Following the success of NDTV's "Big Fight," Vijay TV has tried to get people together and organise debates. Vijay TV has the reputation of being a channel that innovates and invests in imaginative and entertaintaining short half-hour to one-hour long programmes, rather than the usual soaps and Cinema-related fare and News offered by most other TV channels.
In doing this they have suffered many challenges, in fact, whole teams have been hijacked by other, rival channels, when the ratings of certain programmes shot up. However, though the concepts have been innovative and bold in the lines of the entertainment forms being projected -- these range from reality shows on dance to debates, to soaps centering around school and college-going youth rather than sob stories and dynastic clashes -- the content has almost always, except in dance shows - been very status-quo and supportive of the lethargy in society.
Take the debate show I happened to see today. It was a debate between two sets of women. One that was "progressive" voting that woen should take care of their appearance and dress, should be ready to remarry if a marriage breaks down etc etc. The other set opposed all this.
Of course the thoughtful part, characteristic of Vijay TV was that all participants including the judge were women.
But the inevitable downside is that all this again rivets to the point of view that women's freedom is arrived at by consensus of some kind - albeit among women.
The whole notion of freedom and spontaenity and pleasure as deriving from one's personal philosophy and taste, without having to obtain the support and aggrement of one's neighbours, has not been considered at all. The content is always chosen from topics that are personal and can only suffer from being made into common public choices!
Debates on the things that really involve a consensus - policies, political attitudes, what is violence and how to prevent it etc are totally absent.
Young India! Switch off that Television and show off that you have intelligence, kiddos!
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