Sunday 10 February 2013

CONTROVERSY'S BEST FRIEND - KAMAL HASSAN


Before even starting to write this peice, i asked myself, "Do I have to spend 3 odd hours and a few units of the abundantly available electricity, to write this piece??" and this silly thought was because, this topic was on it’s maximum high a few days ago. Almost everyone wrote on it, a few cursing, a few praising, and a few even raising up. The facebook news feed’s carried only this. Every top journalist at least mentioned about this somewhere in his post. And of course, the news channels too, were on a total high on this debate, and directly proportional to it was their TRP. Such was the fan following this scenario managed to achieve, and it was solely because of the man behind this issue and his incredible brain. This disturbing thought being on for quite sometime, I just re-collected everything that was hooked up with this issue and decided to go ahead with writing it. One more important factor that made me write this was my “engineering record note”. Just the thought of that made me switch on the computer and open ‘Microsoft word’.

You should have surely guessed by now, if not, then you are most probably some guy from mars or Jupiter.To start with, ‘Vishwaroopam’ befriended ‘cultural terrorism’ on it’s way, before hitting the screens. This unfruitful friendship yielded lots of sour fruits. This friendship was not quite surprising because, controversy is a long time ally of ‘Mr.Kamal Hassan’, the man behind Vishwaroopam. One would be surprised, only if a movie of his, releases without any sort of trouble. Only the form of trouble was the curiosity quotient.

In the past, Cultural terrorism has successfully managed to bring fame to two eminent artists; The late 'M.F.Hussain' and 'Salman Rushdie'. As a result of the latter’s familiarity promotion, a book of his was made into a movie. In our case of discussion here, the protest by self proclaimed minority Muslim groups temporarily managed to “ban” the movie, thanks to the T.N. government. And the reasons they stated, were rightly unknown to themselves. Their only aim was to gain popularity, and they managed to achieve it quite efficiently.

This drama made a few things certain

#  The people of Tamilnadu will always rise up and support a great artist and his creation but never for the electricity required to watch the creation. Of course they ll swear at the theatre operator if a electricity failure interrupts their show. But never beyond that .

#  Politics can test and tease even a man like Kamal Hassan with such ease, So don’t you dare raise your        voice against issues like electricity which are concerned with politics.

# And lastly, Vishwaroopam 2, without any doubt, is going to face it's dose of trouble.As a result, the first two steps are going to be occuring once again.

The best part is, after the high dramatic fight, the result achieved was utter stupidity. A mere few dialogues were muted. And look at the brilliance here, these dialogues were very well known to the public even before watching the film, because the opposition parties told it in every media possible. What’s the point here ??   Don’t think too much, I know you won’t, but still, you can never arrive at a definite answer. Such is the beauty of this very place we live in.

After watching this mind-blowing movie, I was told by a friend of mine to write on it. As a result, I sat out patiently through my 2 hour power cut and ended up with this piece.

Saturday 9 February 2013

A tribute to God's Own Country !

The lush green mountains, the step terraced farmlands on those mountainous slopes, the narrow winding roads, fog-filled early dawn, leaves with droplets waiting for the warmth of the morning sun, The complete calmness and serene beauty, are all what this human eye could perceive sitting in a car and riding through the roads of god's own country.
It's around 5 in the morning and rolling down of the window, just rewards me with a chill breeze brushing my face violently and sending my hair up, almost immediately. The smell of rain blended with that of the sand and the malayalam language is something that is out of explanation.


On the way further, our car stops for a chayya break. The cold weather makes me shiver and cross-hands,  desperately trying to cover myself from the biting cold wind. There is just this one chayya shop open in the otherwise deserted road and we are the only customers there except for the flock of pigeons coo-ing nearby.
The chai-walla famously known here as nayar , sporting a flat streak of sandal wood paste in his forehead, is briskly onto his work. Few minutes and a couple of cars pass by, before i am handed with a cup of hot tea.My shivering hands desperately hold on to the hot glass . The hot vapor rising from the glass is eaten up by the weather almost instantly and the tea is waiting to be drunk as he too cant stand the cold . The small break ending right there, our car proceeds further. 


The sunrises slowly providing the much-awaited warmth and the vehicle rides past a temple. And thank god for the small traffic, for this is where i witnessed the "bold and the beautiful"; The absolute gorgeous mallu girls in their complete traditional costume. Their wet hair fresh from bath and dark eyeliners are stunning examples of  divine beauty.The men with their silk 'mund' and the 'chandanam' are marvellous examples of masculinity. The entire place was filled up with an incense, for which i could find no words to explain. The heavenly sounds from the traditional instrument "chanda" fills the air with holiness. Time had no mercy for me and was at its maximum pace. The near 5 minute stop had loads of things to be admired and looked upon.
This place is one of nature's pet as it fills everybody with an awe. The roads are always clean, A sight of green almost everywhere, The pride in the people never too high, never too low. 'Respect'- right there and 'humility'- of course, without any doubt. All these delights make me come to this place time and again, and i thoroughly cherish every minute of my presence, in the lap of god's own country !