By Jack Selvaraju
This year Amarkala Deepavali show is a complete let down and shows clearly the lack of ideas and ignorance of sensitivity to the main stream Indian community in this country. The show executives should seek genuine feedback from the members of the public, rather than they giving accolades to themselves.
Why was the show not conducted live with firework display at Race Course Road. This was done last year and was the normal venue for this show for so many years.This is clearly a step backward. Is it the SPF and the organiser are still having “hangover” over last year incident at Little India. Is the reason for this is because of security reasons or what? If it is,then this must be the lamest excuse to play down the fervour of Deepavali. Why not be transparent about this omission.
Furthermore, the show is recorded unlike last year with live comments and wishes.
The show most disgracing aspect is the inclusion of several Hindi and other non Tamil language songs performed with a lot of enthusiasm.The Tamil songs are mainly in Medley forms. 300 over languages is spoken in India. Does Vasantham wants to include all of them?
Vasantham has inadvertently opened the “Pandora Box”. This will give rise to the minority Indian language group to clamour for more programme in their language. Whose ideas is it to include Hindi, Malayalam and Telugu songs.Who is Vasantham trying to please? The mainstream local Indian community or foreign Indian, permanent residents of non Tami origin.
The late minister Balaji vision is for a Tamil channel dedicated to the mainstream Tamil community. Now is vision is distorted and now Vasantham is in a mess trying to please everyone demands and end up pleasing none, especially the targeted audience of Tamil origins.
Vasantham should first aim to achieve his core target to increase viewership of the Tamils. For close to more than 20 minutes we are irritated and disgusted by the inclusion of non Tamil songs in the programme. I felt like purging at lap of the Producer and the team. All the previous years show, did have this problem. Why Vasantham want to break up and fragmentized the fragile Indian community in this country.
The Chinese and Malay community also have different minority language speakers. The Chinese have Teochew, Hokkien, Hakka , Hainan, Cantonese and more. The Malays comprises of vibrant Arabic speakers,Javanese, Sudanese, Bahasa Indonesia speakers and more.
However,Channel 8 and Suria will only strictly telecast programmes in Mandarin and Malay respectively. Why Vasantham is different? Vasantham executives should be firm and decisive in dealing with the unreasonable demands of new citizen, non Tamil speaking Indian: both foreign Indians and permanent residents.
Scrap all regional dramas shown currently. Starhub and Miotv have a dozen channels in Hindi. All the other minority language also have their own channels. Vasantham is strictly for the mainstream Indian community in this country who are comfortable in Tamil.
The Minister Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan had not responded to my comments in their respective facebook. If they are not free, then ask them not to subscribe to Facebook. Forward this mail to them. The mainstream Indian community is agitated and furious over this gross insensitivity and lack of basic common sense.
In short, the show is the biggest flop, earning the wrath of the Indian community. Vasantham spoiled my celebration. They should do some soul searching and prioritise their goals.
