I read a couple of disturbing reviews about Bakra. According to me the show is pretty good. True, no one likes being made a fool of on national television, but, its all in good spirit, I don’t see why thats so difficult to bear with. They even have a section of the show where people call upon the MTV Bakra crew to play pranks on close friends and relatives. If people are voluntarily asking for something like this, I don’t really think it can be called unfair. There are some who feel sorry for the poor man who sits down for a haircut with all the troubles that clutter the minds of the lower class indian, wishing to be groomed, but is instead either being shaved with a chainsaw or getting a haircut with weed cutters. I don’t really know what happens after the camera zooms in and photograph effect sequence finishes, but I’m pretty sure MTV is decent enough to pay for the man’s haircut after they’re done with him. I’m also pretty sure that if they encounter someone who takes offence to the whole ordeal, they won’t screen that particular shoot. So at the end of it what are people really complaining about? Candid camera shows are very successful all over the world. Only in India do we face criticism (as usual). Comedians like David Letterman and Jay Leno make a living out of making fun of people. Jay Leno has a segment called ’’Jaywalking’’ where he asks people obvious questions to which they don’t know the answers and the show televises their reactions.
I remember I watched an episode where Cyrus interviewed people urinating in public places. I think thats one of the only efforts I’ve seen by anyone to curtail that sort of thing in a long long time. Im sure all those individuals would definitely think twice before doing it again. So once again I ask.. where’s the problem ?
The people MTV pick on are sometimes not even aware of what they were put through. Some might not even have TV sets, but I’m pretty sure if they knew what was going on they wouldn’t have a problem with it. After all, thousands of ’bakras’ have been made till today. Why would the man on the street take offence and the internationally renowned disc jockey not ? According to me, the latter has much more to lose where defamation of character is concerned. The nation watches a man in a lift panic because he thinks the lift is stuck. 99% of the people watching will probably forget what he looks like the next day and wouldn’t recognize him even if he walked right past them. He doesn’t NEED to be embarassed.
Of course, many turn around and say, how would you know, its never happened to you, you werent there. To me, if someone’s been duped, outsmarted or ’bakra’-ed he should be able to sit down at the end of it and laugh at himself. Life goes on. Then there’s the infringement and destruction of culture speech which annoys me to the core. The ’Westernization is evil’ ideal should really be put to sleep, because we’ve lived under some of these old customs and traditions for ages and look where its brought us. People throw water balloons from great heights producing massive amounts of momentum, and pelting innocent people on the streets in the name of festivities. Acid is sprayed and ’bhaang’ is consumed, in the name of tradition. Firecrackers are burnt producing ridiculous magnitudes of sound and immense pollution. This is our culture. I must say I’m very proud. Western influences may have their negative points but if people are so against it, why arent they killing daughters and practicing sati? After all, these were our ancient Indian customs.
The show has also inspired various spinoffs such as Chuppa Rustom. As of late, Bakra does seem to be in need of new schemes, but, instead of getting rid of the show I think people should work towards supplying them with ideas. Cyrus Broacha does a wonderful job as usual, he’s very talented. Some of my favourites have been the Taxi driver Bakras and the ’’Give me a lift’’ Bakras. The show could use a new segment, perhaps more group orchestrated bakras. So in the spirit of the 1st of April, ’Bakra’ Din, I say the show must go on.