Through the Corridors of Uncertainty......

Soup Boys Down Under

2012-01-22T12:09:00.000+05:30

With theIndian cricket fan screaming from the rooftops of social networks and baying for the blood of the humbledIndian cricketer, the UPA Government finally caved in and formed an expert committee to probe into the pathetic performanceof the Men in Blue in Australia. Disrupting the monthly aestivation period ofthe MPs, an emergency session of the Parliament was called despite threats from Agent Fog and Agent Snow, and it was unanimously agreed through a voice vote that while cricketwill take its own course, the Parliament must do what it is expected to do –setup committees.

A four memberworking group was setup in due haste with Rahul Gandhi as the Chairperson and self-nominatedloud mouths Suhel Seth, Asaduddin Owaisi and Arindam Chaudhari as its members. Suhel’sability to mumble incessantly, when placed in front of a TV camera or amicrophone, on sensitive topics like the mating habits of ostriches or the folkdances of Andaman was considered a plus point. Owaisi’s standing as a modern rabid fanatic Muslim who swears by his beard and is inspired by the gentle Taliban provided the secular perspective that Governmental committees needed while Arindam's reputation which soared after the success of his classic Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch (described by The New Yorker as a work of post-modern surrealistic pastiche existential angst) gave the committee the intellectual celebrity quotient that it needed to make it acceptable to gossip hungry audience, whoswore by the Mumbai Mirror.

In response to critics questioning Rahul Gandhi’s cricketing acumen to head this panel, Congress spokeswomanRenuka Chowdary, in her animated petite coquettish style, bloviated thatRahul was a natural leader and had captained the Toddlers United when it toured Guinea-Bissau as part ofhis granny’s efforts to promote democracy in the mid-70s. Unfortunately, since nostatistics were available in Cricinfo to prove this claim, this could not beverified prompting Arun Jaitley to remark that Rahul Gs chequered career as abatsman was only limited to ducking Opposition bouncers and he was as cluelessabout the sport as Katrina Kaif was about acting.

Nevertheless,acting with an exaggerated sense of responsibility, the committee (christened Kingfisher India Against Cricket or IAC in short) made a trip to Napier immediatelyafter the Perth debacle. An ocean facing villa was taken on rent with a facilityto travel daily to Australia to carry out the investigation; critics whopointed out they were too far away to do any meaningful work were scoffed at byangry Mumbaikars who said that it takes more time to travel from Virar toChurchgate and such an opinion was an insult to the famed resilience of the MarathiManus.

The monthlong secret assignment by the IAC was covered extensively by the local newschannels and India’s biggest entertainment channel Times Now. Videos of thepanel members in various strip bars and pubs were widely circulated on YouTube,demonstrating the serious nature of the trip. The committee went around thelength and breadth of Australia, spoke to the Twitterati, fans and the cricketersthemselves and finally returned home to a grand welcome. Fearing the ire of theever vigilant Election Commission, they were immediately frisked away by Home Ministryofficials at the Delhi Airport to ensure that no information was leaked to thepublic.

Nevertheless, ~~uninformed sources~~ Wikileaks revealed that a copy of the slim 700 pagereport had found its way mysteriously into the lap of Arnab Goswami, the barking powerhouse conscience of the Indian media. We managed to bribe Arnab Sir and get a copy of the glossy looking report titled SoupBoys Down Under with a cover page photo of Dhoni's boys regaling themselves in a drunken stupor (The Hangover?) and Clarke pulling the strings (of his guitar) to the tune of Why this Kolaveri, Mite (sic)?

Tendulkar’sperennial wait for his 100^th ton received wide coverage in thereport. The IAC analyzed hundreds of videos of SRT, probed through all thewidely trending discussions on Twitter, spoke to Aussie fans high on beer andfinally concluded that there was an international conspiracy behind this (specifically not an Italian hand). As a oneman entertainment industry who still caused dedicated office goers like 'Kodali' Dasan and 'Kattapurathu' Vilasini to bunk work and watch Test Cricket, there was widespread fear that the moment, the ton-ton was reached, he would retire, peoplewould switch off TV sets and start living normal lives and even be misled by the senile St. Anna.

Thereport suggested a cartel comprising democratic governments and media channelshad paid off cricket boards across countries to prevent this catastrophe fromhappening in the cricket world. The IAC, however, recommended that SRT must begiven an honorary ton, his name changed to Ton-dulkar and gifted a Bharat Ratnaso that he can ride to the sunset gracefully.

Itbranded the seniors of the team as the Axis of Discontent who were determinednot to contribute in Australia due to jealousy in the team over the share of brandendorsements that the captain had captured which was totally disproportionate tohis abject dismal performances. Plotting abewildering assortment of graphs and curves that would put even Vidya 'Entertainment' Balan toshame, the report showed how the seniors spent more time planning their post-retirementfinancial strategy than the actual playing strategy. The IAC also lambasted theselectors for modeling the team on a Brahmin Bania party like the BJP with minimumminority representation and suggested that they follow the England model whichhad a global all inclusive multi-racial line up.

The IACabsolved the team of its inability to face the rising ball, saying that thatif the Finance Minister had no clue on how to handle rising interest rates, how couldyou single out the Indian team for a similar folly? The report attributed the lethargy shown by the team on the field to poor dietary practices and suggested that the solution to this may lie in Arindam Chaudhari's forthcoming book Count Your Wickets Before They Fall. The book advocates an Arindam diet comprising Beef and Toad Legs Soup, concocted with aphrodisiacs from China (can't just ignore those bu****s) and sprinkled with cow urine to help cricketers to rise to the occasion and deliver; this delicacy is reportedly being served in IIPM canteens (except in Madhya Pradesh) to encourage students to dream beyond the IIMs.

Thereport also underlined the importance of following the stars in the sky than inthe team while deciding on cricket schedules. Quoting renowned astrologerAttukal Radhakrishnan, it said that the tour had been played when the Saturnwas in retrograde in the 7th House – an inauspicious time to travel abroad. Itrecommended that a full time astrologer should be part of the Board so thatsuch mistakes do not happen again. Additionally, it was pointed out thatplaying an important Test Series in the midst of the World Go KartingChampionship was a blunder (especially with some of the cricketers havingstakes in it) and the Board had not done its homework properly while preparing theitinerary.

Toimprove the team morale, the IAC report made several other recommendationsincluding banning all Indian cricket jokes in the social space, doing away withpost-match press conferences when the team loses, inclusion of the cricket teamunder the Janlokpal to ensure accountability (to placate the real IAC members miffed at not being nominated to the panel), increasing the teamstrength to include a PR Manager, an investment adviser and a fashionconsultant to take care of the interests of the players and present them inproper light, cross-culture training for youngsters like Kohli and IshantSharma (they had assumed that the middle finger salute was a way to cheer crowds in this part of the world) and veryimportantly, recalling Poonam Pandey as the Brand Ambassador of the team (Fansmay recall her inspiring presence in the World Cup but since it is widelybelieved that she only exists virtually, this may not be possible toimplement).

Anadditional point was added in fine print at the bottom of the reportrecommending that the IAC be made a Constitutional body and allowed to tagalong with the team in all future foreign junkets. Rumours suggest that this may be theonly recommendation that will be accepted when the report is tabled in theHouse since Constitutional bodies are widely accepted as the only Game Changersin this country. Also, the general opinion is that after plummeting to such depths, we can only go up now, as Virat Kohli had indicated so gracefully to the Sydney crowd.

The report contents are too damaging to reveal and so only selectiveportions of the report have been leaked here; readers may keep in mind thatcare is also being taken not to hurt the sentiments of the Loyal Indian CricketFan –a species that is rap(b)idly going extinct. Since most of the report talks about either Owaisi defending Salman Rushdie's right to offend the Prophet or Suhel Seth’s discovery of thepromiscuous nature of Australian women or Arindam Chaudhari’s management quotes, we used our discretion and decided to publish only thecricketing facts and be loyal to the oldest profession in the world………. journalism.

Image Courtesy - http://www.cartoonistsandeep.com/post_detail.php.php?id=MAYAY1303381443MAYA4db005c3cfce9

A Question of Food Security

2012-01-08T23:48:00.001+05:30

Amidst all thebrouhaha of the Lokpal Bill, the UPA Govt has introduced arguably an ultra-ambitiousfood security programme that strives to put food into the thalis of lakhs offamished Indians. The Bill was introduced in the Parliament and referred to theStanding Committee immediately. It has far reaching implications but has notattracted sufficient national attention or media eye balls, like the Lokpal,maybe because it deals with hunger – a theme that has lesser TRPs.

So what does the NationalFood Security Bill provide for? The present draft of the Bill seeks to providelegal entitlement of food grain to 75% of the rural population and 50% of theurban population. Eligible householdswill be divided into two categories – priority and general – wherein thepriority group will consist of atleast 46 percent of the rural population and28 percent of the urban population. BPL (priority) families will be entitled toa monthly provision of 7 kg food grain per person and APL (general) familieswill be eligible to 3 kg per person, at half the Minimum Support Price. The 7 kgwill comprise rice for Rs 3 /kg, wheat for Rs 2/kg and coarse grains for Re1/kg.

In addition to this,the bill envisages maternity benefit of 1000 Rs per month for 6 months forpregnant women and lactating mothers, free or affordable meals to destitute,homeless and disaster-affected persons and nutritional meals for children upto14 years. In effect, this would translate subsidies worth almost Rs 1 lakhcrore for close to 75% of our population (an additional cost of 40,000 croreover the existing food subsidy Bill of 60,000 crore, making it 1.25% of the GDP.

The Bill in itscurrent form looks like a Utopian drug that doctors would like to administerto a dying patient so that he is up the next day. The moral imperative behind such a law isagreed to by everyone; a country with 45% malnourished children and a lowlyranking of 66 among 88 countries on the World Hunger Index, below even sub-Saharancountries is a pretty damning statistic! The problem of hunger is a nationalshame and so while we must be careful of the fiscal implications of such asolution, a decision cannot be driven by economics alone – what is the pricethat we can pay for a human who dies of hunger?

To quote Sainath -

The corporate giveaway in the currentIndian budget is 18-19 billion dollars in direct income tax and if you addother corporate concessions under excise and customs, it crosses over a hundredbillion US dollars. According to UNDP, that’s the amount you require every yearto solve all the basic problems of the human race. But the same Indian budgetcuts 4,500 million rupees from food security. Last year the same amount, nearly10,000 million rupees had disappeared in 24 months from food subsidies in a countrywhich has the largest number of hungry people in the world.

The primary concern of the Bill deals with identification of the target groups to whom the scheme is to bedirected at. Umpteen committees like the Tendulkar Committee, NC SaxenaCommittee, the Planning Commission (remember the 32 Rs starvation line) andother smaller groups have come up with figures which quote differentdefinitions of what it means to be poor in this country. The Bill has left it tothe wisdom of the Govt and the Parliament to sort this out but the experienceof the Lokpal does not indicate that the Parliament has any Solomons to providesolutions. Until we really know the quantum of people to whom the scheme istargeted, the real cost and strategy required to handle this cannot beestimated.

Nandan Nilekani’s UIDProject (which still has no Parliamentary law to back it) has run into roughweather and the Standing Committee on Finance has come down heavily on it for beinga badly designed scheme with no clear objectives. The Home Minister is notcomfortable with its working and the socio-economic and caste census todetermine eligibility is well behind schedule.

One way out of thistarget based conundrum suggested by most experts is in looking at the success story of the Universal PDS popularized by Tamil Nadu. Here, population segregation for distribution of grains has been done away with and everyfamily in the state, BPL or not, has a colour-coded card that entitles it todraw rice under PDS with a provision that those under the ‘needy’ category geta larger amount than the others. The task of minimizingdiversion and reaching rice to about 2 crore cardholders across 31,439 outletsin 32 districts is being carried out using technological interventions, drawing up innovativefool-proof delivery mechanisms, proper policing, surprise checks and constantreviews, efficient supply chainmanagement system including a GPS tracking of trucks carrying food grains totackle pilferage and fixing responsibility at each.

