Watching the first India-England One Day match on the new Star Cricket channel with Hindi commentary was an interesting experience. I had always assumed that the Hindi commentary one used to hear years ago on radio and early DD and which nowadays gets mocked in television commercials was history. But I realized otherwise. The commentary that I heard Tuesday was a throwback to those days. But going beyond language, I also feel the Hindi and English commentaries are one more reflection of the vastly different sensibilities of different sections of Indians.
1. The Hindi commentary was high on statistics and facts (two slips, a leg gully, a sweeper and a long on - a nod to the old “aakhon dekha haal”) whereas English commentaries were more casual and seemed more interested in communicating the feel of the game – there was a discussion on the Barmy Army being made to pay more for a trip to Australia to watch the last Ashes.
2. The Hindi commentary seemed like a series of breathless exclamations; the English one was much more sober and considered.
3. The Hindi commentators seemed to carry on monologues for entire overs; they almost seemed to be afraid of silences (btw, have you noticed how audiences in a Hindi cinema hall start twittering and shifting uncomfortably when there is a silent pause in an emotionally laden scene). The English commentary was more of a dialogue with long pauses, which also gave the viewer time to ponder and form a point of view on the happenings.
4. The Hindi commentary seemed to be high on repetition, saying the same thing again and again (this also reminded me of the way Hindi News Channels play the same news footage looped over and over). On the other hand, the English commentators seemed to be better at building up a story and forming hypotheses.
I think these differences reflect a different idiom of not just speaking, but also feeling – for the game as much as anything else of consequence. That also explains the different type of news coverage in English and Hindi News Channels. That’s also probably why Chak De does well in the metros while Partner is the biggest hit of the year in the rest of the country.
1. The Hindi commentary was high on statistics and facts (two slips, a leg gully, a sweeper and a long on - a nod to the old “aakhon dekha haal”) whereas English commentaries were more casual and seemed more interested in communicating the feel of the game – there was a discussion on the Barmy Army being made to pay more for a trip to Australia to watch the last Ashes.
2. The Hindi commentary seemed like a series of breathless exclamations; the English one was much more sober and considered.
3. The Hindi commentators seemed to carry on monologues for entire overs; they almost seemed to be afraid of silences (btw, have you noticed how audiences in a Hindi cinema hall start twittering and shifting uncomfortably when there is a silent pause in an emotionally laden scene). The English commentary was more of a dialogue with long pauses, which also gave the viewer time to ponder and form a point of view on the happenings.
4. The Hindi commentary seemed to be high on repetition, saying the same thing again and again (this also reminded me of the way Hindi News Channels play the same news footage looped over and over). On the other hand, the English commentators seemed to be better at building up a story and forming hypotheses.
I think these differences reflect a different idiom of not just speaking, but also feeling – for the game as much as anything else of consequence. That also explains the different type of news coverage in English and Hindi News Channels. That’s also probably why Chak De does well in the metros while Partner is the biggest hit of the year in the rest of the country.
2 comments:
Kumar,
While there is a definite case for the culture of a language, in this case, it is a question of the Hindi commentators not growing away from radio to TV yet. English TV commentaries had the same issue in earlier times and they have slowly evolved to the present state. The realization that 'anhon-dekha-haal' or 'ball-by-ball' commentaries are irrelevant on TV and the role of the commentators is to supplement the visual experience with intelligent or informed comment/ observations as well as enhance viewing pleasure by providing context/ feel is what is the core of this 'graduation'.
But I also sometimes think that a majority of the audience actually likes the Hindi commentatry style. They probably like like to to be told than spoken with.
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