in his life, as long as that person qualified to be of the opposite sex rather than doing something productive in other walks of life or be it fabricating and highlighting Mr. Kambli's angst against Sir Sachin Tendulkar for not doing enough to save Mr Kambli from self destruction or be it hyping the show on the basis of Ms Urvashi's Dholakia's expulsion from her college for the reasons of being pregnant as a minor girl. Now with this sort of spice, frenzy and masala the show was got to be nothing but successful. And for me it again qualifies to be an entertainer for the simple reason that it gives me enough masala about which I can chit chat with my friends,colleagues and enjoy.

But there has been a major ruckus going on in various quarters including the esteemed houses of Parliament, questioning these reality shows esp SKS on the grounds of ethics, morality and traditional values. There have been umpteen no. of talk shows where many prominent personalities from various corners gather up and root for an immediate ban on such reality shows, on the grounds of serious obscenity, vulgarity and breach of our traditional values. Now I don't understand what problem these intellectual people have when neither the participants involved have any problems nor the viewers following these shows have any hassles watching these shows. After all the participants come into these shows with their own consent, they disclose all the controversial aspects of their lives with their own wish and only those viewers watch these shows who find them entertaining and worth watching. So by no means there is an imposition of any sorts on any individual or group to participate or watch the show. And as far as the arguments on morality and vulgarity are concerned, I feel these people are no moral police to pass on their judgement, asking for a ban on these shows, also they should be well aware of the fact that today’s youth enjoys an easy access to lots and lots of obscene and vulgar stuff in the form of truck loads of pornographic material of all forms freely available on the internet. So these arguments of breaching the traditional values are absolutely rubbish. Though I agree there can be some sort of regulation which can be enacted on these sorts of controversial shows, but imposing a ban just because a select bunch of self proclaimed intellectuals feel that it is detrimental for the nation’s culture, is actually preposterous. And when you question about the genuineness aspect of these reality shows, I agree they can be framed up to a good extent for the sake of TRPs, but they are still much more real and at least watchable when you compare them with the age old Saas Bahu series in which the characters marry 4 times, reincarnate umpteen no. of times, live for over 120 years, go for plastic surgeries in heaps and do all the unbelievable attics which might even make a ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not’ contestant feel shy.

I would just say to those intellectuals that get a life guys and if you can’t do that, than you always have a gadget called REMOTE CONTROL to switch over to more ethical, moral and meaningful stuffs!

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