Sach Ka Saamna: Who is it for?

Sach Ka Saamna: Who is it for?


WHEN SUDDENLY popular TV shows like ‘Kyon ki Saas…’ and ‘Kahani Ghar Ghar ki…’ went off air, there were many analyses focusing on reasons for the death of such serials, which had thousands of episodes and whose actors became household names. Some analysts argued that it was the new wave of reality shows that was taking the toll on imaginary, unending and unrealistic stories.

Most of the reality shows of the time focussed on singing talent such as the late Jasmit Singh who went on to become a musical heart throb. Then Saloni of Pune had several households in splits with her comic style. However, the element of tense competition created doubts among some viewers as to whether these reality shows were healthy for children. A participant on a Kolkota reality show fell unconscious and drew the attention of social analysts. In another reality show, a young girl virtually left the audience dumbstruck when she rushed from her seat and kissed a celebrity! In the name of transparency, she earned the wrath of the anchors which too was not edited out from the programme. The anchors berated her saying that it was a child artists’ show and it was quite unethical to perform an activity like kissing on such a show. The anchors were fully oblivious to the fact that the so-called child artists were singing songs like ‘kajraare...kajraare...’ and love songs like ‘muhubbat aisi dhadkan hai jo samjhaayi nahin jaati…'.

The latest reality inviting debate is ‘Sach ka Saamna’ on Star Plus. Hosted by Siddhartha Basu who also produced KBC, which was a show that had some contestants earning money for their general knowledge talent. But ‘Sach ka Saamna’ is neither about talent nor general knowledge. It is about knowledge of the self! In this game show, the questions put before the contestants are at times highly embarrassing. What is being asked here? A woman contestant is asked whether she was ever expelled from her college for having conceived... Another woman contestant is asked whether as a child she ever pissed in her pants. A cricket celebrity discloses that another cricket celebrity made him run naked for a prize. The concept has really bewildered the Indian masses and raised controversy. Indian society has in fact a very wide range of men and women unlike the very narrow range in other less populous countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. On the one extreme, we have the hapless girl who dares love and marry a boy of her own gotra. She is killed along with her lover husband and thrown into a nullah (drain). We have, on the other extreme, a mod fashion showgirl who walks liberally on stage and to her own embarrassment, inadvertently drops her brassieres. She somehow walks back saving her breasts from display. In between these two, there is a huge variety of girls/women belonging to villages, towns, cities and big cities. Some in this country live like a hapless ‘Balika Badhu’ Anandi or a Sugna. Some others bravely live with their male friends after deserting their husbands and at times are given security by courts which reject even their husbands’ conjugal rights petitions.

The question is which section of the masses are game shows like ‘Sach ka Saamna’ addressing? The ever fearful, cowardly though posing as bold middle class which progresses to an advanced standard of civilisation at snail’s pace constitutes the bulk of TV viewers today. Lets also not forget the fact that game shows like ‘Sach ka Samna’ are imported from a countries like the UK where the parameters of modesty and shame are not the same as those in India. I remember having read a news item many years back, (when Indian schools and colleges were still debating whether co-education was good for Indian girls or not) that a woman member of British Parliament disclosed in her speech in the house that she was unmarried but had recently conceived. In 2007, Dick Cheney, the former American Vice President informed an anxious media that his daughter was lesbian and that she has conceived as well. In France, first lady Carla Bruni is a former model whose nude pictures were the talk of the whole world as soon as she married French President Nicolas Sarkozy. In short, what is not shameful in Western countries is seriously so here.

The rich class quoted above is a negligible part of Indian society. The question that therefore arises is - which section of the audience do reality shows like ‘Sach ka Saamna’ actually address. Are they groping for their real audience which may lie only in that 5-star category of rich Indians. They would certainly enjoy and burst into laughter at disclosures like whether a woman ever made love with a person whose identity she didn’t know or whether a man ever slept with a girl even younger than his daughter! Some analyses point out to the element of voyeurism in such shows. But in fact, the Indian voyeur cannot be satisfied with mere disclosures of adultery or conception. The Indian voyeur is the one who wants to see each and every sexual action of couples as they lie behind the bushes in gardens of big cities, where they can see nude young girls sitting leisurely and sunbathing. So the voyeur watching Sach ka Saamna may be left simply thirsty by mere disclosures of a sexual relationship. If tomorrow, real couples are prepared to kiss on TV, the voyeur would simply laugh away game shows like Sach ka Saamna.