Chotta Bheem

hridhaya · Jan 30, 2015

Hi all,

Someone forwarded me this article about Chotta Bheem cartoon today. I am sharing it here.

Chhota Bheem, as a mother I have Bada Problems with you

I completely agree the views of the author and find it as a mediocre cartoon.What are your views and do you endorse this cartoon?

Shanvy · Jan 30, 2015

@hridhaya dear i have not seen the article, but i am sure i can understand what would be there, will read it later.

in general, i am against the quality of cartoons these days. be it the concepts, or the language. i really thank god that my kids are not watching them.

chillbreeze · Jan 30, 2015

Hridhaya, I don't have a kid yet. But I am more familiar than I want to be with Chota Bheem. Thanks to my sil's son who is 4.5 years old and spends the evenings and weekends at our house. I just want to share my experience on how it adversely affects children.

He starts watching it by 4-4.30 as soon as he comes from school and continues till 9.30 till he leaves to his home. In between, he will switch to Motu Patlu and Ninja Hattori.

I too have noticed the blatant sterotyping in these cartoon series. They even tease/comment on other characters (especially girls) who are not size zero. In a show I saw few days back, they showed boys ogling at girls (in bikinis), friend of the hero trying to figure out how to get the girl like him, and the hero cartoon character advising him how to make other boys look bad in front of him so that the girl will be impressed. In between, the bad boys will be beaten up by the good boys and team.

Now, I know my sil's son since last 2 years. He must have been 2.5 at that time. He has been watching this ever since I came to this home. He has issues with speech delay and only in the last month or so he has started talking a sentence with 3-4 words. Guess what he talks nowdays, "adichu thuvasam panniduvaen", "shut up your mouth (in tamil), unnai theethu kattituduvaen, etc etc. He says all this to my fil, his grandfather and keeps punching the poor man. He still doesn't respond if we ask him about his day at school or any other questions or tell the rhymes. The only sentences he speaks of his own accord is sentences like above which he hears in tv.

This incident happened today morning. He left our house by yesterday 9.45pm, went to his home,slept, and came back by 8.30am as soon as he woke. I asked him did you sleep well, where did you go yesterday night(I was expecting he will say he went to his home). He replied that he went to a forest and saw snakes and the snakes tried to bite him. Then he mentioned, kalia was imprisoned by someone in jail and bheem went to save him. I don't know whether the second part was a dream or he saw that in tv. My sil also said he got frightened during sleep and was saying save me. I think its because of too much watching of these cartoons.

hridhaya · Jan 30, 2015

@shanvy thanks for your reply. I too feel that there is dearth in the number of good quality Indian cartoons that can be watched together as a family. Most of them lack finesse and imagination and depict ridiculing as fun. Even the TV serials are no better. Simply feed trash in children's mind. It is sad that they are projected as the best based on trp without proper review or transparent rating as seen in commonsense media.org. Same holds true for the books and games based on these shows. No stimulation of mind.

@chillbreeze you said it all. I simply can't understand how the children would grow up to be responsible adults if they watch such programs. When I watched few episodes of the show for the first time, I was appalled at the amount of violence and bad language used by the characters. After few months, we discontinued kids cable channels and bought another device that would stream youtube videos on TV and introduced some good cartoons to our DD. Initially she acted as if we did her some injustice but settled down later.

It is clear that your nephew is addicted to the show. Try to discuss with his parents that this amount of TV watching would not help him as he begins going to school.

guesshoo · Jan 30, 2015

Sounds horrendous, CB! Have you spoken to his mum about this?

Hridhaya, when I was in india recently the grandparents kept trying to turn on kids tv for my preschooler. The content was insipid, uninspiring, politically incorrect and down right offensive. Especially Chota Bheem. So these kids are just staying alone by themselves with no adults? And what's with the laddoos? Why not apples or even spinach like Popeye?

After several attempts to try watching various shows I sort of decided youtube with its Mickey mouse clubhouse, peppa pig etc were much better anyday...

isn't there a censor or guidance board for all tv shows? I didn't bother about it back then; now if there is somewhere we can complain, I'd love to do so.

chillbreeze · Jan 31, 2015

Hridhaya and Gueshoo, both my sil and her husband are well educated and know the adverse effects tv is having on their son. Even my pils know how this addiction is wrong as they read related articles in newspapers. To top it all, my nephew's class teacher has given the same feedback to sil and asked her to change his habits in all pta meetings and even in some follow up phone calls. Despite knowing the problem, no one wants to think of a way to solve it. Tv keeps the kid out of their hair and hence they just let him watch it. I haven't talked to my sil about it as she is very sensitive about him and his speech issues. But I see a good improvement in him nowdays. Only if his parents focus on him a bit more...

