Wanted: More Karans!!

And I’m talking about Karan Thapar here. By far, the best in interviewing politicians – especially in making them explain their contradictions. And everyone else in the media pales in comparison.

I suppose its because the interviews in NDTV 24*7, for example, are oriented towards gleaning as many soundbites as possible – the more controversial the better. Hence it is in the interest of the anchor to let the interviewee ramble on at his own pace. In the past 2-3 weeks, I’ve observed that Karan Thapar does exactly the opposite. He clinically dissects the person across the table- and he does it in style. In fact, the whole setting is geared towards this. The background is blacked out, and the camera focuses constantly on the interviewer – though once in a while we do get to see Karan as well. And its quite obvious that he (or his team) puts in a lot of effort before every interview. While interviewing Arun Jaitley and George Fernandes, he went around systematically – initially giving them space to air their views, and then begins to lay out his case. Carefully and confidently, he brings out his ammunition. Armed with statements made by the invitee, he asks such pointed questions that one almost feels sorry for the poor guy.

Looking at the way Karan butchered George, I was left wondering how Karan manages to convince such people to be interviewed in the first place. I bet anyone who watched that show would think many times over before accepting an invite from Karan. And that probably is one more reason, NDTV & co fail miserably in this honest interview department. In order to stay high on the ratings charts, they need high-profile politicians to attend their panel-discussions and thus are so much like the American TV show Crossfire that was criticized by ComedyCentral’s Jon Stewart as becoming a part of the politicians’ theatre.

Long live the man who made Kapil Dev cry on national television! :)