Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Reality TV shows

Are reality games shows the future of Indian Television? (530 words)

In the recent times, Indian television has taken a commendable leap to attract audiences of all genres. Reality game shows are actually a mirror image of the society’s progressing views or one can also look at it as a stage given to common people and struggling serial artists. “It’s an easy golden ticket to fame through the game”, says a contestant of Indian Idol. Reality TV has always struck a chord with the audience in Indian television even when traced back to Tabassum’s chat show in the early 80s, the evergreen Antakshari during 90s to the acing TRP reality game show in the year 2000, Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by Big B.

To capture audiences of all genres, these reality game shows have their own target audience. The audience wants drama and the TV channels have succumbed to yet another demand of theirs. For instance, game/quiz shows are quite famous amongst the families as it gives them the opportunity to guess answers and interact with the show on a primary level. The dance and singing reality shows like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Boogie Woogie, Lil Masters, Indian Idol and so many more have given a platform to the talent of India to perform on a show and reach out to the audience. The public has its own favourites and immediately connect to the show. The dramatization has clearly increased to get either sympathy or attention from its audience. It’s not only about singing or dancing but striking a chord with the family sitting on the sofa after a long day looking out to distract themselves from their daily chores.

Last but not the least the most famous genre of reality shows are the ones with the celebrities or more like wannabe TV stars. Just like TV news channels they have all the beats, the angry man who keeps lashing at every small thing and throws things around to give a dramatic effect for instance Raja Chaudhari of Big Boss 2, at least one couple to create a love story and the sexy and bold girl like Rakhi Sawant or Kashmira Shah to give the show the oomph factor. Even shows like Emotional Aatyachar, Dare to Date almost run on these same factors but concentrating more on the problems faced by the youth. Today’s generation just wants a lot of masala on TV like in their Maggi Noodles. Certain aspects shown on TV like a girl abusing or smoking, a guy making tea or gossiping more than the women connect to the youth of today since it’s the reality. Hence, reality shows are trend makers and mirror society without censoring or being gender biased.
If one looks at it from a psychological angle it’s a way to escape one’s problems and enter the world of reality through TV and live their experiences for a while. The producers play with the mind of their audiences trying to show a reflection of their life and problems and most often trying to give them a solution. Reality drama has caught the attention of the audiences and is most definitely the future of Indian television.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

The review of Inception !!

The Review of Inception (909 words)

Transported to Dreamland

Inception is an American science fiction action film written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. The word Inception means a ‘beginning’ and Nolan has sown the seeds of the possibility of hypnotism in dreams. The plot is complex and intrinsic but beautifully woven to build a “dream” story. Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the main protagonist, who explores this world of dreams by working as an extractor. Extractors and their victims sleep in close proximity to one another, connected by a device that administers a sedative and share a dream world built on their mental projections. As an extractor Dominic’s job is to architect dreams and create plots that make the target reveal his innermost secrets. In the dream world, pain is psychologically experienced as real but death results in awakening.

The plot of the movie could require any reviewer to write several pages. Hence, in this review we shall discover the world Nolan transports his audience. The film layers dreams on top of dreams to the point where a unique keepsake called a “totem” is required in order to inform a character as to whether or not he or she is still dreaming. To wake the team from each dream, timed "kicks” are organized at each level. Then you have people in particular roles like “The Architect” Ariadne (Ellen Page), “The Forger” Eames (Tom Hardy), and “The Chemist” Yusuf (Dileep Rao) in order to pull off the job. Furthermore, dreams have rules: dying in a dream forces the dreamer to wake up, delving too deeply into a mind can cause an eternal slumber called “Limbo”, using memories to construct dreams is dangerous because it can blur the line between dreams and reality. In addition, intruding in the dreams of another will cause the dreamer’s “projections” (human representations created by the dreamer) to attack the intruders like white blood cells going after an infection. And these explanations only represent a fraction of the terminology, rules, exceptions, or details that are necessary for creating the world of Inception.

Cristopher has layered the story where one part shows the methods of stealing people’s dream and the other works around the personal life of Cobb. While architecting dreams for Ariadne is Cobb’s deceased wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) who continually haunts him, sabotaging his missions. Cobb reveals to Ariadne that he and Mal shared dreams, spending many years in a limbo dream world forging their lives. After waking, Mal remained convinced that they were still dreaming and committed suicide, attempting to force Cobb to join her by incriminating him in her death. Cobb refused and was forced to flee the U.S. and leave his children to avoid murder charges.
Nolan also explores a possibility of what might go wrong if the dream goes astray. The end of the movie is when the lot tries to tackle the problems that they go through during this dreaming sequence. At a certain point, they realize that the strong dose of sedators will not result in awakening if a person dies but will send him into Limbo. Hence, the problem arises when Fischer is killed by Mal, causing him to go to Limbo. While Eames and a dying Saito stay behind to fend off Fischer's hostile projections, Ariadne and Cobb follow Fischer to a fourth level in an attempt to salvage the mission and confront Mal. The fourth level is Cobb's dystopia and there he and Ariadne confront Mal. Mal attempts to convince Cobb to stay in Limbo by making him question reality. Cobb reveals that he originally planted the idea in Mal's mind to wake up from their dream lives -- the act that proved inception was possible in the first place -- but that the belief persisted even after she woke, making him indirectly responsible for her suicide.

The much debatable end is that Cobb awakens on the plane to find everyone on the plane, including Saito, up and well. Saito honors their arrangement and Cobb enters the United States, reunited with his children at home. Cobb spins the totem to test reality, but is then distracted by his children. The top spins without fault for a long period of time, but begins to wobble just as the screen smash cuts to black, leaving the audience to determine whether Cobb is still in a dream or in reality. But for the “non-distracted” who had the patience to wait till the end of the credits Nolan answers their question by making us hear the fall of the totem which suggests that Cobb was back to reality.

Director Cristopher Nolan asks his viewers to just take “a leap of faith” and enjoy the movie. There are a lot of summer movies that ask you turn off your brain and enjoy the persistent-vegetative-state ride. Inception is not one of those movies. There’s a lot to take in, but the imaginative and thoughtful delivery of exposition keeps the viewer captivated despite the amount of information required in order to understand the premise, setting, and plot. The film deserves, demands, and rewards repeat viewings, but from your first viewing you can grasp the events on screen and how they interact with each other as long as you force yourself to be an active viewer. But with set pieces so intricate, so jaw-dropping, and so breathtaking, you’ll find that there’s no exertion needed to stay focused. You’ll already be swept up in the whirlwind.