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The Awesome Threesome

Three things matter most to us. Politics, cricket, movies.

We talk about many things like corruption, communalism, casteism, crime. We hit the headlines with Hindutva and Pokhran II and Kargil. We pretend to be interested in gender equality, economic reforms, population control, consumerism and the rising Sensex. The frontpage of our newspapers are often hijacked by the likes of Sushmita Sen, Sabeer Bhatia, Amartya Sen, Arundhati Roy, Laxmi Mittal, Leander Paes, Azim Premji. By inflation falling below 1.4 per cent, Vishwanathan Anand inching towards the World title, the Narmada Bachao movement grabbing global attention, the miracle of amazon.com, Quattrochhi taunting the CBI, the rise and rise of Zee stock. But, if you cut out all the pfaff, three things reign supreme. Politics, cricket, movies.

Not roti, kapda, makaan. Not naukri. Not careers in information technology. Not even making money, which we are usually pretty good at. Even the Kargil skirmish has turned out to be a three month wonder. Like swadeshi, swabhimaan, swaraj. Or Vande Mataram, for that matter. The only thing which remains undimmed is our obsession with politics, cricket, movies. And the funny thing is that we have this curious love-hate relationship with all of them.

Look at politics. At a certain level, we all hate it. It is, in fact, the dirtiest word in everyone's lexicon. Most villains in Hindi movies are politicians. So are most comic caricatures. Anyone in khadi and wearing a Gandhi topi is an instant object of taunt and ridicule. He is synonymous with crime, corruption, wickedness and, in most movies, ends up being beaten black and blue by the hero or simply shot up. With no one shedding a tear for him.

Yet, at another level, the politician is the most important person in our society. No function, no inauguration is complete without the ubiquitous neta. At any party you go to, s/he is the centre of all attention. Not just because they are always protected by this gaggle of Black Cats (paid out of your and my taxes) but because every host and hostess falls all over them. They are the most coveted guests and even though they always come late, like movie stars, everything is held up till they arrive with their shrieking sirens. Immediately the cameras start whirring, the flash guns go hysterical, all chatter comes to an instant stop. Everything zeroes in on them. The rest is irrelevant.

It is a strange dichotomy. The politician is hated, true. At the same time, s/he is also raised on a pedestal, hugely respected, made a tamasha over. Without the politician, nothing moves. They are the centre of all attention, all activity. No debate is complete without them, no inauguration, no symposium, no classical music concert, no FICCI seminar, no CII workshop. They have to be everywhere, to lend importance and ensure media coverage for an event, to assure it legitimacy and public attendance.

That is why even though we continue to abuse politics and politicians and call them all kinds of names, our most important role models, be they writers, poets, actresses, musicians, painters, scientists and journalists, fight for the few reserved seats in Parliament. It is the ultimate accolade. The sign of having arrived.

The same is true for cricket. The public mood swings from one extreme to another. Today's heroes are tomorrow's most wanted.

When India is on a winning spree, people stop going to work and sit at home, cheering our team to victory. Sales of television sets quadruple. Tendulkar and Jadeja appear in countless ads, selling anything from cheap plastic pens to car tyres to toothpastes and colas. Kapil Dev and Azharuddin become instant brand ambassadors. Rahul Dravid promotes dandruff shampoos. Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri earn more money today, post retirement from cricket commentary than they have ever earned from playing the game.

Yet the moment India stops winning, as is now happening, you can hear the grumbling build up. And from grumbling to abuse is but a very short distance. The moment you hear people saying "These chaps must stop chasing money and focus on their game" you know the mood is changing. You know the viewers are getting shirtier and shirtier. They are looking for an excuse to hang these guys.

The next stage will be allegations about late night discoing and match fixing. About chasing skirts and not worrying about the nation's reputation and self esteem. The heroes soon metamorphose, like Kafka's hero, into huge, ugly cockroaches. The gaalis become stronger and stronger. The charges against them become shriller and shriller. Too much money; too many women; far too many late nights, drinking themselves silly. The reports against them become more and more hostile. Till the tide turns and we hit a winning streak again.

Look at Azharuddin. How from a national hero he became the man everyone loved to hate. They ignored his countless world records, forgot his past performance, booed him into stepping down as captain. If Tendulkar does not watch out, he will soon go the same way. No one loves a loser.

It is the same with movies. The stars have become bigger and bigger. They no longer earn in lakhs. They demand in crores and the numbers keep escalating every year. As a consequence, movie tickets have touched extortion rates. So have the taxes. Territories have become more expensive. So have music rights. So have overseas rights, telecast rights, LD rights, VCD rights, cable rights, sponsorship rights. It is just money, money, money and more money. So much so that more and stars, from Shah Rukh Khan to Amir Khan to Salman Khan to Govinda to Ajay Devgan are now producing their own films, so that they can get a bigger share of the profits.

Yet can you see any respectable business house, any FII investing money in our movies? Can you imagine a decent family marrying their daughter off to a movie star? Would you buy a second hand car from any one of them? Even the banks and insurance companies who have been instructed by the Government to deal with showbiz are fighting shy. Not because they do not believe that there is money to be made but simply because they feel that those who make movies and act in them are not exactly the most reliable and trustworthy. In fact, if you read the gossip columns and the film magazines, you will know what the media thinks of them. As well as what they themselves think of each other.

Yet Indian movies are now a rage the world over. Rajnikanth has swept Japan off its feet. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai has hit the top ten in the UK in terms of revenues. Taal claims to have beaten all the Hollywood films in its first weekend collections. And this is just the beginning! With Laxmi Mittal suddenly switching attention from his global steel empire to starting a Bollywood television channel called B4U, Swraj Paul's son investing in Bombay Boys, Parmeshwar Godrej setting up a production house with Shekhar Kapur, Subhash Chandra coming from nowhere to create a two billion dollar empire in five years, there is a huge hype building up globally for India's most favourite industry.

Have you noticed how this awesome triumvirate has taken over our entire lives today and relegated everything else to the shadows? Nothing matters, nothing counts except politics, cricket, movies. Loved, hated, despised, revered in equal measure, they are the new deities of modern India.

Everything else takes a back seat.

Pritish Nandy

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