Lacking Vision

I am a staunch supporter of Doordarshan, though I watch it only rarely these days. I still remember them for the good things that they used to do: tasteful serials, ads in public interest that were also works of art, and excellent news reading - no stuttering, no grammatical mistakes and no obvious 'reading' of the news from the screen in front.

Well, it's kind of sad that Doordarshan is one government company that was very good when there was no private sector competition and is just too pathetic for words now. Tepid soaps shot in gaudy sets, poor video quailty and news readers who read as if they have their mouths full and mispronounce 'rapid' and 'repid' and then stop and correct themselves. Hmmm.

They have probably four or five years or even less before satellite and cable TV gets to even the remote parts of the country. Now is the time to pour money into quality programmes, into adverstizing and to entrench themselves into the hearts of the people while they can.

Doordarshan have got their hearts in the right place - it is probably one of the very few channels where money is'nt everything - who else shows ads on National Integration, Polio programs, AIDS awareness? And it is not like they used to always show crap - remember Byomkesh Bakshi, Flop show, Rangoli, Mr Yogi, Shanti, Mirza Ghalib? Doordarshan can boast of more plusses than most channels I think. Which is all why I hope some miracle-worker will come along (like Lalu for the Railways?) and makes them interesting and popular once again.