Ye Lamhe is Giving us Sadma

Yes all of us are mourning the demise of Khwabon Ki Shehzadi….the Bijli Ki Rani….

All of us who have been enamored of her acting skills….a superstar who could also act…And all of us belonging to the male progeny who have fantasized about her sexy eyes and her doll like childish voice.

And yes all of us are sad by her untimely demise, especially the mode of it far away from her own land. Sridevi as a superstar will always deserve to be in our hearts and yes I admit that her death too would cause enough consternation to be highlighted as prime time news across electronic, social, digital and print media.

However, what pains me inordinately is the way both electronic as well as the social media have gone overboard in dissecting the reasons behind her untimely demise. True, it was my FB connects through which I woke up to this sad news on a Sunday morning. But the way events are panning out now across all modes of media looks to me nothing else than satiating the voyeurism of the Indian public.

First to blame are the TV anchors in the electronic media. Knowing fully well the potential to exploit the TRP value of this sensational news (yes accidental death of a beauty is sensational), they are going all out in further titillating the lapping audience. Debates featuring doctors, psychologists, political analysts, all and sundry are occupying all the prime time since the las few days.

Whether she died of a cardiac failure or she drowned in an alcoholic stupor, the fact of the matter is it’s a sad time for her family and they should be allowed to grieve in private. What all these threadbare analyses are doing is nothing short of discussing all sorts of innuendos and speculative facts and fictions and putting it under the garb of expert views.

Social media is further adding fuel to this rumor mongering as well as vague speculations being bandied around. The amount of FB posts, Whats-app forwards, tweets I have seen on this whole affair is mind boggling. (I will admit I myself am to blame for some of these). But this intrusive nature of social media barging into the life of cause celeb-re is indeed very disturbing and unwelcome. True celebrities crave for public adulation, but at least in death they should be given their dignity. Especially not publishing or showing disturbing photos like her body floating on a bathtub.

True tech advancements have led to so much progress in social media usage and adoption as well as electronic media viewership, but I strongly feel that should not be at the expense of violation of someone’s privacy as well as dignity. I am sure the Chaalbaaz, Roop Ki Rani, Ms Hawa Hawaii would have agreed with me.