The FSB requires largescale foodgrain procurement, storage planning and construction, creation of adistribution system from scratch and strengthening the existing PDS. Currently,the Government procures close to 52 million tonnes of food grains every yearand the new entitlement would lead to an enhanced requirement of close to 25million tonnes. Such a massive exercise of procurement and distribution will behandled by the Food Corporation of India but does it have the capacity andlogistics to handle such large volumes? When food grains go rotting every year due to storage problems, where will this additional procurement go?This is assuming that every grain offood procured is actually distributed to the stakeholders - RBI data showsclose to 50% leakage in the PDS and corruption estimates of around 20,000 croreevery year! Reforming the existing leaking PDS structure is probably a betterthing to do than rather than increasing its size beyond controllable limits.

Govt data about adecade back estimates the cost of procuring wheat at 134 Rs/quintal andtransportation of the same at 289 Rs – a massive expenditure involved merely inthe to and fro movement of food among states! Does the Centre have to beinvolved in such an activity? Each State must decide the best way to carry outsuch programmes locally and even here, a decentralized design where the GramaPanchayats can act as the agent to carry out these activities will ensure alower cost and proper delivery to people. Schemes like free kitchens run by villagers and mid-day meal have done more than any Central driven scheme in handling the issue. States like Chhattisgarh and Gujarat have devised working mechanisms like door step delivery and computerised PDS which can be emulated in the rest of the country.

Alternate solutions inthe form of food coupons or cash transfers directly to the needy have also beendiscussed. Bihar uses a system of food coupons which unfortunately has verylittle to show because of the corruption nexus between dealers and Govtofficers while the cash transfer scheme is largely untested in India. Access tobanks and markets is still pretty low in rural India and so the cash transferis possibly too early an option but it makes sense to run pilots based on theseschemes in various regions so that empirical data is present while making afinal decision.

There is also a largerquestion of whether hunger and poverty can be eradicated by legally ensuringdole outs in this manner. The adage of ‘teaching a man to fish rather thangiving him fish’ is equally relevant; state interventions which put grains orcash in the hands of struggling individuals can only ensure that they cansurvive but in the long run, they are dependenton the State to bail them out. Dipali Rastogi, Commissioner – Food Supplies(M.P.) writing in the Indian Express refers to South Korea’s Saemaeul movementwhere the Govt strived to eliminate absolute poverty through harnessing thelabour of the poor to carry out development and infrastructure projects –something on the lines of NREGS but in the form of incentive-based programmesto fund high capital concrete development of villages instead of beneficiarybased entitlements that provide no incentive to tackle the real problem.

There is a danger thatany discussion on this Bill will degenerate into a fight between the rich andthe poor. It is imperative that we put aside the political background of theBill and judge it purely what it is trying to implement – right or wrong can bedebated even without judging the affiliations of the people who have draftedit. Most of us agree with the fact that it is a well-intentioned bill but thenas they say ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions’ and it needs all the debate it can to make it effective..

There is no readymade consensus strategy to combat this alarming situation – the Left talks about Govtsubsidizing food similar to wages for labour in NREGS while the Right talksabout growth being the only natural panacea to deal with the problem (actually, looking at the way FDI in Retail and the Pension Bill have gone, the current polity looks too confused to decide on whether they are on the right or left side of the debate). Thesolution has to lie somewhere in between, similar to all other solutions thatIndia needs to tackle its gargantuan problems.

Image Courtesy - http://www.cartoonistsandeep.com/post_detail.php.php?id=MAYAR1324784812MAYA4ef69cac848fc

Beautiful

2011-12-18T17:06:00.000+05:30

AnoopMenon has a fascination for moral anarchy and his movies stretch the elasticityof marriage before releasing it just at the end to allow the institution tosurvive the stress of the demands on it. Just as an unmarried Stephen Louis(Jayasurya) questions the sanctity of relationships in his column in the women’smagazine he writes for, eligible bachelor Anoop Menon probes it on thelarger screen – both of them have the benefit of objectivity while looking atit.

Mohan Lalin Pakal Nakshatrangal is extremely callous and skeptical about relationships,Anoop Menon in Cocktail looks for fun outside marriage while Jayasurya in Beautiful knows that he has no future in a marriage and Praveena suggests that ‘marriage is just a license for an extra-marital affair’.

StephenLouis is a lonely millionaire who does not allow his physical limitations toundermine his state of mind. He spends most of his life on a wheelchair andknows that the people around him only care for his wealth but reckons that thiswealth ensures that he has nothing to worry about. He does not ask for anysympathy and is content to enjoy the beauty of life in his own puckish andvoyeuristic style, impishly smiling his way through it.

A chanceencounter with a struggling artiste John (Anoop Menon) in a restaurant draws Stephen to him. John needs money to financehis music album and sister's education and he is willing to play the role of a singer-cum-friend but soon, they manage to cement a deepfriendship. Their idyllic life goes on without ripples until the beautifulAnjali (Meghna Raj) appears on screen.

And whatan appearance she makes! As Stephen and John watch Jayakrishnan visualizing the wet and beautiful frame of Clara amidst heavy rain and Johnson’s haunting musicin the immortal Thoovanathumbikal, a rain-drenched Anjali makes an appearanceon the screen that leaves them gaping in wonder at the sight of this enticingseductive woman. No words are exchanged and the silence says it all and thedirector breaks off for the interval followed by a funny reference to the song Anjali Anjali. Picture perfect!!!

Stephenand John share a wonderfully unique chemistry that is brought to life by the humour in the script. IfThoovanathumbikal brings Anjali, the director uses Sholay to welcome John intohis life. The need for such a friendship is conveyed but there are no greatwords exchanged – it is simply implicit.

Theirlives are a perfect contrast – a carefree differently abled millionaire who hasno qualms about what the future has in store for him and a struggling artistwho is worried about an uncertain future. One man’s need for company is matchedby the other’s need for money but over a period of time, the relationship growsmulti-fold and John is reluctant to tap his friend for his fiscal problems. Stephendemands no sympathy and is keen to love life in the companyof somebody who can be trusted but John has his own demons to be exorcised.

Now thismay have been a melodramatic tear-jerker or even a feel good story of touchingfriendship but the plot takes a quick turn towards the end turning into a crimecaper. The movie has an airiness of a dark, quirky little short story set in a remote little town in Europe. Now transport this backdrop to Kochi and visualize the plot and it works quite well (the feel of a Coen Brothers film sans the violence).

The climax arrives quite suddenly reminding me of the Hitchcockclassic Rope where the whodunit mystery is unraveled in the spur of the moment.(I am not comparing it to any Hitchcock movie but simply recording what I feltwhile watching the climax). However the film sputters when it tries to manufacture motives fordifferent characters to commit a crime. The director makes a deliberate attemptto mislead the audience by playing up the troubles of the surrounding cast andtheir actions but this is not convincing. But to be fair to VK Prakash, thewhodunit part is not the most important part of the narrative but just aculmination of events that drive the plot that far.

Beautiful lives up to its name as we soak in the splendor of a world that is extremelybeautiful. The camera repeatedly stares at Stephen’s spotlessly white mansionwhich is lashed frequently by the spraying rain; John lives in a furniture shopbut the interiors have a classy feel, the lens lingers lovingly over aravishing Anjali accentuating her beauty, the music wafts gently on the surface (lyrics by Anoop himself) and the rain sweeps across unhurriedlycreating an atmosphere that is at once dark but blissful.

It rains incessantlyin the movie but the rain is not a disturbance, it builds the atmosphere gentlyand creates an aura of lush emotions which are unexplored and gentle (whetherit is Stephen experiencing rain for the first time or when it caresses Anjali as it comes down). This external beauty is however in contrast to themoral ambiguity of its characters who have their own dilemmas and compulsionsin life which mars their beauty.

The movieis sensuous but the sensuousness lurks in the background and the camera doesnot play Peeping Tom. Witness the scene where Anjali takes bath; wehear the sounds of the door opening and closing and the water splashing,coupled with a brilliantly rendered dialogue (Nee kulichivo da..illa..Njanumkulichitilla..Aval kuli thodangi...). Or when Stephen stares in anticipation atthe maid Kanyaka (Tesni Khan in a nice little cameo) mopping the floor, thesong Poykayil from Rajashilpi plays on the TV screen; no skin show or double meaningdialogues is used but the intensity of the male desire is conveyed effortlessly.

Beautiful is beautifully written and there is no torrential downpour of words when adrizzle is needed (in contrast to The Dirty Picture); infact, it is quiteeconomical with words. Short pauses, lingering music and a moody backgroundshowcase the emotions. John and Anjali share very few words and even when heproposes, it is an abrupt on the spot reaction that is unanticipated. John,Anjali and Stephen form an odd little alliance, with sexuality bursting at itsseams and when it finally ruptures at the end, there is a certain irreverence inthe way it is accepted.

Through Beautiful, AnoopMenon cocks a snook at morality in Kerala, without being too judgmental. In his own words – ‘There are people who arestill strung to obsolete principles of morality, about what should be welcomedand what should be ostracized. But we too have changed with time and theaverage Malayali too is aware of the switch in social scenario. The Malayaliwho has read OV Vijayan and VKN knows about all the shades of life. Only aminority sticks to the format of primordial morality and the rest are ready toface life as it is. For me Beautiful is a revolt against the moral norms setby this minority.’

Beautifulis yet another New Generation Malayalam movie, continuing the trend of Traffic,Salt N’Pepper and Chappa Kurishu – movies that are creating a new grammarin Malayalam cinema..Does the redemption of Malayalam cinema lie in its youth and urban roots?

The Dirty Picture

2011-12-06T22:34:00.001+05:30

There isa scene in The Dirty Picture when Reshma urf Silk tells her bête noiredirector Abraham that movies sell only because of three reasons - ‘Entertainment,Entertainment and Entertainment’. It isa dialogue that probably symbolizes what director Milan Luthria has in mindwhen he creates this supposed biopic that would have unraveled the phenomenoncalled ‘Silk Smitha’.

TheDirty Picture is supposed to be India’s answer to Boogie Nights (atleastthat’s what Ekta Kapoor would like us to believe) but it limits itself to Silk's ascent. The movie invests inentertainment – it has loads of punch lines which ensures that every minute theaudience has something to holler about and Vidya Balan has the chutzpah tocarry out the role with aplomb. But beyond the entertainment, it fails tocreate an emotional connect to the character – her tragedy is a private one(just like in real life) and it’s a pity that while the director takes interestto show her rise to the top, he is not too keen to help us understand thedecline. It’s a bumpy fall that happens suddenly and no explanations are sought– the audience is expected to understand that what goes up comes down one day.

The difficultyof making a movie that speaks in one language and telling a story in another creates an identity crisis. It’s worth wondering whether the movie had to be based in Tamil Naduwhen the only thing that seemed Tamil were the posters, hoardings, costumes ofthe supporting cast and junior artists while all the main characters seemed torevel comfortably in Hindi (the way names like Muthu and Selvaganesh are pronouncedis annoying).The movie speaks in Hindi (and I don’t mean the dialogues) andexudes the language in all references which are divorced from the realities ofwhat you see on the screen.

Since adecision was made to base it in the South, the movie attempts to create the the Tamil tinsel world of the 80s. But Milan is not interested indepicting reality; you see it is entertainment that he is after. So, what emerges is essentially Bollywood cloaked in the guise of Tamil cinema and the result is a mishmash that purely entertains. Stereotypes abound and caricatures role the roost but Silk is an exception; she sounds impeccable even in English despite her not so urbane background. Suryakanth (Naseeruddin Shah) is an aging superstarwith numerous amorous escapades who looks like a wannabe Quick Gun Murugan andfits to the T perceptions of superstars from the south (Exactly the same issuethat I had in the buffoonish depiction of the principal in The 3 Idiots).

Since themovie would be seen primarily by an audience not familiar with the backdrop, itmay not matter as a whole. But I’m amused when someone in the audience finds ‘Selvaganesh’a funny name while someone else thinks that the hero is modeled on Rajinikanth(for no apparent reason but his gun fighting scene). When you have painted allthese men as caricatures whom the audience would love to mock at, is there anypossibility of objectively analyzing Silk’s actions?

