Having grown up as a son of an avid & committed sportsperson catching live action sports had become part of my TV viewing. Events like Olympics, WC Football were quadrennial events and hence even more special.
Back from work at the usual time, I planned to finish the regular tasks and settle down to catch the event assuming the same will start at 11 pm only to realise a little later that its going to start only by 1am!!! Closer to time when the channels started beaming live images I was a bit upset that it was all dark and gloomy, raining and there were chances of the start getting delayed. But luckily it started in a few minutes.
Have always associated opening ceremonies with great perfectly co-ordinated stellar performances, never seen before stunts, fireworks & of course the contingents walking in to join the fervor.
So I settled down wondering like almost the whole world what my first impression of London 2012 is going to be, especially after a mega-successful Beijing 2008.
A few minutes into the start I realised that while celebrity Hollywood director
Danny Boyle had gone about recreating British history with some really breathtaking sets there were a few things which upset me a lot. Let me list them in the descending order:
5. The Danny Boyle Show
The event was all over the place on TV thanks to some really poor sequencing,
editing and packaging work. Add to that the camera work & audio! While they
were creating some interesting imagery out there most of them were lost thanks to
some poor camera work. Also the usual 'performance in sync' was completely missing.
4. Engaging the TV audience
the audio being bad, I was surprised that the visual medium was never used ,
again the way they use in cricket. We all very well know how when a new match
commences, right from team composition to win loss record, to player stats, past
performances etc are well captured and showcased. Even in events like grand slam
tennis and F1 you see good use of this medium. But the same was completely
missing. I was so eager to know participating countries' geographic location, history,
past performance, team size, disciplines being participated in, flag bearer's claim to
fame etc and am sure am not alone!
3. Intrusive and irritating Advertising
Well advertising being intrusive is not new, neither is irritating. But when both play in
tandem its bad scene. Given the event was a non stop 3 hour event and with the
channels having almost no clue of the sequence of events the breaks were random and
unannounced. Fine you need to make money but then you could have packaged it better
- and this is ESPN not Doordarshan!
Add to that the fact that there were 4-5 advertisers so you end up watching the same
ad every 5-7 minutes which was seriously irritating. I seriously believed advertising in
this case should have been best left to on screen banners etc. Again goes to show how
even media treats a non-cricketing event in India!
ad every 5-7 minutes which was seriously irritating. I seriously believed advertising in
this case should have been best left to on screen banners etc. Again goes to show how
even media treats a non-cricketing event in India!
2. Representing India
When every team was entering the stadium, they were cheered on by scores of
supporters from their country and also their premiers - PMs / Presidents / Royal
Families. I was eagerly waiting for India's turn. On one side I was dreading the great
Suresh Kalmadi showing up and on the other side I was hopeful of seeing our Rasta-
potty Pranab da. Would have been a perfect stage for him to 'arrive' in the world
stage. And when the Indian team did walk in and the camera's panned towards a turban
clad sardar, no it was not Manmohan Singh, it was this guy who is from Indian Olympic
Association (who I checked on Google to get his name - Raja Randhir Singh) who gets to
take his wife along as well. Are you kidding me? For minnows like Bangladesh which
had what about 10 members, their premier Sheikh Hasina was there to cheer them on!
1. Indian Contingent Costume
This has to take the cake by a mile! I have almost always wondered who decides
these things? While we boast of endless list of breakthrough, celebrity and legendary
designers who have an amazing body of work, when it comes to draping the Indian
sports teams for events like this, we miss the bus completely. Yesterday was outright
shoddy, the worst I have ever seen! Looked as if people completely forgot about it and
ended picking stuff on rent or something? The way the 'pagdis' (traditional north Indian
headgear) were made and the way they were worn...oh come on...And then the colour
Yellow!!! Are we Jamaica? Or else Brazil? Sweden???Can someone tell me where does it
feature on either the Indian flag? Well yellow and India is not new...but a country where
the cricket team's costume is so well taken care of, can't a wee bit of attention be
given to costume for the contingent representing world's second most populated nation
in arguably world's biggest sporting spectacle? And ya, who was that lady in red??? The
whole thing was nothing but a big joke!
Well all was not lost...
Coming up... My Top 5 Likes!
No comments:
Post a Comment