Satyamev Jayate - A ‘My World’ Perspective Review.

 Satyameva jayate nānṛtaṁ

satyena panthā vitato devayānaḥ |

yenākramantyṛṣayo hyāptakāmā

yatra tat satyasya paramaṁ nidhānam ||

-          Mundaka Upanishad (Mantra 3.1.6)

Truth alone triumphs; not falsehood.

Through truth the divine path is spread out by which

the sages whose desires have been completely fulfilled,

reaches where that supreme treasure of Truth resides.

Truth alone triumphs. And the process has, maybe, started. 

A show, called Satyamev Jayate, which was in brewing mills for past two years, which was to be the first ever show in Indian Television history to be aired simultaneously on a private channel network STAR and a national broadcaster Doordarshan, with dubbed versions on regional language channels viz., Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi and Bengali, which was to have 16 songs exclusively composed for its soundtrack, which was to have the makers of show book around 2,000 slots for the broadcaster’s promos in 27 hours for an amount of 6.25 cr - reportedly the highest costing promotional campaign for any Indian television show –, and, which was to have one of the most cherished, celebrated and revered actors of Bollywood produce and host it, went on airs this 06/05/2012 at 1100hrs. 

And just as it did so, twitter lines jammed up, Facebookers went ‘like’ing, Google Trends showed the phrase trending on top spot and the show’s own website went down owing to sudden increase in traffic. What caused this, you ask? Let’s explore. 

The show’s concept is described so on its website: 

“What you will see is the truth. The truth that lives alongside us all… in the house down the street, in the next room, on your pillow, in tomorrow’s breakfast. 

The truth in all its facets – beautiful, inspiring, thought-provoking, stark. 

We believe that Satyamev Jayate is not afraid to look the truth in the eye, take its hand and embrace it. After all, it belongs to all of us. 

And when we recognize the truth, when we discover that it is part of us, part of the things we cherish, then what? Then we know it’s time to think – perhaps to act.”

Treading on the said path, the first episode, directed by Satyajit Bhatkal, talked about the issue of the desire for a male child and the accepted, though illegal and highly immoral, practise of female foeticide. Yes, that thing which we all read about for the first time in our hard bound Social Studies text books in high school classes. And if we, somehow, did not manage to pay enough attention to the concept then, we are treated with this bizarre appendage of our society with alarming frequency on the front pages of our national dailies. But it is one thing to read the statistics as a distant, even if as a ‘concerned’, observer and quite another to listen to a woman narrate her story where the above mentioned monster threatened to snatch away her new-born lease of female life from her and, as in one instance, eat her face up. And I mean that last phrase literally. 

The show brought to light some unheard of practices too. Like how some doctors offer packaged deals comprising Ultra-Sonic Sex-Determination and Abortion. And how detecting a male foetus goes against their profit motive which then leads to them actually lying that what’s detected is a female foetus and hence should be aborted using their combo-pack service. Shudder. The more one dwells upon this the more the news-feeds about the discarded foetus in a garbage can near Yamuna seem closer to home. 

Nothing presented in the show can be called new. More than an ‘Expose’ this show’s a ‘Refocus.’ What is surely new, though, is the packaging. By that I mean that there is none. The production value of the show is sleek yet unassuming. The sets of the show are not steel and glass with sharp edges and glitzy mirrors, but round, thick, soft and comfortable. The camera work, too, is non obtrusive - no racing trolleys, clean shots, subtle frame transitions, no deliberate visual cues in the form of forced close-ups...the whole ambience is like taking a safe ride back home to 1990s. Ah. If you too are from the same clan as mine whose members stopped watching – nay, owing – television because of the glam shtick induced noise, you’ll appreciate the worth of the balmy affect which the aforementioned production value brings along. 

The show does a great job in walking up close straight to your heart and holding it in a warm garb until your tear glands yield and wash away with it a certain degree of cynicism and indifference and apathy. Yes, I call it ‘a certain degree of’ because in speaking for everyone (which I don’t do much) i have to factor in the undercurrent suspicion which raises its head up every time you see ‘Marketing’. And when it’s marketing of this measure, then one surely begins to feel that there is something from which his/her person needs to be protected and safeguarded. This is a part of that thick-skinned-ness which we have acquired as extra adipose layers after being cheated and being under delivered after being over-promised for so many times over. Trashing this show only because this show is being hosted by a marketing wizard with a hoard of Multi National Corporations backing it, questions our rationality more than it does his and their credibility.   

At this point, it must be pointed out that the makers of the show have taken all the care possible to address even this aforementioned issue. Various brand managers have been asked to not buy any advertising slots or screen any of Khan’s advertisements during the show, fearing the dilution of the show's impact. Airtel, the title sponsor of the show, has reduced the tariff of the viewers’ participation messaging service from INR 3 to INR 1. With a promise that even this generated revenue will be donated to an organisation – Snehalaya (http://www.snehalaya.org, at time of writing this, even this website’s server was down with traffic.) And Reliance Foundation has joined in as a 'Philanthropy partner.' (This won’t make Ms. Arundhati Roy much happy, though. Ah, cynisim.) 

But what should, I feel, ride over this myopic musing is that this show has managed to put the 'real' back in 'Reality shows.' Right from the time-slot it is scheduled to air on to its no-nonsense programming content. Everything whiffs of some major behind-the-stage genuine affair. You can’t help but imagine about the amount of research the team would have done to present the show in this garb. And, especially, at this time slot. Oh, the time-slot - 1100 hrs on a Sunday? When did we last hear about something like that? 

News channels have termed the show as ‘Soul stirring’ and akin to a ‘Movement’. And rightly so. The understated touch with which the show has had Aamir deliver the opening credit monologue, the fierce yet restrained words of Prasoon Joshi, set to Ram Sampat’s tunes crooned by Keerthi Sagathia, which sees the nation as one’s lover in an apt Sufi-esque dualistic concoction, the end credit ditty in Swanand Kirkire’s poetry... all so minimalistic-ly present there, just hanging subtly in airy suspension...it rightly can be termed ‘soul stirring’ and, if possible, many more such things. 

Above all this, what strikes the most golden chord is the way in which the show asks you and me to rethink, un-pressume, un-learn, and re-focus our own moral compasses and adjust it pointing towards the correct ideals of the proverbial 'Truth.' And, at that, with beautiful lines as: 

"Jaisa bhi hoon, apna mujhe" mujhe yeh nahin hai bolna

Kabil tere mein ban sakoon mujhe dvar aisa tu kholna.

Mujhe khud ko bhi hai tatolna,

Kahi hai kami toh hai bholna.

Kahi dhag hai to chupayein kyun?

Hum sach se nazrein hataye kyun?

Saanson ki iss raftaar ko,

Dhadkan ke iss thyohar ko,

Har jeet ko, har haar ko,

Khud apne iss sansaar ko

Badloonga main tere… liye.

Tere zulf suljhane chala,

Tere aur pass aane chala.

Jahan koi sur na ho besura,

Wo geet mein gaane chala.

Hai junoon hai,

Hai junoon hai,

Tere ishq ka yeh junoon hai.

Rag rag mein ishq tera daudta,

Ye bawra sa khoon hai.

Tune hi sikhaya sachayion ka matlab,

Tere pass aake jana meine zindagi ka maksad.

Satyamev, Satyamev, Satyamev Jayate.

Saccha hai pyaar mera...

As one of my friends said, “Sunday mornings will never be the same again.” She’s right, they won’t be.