I enjoyed reading Anubha Sawhney's story in the Times of India on Jay Chandrasekhar's box-office magic last weekend with "Dukes of Hazzard"...managing to quickly detail the Indian origins and nomenclatural quirks of Jayant Jumbulingam Chandrasekhar, the next big Tamil gift to Hollywood after Manoj Night Shyamalan. But I struggled to confirm the vital detail....and had to turn the "continued on" page to find out that he was indeed the director of the movie.
I find that in newswriting, reporters tend to delay or miss some vital point which can make a reader restless. Hitting the small stuff early can work wonders. The deskers who need to be alert on this are often caught sleeping at the keyboard (as it were!).
But the story deserves praise (Gee! I avoided saying kudos!)...Sitting in Delhi, the reporter made a quick front-page connect with the reader, and even managed to stay ahead of the paper's prolific and passionate Washington correspondent, who never misses a detail of the "desi-derata" he writes so well about.
Maybe he could not stomach the official subtext: He is no longer the wittiest South Indian in America!
(p.s. Apologies to Chids. Could not resist that one!:))
No comments:
Post a Comment