There isno way you can root for any other character and the director is clear that Silkand Silk alone matters in the movie, at the expense of others. When shelaunches into a tirade against the hypocrisy of people in a stage function, sheis suddenly thrust into the role of an embodiment of a heroic woman who takes on the entireindustry, which sits uneasily on her. Being brash and street smart maybe, butas a symbol of a victimized woman, it does not cut ice.

In a firsthalf that encapsulates the rise of a plain but ambitious Jane intoa starlet with an attitude that borders on arrogance, Vidya pulls of a castingcoup and makes us want to believe that Silk actually traversed this path as sherode to the top. In a well-crafted scene, where the audience troops into the theatrejust for her song and leaves the hall immediately afterwards, she realizes the holdthat she could have on a sex-starved audience (this is immediately after thestar Suryakanth tells her that the crowds only care for him and she has norelevance at all). She is gung-ho of her ability to draw audiences to thetheatre by her asset display but at the same time realizes that being anactress is just a dream that is beyond her.

The potentially most interestingphase could have been between Silk and the avant garde director Abrahamwho detests her as somebody who represents everything that is wrong withcommercial cinema. But their interaction is fleeting and while the chemistry workswe do not know how the transformation happened? Where did the love angle comein suddenly? Is it when Abraham realizes that his cinema never connected to themasses (‘Mein apni hi picture dekhte so gaya') and compromises or was it just anafter- thought that emerged when the director realized that Emraan’s character wasgoing nowhere? It was an opportunity to explore this connect between these two personswho worked in two different spectrums of cinema and are separated by social andclass perceptions of good and bad but sadly, this thread is left hanging.

The below-the-belthumour is funny but I was tired by the number of over written one-liners insertedin the plot. Why was it necessary to throw in a punch line every time acharacter spoke; can’t you have people talking normally, without always wantingto suggest something voyeuristic? Being subtle is clearly not the writer’s strengthbut there is a limit – was every alternate line in the script written in Comic Sans Font Bold and Underlined 36 Size font so that the audience understandsthat they are watching a Dirty Picture?

VidyaBalan puts in a brave performance that will win her awards (breaking stereotypical roles = winning awards) but the limitationsof the script limit the scope of the performance. She learns the lessons of the tradequickly enough and leverages her abilities to the maximum – witness the brazenusage of her sexual power as she stalls the traffic at a journalist’s party. She’sErin Brockovich magnified in the first half who loses steam after some timebecause she has nothing more to add; as she spirals rapidly downward (veryrapidly in the movie), we are unable to empathize with her character. The cleavage and the boobage are there for people to leer at often (thankfully without being vulgar) but the soul of the performer is missing.

Yes,there are hints of financial problems, competition from other vamps and evenother heroines but we are unable to sense the insecurity that she feels. Why doesshe torpedo a perfectly going life for no apparent reason? We do not invest inher emotionally, especially in the second half, to connect to her demise and sowhen the end comes, I’m busy looking at my watch rather nonplussed at the death.We know her as a brash uninhibited starlet who is not prone to strategizing but we don’t knowher as a person; her fears, her turmoil, her loneliness and the things thatwould help us understand better are set aside to depict only an externalmanifestation of her problems.

The tragiclife of Silk Smitha needed more attention but just as her screen presence waslimited to only the fleeting lust value she gave in a movie, the movie merelyskims over her true self. While people discreetly watch scenes that border ontitillation (and we are not talking of men alone), we refuse to acknowledge itbut are quick to paint these women as loose characters who have no place in ourcivilized society. Those who exhibit themselves to the audience are sluts butwe are ‘honourable’ because we enjoy these only in the darkness. Well, this movieis about ‘entertainment’ and Silk as an entertainment object only, so thetragedy is lost somewhere deep inside..

Joining the Fatherhood Club

2011-11-06T23:28:00.000+05:30

On a quiet, little warmMonday morning at 10.05 AM on October 24th, I joined a quiet uncommon andunassuming league of men in the world who are fathers. She was in ahurry and despite a chance to be born on a more famous day like Children’s Day(her original due date), she chose to gate crash into earth and throw all ourschedules out of gear. A night earlier, as I spoke to S, there were noindications that she had decided to be born to us ahead of schedule but thenwho has ever said that Family Planning was an accurate scientific pursuit.

Under normalcircumstances, the points of emotional crisis for a man and a woman are probablydifferent – for a man, it is when he retires and for a non-working woman, whenher kid leaves the home in pursuit of a job or more critically, a marriage; sothe child leaving the parent will always happen, so some of us may wonderwhether this ‘perceived happiness’ is worth it? I remember asking S a long timeback why women ever wanted to be mothers when there was so much pain involvedand she tried to reason something about maternal emotions and joy which I havenever really understood.

I know couples whohave opted out of parenthood and I don’t want to stand on a pedestal and claimthat they are missing out on something that we are experiencing. We takeinformed decisions based on what we want out of life and we can be happy evenif we don’t have to follow suit like everyone else – this is not a right orwrong decision but make sure that you are fully aware of the consequences ofthe decision either way. Parental and relatives’ compulsions always exist inIndia but you must go for it if both of you want it and not someone else. Afterall, you are primarily responsible for taking care of the child and the babyshould not be a way to buy peace.

Anyway, in Feb thisyear, after we had agreed to expand our two member family, we realized that wewere expecting a visit from the stork in the second week of November. S washappy while I remained in my normal state of blissful stoicism; by nowthankfully, she had understood that this was not a negative reaction but morein tune with the way I approach such moments.

The moment the doctorconfirmed the news of our impending parenthood, we were showered with advicefrom all quarters – some glad that we were joining the band wagon, somewondering why we wanted to do so and others indifferent about but stilladvising us as a matter of formality. Ss iron levels were quite low; most womenin India are anaemic so it’s not exactly a bolt from the blue discovery butiron levels of 5.5 are still pretty low and needs iron pumping. So, she wasinjected iron through IV regularly to boost iron levels and leafy vegetablesmade a more conspicuous presence in our diets.

The first 3 months hadits share of morning sickness which can be distressing as a young husband tosee, especially when S was alone at home but I think we did ride through itwithout too many difficulties. Helping extensively in the household is important during these times (not to suggest that this should not be done otherwise) and exceptfor the occasion of the passing away of her grandfather, it was largelymanageable even though it was just the two of us in Bombay. As they say, keepthe wife happier during these times so that the entire process goes throughsmoothly and the baby comes through under pleasant circumstances. Eventually,in July, I left her in Palakkad to spend a prolonged relapse into bachelorhoodin Bombay.

Oct 23rd was a Sundaywhose only claim to fame was that it was our marriage anniversary (2nd). S wasquite tired that day and when we spokeat night, she mentioned experiencing pain in her legs but this was notout of the ordinary and so we left it at that. The next day morning, FIL suddenly calledup at around 6 AM saying that S had been admitted in the hospital due tobleeding early in the morning and that the doctor suspected that she was experiencing labour pains. Itwoke me up amidst not so happy dreams after a late night viewing of Oru Minnaminunginte Nurunguvettam where the female protagonist dies during pregnancy!!! But I was still unsure on what to do; I had heard of women staying inhospital for a week or so and returning without anything happening and so I wondered whatif it were the same situation?

I wentabout my daily work until at around 10.20, FIL called again and informed thatit was a normal delivery and it was a baby girl! And just like that I was now a father!!! S was fine but the network waspoor in the hospital room and so I could talk to her only once I reach thehospital. Of all the people, I wanted to tell my father first that I had becomea father but unfortunately, he was not contactable and by the time, I couldreach him, he had got the news…

I reached Palakkad thenext day morning but I spent a lot of time during the journey imagining how I had to react. Wouldshe look at me, smile at me, show any signs of recognition? When I hold thebaby, would I panic or would there be joy – an unprecedented event had happenedin our lives but was I up to the moment? S had already written-off my reactionto the event; she strongly suspected my ability to embrace moments ofhappiness (she reckons that the Lokpal Bill has a greater chance to get me animated than seeing the baby)!!! Life would never be the same again as she takes centre stage in our lives; was I ready to step back from being individualistic?

I entered the rooma little before she turned a day old and there she lay in front of me - a tinylump of pink flesh in a huddled state, blissfully unaware of the commotion ofpeople trooping in and out at regular intervals in adjacent rooms and ours. Asoft, fluffy mass of flesh of 3 kg who had been created by HIM from absolutelynothing was in deep slumber. But of course, this was no defining cinematic melodramatic moment; I felt completely normal, concerned more at the condition of S than thebaby.

I had never seen sucha young baby in my life so far and was more scared of hurting her than feelingher. During the course of the next week after being discharged, I held heroccasionally on my lap (holding in my hands needs one more leap of courage) andspent a lot of time observing her as she kicked wildly in the air and performedcomplex yogic postures with ease – sweet little moments!!!

The common reactionthat you get from people other than congratulations is asking how you feel now.I am unsure on how to answer the question; honestly, there is no seventh heavenfeeling, no inclination to break into a jig and shout aloud but a state ofquiet little happiness and even relief that the end of the delivery, both aresafe and sound and there’s nothing to worry. But this is not dismissive of thethought of fathering a child – as DJ had told me earlier, let her recognize youand then you realize how different the perspective becomes.

This is not a suddenfeeling, bonding comes through with time and rushing into passing judgments onhow one must feel is not proper. But you can’t deny it, it was my..our babyand even with closed eyes, she drew herself to me. It’s kind of unexplainablebut babies do manage to quieten you and absorb your senses when they arepresent – there is no umbilical cord between a father and a baby, it probablyforms gradually as she recognizes you as the man responsible for her existenceon this earth.

When I wondered aboutwhat does it mean to be a dad, this conversation between Lal and Nedumudi Venu inDasharatham came to my mind – can’t explain this better, especially when he says ...ente makkal appachannu villikumbol swargathil irikkinu poleya....

While I am constrainedto use words like ‘our bundle of joy’and ‘cute’ (who’s ever seen or heard of a baby who isn’t cute - even I was cute when young, can you beat that???), there was atinge of happiness on seeing her – this little thing will call me ‘Achcha’ (yesAchcha only and not Dad!!!) and look to me in future to guide her in her life (will she?). Irealise that I still keep referring to her as ‘it’ which will fade only once wedecide a name for her (which is probably the only parental privilege that modern day parents may have - giving a name to their kids!!!).

Many of us areinclined to attribute a lot of our failings to our upbringing but when we haveour children, we realise how skewed an assessment it is. It is pretty easy toblame someone else for our problems than take responsibility for our actions, Ipresume…Time will tell us how well we were able to justice to this responsibility...

Indian Rupee

2011-10-17T22:37:00.001+05:30

23 yearsafter we saw CP struggle to make it big in the world of construction contract businessin Vellanakalude Nadu, Ranjith takes us to the world of JP – Jayaprakash(Prithviraj), who along with his friend CH (Tini Tom) try to establishthemselves in the cut throat competition of real estate brokerage business. Thelandscape has changed across two decades, the stakes are much higher and themoney involved runs into crores (cr as referred to in the movie). The movie isnot about land corruption (something that Ividam Swargamanu focused on) butmore on the desire of middle class youth who try to become rich and make it bigin life in quick time.

JP and CHrun a small time broker agency in a run-down office near Palayam vegetable market in Kozhikode. They are small time folks primarily acting as sub-brokers inthe city, under the aegis of bigger players like Rayan and Joy. The commissionsthat they receive for the deals that they receive are meager and they dream tomake it big one day. JP believes that hisluck has changed when Achutha Menon (Thilakan), an old man appoints them asbrokers to sell his property. The deal goes down the drain but Achutha Menonstays back with them and advises them as they pocket their first real incomeafter arm-twisting a client. Through a mega deal with Gold Pappan, they aim forthe sky but the spiraling circular flow of crores and its effects makes themrealize the folly of their actions.

