I recently came back to India after a few years of living abroad and incidentally this thought crossed my mind while I was flipping through our local news channels.

However, I found that your write-up lacked any deep investigation or reflection with too many questions posed for the reader.

Interesting comments by all the readers above me.

Wonder if such self-reflexive portrayals can be managed in the upper echelons of television media of the country.

Films have suddenly become great fora for media bashing.

I particularly liked what Balki did in Paa – with the character played by Abhishek, a young politician in the film, getting back at the media (portrayed, I must say, with the right amount of exaggeration).

Cinema is reflecting and addressing the issues of media manipulation, and a sort of tyranny that it has unleashed of late. Although, it was a theme that got wasted in the bigger scheme of things in this particular film (Paa), other films have touched on it, sometimes in a lighter vein, as well.

I am particularly looking forward to the film you mentioned, Rann, and what RGV is going to showcase.

My point? When the common citizen around the world finally wakes up and stops being so god damn IGNORANT, they will then be able to figure out what’s news “worthy” and what’s just crap or inconsequential reporting. I’m simply amazed at how much IGNORANCE there is in the world — in your country India, here throughout Africa, and even in the so-called West where I’m from. Heck, ignorance — not malaria, HIV/AIDS, TB, typhoid, strep, etc. — is the most SERIOUS “dis-ease” afflicting wo/man kind.

Cheers!

- Maxwell (aka Max “The IT pro”)