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Business News/ Opinion / Special Correspondents: a bitingly funny takedown of journalism
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Special Correspondents: a bitingly funny takedown of journalism

The only depressing aspect of Special Correspondents is that you realise we may never see such a hilarious and spot-on takedown of the media in Indian cinema

Ricky Gervais attends Tribeca Talks After the Movie: ‘Special Correspondents’ during the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival in New York on 22 April. Photo: AFPPremium
Ricky Gervais attends Tribeca Talks After the Movie: ‘Special Correspondents’ during the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival in New York on 22 April. Photo: AFP

Who would have thought that Ricky Gervais knew about the concept of “tyranny of distance"—that ill that ails journalism in India. But that’s exactly what his new film Special Correspondents, released on 29 April on Netflix, seems to be about. I’ve watched it, and would strongly recommend that all oh-so-earnest journalists and detractors of journalists should quickly get a Netflix account and sit down and watch Special Correspondents. It will give them the perfect solution to this great scourge.

Special Correspondents is written and directed by Gervais and is—despite many reviews which said they expected more from Gervais—simply delightful. It’s a remake of the 2009 French farce, Envoyés Très Spéciaux, and is a bitingly funny takedown of journalism, war reporting and how we love making heroes out of people. It reminded me a lot of Wag The Dog and of the James Franco-and-Seth Rogen-starrer The Interview, which was about two tabloid journalists (played by Franco and Seth Rogen) who land an interview with Kim Jon-Un in North Korea and who then get recruited by the CIA to bump off the Dear Leader while there.

Maybe I liked Gervais’s film more than other reviewers because I saw so much of the Indian media in it. And also because it highlights the charm of and skill required for radio journalism and radio news. The film will definitely make you rue the fact that there is no mainstream radio news in India, other than that salve for insomniacs—All India Radio. Whatever others may say, it’s after ages that I’ve seen such a hilarious, satirical, brilliant take on the vacuousness and intense competitiveness of what often defines “serious" journalism.

Eric Bana is local celebrity and radio journalist Frank Bonneville, who has a voice for radio and a face and body for celluloid. (The film also makes you rue another fact, that our journalists are sadly less Bana and more Gervais to look at.) As Bana’s boss describes him—“he’s an arrogant, selfish hack, who only survives because everyone thinks he’s a local celebrity". He’s cocky, over-confident and gives a damn for ethics and fancies himself as a bit of a Lothario. He also thinks that he’s made for better things than a local radio station in New York. Gervais is Ian Finch, Bana’s colleague and chief sound engineer, in a role he plays well—the sweet, slightly sad boring man who wants everyone to like him, and in this case has a wife Eleanor (Vera Farmiga), who can at best be called a mercenary cheating shrew. Farmiga has some of the most hilarious moments in the film.

Bana almost gets fired, but then has a chance at redemption when a rebel uprising takes place in Ecuador and he and Gervais are sent to cover it. Only problem? They don’t make it out of New York because of a certain twist of fate. So they stay in the city, holed up in a small room on top of a café across the road from the radio station. For fear of getting sacked if they go back to the radio station, the duo start reporting from there, creating a fake Ecuador (a country neither has ever been to) with sound effects.

Gervais sets up the room above the café to broadcast the news reports. The two owners of the café (played by America Ferrera and Raúl Castillo) are roped in to add to the sound effects by making Spanish-sounding noises in the background—which includes screaming “Enrique Iglesias" loudly. And this is where the fun really starts because you realise how easy it is to post a fake report, if you’re just slightly creative. It’s not that they repackage other people’s news. They actually create their own local stories. What we call “human interest stories"—about mothers mourning their dead children, villagers tending to an ailing Sergeant, sandstorms bringing life to a standstill. Poignant stuff which gets more and more creative and heart-wrenching with each report, delivered in Bana’s sotto voce. The reports are sombre and touching and are creations of Bana’s brain.

The film is bound to give many lazy journalists ideas on how to file reports on war zones or remote areas, without leaving their drawing rooms or air-conditioned offices. There’s no need to go to the Northeast or Dadri anymore. Just create your own fictional reports, replete with doctored videos and post them as on-ground reports. But do it with a touch of creativity.

The film has hilarious moments and great twists and turns in the storyline, so I won’t give them away. It’s a fabulous commentary on ethics and how far you’ll go to create news. Gervais plays the conscience, while Bana plays the conscience-less. When their reports start sounding repetitive, they decide to create a totally new news angle and make up a “scoop" about how the rebellion is being led by one man, a rebel leader. And then they just lightly suggest that this man may be funded by the US itself.

Which leads to everyone trying to cash in on this “breaking news" with news channels running with this story without proof. Then the newspapers getting in on the act, trying to claim ownership over it. And just when you’re laughing over that and seeing so many similarities with various instances of reportage in India, the duo’s fake news creates a diplomatic situation and the US government informs their radio station that it is going to extract them from Ecuador. Which is when they decide that if they can fake being in Ecuador, they can fake being taken hostage.

What follows is a comment on how quickly the media creates heroes, how estranged family members suddenly start publicly professing undying love for their kidnapped family members, and how the media milks a tragedy for all its worth even if means making their own employees being held hostage into a news peg. From Prince (the boy in the borewell, not the androgynous singer), to all those who gave interviews to the media about how much they loved their spouses during the Taj attacks, to family members who seem to become the face of a tragedy only to launch off on public celebrity lives of their own—this film will remind you of a lot.

Some of the best bits of the film are in the second half when both Gervais’s character and his wife’s come into their own—with moments where I was laughing out loud. There are some great lines such as when Gervais is reconsidering whether they should pretend to be kidnapped or not, and says, “That’s unethical though," and Bana replies matter of factly, “Yeah but it’s news." Or when Gervais comments on his own portly body and says, “I’m 25% fat. Which is more than some snacks."

The only depressing aspect of this film is that you realise we may never see such a hilarious and spot-on takedown of the media in Indian cinema. It’s not like crores were spent on this film. This is a film made on an extremely tight budget, which is fairly obvious when you see the sets and location shoots. If we go indie in India, we have to be earnest. It’s all very morbid and morose and full of pathos. Try and think of the last satirical film you saw coming out of Hindi cinema? And no, P.K. with its song and dance does not count just because The Conscience Of The Nation was acting in it. Even our satirical films are moralistic and preachy. And that’s the only thing to pity. Sadly for us, there’s nothing to laugh at in journalism in India. Other than that interview of Adhyayan Suman where the journalist made it sound like getting an interview with Baby Suman was as difficult as getting Deep Throat to spill the beans.

So watch Special Correspondents. It’s really fun cinema. It’s about the dregs and pitfalls of journalism and how people can go to any length to milk a tragedy for their own benefit. There’s no moralising here, but much to think about and guffaw at while doing so. And I’m sure it will be an inspiration to many a journalist.

You can watch Special Correspondents on Netflix.

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Published: 02 May 2016, 10:50 AM IST
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