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Book: Coming Soon

An attempt to tell the story of television and its formats from within

Published: Jul 8, 2010 06:47:40 AM IST
Updated: Jul 7, 2010 04:29:17 PM IST

Omkar Sane writes brochures, promo scripts and columns, his bio says. So he must be good at holding readers for short spans of time. Over the length of book, though, the reader looks for something more substantial. Which Sane is unable to deliver.

Book: Coming SoonHe attempts to tell the story of television and its formats from within but, despite the bio, you don’t get the feel that he has worked in TV.

It is about three guys and a gal who work in different TV formats: News, music, general entertainment and a kids channel. They share a table in a bar with a ‘Common Man’ who’s very excited that he’s going to get an inside look at the beast called TV. Great concept, except that the author’s focus seems to be on talking down to the Common Man. Example: “What is packaging? Answer: God, I never thought I’d meet someone who would ask me that.” Three lines later: “What is a tune-in show? Answer: God. This will never end. One question leads to many more.” You wind up feeling patronised, and the characters come off as smarmy wannabes. There’s too much information in very little space (too many brochures?), half of which  is unnecessary. And tedious rants. Like when he tries to explain the concept of Talent & Artist Relations. He takes a paragraph to do that. But not before a page-and-a-half of spiel after its first mention.

Yes, as expected from a professional wordsmith, there are brilliant lines, worthy of award-winning ads. But as a book? If I didn’t have to review it, I would have put it down after the intro.

Coming Soon. The End. The Reality Show Called Television. By Omkar Sane;  
Tranquebar; 260 pages, Rs 295

 

(This story appears in the 16 July, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)

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