TV Watch

Telly treats for students on Eid

Rakibul Hasan

Past the morning of Eid-ul-Adha, as all the butcheries and the gluttony come to a rest, most people prefer to chill out in-front of their television to enjoy the programmes that TV channels put on their line-up to celebrate the Eid holidays. With the emergence of numerous private television channels in Bangladesh, nowadays it seems that these channels take part in a fierce battle against each other on every other occasion to ascertain their superiority at the entertainment scene. This Eid-ul-Adha was no exception to this entertainment extravaganza. Like every year this time television channels made a valiant effort to cater for the varied taste of the audience by offering all kinds of programmes namely TV fictions, movies, live music shows, Eid special talk shows, dance programmes, cooking shows and what not! The traditional celebration of Eid-ul-Adha may consist of only three consecutive days, but as the satellite television channels had so many things to offer, the celebration continued for a whole week.

However, when it comes to entertainment for the young people or so to say the students, television channels possess fewer options to offer. For Saima, a resident student of Rajshahi University, Eid is mostly about relaxing and spending some time catching shows on the television as she comes to Dhaka to celebrate the Eid with her family. According to Saima, the special programmes aired on the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha were a combination of good and bad. “I really liked some programmes on TV during this Eid holiday such as the movie ' Moner Manush' aired on Channel i and live music shows which hosted my favourite artists from time to time. Nevertheless, there were too many commercial breaks all through the programmes which kind of spoiled the vibe,” says Saima.

Music and dance-part and parcel of TV entertainment.

Pavel, a student of Mass media and Journalism at Dhaka University and an aspirant filmmaker fancies to watch the work of young directors on television who have initiated radical changes to make the TV fictions and telefilms more original and creative. Yet Pavel seems unimpressed by the standard of programmes which were aired on the channels during the Eid-ul-Adha. “I found most of the TV fictions of run-of-the mill standard with stereotypical love affairs and artificial comedies in the storyline. I enjoyed a few offbeat programmes though, such as 'Television-er Eid' on Banglavision where noted filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki shared the unique experiences he had while shooting for his upcoming film 'Television'. I think TV channels should be more experimental with their special Eid arrangements,” comments Pavel.

One of the upsides of this Eid's special programme schedule was the plenty of musical programmes on every channel which featured noted artistes as well as the promising stars who are popular among the young generation. Of the musical shows, 'Airtel Stars' on RTV and 'Airtel Rangaraat' on Maasranga TV earned the attention of the youths. While one of the major downsides was the weak scripts and poor direction of the TV fictions. Repetitive appearance of some particular TV stars on every other fiction or telefilm irritated the audience as well. Nevertheless, still there were some TV fiction which were worthy of appreciation because of their impressive storyline and able direction such as 'Network', a single episode drama aired on Desh TV, which narrated the story of a gangster. Noted musician Partha Barua played the role of the protagonist named 'Choto Ali' in the play. In fact, this Eid also saw a series of fictions made by young filmmakers, which were aired on Desh TV.

As the scope of outdoor entertainment is very limited in Bangladesh, especially for the people living in cities, during Eid holidays television reigns supreme as the source of some good entertainment. Though television channels offer a plethora of programmes to entertain the urban couch potatoes, many would have a problem about the quality of those programmes. So it is highly expected that in the coming years channel authorities, directors, playwrights and everyone involved in the entertainment industry will pay more attention to the audience's demands and stress on improving the special programme line-up for Eid in terms of quality rather than quantity especially keeping with the youth in mind.