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When the media make news

Swa Le

News is when a mishap occurs to others. Tragedy is when we are at the receiving end.

The line that separates compassionate reporting of human tragedy from callous coverage that turns it into a spectacle is often blurred, almost indistinguishable.

This has become more pronounced after the turn of the century, with 24X7 news channels airing ‘live’ anything from a boat capsize to wars between countries. In sharp contrast, the media comes increasingly in the line of fire for dumbing down news. Cinematographer P. Sukumar’s directorial debut, ‘Swa. Le’ — acronym for Swantham Lekhakan (Staff Reporter) — pertinently, albeit rather amateurishly, raises the question of cold-blooded news reporting, with mediapersons under duress from their higher-ups, manufacturing heart-rending, often mushy tales, in the face of tragedies, for the consumption of the supposedly news-hungry public. The mushier the better, seems to be their maxim.

Set in 1989, ‘Swa. Le’ shows the coverage of a youth festival, an event, and the imminent death of a renowned litterateur, by a crop of young print journalists with Unni Madhavan, played by Dileep, in sharp focus.

The film is satirical in its portrayal of their scramble for inane exclusives, but what would have turned out to be a serious critique of the media often parades itself as equally dim-witted, only giving rise to the slapstick variety of humour.

“I’ve become a vulture,” a distraught Unni writes in his diary when he is made to repeatedly ring up the writer’s wife through the night, only to be acidly assured of a return call when her husband finally departs.

Unni is devastated at his own ruthlessness towards a man who launched him to the world of letters during his childhood.

Such occasional scenes, however, are submerged in a concoction of monotonous and hollow sequences. ‘Swa. Le’ is not as much about newsgathering as it is a depiction of the personal struggle of reporter Unni whose pregnant, lonely wife gradually descends into despair.

Scenarist Kalavoor Ravikumar, former journalist in a medium-sized Malayalam daily, had drawn inspiration from his experience to write a story, ‘Deadline’, which has become ‘Swa. Le’.

The effort to document the transition of media in Malayalam, with a slide presentation of its pre-Independence history and a listless caricature of television news anchoring today, makes it look all the more pedestrian. A pithy theme badly illustrated, to sum it up.

S. Anandan

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