Dear Blog,
Yesterday, someone sent me a link to a “documentary” and urged me to watch it because, apparently, it was “very well made.”
Nowadays, hardly anything in the media is “very well made”, but I decided to watch it anyway.
I could not get past the first five minutes.
And there were many reasons for that. Frankly, I was surprised I even lasted five minutes watching that crap. Maybe because the sender belongs to GenZzzz, and I try to humour them whenever I can.
So it started with a few faces flashing on the screen. Media people. Their mouths were moving, but I hardly registered anything they said, because, to be honest, I do not respect them enough to lend them an ear.
Even those few flashes of their faces were enough to ruin my mood.
But I continued.
These media persons — or “anchors,” as they are politely called — are famous for taking money and selling any product to their viewers. I do not know if there is a specific name for such people. Maybe one day I will come up with one.
Anyhoo, I moved forward through the filth, sorry I meant the ‘film’.
There were some slick drone shots. Then a few more people appeared — even more cringe than normal. That is when I paused and checked the channel owner.
The channel was called “PakistanTV – Digital.”
To tell you the truth, that was the first thing I wanted to check, because this GenZzzz sender is, in my book, pretty biased. But I thought, fine, whatever. Maybe PakistanTV was some new YouTube channel. Maybe some upcoming YouTuber had decided to make documentaries.
But then I found out.
PakistanTV is PTV.
More cringe.
Which meant this was not a documentary. This was a paid media PR campaign, promoting all the cringe people as “saviours” of the nation.
The video had been uploaded three weeks ago and had reached only 96,000 views.
Imagine that.
A state-sponsored video, made with state resources, slick editing, nice makeup, polished accents, and all the fanfare in the world — and the reach was what?
Ninety-six thousand views in three weeks.
I mean, it would have been better not to make the video at all. Better to disappear quietly than go through the humiliation of unpopularity and zero traction.
If you are calling something a “documentary,” and that too a “well-made” one, then at least check what kind of reach actual “well-made documentaries” get.
Frankly speaking, the topic itself was of interest to me. Maybe that is why I lasted 5 minutes. It was about the war with India in 2025. We did kick some ass there. But there are still some questions that remain unanswered, mostly because of the blanket blackout of truth from India. Which only shows how badly bruised they still are.
But things will remain hidden, as they usually do nowadays.
And these stupid “documentaries” will keep coming out. Stupid people will keep forwarding me stuff. Five minutes of my life will keep getting wasted. And then I will have a headache for the next three or four days because those stupid faces will keep flashing in front of me.
Anyhoo, that is life, isn’t it?
If I did not have such experiences, I would not be coming here and blogging about them.
And regarding this topic of interest, I probably would have to wait for a book that comes along, and I am able to fill in the missing pieces. Till then.
Cheeeku Paanta