World of make-believe

DAYS WERE when we, as young children, looked forward to watching cartoon films with popping eyes, open mouths and lollipops in hand. Once a year, on Christmas Day or as a New Year's Day special, the posh movie halls in Madras such as New Globe (till one fine day it turned old and changed its name to Alankar and remained a decoration on Mount Road) or Odeon or Casino would screen cartoons for kids as a special morning show. It was a treat, a reward for our goodness. So a month before we children would be on our best behaviour - off to bed on time, home assignments all submitted duly, lessons promptly read, no tugging at the neighbour's pigtails, gulping down even the insipid breakfast concoction "upma" without threats of strike and being helpful to all at home. Once we qualified for the treat we couldn't get to sleeping a wink in great expectations and the previous night was spent in uncontrolled giggling, the consequence of suppressed excitement. Even the cock would be woken up to crow and herald the arrival of dawn earlier. Escorted by a senior uncle (of child-like mind no doubt) we were taken to witness the most lovable Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald. At the end, contentment was writ large on our wee faces. That would keep us going for the next one year! Schools sometimes would arrange to take the "bigger" (not sized but classwise and age wise) children to visit the theatres for viewing cartoons but to deserve that we had to compulsorily see "Nehru's visit to Russia" and "the Living Desert" - a sure test of our endurance! Sandwiched between would be a cartoon. We did not care at that age a whit whether Nehru visited Russia or Prussia and did not follow a whit of its political overtones. Neither did it affect us if the desert was livable or not as long as we were housed comfortably in cosy nests.

But now, children can watch all day long in the comforts of their grandfather's armchair at home, the endless list of lovely cartoons - Popeye, Flint Stones, Batman, Tin Tin and Droopy, till they doze off on the chair with drooping heads. It is on at all times of the day and occasions. The cartoon network on TNT nets in not only children but even adults. Even the seniors stop to watch if they happen to step in. Consequently, mother's non-stick pan dosa decides to stick on, the school van driver moves away leaving sister behind and pappa's shaving is unattended on the right side to present a sorry picture. Cartoon Network ropes in children for full-time viewing of some of the most endearing cartoon strips indeed.

As for the other channels, surprisingly the serial 'Oonjal' is just meandering. Its grip on us is slowly loosening. The bad girl has now earned all our sympathy and the heroine has turned bad. The swing in their native natures is it to explain the title?

On the contrary, ``Saptha Swarangal'' does not fail to interest us even if it is being telecast for 3 years nearly? Is it that we are all music lovers basically? Or is it a tribute to the wonderful host - the ever smiling, warm and friendly A. V. Ramanan? They have an interesting variety of competing rounds and everything about the programme is clearly announced. We get the opportunity to listen to seasoned musicians too when they officiate as judges. The "best" of the participants can be utilised for playback singing, surely since new voices spell novelty and freshness. Everything about the programme is so good that people do not attend to phone calls or answer door bells or the more interested ones play 'not at home' for that half hour. Everything is fine except the time duration which appears too short. One secret of its success, I guess, is that they keep changing the nature of the rounds in the competition periodically - innovation does count after all.

Another very popular channel is the HBO which has kept families away from visiting movie halls. Within three months of a new release the film is surely screened for HBO viewers, so much so that families now dive early and crowd around to watch with kids on laps and wives by the side (thank god! its not still the other way round). HBO encourages togetherness surely for families. If you happen to miss a good movie it is telecast again for the benefit of such viewers, twice again with the time slot announced well in advance. But occasionally even here we have a clash when ``Phenomenon'' and ``Godfather'' were telecast simultaneously. You have to cast lots to decide your slot. It was a good way of commemorating Mario Puzo's death anniversary by telecasting his masterpiece "The Godfather".

It was Tulsidas, the Hindi poet who wrote a couplet on a swan (not his swan song though!). The latter has the capacity to drink only the milk from a mixture of milk and water served to it in a container. Hopefully our children too who are exposed to the televisions mixed medley will only imbibe the good and leave the undesirable behind - sift the grain from the chaff.

TMR

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