Reality shows… that real??
Roadies is said to be the first reality show being on-air but for me, it all started when I first saw Fame Gurukul (an Indian singing competition) and I became a big fan of the participants in there, like Arijeet, Mona, Qazi, Anubhav and all. The way they lived away from their homes, the moments they all spent together and the memories they created and most of all the emotions and feelings of the participants related with every decision of the judges, it was all enough to make me and my sister go nuts over it. Missing a single episode of the show was like a curse to us and we used to watch even the living-in moments of the participants telecasted after for around half an hour ,seven days of the week to keep the audience totally involved with whatever went on behind the camera. I still remember I cried a lot when Anubhav was thrown out of the show earlier than expected because he wasn’t voted enough by the Indian public. Or how I used to yell at Eela Ma’m for being too harsh and Javed Akhter for being an ass in commenting over the performances of the participants.
Well, the spell of Fame Gurukul ended, and then there was a series of reality shows after it, Indian idol, Big Boss, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Fear Factor, Dance India Dance, jhalak dikhla ja, splitsvilla and the list goes on. Till my intermediate, I used to be crazy about these reality shows and never missed any of it. And now I am the same one who is so irritated by these reality shows that if by any chance I see someone in my home watching any of it, I go like ‘c’mon grow up!’ . Recently, around a week before, my sister was watching Master Chef and I was whining about it aloud that “muje samajh nai ati, (I don’t get) what do you find fascinating in this crap?” and she turned to me with that look saying remember the days when you used to chatter about Emon from Indian idol 3 all the time and how you cursed the Indian public for choosing Parshant who couldn’t even pronounce “suraj” in “suraj hua madham” properly. That made me shut up and I was quite alright. Though that hasn’t stopped me from hating these shows any less, but at least I was finally able to realize that we all go through a phase where we are fans of such stupid things. I can now see how much part; media plays in manipulating the emotions of public through these reality shows. How we connect with all of the participants on an emotional level and feel like going on in the same boat. I hate the part when the background of the participants or the mishaps of their lives are used to gain the public votes for them and I have always wondered about the Indian public k “yar itny wele hain ye log jo itny votes krti hai awam (is the Indian public so free that they have to vote on such shows)?” That is one of the reasons why Pakistani reality shows haven’t been this much successful, I guess. These reality shows are such a waste of time. I mean how many of the winners have you actually seen cashing their fame after the show ended? Maybe a few, but they are all only those who strived on their own and probably would have been there even if they hadn’t signed up for the show anyway. Another reality show, Splits-villa was the shit-i-est show I have ever seen. It surprised me that people can actually be this materialistic that you don’t even bother your every move is being watched by public.
Meera-Pati, directed in Pakistan was the worst of all, totally garish. She didn’t even marry the guy who won the show, lucky for him though. I just kept wondering from where these participants came from, and were they really desperate enough to marry her or just wanted to be on-air? Anyway, seeing the lengths of this article I would like to end it up here with the note that thank God atleast in Pakistan the trend of reality shows is rather less, though morning shows make up for that and I hate them too. Our media should realize the extent of their impact on public and utilize it in some productive way rather than on a pile of these meaningless shows in the name of entertainment.
agree with u