IndianRupee has a free-flowing script and keeps you entertained throughout and there isn’ta dull moment anywhere in the movie. The satire crackles throughout and thereferences to public entities (Shashi Tharoor, ICICI) and incidents throughout make iteasy to relate to it (though I did think the reference to Pranchiyettan was a bit contrived). There is an underlying social commentary on religion, landpolitics, black money, NRIs and old age which is thankfully not preachy butengages us at different levels. Conceptually, the movie acts as a prequel to Pranchiyettan since the primary objective is making money, either by hook or crook - social respect would only be next on the agenda.

Ranjithshifts the plot from Thrissur in his last movie to his home town Kozhikode hereand the dialect plays an important role in bringing life to the city. We areable to relate to all the characters and realize that this story could justhave happened in our neighbourhood. The world and lingo of real estate isbrought very close to us and we see the amount of money that is floating aroundwhich could have been frightening, if it were not entertaining. He does notshow any form of corruption which is high in this sector but I guess there isan underlying assumption, even acceptance, that when vast sums of money crosseshands, some of the palms need greasing and so there is no need perse to showit.

JP is alikeable character whom you root for even though he is devoid of scruples. Heis willing to arm-twist a client into making money, pay off company agents toget deals and even get involved in fake money to pursue his dreams. At apersonal level, he shirks responsibility back at home by fleeing home whenpeople come to see his sister and has borrowed money from his mother but sunkthe money. But Ranjith still presents him as a struggler who needs to do allthis to survive in the tough world and the question of right and wrong are notso important – maybe it’s to do with the world that we now live in that weempathize with this character. Maybe it explains why we empathized with CP andwished he followed the right path but we accept JP and want him to succeed.Prithviraj carries the role with aplomb and fully justifies the faith that Ranjithreposes on him –a role that will be noticed after his act in Vaasthavam.

AchuthaMenon’s character confused me a bit as I tried to understand what exactlyRanjith wanted to convey through him. He is an intellectual who’s bitter withall the –isms of the times that he has lived in and finds himself at thecrossroads of his life with no support with him. He advises JP and CH in theirdeal to ‘threaten’ their client and himself tries to cheat his son by sellingtheir house but the need for money is provided as a justification for his actions.Ranjith probably envisioned him as a sort of conscience keeper for JP as heattempts his dealings but am not very clear about this.

WhileAchutha Menon’s intervention in JPs house ensures a dowry-free marriage for hissister (in a tad preachy sequence), this is the only act that gives him thathalo – otherwise, he remains just an old man who tries his best to keep hisfamily afloat. Similarly the usage of the Gandhi bhajan Vaishnav Jan to TeneKahiye attempts to create a moral aura that does not exist. He is an important character, no doubt, in the plot but it looks as if a few critics have given him a greater relevance in the movie than can be understood.

Glad tosee Thilakan on screen after a long time and I hope we see more of him now,especially in these times when Malayalam cinema has been losing its great artists regularly. His presenceadds solidity and earnestness to the character and when JP asks him the question Evadaaayirunnu ithrim nallu, Ranjith prompts us to put this question to Thilakan. Jagathy as Gold Pappan is a scene stealer (think he is the firstchoice for directors who create odd ball characters now) in his cameo as aspend thrift millionaire while Tini Tom needs to thanks Ranjith for discovering himas an actor and he picks up from where he stopped in Pranchiyettan.

There area couple of scenes which are unnecessary in the plot (I always find this with aRanjith movie) like the doctors get together and the song and the onesinvolving Achutha Menon’s family. JPs family itself disappears in the 2^ndhalf and the entire plot begins to revolve on a 85 Cr deal that has manytakers. The deal itself gets sabotaged due to reasons that are unconvincing (Pappan’shaste to get the money the same day is not very clear) and his demands seemmore driven by the needs of the story than that of the deal.

Whilethere is big money involved in the entire set of operations, it felt awkward when lakhs and crores are bandied about loosely without any worry. Afuture brother-in-law giving 50 Lakhs or a doctor feeling not too bitter about havingto give 25 Lakhs makes the entire flow of money look so simple and insignificant, which is never going to be the case. The movie ends in a nice little finale but I am unable to buy the need for a flashback or Lalu Alex explaining the story to thepeople who visit him, looking for JP.

There are a few such pinpricks here and there but at the end of it, I left the theatre contentafter watching watching a well-crafted movie – something that Ranjith has amade a habit in his second innings. In his works, he represents a film maker restoring the glory of the 80s in a more traditional style (reminiscent partly of the Sreenivasan film of thought) unlike the newer crop of directors that we have seen lately. This is August Cinema’s second productionafter Urumi and we hope to see more interesting stuff from it…

***Incidentally,Shaji Natesan (the third person behind August Cinema along with Prithviraj andSantosh Sivan) plays a cameo in the movie as the NRI who buys the malleventually…

Pranayam

2011-09-10T22:33:00.003+05:30

Can an individual love twodifferent persons at the same time? What does the word ‘love’ with its severalconnotations mean when one touches the autumn of one’s life? It is apt that agreying state discovers that romance exists beyond youth and so Pranayamfollows a movie like Salt N' Pepper – from middle aged romance to old agedromance.

Pranayam is set in anurbane backdrop where a married woman meets her ex-husband after several yearsand then she and her husbands (current and ex) forge a relationship thatenriches and heals their lives. The protagonists are all well over the hillphysically but they carry the same pangs of emotions that youngsters have. Thepresence of two men and a woman does not make it a triangular love story; yes, thereare hidden tensions and jealousies which however evaporate quickly enough because of theprogress of time.

Achutha Menon(Anupam Kher) is a lively and childlike character who takes joy in small thingsin life but considers himself a loser, both professionally and personally. Helives a lonely, almost nomadic life with his son Suresh (Anoop Menon)throughout his life. They both find emotional solace in each other but Menon isnever able to overcome the void created by his divorce. Meeting his wife Grace(Jaya Prada) after several years touches a raw chord and sets the ball rollingfor a relationship which acts as a healing for years of suppressed emotions. Itis a quiet little performance and the gracefulness and chirpiness that Anupambrings to the character makes the audience largely root for him; however, I didthink that Rizabawa’s dubbing seemed a little heavy at times for Kher.

Mathews (MohanLal) is bedridden and needs his wife’s help on a day-to-day basis to accomplishmost tasks but their love is just as robust as ever. As a retired Professor ofPhilosophy, he is a man of words and this gives the director the opportunity togive him the best lines. He is an intellectual who immerses his life in booksand music after he suffers a stroke that paralyses him one side. He is less despondentthan Menon and believes in living life to the fullest and has a sense ofself-assuredness, despite his disability. A lesser actor may have been easily carriedaway and gone overboard but Lal is marvellously restrained as he achieves a delicatebalance between the dramatic and understated overtones of his performance.

Grace’s silenceand eyes speak more than her words which are measured and uncertain. She isunsure of her emotions and is caught in an inner turmoil at being in asituation between the two most important men in her life. Sheis an unblemished beautiful woman with vulnerabilities who tries to balance herconflicting sense of emotions. She is just about comfortable going along withthe flow of life with the knowledge that the love of Mathews will ensure thatshe is on the right path. The quiet, unassuming dignity which goes along withthe pain and guilt of a tortured soul that Jaya Prada brings to the charactermakes it a fabulous performance.

The first half israw and lingers aimlessly at times and it is only in the second half that themovie settles firmly on a saddle. The younger generation romance of Menon andGrace does not fit in with the scheme of things; considering that Blessy doesnot take pains to explain the real marital conflict that they faced, this phaseof events has no real meaning in the movie. The younger generations get a raw deal and their characters are undermined at the expense of the protagonists, something that could have been avoided.

Blessy actuallydoes well in not trying to get into the nitty gritties of the past – all theconflicts of the past have no meaning now as they live life in the twilightzone. The only hints that we get at the problems that they had reflect out ofthe assessment of the characters at different points – like Mathews saying thatGrace is always enthusiastic at the beginning of every venture but unwilling totake it to completion or Grace remarking that it is so typical of Menon to makemuch of a fuss about things which later on turn out to very insignificant.

The relationshipbetween the three characters is fascinating and a courageous one for thedirector because he steps into an area infested with social taboos. But thescript ensures that the sanctity of marriage and the thought of love outsidemarriage do not come into conflict with each other (something that Mathews remindsGrace when he says Alassamayi thurannittavaathililoode pranayam ariyathekadannu varum).

There are nosimple solutions to past mistakes but hard truths that need to be accepted – something thatthe three of them slowly accept but the society finds difficult to understand.However, the battle lines, so as to say, are initially drawn – the first timeMathews meets Menon, he clearly asserts his role by conspicuously exhibiting affection towards his wife which she reciprocates later on when she refuses to accompanyMenon to a place without her husband.

Guilt is acritical feeling that drives the plot along with the emotion of love. Menoncarries the guilt of taking away his son from his wife and not doing enough tosustain their marriage life while Grace shares an equal sense of despondency athaving lost her family. In a brooding moment, while throwing stones into thesea, Menon explains that the second throw always goes further than the firstbecause there is a determination to better the first throw the next time – a nod to the successof Grace’s marriage.

Mathewsunderstands that while his wife remains faithful to him, she cannot overcomethe truth of Menon being the first man in her life; there is a small pain thathe carries (manassil oru karadu) that he wishes to heal when Menon re-enterstheir lives. The movie ends on a sad and surprising note; was it the suddenoutburst of long held pains and emotions or a sense of guilt or a sense ofrelief that brought about the sudden finale? The cynical side of me wasasking whether the ending was a throwback to the 70s and 80s when deliberatetragedies were the hallmark of Malayalam cinema.

There is a genuineabsence of melodrama which helps Pranayam convey its emotions very delicatelyto us without taking any sides. When Grace and Menon meet each other, there isno avalanche of words or music; it is a quiet gentle talk between two personswho have suddenly run into each other after years of running away from eachother. It is due to the maturity zone that they find themselves in that anytalk about the past or current situation is without any rancour or anger – itis an almost peaceful understanding that things need not have been this way ifonly…Even when there is a demise at the end, the emotions remain under wrapsand quite subdued (echoing Mathew’s comment that death is not an abrupt end,but rather a gradual progression towards an inevitability where we die everyminute).

The script howeverstutters when it deliberately tries to elevate their love for each other bydrawing our attention to the next generations. Blessy goes ballistic in histreatment of Mathew’s daughter and son-in-law who seem to be present in themovie only to create a sense of anger of tension, even when there is no roomfor it. The need to create an antagonistic environment just to justify certainactions is unwarranted and does not jell with the rest of the mood of themovie.

Watching Pranayamreminded me of MTs Oru Cheru Punchiri where the ripening of old age iscelebrated by the small quarrels and dialogues between the old couple in themovie; by contrast, Blessy invests less in the dialogues and focuses on thevisuals that accompany Mathew and Grace in their relationship. Their bodylanguage, touches and affectionate gestures also drive a similar point but with a greatervisual impact; even physical intimacy is conveyed which is rather unusual forIndian filmmakers who shy away from bringing the thought of sex after a certainage.

Even when Grace andMenon come together, there is just that slight degree of discomfort whichsubmerges slowly into the wave of emotions that drives the two people. Towardsthe end, even when they hug each other, it comes across as a natural gesturewithout creating any guilt in anyone’s mind.

Love, old age anddeath are central themes in Pranayam and in unison they create a silent melodythat lingers along for most of the movie. At a social level, the movie tries tounderstand love at multiple levels – between a man and woman, husband and wife,son and father and one man and another. Sadly, the word love has such asuperficial presence in our vocabulary that we limit its boundaries andrestrict it. Does every relationship need to be limited by coining a word forit? Can love not exist simply in absolute terms as an abstract emotion that wewill never fully be able to comprehend because of the narrowness of our vision?

Pranayam isarguably Blessy’s most accomplished and ambitious movie so far. An unhurried plot that sweeps gently along with fabulousperformances makes it a treat. Nevertheless, I reckon that the movie would havea very polarizing set of audience - for or against types and is not everyone'scup of tea.

P.S In an interview,Blessy mentioned that when the story was narrated to the 2Ms, Mammootty waskeen to do Menon’s role while Lal was interested in Mathew’s role!!!Interesting thought that..

Impressions on an Agitation....

