22 August 2009

In the run up till 20th January 2009 till he took over as US President Obama for over a year had been presented as the next best thing to happen to mankind since God. Commenting on his speech after he took over the presidency I heard people from all walks of life saying, ‘My God, what a leader!” He had fantastic ratings. Even the most common man on the road who probably never ever followed international politics said, “Obama will be the greatest leader ever”. They claimed that they were looking forward for him to change the fate of the world. But from 3 days after that till now, that is for 8 months I didn’t hear anyone saying anything about what Obama is doing or what they are expecting him to do. They don’t even seem bothered or interested.

That’s not because Obama is doing something or not which I myself and many others are not really aware of. It’s because the media changed its camera angles and background score in presenting Obama since then.

In the run up to the election the media presented Obama in low angles with a highly dramatic background score and pitched him as a hero against the villain George Bush. It kept projecting him to us with lines like ‘He is coming! Oh man! He is coming’. They selected the best pictures of his and the best one liners of his with the sole intent of dramatically building him up and this they achieved in a direct contrast with making George Bush look smaller and smaller.

But once Obama took over as President the low angle shots became eye level shots and the background score was taken off because the villain George Bush was no longer a force. “He is coming! He is coming!” can only work till he comes. This can be comparable to a promo before the film releases. Once he came they only can tell and show what he is doing about the issues which he was supposed to tackle and reality obviously never can be presented as dramatically as speculative fantasy.

The recent scandal of Obama looking at a girl’s butt was almost taken in good humour which could have been inconceivable and completely unacceptable in the time period of the run up to the election. Just imagine if either Clinton or Bush were caught doing that.

Now the fact that he was caught looking at a butt he becomes as human as everybody and it will not be possible for Obama to be ever treated as Godly as how he was treated pre-election. The only way that can ever happen now is, if and when an event bigger than 9/11 happens again.

I was in the US early 2001 and I happened to see George Bush in some stupid TV show and he looked so ordinary to me, meaning as in that is not how I wanted to see a US President. My cousin who was a US resident said America as a system is so strong and so powerful that it doesn’t matter even if a guy who looks as idiotic as George Bush is the President. Just a few months later 9/11 happened and the next time I saw George Bush he looked like a hero because now he came on to TV an with accompanying background score and started delivering one liner dialogues against a brand new villain.

Since then, for his detractors and supporters he was on the center stage for the next 8 years because the background score and the low angles never left him till he left the Oval office. That’s because of the circumstances that were created around him and the circumstances he created to fight them.

But now for Obama the problem is that he is a hero in an old story which we have already seen and his villain has done better action and better dialogue in the previous George Bush action film. So for Obama to get his own background score and low angles he desperately needs a new villain or atleast the old villain should gear up and do some new action.

Other articles by Ram Gopal Varma:
My reaction to reactions (19 Aug 2009)
Programme F**k ups
My reaction to reactions (16 Aug 2009)
My reaction to reactions (12 Aug 2009)
The real HoRROR (about Agyaat reviewers)
Lock-up lessons
My reaction to reactions
The Psychological aspect of BGM

Note: Thanks to Ram Gopal Varma for giving us special permission to republish his blogs in idlebrain.com (visit rgvzoomin.com to visit Ram Gopal Varma's blog)