IN BLACK AND WHITE
Does Reality TV stand a chance against soaps?

these days, everybody's a writer. but what everyone is writing is not exactly fiction. instead, the writers are telling the truth, but telling it with the same dramatic style that fiction writers have always used. however, unlike fiction, they are expressing public concern, using the lives of real people. the arrest of the former tamil nadu cm, m karunanidhi, which was enacted in front of television cameras and later fed to a drama-starved nation by all major networks in the country, is an excellent example of the power of reality tv.now there's news that dd will be showing swayamvar, the country's first reality tv show, where couples will get married on screen. we've had some examples of this genre before. bbc world's series hospital set in the all india institute of medical sciences (aiims) followed life in a hospital right from the emergency ward and the blood banks to the kitchen. this was a genre of reality tv attempted for the first time in india and it hoped to capture the real-life drama which unfolds at aiims every day. the producers hoped that the viewers would be able to closely identify with the emotions of the characters on screen in their moments of crisis. critics of this kind of tv ask: is this reality really real? can real life be accurately portrayed when a camera crew is with you? and if it can, is it worth watching? but fans of real-life shows feel that they transform the audience from mere viewers into active interpreters. the same, old bland stories that are seen in most sitcoms are replaced here with real-life occurrences in real people's lives. and, as in candid camera, the oldest reality show, the audience becomes a participant in a world that it otherwise may never be exposed to. plus, it's fun! it's fun to casually drop in on someone else's world, sample their problems, and watch their reactions, all from the safety and comfort of your living room. and when it's a war, it's the most exciting kind of entertainment. for me, reality tv began with the gulf war of 1991. it was live coverage of the bombing of baghdad by america which made cnn an inseparable part of our daily lives. watching this real-life war explode in front of our eyes as we had breakfast in the coffee shop of a five-star hotel was riveting. the image of the on-site reporter, peter arnett, flinching as bombs detonated behind him, made him an instant star! as did kargil for star tv's barkha dutt. reality tv has already proved its credentials in the west, becoming the most popular genre of television ever. it has caught the imagination of viewers across the world, irrespective of age, sex and social background. we in india live in an environment that loves drama. we are exposed to more drama every day than any culture in history, so we seldom pay attention to anything that is not dramatic. today, the indian television viewer gets bored watching actors perform phony emotions. over 80 channels assaulting him with songs and dances and tear-jerkers all the time have stopped evoking any response in him. today he wants raw reality like the tehelka tapes, no matter how poor the audio-visual quality of the images might be. the nail-biting coverage of the hijacking drama in kandahar was far more thrilling then any movie. and today's viewer will not be satisfied with anything less then the throb, the pulse, and the beat of real life. (mahesh bhatt is a filmmaker known for his semi-autobiographical movies)