2011-08-22T23:00:00.000+05:30

The chipswere always stacked up against the Government – a poor old septuagenarian messiahvs the black hands of the Government was an unfair battle from a media coverageand public empathy perspective. It was a no-win situation for the Govt but itdid not help that they committed hara-kiri and managed to make themselves thelaughing stock of the nation.

Hasn’tthe Congress ever thought of collective bargaining or were they so drunk in thestupor of arrogance and out of touch with the man on the street that it thoughtthat AH was just another old man who would be forgotten quickly enough and sothere was no need to indulge him in a civil fashion. For a party that merelytakes orders from the top, it may have been tough to understand the meaning ofmoral superiority.

UPA isisolated now as it has to battle an army of protestors and an Oppositionwaiting to strike but they have just themselves to blame for not including asingle member of the Opposition on the drafting committee. The party probablydid not want to share credit with anyone else and tried going alone and nowwhen they have egg on their face, they realize that they have to fight it outthemselves.

Forgetabout the moral angle to the entire sequence of events; you’d think that theCongress had some kind of a strategy to fight AH but it managed to dig a hole andcrawl into slowly at first and then rapidly. Without the presence of SoniaGandhi, is the party totally rudderless (assuming that they’d have done theright thing if she were there ofcourse)? The Crown Prince has been silentthroughout assuming that it’s better to blame a lost cause on the PMs head thantake any action (their spin doctors still managed to give him credit forreleasing Anna!!!); the same attitude that led the PM to fix the responsibilityof the mishandling of the situation on the Delhi police.

For yearsnow, we have had this spectacle of an arrangement between the ‘honest’ PM andSt. Sonia taking the party together – an arrangement that worked well for themas well as onlookers. Finally, it looks like the time has come to sever thisumbilical cord and get somebody else onto the throne. PM, the gentleman imagehas served you long enough and it’s time for a forced renunciation now – getsomebody at the helm who can actually act. Rahul may not be my choice but ifCongressmen can stay united only under him, so be it; no more mukhotas areneeded.

DearRahul, if the Congress party looks at you as a future PM, you need to speak up.You cannot pick and choose your revolutions only looking at the safe areas toscore brownie points; so you cannot go to Bhatta- Parsaul and Pune and make longwinding assertions but choose to stay silent when your government is beingthrashed around by the entire country. You let Manish Tewari and a few other jokers go berserk in their attacks and beslaughtered by the remarkable campaign of Team Anna.

We haveseen enough of Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi now; they have managed to weavelegal spin as much as possible but for God’s sake, show some spine, stand upand talk if you really want people to take you seriously (Ideally, this appealshould be to the PM but you know..). Are you waiting for the dust to settledown, sacrifice the PM and then step in with a noble gesture of getting Anna’sfast broken and get everyone’s applause?

There isa broad consensus that it was the Government’s bungling that has brought theissue so far but it is also the failure of the Opposition that has resulted inthe ‘civil’ society taking the matter into its arms. The UPA has lost all itsauthority and is rudderless but where is the BJP in the midst of this entiredin? It has neither taken a stance on the bill or made any attempts to resolve the logjam but has been enjoying the show from the sidelines. The party badly misses a Vajpayee kind of statesman like figure who canappeal to the masses and even talk to Team Hazare (the kind of credibility thatthe current Parliament lacks). Maybe a Nitish Kumar can step in and help inassuaging this public angst (would have suggested Modi but his image makes hima polarizing figure).

In the midst of all the upheaval that I see around me in the nation, itis difficult to stay unmoved and detached as a wave of emotions sweeps acrossthe political fabric of this country. I have been oscillating from one side toanother regularly unsure on what side I find myself in. Though my brain tells methat ‘Anna way or no way’ approach is not in sync with democratic principles,my heart asks me whether there was any other way?

When lakhs (let’s call it thousands for Karan Thapar’s sake) hit theroads with a sort of vengeance, can we simply disregard it hiding under thecloak of constitutionalism and Parliament? If different versions of the billhave been lying in the cans for more than 40+ years, does it not reflect thefailure of the elected representatives? Yes, the people on the streets do notunderstand the Lok Pal and its intricacies but their protest is the only tangibleway to tell the powers-at-the-top that they need to be heard (Agreed that theagitation has gone overboard on any occasions like the Anna-is-India and timelinebased demands but it gives the Govt an opportunity to act mature, put asideegos and show magnanimity in handling the issue and actually win over people).

No one thinks that the bill will eradicate corruption and to thatextent, the JLP bill may backfire (remember the much-maligned Anti-Defection Law was drafted by Shanti Bhushan) because of its grandiose design but the voice ofthe people is a voice of desperation and frustration, a voice that says we havea role even beyond the ballot box. It is this voice that the State needs torecognize and provide a platform, otherwise we will see more such agitations. Ifthe Government had been able to communicate properly its views on the bill, itwould not have come to an us vs them situation, where even strands ofintelligent opposition are being attacked. This coupled with the fact that theprincipal opposition is not able to present an alternative has led to a vacuumin the polity, which the civil society is trying to fill, albeit in spurts.

We are the world’s largest democracy but simply providing universalsuffrage does not suffice – we need to evolve into a participatory democracyfrom an electoral democracy. Every 5 years, we vote a leader into the Assemblyand Parliament but till the next election, we have no role to play in theday-to-day governance of the state. Decisions taken in the House have norelation with what happens in our lives even though they affect us. I’d see theprotest not in terms of the JLP or even corruption (though it is the rallyingpoint) but in terms of how millions in this country feel alienated in thedecision making process in the country. If all this action translates into somekind of mechanism where we feel responsible (even accountable) for governmentaldecisions and have a concrete say in it, it would be the real victory of theagitation.

But let us not push it a point of no return where even if a compromiseis desired, it cannot be achieved because the legions of supporters will notsettle for anything other than total victory. The point has been made wellenough for the polity to understand that citizens cannot be taken for grantedand it’s time to move to a more conciliatory rather than confrontationalapproach; while rhetoric works well to get in mass support, a more nuancedapproach is needed to break the current logjam and accept other points of view. Team Anna has to be careful not to snatch a loss from the jaws of victory by its dogmatic and sanctimonious posturing which is taking us to a rather uncalled for chaotic situation.

Unlike the Arab Spring, the objective here is not toppling a governmentbut a strong moral show of strength intackling political apathy. So, once the target is achieved, there is a dangerthat this triumph will be short-lived and the hubris will evaporate just asquickly as it was created. The anger can crystallize into either an apoliticalor political movement but it should hopefully not be an anti-political movementas it is now. Eventually, only when the politics of the land undergoes a transformation (thisis where electoral reforms are a key), a true change will emerge. Otherwise, weneed to keep searching for an Anna like figure to rally people around on everyissue that concerns us.

I am neitherin favour of the JLP or the Government bill and look forward to the debate inthe Standing Committee to come up with its recommendations. The Govt isresponsible for the current impasse but Team Anna and followers have been quiteadamant, jingoistic and inflexible in their approach towards resolving this, sohope good sense prevails!!!

Image courtesy - http://www.cartoonistsandeep.com/post_detail.php.php?id=MAYAF1298789679MAYA4d69f52fbffff

Racing to Annihilate Corruption

2011-08-14T23:21:00.005+05:30

As the raceto annihilate corruption heats up, Anna Hazare and team have started off ontheir next hunger strike to combat the Government’s lackadaisical attitude onthe Jan Lokpal Bill. But as the middle class, in desperate search of a messiah,follows the Pied Piper in his mission, a doubt lingers on whether there isn’tan undue haste being followed in trying to pass a Bill that has emerged as arallying point for citizens frustrated with corruption.

AnnaHazare’s prior Jantar Mantar manoeuvre won him fans across but more importantlyput the limelight on corruption in a way that we have not seen in decades. Itled to the Government climbing down from its stand on the Lok Pal andinstituting a combined committee to re-draft the bill. The Bill has now reachedthe Parliament and the Parliamentary Standing Committee has invited Anna andteam to present his views on the subject.

Governmentsacross the world are normally subject to multiple forms of pressure from all kindsof lobbies like the press, judiciary, corporates and others. The Indian civilsociety (if such a homogeneous group exists) has been a more passive pressuregroup; even the most virulent representatives like Arundhati Roy and MedhaPatkar have been debated in the media only and left untouched by a vast stretchof the population (middle class urban population to be more precise) but theAnna group has successfully managed to create a support base amongst thiscrowd.

Facebook,Twitter and 24x7 news have ensured that the public is fed on a constant diet ofanti-corruption capsules. So you have slogans like “If you are not with Anna andTeam, you are with the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats of our country"(Bushwould approve!) and “We can’t afford to fail this time. For if we fail, we maynever get another chance. It is now or never”. While I am honestly cynicalabout this business of eradicating corruption with a magic wand, it must be said that despite theobvious theatrics behind all this sloganeering and ideas (my personal favouriteis the Give a Missed Call and Support the Movement), it is wonderful to seepeople actually talking and thinking about it and forcing the Government to dosomething about this.

TheGovernment’s position is an open goal post and indefensible; the UPA is at thenadir of its popularity and the multiple scams which leap out of papers and TVsets have reduced it to a motley group with zero credibility. It does not helpthat the PM is perceived to be a man with no voice and the voices that matterare not available on any public discourse (anyone’s seen a Sonia or RahulGandhi interview?). The opposition is practically non-existent in terms ofperformance and despite the Government giving away its advantage on a platter,the weak knead Opposition is unable to anything about it. In such a position, youcannot blame the civil society for filling in the vacuum and acting as the moralguardian. You'd think that by now our politics would be mature enough to accept dissent but the hara-kiri done in trying to tackle Anna Hazare makes the Government look totally ridiculous and out of touch with people's sentiments.

So, TeamAnna has stepped into the Opposition’s shoes and done great service in pitchingacross an important voice missing all these years – the voice of the electorate.The ruling party realizes that he has the masses behind him and so needs to betaken seriously and so we had the charade of a Joint Drafting Committee that arrivedon a consensus that nobody understood. But somewhere in the din of theAnti-Corruption movement (is it one?), there is a concern that the movement isside-stepping its own principles and attempting to bulldoze its own version ofthe bill in undue haste, bypassing the norms of democracy.

Team Annahas called the proposed bill a Joke Pal and ridiculed its namby-pamby way oftrying to tackling corruption. This may be true but the fact that is that theteam has a chance to voice their concern in the Standing Committee of theParliament and so changes can still be incorporated. The RTI Act which waswidely touted as a victory of the civil society movement underwent 153amendments in the standing committee before emerging into the form it now findsitself in.

The teamwould also be well-advised not to mix the business of governance with popularsupport and attempt to play to the gallery. It is ridiculous when top cop KiranBedi comes to NDTV and suggests that the NDTV opinion polls and their own pollsindicate the mass support behind the movement and so their version must bepassed; the team even talked about a referendum to gauge public support ontheir stand. The notion of a people's court to settle issues in a plural society is fraught with dangers. Is public support (assuming that the support exists beyond urbannetizens) and rhetoric the basis on which public policy needs to be drafted in this country?If this was the criterion, you’d probably have death penalty as a popular formof punishment and moral policing as an important police activity…

The JanLokpal Bill has undergone 40+ revisions and Arvind Kejriwal says that they areopen to suggestions but the Team is critical of the Government for notaccepting their bill in toto and does not seem to be receptive to any changes init. Not supporting the Anna movement does not tantamount to supporting theGovernment at all; staunch public warriors like Aruna Roy and Harsh Mander haveexpressed serious misgivings about the form of the proposed bill and have infact even proposed an alternative in the form of a basket of reforms to tacklecorruption (haven’t seen much reporting on this other than in the Tehelka).

Democracyis a messy business but it’s probably the best way to clean the mess that wefind ourselves in. It is naive and even arrogant (at times) to assume that thisis a black and white debate and that there is only one set of people who knows whatis best and so the rest should follow. The Mumbai blasts in the 90s led to the demandof a stringent anti-terrorist law and POTA replaced the TADA but now inhindsight, most parties have taken a position against it and agreed that thereneeds to be more safeguards to protect its misuse while many others have saidthat the existing Criminal procedure Law in the country is good enough tohandle the issue.

