I must confess I am a bit confused about the IPL. Obviously it's a big hit. The stadiums are overflowing. We can see that on TV. Newspapers say the TRPs are clobbering pretty much everything else on the channels. I am sure this must be true but I also know that ratings take time to be established and it's a bit premature to make such claims with exactitude. And the initial euphoria is high, so high that fiction is quite capable of over riding facts. The truth will actually emerge a few weeks later by which time everybody would have declared the IPL a great success and the ad revenues would have been safely banked.
I have seen this happening with movies as well in recent times. A big movie releases with huge shoo sha. The actors waltz from one TV show to another and, when the movie has intellectual claims, they also stray onto news channels talking thirteen to the dozen about their "amazing" roles in it. Their usually laconic speech patterns change overnight. Those with two left feet dance at the drop of a hat. Stories about their personal lives suddenly become big news. They even sound friendly with the media, the very people they usually love to hate.
On release day, before critics can get to maul it or audience response can be second guessed, the movie's declared a spectacular hit and huge full page ads start appearing everywhere. By the weekend, record breaking collection figures are declared, in contradiction to what trade papers report. The trade papers, meanwhile, carry a whole bunch of self congratulatory ads thanking the stars, the director, the producer, the music company for giving such a massive hit. Many of these ads claim that the movie has beaten all box office records. The others, who are shy to make such claims, quote the critics instead. If you check out the quotes, you will find most of them are truncated and misleading. One word or one line is lifted from a full-on vicious review to give the impression that the critic praised the movie, whereas the truth is just the opposite. For example, I once saw the word "superlative" used in an ad for a film that was so bad that I went back and traced the review only to find that the critic had called the film "superlative trash".
The IPL is breeding in the same cesspool of hyperbole. I like the players' uniforms. I think the umpires look cool. I like the young, enthusiastic commentators even though they talk too much. I adore the pretty girls that the camera lingers on and, like most men of my age, I love the cheerleaders with their short, short skirts. I am amazed at how my friend Vijay Mallya has managed to get a team title that promotes his liquor brand even as the I&B ministry is throwing tantrums over subterfuge advertising and threatening to punish all channels that carry them. But Vijay is a clever man. He knows the system and tweaks it better than anyone else.
Shah Rukh Khan, on the other hand, is obviously having a wonderful time though I am not so sure what will happen when his new show on TV launches later this week to an even higher decibel level. It will confront the TRPs of the IPL head-on. Either way, Shah Rukh wins. But then he is always having such a wonderful time that I often wonder if Vijay is the King of Good Times or he is.
Yes, I am impressed with the tournament. The snazzy events, the spectacle, the tamasha, the smart ads, the hot shot brand ambassadors, the music videos, the crowds, the excitement, the buzz. It's all there, larger than life. But something is missing. Maybe it's the old fashioned authenticity of the game. The die-hard loyalty to Team India. We have been so conditioned for years to rooting for the national team that suddenly there's too much confusion, too many choices. In Bangalore, I saw the crowds rooting for the Kolkata team and whooping with joy every time the local team got whacked. In Mumbai, I saw the crowds rooting for the Bangalore team and cheering every time a local player.
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