When I have time, I try to divert him but it is very hard. Today morning he came by 8.30 and as soon as he came he told I want to see Chota bheem and gave the remote to mil. She switched it on and now it will continue till 9-9.30 pm. I made dosas for him and tried to make him eat by himself. He still doesn't eat or even drink milk by himself. I want him to learn to eat by himself. He was so engrossed in tv and didn't want to take his eyes off it to see the plate. Then mil came and fed him while he was watching tv.:bang

Again today there was a show, where a girl is being kidnapped in a horse by villain and 2 boys rushing to her help and in another show, the boy trying to impress girl and bad boy trying to spoil it.

I also have to say, even if we don't let kids watch cartoon, they pick up stuff from other channels we watch. Another bil's kids (twins) can sing any item song you name along with the exact dance steps and they scold their parents and GPs in bad words if they say anything. It all depends on the situation around children. They just absorb everything without us even being aware of it. Then when we realize it becomes too late to change their habits.

Sorry I am writing essays here. But I really feel frustrated that children are getting affected because of the fault of parents. In both instances, I mentioned there are many ways to handle children effectively but parents don't want to put in the effort and then blame the children when teacher complains about them.

vjbunny · Jan 31, 2015

Hridaya
I agree with Shanvy the quality of almost all tv programmes except educatuional ones are degrading wish we would move back to those days there was only one channel n no addicting shows

guesshoo · Jan 31, 2015

CB dear, I do feel for you! I totally can understand your frustration; just reading your post has gotten me all worked up.

Yes, I am known to judge too quickly and harshly especially when it comes to parenting; i still wonder what's it with these people who have kids but refuse to parent them? We really need a super nanny kind of show in India (tv is really the best way to reach these larents, ironically) and spread awareness about right parenting. I have had it within my own family where people have said, "who has the time to talk calmly to kids and interact with them? They get all the interaction and exposure they need in school" excuse me?????

tv and iPads and smart phones are just being used as substitute parents. Don't even go there about how long the darn tv Is on! Why does it have to be on blaring its nonsense from 6 am to 10 pm?? I am a big anti-tv nazi given the amount of nonsense it seems to spout these days. Like Ansuya had said in one of her posts long back, first adults need to control their urge to turn on gadgets...

Sorry for hijacking your thread, OP!

hrastro · Jan 31, 2015

So true !!!

It is amazing how easily these visual effects color the little ones minds!

I myself never switch on TV! Only during lunch time, if I'm alone at home and some vegetarian cooking show is coming on - I'll switch it on for some company

My son has a time limit of 1/2 hour - exactly one single episode of pokemon - as soon as he's home - he'll change clothes, put away his bag/lunch box, wash and have evening dinner all while watching TV!

It is not only the quality of the parenting and the quality of the said program - the kids have a peer pressure to discuss the cartoon - and it changes every few months - previous year it was ninja hatori - they used to make those paper ninja blades and tranformer blades, the last year my son used to watch doremon and craft out names for him and his friends based on Geronimo Stilton!!
This year it is Pokemon names and their types and cards collections !

They "have to keep up with the Joneses" ha ha ha

How I differentiate is - apart from the TV programs that he enjoys like other school kids, I make enough good books available to read, give them homework on some topic to study and explain, ask them to write articles, I have discussions with my son about Life, Desire, Being in Action, Capabilities and Courage, About our history, great scientists, leaders and also about the Gita, Ramayana, Bhagawatam, Mahabharata etc...
I get him to participate in household work and when my maths students are with me, he will also sit along and do his studies!

I feel that if I involve the kids in my life and activities and limit their TV time, they'll not be so influenced by the cartoons they watch !!! Only time will tell if I'm right

chillbreeze · Jan 31, 2015

Guesshoo I can't agree with you more. Just seeing him infront of tv daily raises my bp. What irritates me most is sil and others keeping a long face and crying (really crying) when he gets a negative feedback from his school and taking it out on him. I mean he is a kid, what does he know about grades and behavioral issues and stuff. How does hitting him help?As adults, is it not our responsibility to set a better example for him. Pooh...why i am even wasting my time here. I am just glad that seeing these incidents makes me determined to be a better parent.