We haveseen the Lok Ayukta in Karnataka, the CAG in the 2G and CWG scams andinstitutions like the Election Commission and the higher judiciary make anoverall impact on the state by their interventions; so we may not necessarilyrequire a super cop to manage our affairs here. A Frankenstein monster whobosses over everyone can be a terror but does the bill have relevant safeguards( look back at the terror unleashed by Edgar Hoover as the first director of the FBI) or will it even actually do what it set out to do - tackle corruption? This is debatable but is there a room for even such a debate or are the emotionsrunning so high that we cannot tolerate anyone questioning the proposals?

AnnaHazare’s role in pushing corruption to the forefront of the Indian politicaldebate is arguably immense but there is a danger of overdoing his actions and pushingthe envelope just too far that is making many his supporters/well-wisherswondering whether the wise men have not chewed off more than they can swallow. Thehysteria created in the initial fast has sky rocketed the expectations of thepublic and they want the death knell to be sounded now but can the artists keepperforming for an audience that has begun to relish the idea of a magic wand andmay not be willing to accept the complexities of the process involved?

Yes, thefinal objective is noble but that does not absolve us from acting responsiblyand taking the right path. No one says that the path needs to be dismantled butthere is a line that needs to be drawn between what can be the role ofunelected and unaccountable civil society member and a Parliamentarian? I knowwe are skeptical about the role of the Parliament but let’s not forget that thesame set of people implemented the RTI Act and many other important pieces oflegislation.

The parliamentary way of doing things is understandably not the fastest or most glamorous way to do so (the Dravid rather than Sehwag way) but in a democracy, the fairest way to proceed is deploying faith in the parliament, while pressure groups continue to exert their influence on Governments. We cannot bypass institutions in favour of individuals; it may work perfectly well in one scenario but it sets a precedent which becomes difficult to follow. So, yes, Anna and team must continue with all their good work but it must draw a line between the rule of the civil society and that of an elected representative and not become a mirror opposite of the Government in its actions.

To quoteAruna Roy –

I think it’s democratically and politically immature to demand thatone take a simplistic and black-and-white position on this. This is whatgovernments have always being doing with us. You are seen as either with themor against them. For instance, if you fought for land rights you were describedas a Maoist and a votary of violent revolution. We cannot do the same thingourselves, but we are. We are not allowing ourselves the luxury of the richdebates and nuanced thinking that has been our strength. Pluralism has been thestrength of the so-called civil society. We cannot sacrifice that. I don’t carewhat happens to the Government but it’s wrong for the people of this country,it’s wrong for democracy and that’s why we have decided to speak from theNCPRI.

Image Courtesy - http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/let-a-thousand-anna-hazares-bloom-across-india/

Salt N' Pepper

2011-07-31T23:31:00.005+05:30

With a name like Salt N' Pepper and atagline like Dosa Undakiya Katha, you have a broad idea on what to expect asyou step into the cinema hall. But despite all pre-conceived notions of the movie,the movie pleasantly surprises you as it takes you through an appetizing sojourn via avariety of tastes as it tries to tell a rather understated romantic tale whichhas its origins in the humble dosa.

The movie cooks a romance between a middleaged couple – a graying archaeologist and a dubbing artiste, both of whom findsolace in food. Age old insecurities and frustrations ensure that they areunwilling to face each other until the very end when they finally agree to meetin a museum (actually expected a restaurant) and accept the fact that theyshare something in common which goes beyond gastronomic juices.

Kathali Parambil Kalidasan (Lal), is anunkempt archaeologist who likes old things: he uses an old Premier Padminini ‘Mandakini’car (Mandakini even features in the film’s closing credits!!!) that has a life ofits own, along with a dysfunctional radio that works in spurts. His house has abeautiful antique look to it and the furniture, paintings, telephone and otherappliances all have an archaic look to it. He lives in the past and digs out thehistory of others while his story is buried somewhere down there with cookingand food being the only bright sparks in his life.

At the other end is Maya Krishnan (Shwetha Menon), a bespectacled spinster who hasa chovva dosham jatakam and so her marriage remains an unfulfilled dream. As adubbing artiste, she remains perpetually in the background just like her aspirations, lost in the wilderness of her age. A wrong number mobilecall for a Thattil Kutti Dosa brings these two foodies together but theirinsecurities leads them to use younger substitutes in the form of Manu (Asif),Kalidasan's nephew and Meenakshi (Mythili), Maya's roommate. This createsmisunderstandings, confusion and conflict which is eventually resolved in aslightly contrived ending.

The Thattil kutti dosa brings them togetherand the Joan’s Rainbow Cake, a delicious multi-layered cake created by a French housewife waiting for her soldier husband to return during World War II, helps them in discovering theiraffections for each other. As the cake gets baked, the Second World War comesto an end and the world around Kalidasan and Maya also turns sweeter. (Whilethe Joan’s Rainbow cake certainly looks appetizing, just wondering wouldn't it havebeen more appealing if the movie had referred to maybe a forgotten dish fromrural Kerala?).

What works for the movie is the wonderful humour that has gone into the writingof the movie. It is crisp, flows freely and crackles effortlessly without requiringthe actors to perform any antics of their own. The film has an unabashedlyurban youth feel (though the protagonists are middle aged) and scoreshandsomely over a plethora of movies masquerading as hep, youth moviesnowadays. The script distinctly tries to distance itself from old world Malayalamcinema (Nammal enthada engane was so aptly used ironically by Shwetha Menon and dubbed by Bhagyalakshmi) but creates alanguage of its own without ignoring its roots.

Food morsels are sprinkled regularly in the dialogues and its aromawafts across for a greater part of the movie.Every sad or happy occasion has a layer offood around it; almost as if the writer wrote the script the first time andthen in repeated iterations brought in the element of food into all thedialogues. The movie starts with the food chain and finds its presence everywhere– pazham pori in the beauty parlour, the impact of a steaming hot tea after a drunkennight, the kitchen secrets of Babu and the Moopan (even when Maya pours waterover the director’s food, he tries to laugh it away saying kanji nallatha!!!).

The first half works itself beautifully as it smartly intersperses food and the romance in the narrative. Kalidasan’s pennu kannal chadangu is a stand out act; an example of a scene which may not sound great when you read it but is simply brilliant when it undergoes a visual translation. There are attempted gay overtones in the Master and Chef relationship but the movie gladly shies away from any form of unwarranted or cheap humour and makes their bonding one of the highlights of the movie.

Vijayraghavan plays an interesting cameo asa fellow colleague of Kalidasan who tries to reclaim his old lost love. Remindedme of an O Henry story where the protagonist causes a massive traffic jam justso that his daughter is able to express her love. His story brings about theturning point and makes Kalidasan realize how simple the problem is and howcomplex people perceive it to be but I wished that the director had given morescreen space for the lead pair to communicate and not abruptly disconnected theirinteraction. Though they have very few scenes together, their chemistry glows and the moments that they share are funny and even awkward at times, making it so much more believable; recollect the scene where Kalidasan is unsure of how to react and puts down the mobile when she starts crying or when his idea of small talk involves listening to old audio tapes of leaders. Now if only Shweta and Lal had more such delightful moments together, wouldn't the serving have tasted that much more savory?

Honestly, it had all the makings of a mini-classic (an almost Dil Chahta Hai moment) but Aashiq Abu eventually decides to play safe and not skip the opportunity to go the whole hog. The second half mysteriously bids adieu to our taste buds and shifts the narrative totally to the budding romance between the youngsters (Rather than a Dosa undakiya katha, it becomes a Dosa thodangivecha katha). A random song in between sticks out as an odd element added in the proceedings and a forced attempt to bring relief when the script does not demand it. It hurries towards a climax which is kind of funny but looks planned and does not flow as smoothly the rest of the plot.

The supporting cast plays commendably in amovie whose strength lies primarily in the script and less in its characters. Baburajis definitely the surprise package of the movie, even though the director hadcast him in a funny role even in Daddy Cool; just goes to show how under-utilizedmany of our character artists are. Ahmed Siddique as K T Mirash (was the name modeledon mirage?) is delightful with his dead pan expressions and his natural abilityto irritate by doling out free advice. The tribal Kelu Moopan and the humanright activists do not really contribute to the plot and I think they couldhave been left out of the script.

When you watch a particular type of film thatyou haven’t seen for a long time, you probably overlook everything else in the movieand focus all your energies on the exciting material that is brought to thetable by the director. Salt N' Pepper is essentially an urban romantic comedythat has its heart as well as stomach in the right place; it serves a cuisinewhich is slightly uneven but you still want to fall in love with it because itpresents a modern writing that has not been seen much in Malayalam. Something’sdefinitely cooking!!!!

The Sacred Treasure Hunt

2011-07-10T01:07:00.002+05:30

Thetreasure is still being counted and the last estimates of the treasure troveobtained from the vaults of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple are being pegged at around100,000 crores – almost like a scene from Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark. There is one more unopened vault which the Supreme Court has yet notpermitted to open and so the final figure is anyone’s imagination but theamount is a mind boggling figure by any stretch of imagination. Mind you, the figureis not an official estimate but is hearsay but then who cares, the media has alreadyproclaimed the temple as the richest religious institution in the country.

The priceless items in the vaults include solid gold idols, a 10-footlong gold chain, gold pots, bags of diamonds, hundreds of kilograms of goldtrinkets, Belgium diamonds and emeralds, hundreds of French, Dutch East IndiaCompany and Roman gold coins(called Aureus), Roman silver coins, Venetianducats, drachmas, Vijayanagar period coins and so on. Other riches include, necklacesmade of gold coins, gold waist bands, anklets, three crowns studded withdiamonds, pearls and rubies, gold staff and plates.

The valuation is now being carried out basis a Supreme Court judgment whichstayed a ruling by the high court in Kerala ordering the state government to takeover the temple and its assets from the royal trust. The initial court petitionwas brought by a local lawyer, who filed a case in the Kerala HighCourt demanding the takeover of the temple, saying that the current controllerswere incapable of protecting the wealth of the temple because it did not haveits own security force.

Accordingto the temple staff, the 18th century ruler of Travancore, Marthanda Varma,gifted his kingdom to the deity, Sree Padmanabhan, after which the royal familyhas been ruling their subjects as “a servant of Sree Padmanabhan,” or Padmanabhadasan.There is no clear historical agreement on the source of the treasure but it islargely thought to have been in the temple for hundreds of years, having beenput there by traders, pilgrims and royals such as the maharajahs of Travancore,and by offerings of Travancore kings, other royals and ordinary devotees to thedeity.

Theimpoverished state of Kerala’s governmental coffers contrasts with the massivetreasures unearthed from the temple and so there is a sneaking (wishful)temptation to demand that the temple wealth be given to the Government so thatthe money is used for public welfare (so the pitch about the size of the fundsbeing equivalent to x% of the GDP or equal to the NREGS or PDS funding required).

With allthe various scams corroding the exchequer regularly, there is a clear deficitof faith in the Government’s ability to act as the fund manager. It’s kind ofdifficult to imagine the Govt as Robin hood by taking this money from the templeand putting it to public use. When the reputation of the politician is inshreds and the Government is seen as an entity that helps in hoarding blackmoney and does nothing about corruption, can you trust this wealth in the handsof the wealth? The Govt needs to be perceived to be at least remotely honestbefore people can repose their faith in it to do this. Would the same devotees be comfortable in contributing to a temple if teh money were to fill in government coffers?

But thenisn’t there is something like an ownership right that exists in this country?If the media discovers that someone is mega rich, there are clamours all aroundfor the money to be used for the discerning public – always easy to be generouswhen the cash flows from someone else’s pocket, I presume. Some historians havesuggested that a major chunk of the stored riches reached the kings in the formof tax, gifts, as well as conquered wealth of conquered states and templesstocked in the temple for safekeeping and so the money is not necessarily alegitimate source of income. By that standard, you’d to have to admit that practicallyevery ancient monument would have to be razed – imagine confiscating the TajMahal because Shah Jahan taxed the people heavily to flaunt his love for his wife.

