More complaints on Indian entertainment

Movie previews on TV

Indian movie previews (trailers) that are telecasted on Indian TV don’t show any storyline about the movie. They just show one or two dance sequences with songs in the background. You will not get a sneak peek on the movie. Indian viewers are supposed to judge the movie only by the quality of the songs and dances and nothing more. This trend has not changed in years. How can a viewer decide on watching a movie just by looking at a collage of dance sequences? Even a movie like Rang De Basanti which had a strong story line did not suggest anything close to what the movie is all about. It showed few clips of movie songs and looking at them I thought it was a movie about renegade Indian air force pilots since the heroes strip down their shirts close to a flying aircraft. For a long time I thought it was a war movie till I actually saw it. Nobody in the movie industry bothers to ask, ‘Can I know show something relevant about the movie in a preview?’ and the audience don’t seem to be bothered by it either.

Indian Movie DVDs

Indian DVD movies don’t allow you to skip the previews and ads to go directly to the menu. The mandatory-watch previews are 10-minute long and don’t allow the viewer to fast forward or skip it. Each time you start watching that DVD, you have to sit through the entire 10-minutes sequence of extremely inane messages and nonsensical ads. The DVD makers don’t think about the consumer here who is forced to go through a painful 10-minute ordeal each time. Most viewers don’t seem to have a choice nor are they complaining. Also, the logo of the DVD maker is really big and comes right in the middle of the screen. These logos are not neatly watermarked, sometimes animated, and actually interfere with the movie, making the viewing a frustrating experience.

Indian TV News

Earlier there used to be one ticker strip on the news channel giving highlights in text at the bottom of the screen and then it became two bars, and now the greedy regional TV channels show four bars at the bottom and the side taking up nearly half the screen. Then there are glowing symbols on the both the top corners. All in all they take up nearly 60% of the viewing space away from the user making the viewing experience extremely tiring. Within few minutes my brain starts going dizzy and I have to flip the channel. No wonder the blood pressure, heart attacks and violent behavior is one the rise!

Indian Movies on TV

While telecasting Indian movies on TV, nobody formats it to 4:3 size to fit most Indian home sets. They still telecast in 16:9 thus depriving us of nearly 40% of the viewing area. Then there are some glowing symbols and ads that keep coming in to take up the rest of the area. Sometimes the animated ad comes right in the main viewing area obstructing a face or the character in the movie. Nobody at the TV channel seems to ask themselves, ‘How can I make my viewer’s life better, easier and comfortable?’

Most of these media people in India, due to their greed, have been performing a shoddy job making our lives miserable, crowded, and tiring. And yet these media giants survive and thrive. Lot of Indian things make huge money – but they are not necessarily the best quality, easy-to-use, nor do they make our lives better. We got used to accepting really crappy stuff and we don’t know something beautiful even when we witness it.

Instead, we learnt the art of mocking something beautiful in the pretext of defending Great Indian Culture. When you praise a very well made movie from Hollywood, people criticize you for pandering to the West, and yet they all sport a gadget coming from the West. We need to raise our expectations, and when we see a crappy stuff we should just call it crappy stuff.