In her latest piece for Newslaundry, my frenemy* Rajyashree
Sen fondly reminisces on the hugely popular Mad Men, and on what makes the show
great. And then she goes on to… compare it with Indian (read: Hindi) TV shows.
Without taking anything away from the points she makes in the article - which
you can read here - as of 2015 pointing out the poor quality of television
content in India is a lot like saying there are potholes on Mumbai roads. Great
observation, Sherlock!
These days it seems anyone writing an opinion piece on
Indian TV shows has pretty much the same thing to say - it was good in the 80s,
somewhat good in the 90s and then Ekta Kapoor. Yes, we get it. A certain kind
of daily show hijacked prime time television and we all bleed for Buniyaad. Why
is nobody talking about why things are the way they are? It’s no rocket science
- the reason is glaringly obvious, and so is the solution.
We need to kill the daily format.