Thevaluation exercise being carried out in the temple vaults has thrown up gold assetsand artifacts and not hard cash. So, the actual funding can only happen if theGovernment auctions all the treasure trove and mops up the money. I am no fanof ancient relics but then there are enough museums in the country which canmerit this kind of approach and you cannot isolate Padmanabhaswamy temple onthis. Public deficit financing through the auction of ancient treasures hasnever been a public policy and will never be one.

The bestway to treat this largess would have to hive it off into a museum on the linesof a Louvre or the British Museum. The museum can be setup under the aegis of atrust comprising the royal family and a couple of government nominees where therole of the Govt will largely be in providing security and building theinfrastructure to make it a renowned tourist and cultural location.

The Kerala government is fearful of being drawn into an issue that hasthe potential to be religiously divisive. The UDF which has a narrow majority oftwo seats in an assembly of 140 seats is seen as a minority-friendly government.Analysts believe that the Hindus largely voted for the LDF in the last state elections and so CM Oommen Chandy is wary of upsetting the religious balance especiallywith a large section vocal section favouring the continuance of the formerroyal family at the helm of affairs at the temple.

What could eventually happen is what normally happens as an everydaypolitical strategy in India – a committee will be formed to suggest what shouldbe done with the temple’s treasure trove. The news hype will die down and the committeewill amble along and finally present a report which probably some sort ofstatus quo (a bit like the anti-climax of the Telangana report). The treasurewill be sealed and thrown back into the vaults lock, stock and barrel and theissue will come up once a while as and when the media rises out of its slumber.And the poor Trivandrum citizen will find that living next to a wealthy lordtranslates into being surrounded by armed security.

Far from insisting on status quo, the issue is an opportunity to revisita debate on the role of Government in the administration of religious institutions,especially Hindu temples. Nehru’s vision of a secular India meant that in 1949,the Hindu endowments and charitable trusts act was passed which gave control ofHindu religious institutions to the government. So, you have Governmentsheading trusts like the TTD and the Devaswom Board even though there is nobusiness for the state to get involved in religion and matters of faith. Evenhere the intervention is selective - there are scores of temples that are lyingin a state of neglect but the Government is indifferent but the moment moneystarts pouring in, there is direct and indirect intervention in its affairs.

It does not help that while Governments think twice before applyingsimilar solutions to Madrassas and Christian Missionaries, there is an urge toclamp down on the religious institutions of the majority community. It is alsotrue that Hindu trusts have themselves not covered themselves in glory by theirunwillingness to be transparent and accountable to millions of stakeholders. Religiousinstitutions have to necessarily be more approachable than government offices andensure that regular audits are carried out and the financial statements areopen to scrutiny by anyone. It does not augur well for a temple to be treated as a haven for stacking black money and being opaque in its financial dealings, especially when millions look to it for guidance.

With the Courts deciding in favour of God as a legal entity in the Babri Masjid case, is there any reason why Gods and their offices need to be kept outof the purview of RTI?

P.S. I am no temple goer or worshipper in any true sense. I am a Hinduby birth and by birth only and my relationship to temple is purely cultural andnot religious. While I have visited the temple twice, personally, I believethat it is ridiculous that it does not allow non-Hindus inside; an idea that I had railed against earlier.

Revisiting a Classic - Thazhvaram

2011-06-12T16:06:00.003+05:30

For all the acclaim that Malayalam cinema has earned, the thriller or action genre has been largely unexplored. In this wilderness, however, there exists a cult movie like Thazhvaram (The Valley - 1990), where two stalwarts – MT and Bharathan – come together to cleave a fascinating revenge saga. People have largely compared this movie to the world of Spaghetti western classics immortalized by Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood and this remains the only such venture by mainstream Malayalam cinema.

The plot is fairly straight forward – it is a story of a man seeking to avenge his wife’s murder. Balan (Mohanlal) arrives in a remote hilly tribal area in Agali (in Palakkad) in search of Raghavan (Salim Ghouse), who is now a close associate of Nanuettan (Shankaradi) with possibly plans of settling down there after marrying Nanuettan’s daughter Kochutti (Sumalatha). The movie moves back and forth in time oscillating between the present and Raghavan’s past till the very end when we get a clear picture of his treachery. The cat and mouse game thrills till it finishes in a brilliantly orchestrated climax.

Right from the first scene when Balan carves out his bête noire Raghavan’s photo from a photo frame of the two together, you know what to expect. There are no surprises and you know the story has a clear revenge plot where Balan will eventually succeed (of course, knowing the penchant of Malayalam directors to force tragedy endings till the 90s, this could still have been a surprise then). But the taut script holds your attention till the very end and there is never a dull predictable moment despite the inevitability of the end.

Death and revenge looms large over the movie and the valley forms an important element in the movie. Time is a meaningless concept here and it is only the songs on the radio which act as any sort of reference to its passage. The camera keeps staring down at the valley and there is an edginess to the surroundings; the cold and dry hills and the remoteness of the place, dry landscape, vultures lurking constantly for their prey – all these create the image of the Jungle where only the fittest can survive.

The only place of habitation is downhill where the presence of a film poster (Ramarajan in Anbu Kattalai) shows the fleeting sense of entertainment in these parts. There is no attempt to romanticize life in this remote place – there are no neighbours, no transport or communication facilities and while Nanuettan and Kochutti wish to live here, there is an uneasy truce between modern facilities and sedentary life here which they have to make to enjoy the place. They co-habit the place along with the danger of wild animals but then you'd have to admit that no wild animal possesses the same danger as a human being.

The landscape of the movie is dotted with very few characters but each has a role to perform in building the momentum in the plot. Balan has forgiven Raghavan many a times and he has had to pay heavily for it. He has nothing more to lose and arrives in Agali in search of Raghavan (the makeup of the two is the only hint that we have of a possible time lapse between his loss and arrival here). What are his feelings towards Kochutti – love, gratitude or maybe even sympathy; we do not know and Bharathan wisely does not attempt to explain this any further.

Raghavan (dubbed by Shammi Thilakan) is a totally dark and menacing character with a monstrous aura and no redeeming features at all. He is party to all vices and lives in fear of retribution (he is wary when he sees fire, hears the sound of the buffaloes and everything else). He is neither interested in land nor marriage but agrees to go along with Nanuettan till he can find a better plan. Even when is in trouble, he tries to negotiate a deal with Balan and escape but by the end Balan knows well enough that there is no alternative (echoed by Nanuettan when he says Kollenadathanu kollanam. Daya vicharichu vitta athu pinne athilum anartham undaakum. Droham undakkana size aanennuvannal tharam undavumbol kollanam. Athane malela niyamam…while referring to the attack by animals in the wild).

Nanuettan is essentially a lower caste worker who runs away with an upper caste woman and settles down in the remote hills. He soon lords over the tribals of the place and owns large tracts of land in the place himself but he knows that he needs to get his daughter married quickly enough, knowing that the remote hills are no place for a woman to live alone in the long run. He keeps attempting to get Raghavan to buy land there and settle down and get him married to Kochutti as a pragmatic endeavour to take care of his daughter, though you suspect he realizes that Kochutti does not approve the match and Raghavan is directionless and indecisive about his future.

The relationship between Kochutti and Balan is ambiguous; there is a background sexual tension but this is largely kept at bay because of her suspicion. She is a beautiful and outspoken woman who realizes that she may have to settle down with Raghavan but is not convinced about the relationship. There are suggestions that she is lonely and wishes to move to a more inhabited place or even meet her relatives. There is a hinted rivalry between the two protagonists for her but she is unable to decide who is honest; these two men are the only men she’s spent time with, other than her father.

Thazhvaram boasts of the most spectacular background music that I have heard in Malayalam. Johnson's scintillating music and Venu's haunting cinematography create a palpable tension which reaches its crescendo in a brilliant climax where the two men fight each other in a mad sense of desperation. As they lunge at each other wildly, vultures make their way to the place awaiting their dinner; easily one of the most fascinatingly etched out scenes in the movie.

With only four characters as the locus and no great dramatic developments, it would have been difficult to keep the plot engaging but therein lies the craft of the director. It is tough to tell if the script would have been so captivating on paper without this backdrop and the technical finesse brought in by the crew. Bharathan paints his frames in brown and green hues and creates the deathly mood; the dialogues are calm and sparse, there are extended close-ups of the protagonist, the background music builds the momentum till it all culminates in a duel that settles matters finally.

Thazhvaram remains a one of its kind movie in an untapped genre with exceptions like Season; can't recollect more of this kind..

Kerala Votes - 2011

2011-05-15T12:34:00.001+05:30

May 13 is a normal dull day in Minimum City but I am tuned to the TV right from 7.30 in the morning to get into the mood of the results of the State election results. Most pollsters have predicted decisively in all states except Kerala where the VS factor was looming large. But the Bengalis were keenly waiting for history to be created and a few hours later, it finally happened – The one traffic light in the world that was red for 34 years, just turned green (Derek O' Brien's tweet). Tamil Nadu threw out the DMK family and voted back JJ Amma in a landslide victory while Kerala saw the UDF score a technical victory in points over the divided house of LDF.

Let me stick to a perspective on Kerala. Psephologists were scared to predict the results of the elections but were hiding behind the safety of the state’s anti-incumbency voting record. After many ups and downs, the UDF finally pipped the LDF to the post (in an almost 1984 PT Usha moment) but as Shashi Kumar very aptly said – The winner is left with a crown of thorns while the loser has emerged as the hero.

The LDF won a clear majority of the districts while the Congress just about won the state in a below par performance compared to the Parliamentary elections and survived due to the performance of its ally, IUML (primarily in Malappuram). The CPI (M) emerged as the single largest party while the vote difference between the fronts was a paltry 0.58%. With a mere 38 seats in the House, Congress will have a tough time running the state (expected future CM Oomen Chandy had been quoted earlier as saying that he was no interested in becoming CM if the UDF had less than 85-90 seats).

As a cadre based polity, the CPI (M) will of course refuse to admit that Individuals can matter. Most people had written of the Leftists due to the massive infighting in the party and despite last minute dithering on who will lead the party, the CM was able to project himself as an honest street fighter willing to tack on the various mafia groups in the State. Pinarayi controls the party organization but cannot garner votes for the party and still needs VSs skills to get popular support. If the Reds had stood strongly behind him, we would have seen another slice with history with the LDF beating the traditional anti-incumbency wave but that was not to be.

For a party with a strong grassroots base, it is surprising that it failed to gauge VS popularity and tried to block his campaign; the worst enemy of the Left is itself and this cost it dearly in the election (the losses in Kannur for example). I am no Left sympathizer but in the last few years, I have supported VS initiatives against the real estate and sand mafia and his pro-environmental stance; I hoped that the LDF would pull off a last ball six for his sake but it did not happen. (Cynics have also pointed out that VS had tremendous sympathy of the masses because of his clean image and the obvious negative tactics of the Pinarayi faction).

The UDF seemed to have put their faith in statisticians rather than party workers; the only idea was that the people of Kerala would anyway throw out the incumbent party and so there was nothing much to do – just wait and watch for the results. There is hardly a leader in UDF who can stand tall and fight VS in a man-to-man contest and while the party led initially, as time progressed, it suddenly trembled at the prospect of taking on the CM. To the extent that Leader is no longer in our midst, maybe the infighting within UDF may be minimized but only a fool would think that the UDF CM will be able to govern peacefully without Ramesh Chennithala, K M Mani and Kunhalikutty breathing down his throat.

The highly exaggerated Rahul Factor was expectantly absent in the state. His only contribution in the election was taunting VSs age and getting rebuked for being an Amul Baby (In a state with a huge graying population and a fairly traditional society, was that a smart remark to make?) Nevertheless, Rahul’s Amul Babies did not create any impact and almost none of the candidates hand-picked by him won. It’s time Rahul realizes that you cannot just crash land into a state a few days before elections and then hope to make a difference. Rahul’s ambitious youth membership drive has been zealously implemented in Kerala, compared to most states, but the results at the ground level are not too inspiring. The Rahul factor remains a topic for discussion in media circles in Delhi and outside it; it has now become a butt of jokes.

