In days of yore, MTV was about music: kids loved MTV Grind and parents were shocked by it, there was Headbangers Balls for hard rockers, shows for those that liked alternative music, those that enjoyed light trendy pop; in short it was music television. The music channels are now extended, never ending promos for upcoming Hindi films interspersed with a bunch of terrible reality shows. All pretense about it being about music has vanished. What was also unique about the music channels were their fillers: whacky, strange, uproarious, sometimes shocking, but always creative. They gave us classic lines such as We are like this only! and Mind it! Remember some of these classics?
This angry old man saying how I'm saying, how I'm saying had become a bit of an icon in his time. Here he is lambasting MTV’s then mainstay Cyrus Broacha; one of India’s original comics, the guy has been around a long time!
These little slice of life sketches really did make us want to administer one tight slap! We've all come across the petty public servant throwing their weight around; the guy talking loudly on his phone in the theatre, the annoying politician and more. So that is where the internet troll's go-to phrase came from!
The MTV fully faltoo series featured all the guys who impersonate famous actors and cricketers. Maybe the guys dreamed up the story lines sitting on the pot each morning; so random were they! They just made us go – kucch bhi!
Quick Gun Murugan; the Indian cowboy became a sensation at the time. So much so that years later a feature film spoofing the spoof character was made!
To provide an alternative to MTV, India came up with the homegrown version of the music channel; Channel V. Channel V made it their business to create funny promos with a distinctly desi tadka. Take a peek at the first of the Jawalkar Channel V promos.
Attractive, revolting, strange, fascinating, uproarious but hugely original. The MTV logos were a constant source of amusement and amazement. It was a time when the M in MTV stood for music; before they dropped the tagline Music Tele Vision. Whenever you switched on, you were likely to see an interesting video and hear a hummable song. In other words it was still about music; before the reality TV takeover.
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