The BJP continued to be consistent with its strong showing of zero seats. Kerala’s strong bipolar political setup has severely hampered its growth and it continues to languish as a party which garners a few votes in Kasargod and Thiruvananthapuram. While the RSS is a strong grassroots force in Kerala, it has not been able to translate this into any form of electoral gains for the BJP. The fact that it has not been able to open its account in the state even after so many years is discouraging and there seems to be little chance of any changes in their fortune in the future, even though they managed to emerge triumphant in a few areas during the last Panchayat polls.

Analysts say that the voting was split vertically along religious lines with Hindus voting for the Left and the Muslims and Christians voting for UDF. IUML winning in Malappuram is evident (often wondered how an outsider like Banatwala won a record number of times from Ponnani) but how does that explain the LDF dominating most other districts. Pollsters mentioned that UDF hobnobbing with minority groups and VS severely reprimanding communal fringe leaders may have attracted Hindus to the Left (otherwise, when did Nairs and Brahmins grow Left-friendly?).

I am also a little puzzled by this thought; I vote as an individual and not a representative of my religion. How do Hindus en-masse suddenly decide to vote for the Left one fine day? The Church did not issue any edict or letter asking people from voting against the Left, so why would they have voted for the UDF? This is all under the assumption that people vote strictly on religious terms but I find it hard to believe this.

It must be said that while the VS charisma made a difference, we at Kerala only have him to look up to but VS in no Modi (despite my misgivings against him) or Nitish Kumar; he is a crusader but no great administrator (something that Mamata Banerjee will have to bear in mind). People vouch for his honesty and frankness but he’s not scored top marks for administration acumen any time and at this age, no one expects him to have a change of heart anyway. We don’t dream of any Poribartan here; both the options have been tested and no one thinks that there is anything to choose between the two fronts.

We have won enough laurels for our social and health indices but it is time to go beyond this. Gulf Remittances in the form of cash transfers are the only forms of investment and it is this mass migration that has kept the state's economics afloat for such a long time. The challenges of poor industrialization, record levels of unemployment, empty treasuries and worrying signs of religious extremism will not evaporate one fine day unless something concrete is done about it...

Image courtesy - http://www.keralaassembly.com/

Corruption Strikes Back with a Vengeance

2011-05-01T09:56:00.004+05:30

In a dramatic development that shocked agile Government officials, leading political and social luminaries headed by Maharashtra CEO, Sharad Pawar, started a fast unto death demanding the return of corruption to Indian shores. Since Anna Hazare performed the Houdini act of evaporating corruption from India, there has been widespread unrest across the country with middle class people from all walks of life protesting against this totalitarian approach by the civil society.

Citizens across cosmopolitan India joined Mr Pawar’s demand to introduce the radical Graft Commission Bill (GCB). This bill has been drafted by a panel comprising Sharad Pawar, Aamir Khan and Baba Ramdev in consultation with prominent pro-corruption activist, Ramalinga Raju, who is currently authoring a paper on Jail Reforms. They also roped in Nude activist Poonam Pandey as their brand ambassador; Poonam, returning after a stint as the Chief Motivation Officer of the Indian cricket team, has received a lot of flak lately for her NPAs (non-performing assets) but she’s promised to give whistle-blowers something to cheer this time.

The panel released the provisions on their flashy website, designed by Five Point Someones from IIT-Delhi who were not offered campus jobs. The bill proposes to legalize corruption and place it under the ambit of a newly formed body called Graft Commission. The Graft Commission would unilaterally define a multi-pricing strategy for bribes based on complex parameters like nature of activity, officer vintage, funds involved etc. Bribes would be treated as over the table income and taxed accordingly but officers have to ensure that attested receipts in triplicate are provided.

Each department would have graft targets and these would be included in the individual KRAs. The Graft Commission would arbitrarily review the bribe pricing strategy every financial year and adjust the rates as per inflationary trends. The all-powerful Graft Commissioner (envisaged as a Charles Bronson meets T N Seshan meets Narendra Modi) would have the power to slap penalties, issue search and arrest warrants and prosecute non-cooperative consumers. Critics have baulked at the prospect of investing so much authority in one body but they have been shooed off citing the success of such tribunals in Afghanistan and Somalia.

Corporates welcomed the protest by staying silent but they believed that the bill gave a raw deal to bribe givers. So, social activists Vijay Mallya and the Ambani scions (in a rare show of universal brotherhood) met the panel within closed doors and made a Power Point presentation explaining their demands. At the end of the meeting, the panel agreed to include variable corporate tax slabs based on bribe turnover, amnesty from audits in core acquisitions like land, spectrum and arms, an annual VDS to fund party treasuries and the right to FICCI to recommend a member of their choice to the Graft Commission. In turn, the business community agreed to provide comp offs to employees to join the fast and fund the campaign through a current account in Liechtenstein (Rumours of Baba Ramdev being given exclusive rights to teach Yoga in offices and corporates producing Aamir Khan’s Cheaply Live were denied).

ADAG bagged the contract to provide communication infrastructure for the crusade – consumers can call up at toll free numbers or send SMSs to designated numbers to register their support. Due to lack of resources to man these calls, it was agreed that missed calls would suffice. Retailers were asked to stack up their godowns with sufficient stocks of revolution memorabilia like Adarsh cement, Kanimozhi poems, corruption badges and stickers, to quench the patriotic thirst of people. 33% of the sales proceeds would be channelized to a trust with a majority stake in an Andhra based micro finance institution, which would in turn invest in hedge funds and Wall Street junk bonds.

These provisions have largely been welcomed by the public who have borne the brunt of the civil society’s draconian Lokpal Bill. The salaried class was hugely upset to see their monthly incomes crashing due to their inability to forge rental receipts and medical bills on one hand and the RBI mercilessly hiking interest rates on the other. The other main factor that has led to this demand to restore corruption was the massive slump in productivity observed in Government offices after the anti-corruption forces took over. PwC, inducted into the Auditing Hall of Fame for its creative work in Satyam, published a report stating that the productivity had fallen from 62.5% to 32% in most states because of officers refusing to work, without any bribes.

Economist Jijumon Punnoose, in an article The Anatomy of a Bribe in The Hindu, states that money being paid out through under-the-table channels constituted close to 3% of the GDP and the cost of delay in decision making by the Govt was much higher than that of combating corruption. He also points out that during the last WTO Summit, India had agreed to formulate benign laws to promote intra and inter-regional corruption but the leadership’s U-Turn had isolated India. He laments that while the West has evolved from the era of brokers and agents to subtler forms like lobbyists and sponsored research scholars, we were trying to turn the clock back by criminalizing corruption.

To understand the idea better, we caught up with one of the brains behind the bill- ex-CVC Ananthan Nambiar, who now runs an ice-cream parlour in Ottapalam. As he licked his fingers after helping himself to the sumptuous avial prepared by his wife, the unassuming bureaucrat told us-‘10% of the people will always be corrupt, 10% always honest while the remaining 80% will follow the group that is rewarded. So we just need to target the 10% and the rest will follow. The beauty of the process lies in its simplicity - assets are transferred seamlessly at low cost among people without any governmental intervention; it is a zero sum game with proven results. I agree that a fasting protest is blackmail but then desperate situations require despite measures, eh?’ Delicious insight!!!

Meanwhile, in local news: Addressing a group of party workers who were rejoicing after drawing level 2-2 with RSS in Koothuparamba, CPI (M) State Secretary and Director (Kimbalam Vikasana Kendra) Pinrayi Vijayan, inaugurated the Malabar Gold Citizens’ Hartal Charter. Among other things, the Charter provides the annual hartal schedule across the state against the anti-proletariat approach of the Government to eradicate corruption. Vijayan also declared that he would personally lead a delegation to visit Eastern Europe to understand how corruption had been ingrained successfully there without any protest. Insider information revealed that the delegation also included a Minister who planned to visit Germany to get his dental surgery done but the name cannot be revealed here due to a personal conflict of interest that the author of this blog has.

The sweet smell of a Revolution has invigorated the Nation and its people; Moonlight Candle lit protest parties have become the new rage. Drastic methods of supporting the protest have emerged – some people decided to stop playing Solitaire in offices, some agreed to skip reading Chetan Bhagat comics while a few even promised to stop watching Rajinikanth movies!!! A Times Now sponsored survey of the protestors gathered at Bhindi Bazaar threw interesting results –32% were relieved to bunk office, 17% felt it was a romantic idea, 21% hoped to be seen on TV, 18% desperately wanted to get away from their spouses while the rest were too drunk to answer.

While these demonstrations have led to an increasing momentum for change, these have largely been overshadowed by the record number of tweets and Facebook comments by Netizens. Facebook servers crashed twice in the last week due to the large number of ‘Like’ buttons being clicked on pro-corruption links. After an intense brainstorming session, Facebook engineers operating from Hyderabad replaced the ‘Like’ button with the ‘Dislike’ button calming the charged Netosphere and abruptly putting brakes on the bloodless Revolution.

Breaking news – After 96 hrs of relentless marketing pressure, the Government succumbed to the protest and agreed to set up a committee to look into the demands of the pro-corruption gang; Sharad Pawar broke his triumphant fast sipping a peg of McDowell’s single malt whisky, followed by a noisy belch. But in the midst of the IPL and the tax payer sponsored UK royal vaudeville, this news was relegated to the sidelines. The masses too celebrated the triumph by bunking the next phase of Bengal elections to be a part of this spectacle. Nevertheless, middle class democracy in India rocks!!!

In an unrelated story, the IPO of India’s leading candle manufacturer Flames & Roses has been oversubscribed 35 times; leading analysts believe that given Indians’ obsession with candle lit demos, it is an attractive business to invest.

Image Courtesy - http://webmalayalee.com/

Urumi

2011-04-13T22:04:00.009+05:30

History says that Vasco Da Gama contracted malaria soon after arriving in Goa on his third voyage to India and died in the city of Cochin on Christmas Eve in 1524. But in Santosh Sivan's Urumi, Gama is a blood hounding invader (contrary to his normal perception by non-Keralites as merely a sailor) killed by a young man seeking revenge for his father's death. When Prithviraj was asked about toying with history in the movie, he quipped – There is speculation about how Vasco died. The most commonly accepted theory is that he was killed by malaria. But if Quentin Tarantino can have Hitler killed in a theatre, this is our take on how Vasco died.

The film starts in the present day with two vagabonds Krishna Das (Prithviraj) and his friend (Prabhu Deva) being offered a huge price for Krishna Das’ ancestral property in Kerala. On his arrival in Kerala to sign the papers, he learns the truth about his land and ancestors, which is told in a flashback. Sivan tries to create a moral fable here comparing the two eras but I don't think that the movie needed this ethical posturing.

Chirakkal Kothuwal (Arya), a warrior and commander of the Arakkal kingdom, is killed by the tyrannical Vasco da Gama, the Viceroy of Portuguese Empire in India. His son Chirakkal Kelu Nayanar (Prithviraj) swears revenge and is supported by his childhood Muslim buddy Vavvali (Prabhu Deva) as they set out on their mission. Kelu and Vavvali join the service of Chirakkal Thampuran (probably a Naduvazhi and not a king) and along with the fearless Arakkal Ayesha (Genelia D'Souza), they attempt to create a force to attack the Portuguese.

The action in the palace of Chirakkal Thampuran provides a slice of the politics of the period; the Thampuran does not want to remain subservient to the foreigners but he has to contend with the likes of the ambitious Chirakkal Prince and his scheming adviser Chenichery Kurup who have different agendas. Jagathy as Chenichery Kurup offers a lesson in understatement but over achievement as a conniving effeminate Brihannala-character who is clearly smarter than the king but is forced to play out his ambitions through the meek Prince. Amol Gupte as Chirakkal Thampuran enjoys the regal powers and believes that he has a mind of his own but when the true realization dawns, it is too late. It would have been tempting for both these characters to go overboard but they tread carefully with marvellous restraint.

The promos of Urumi suggest a theme of vendetta – The boy who wanted to kill Vasco Da Gama. Revenge is a dish best served cold and so Kelu waits for 22 long years for Vasco to return to Kerala so that he could avenge his father's murder. His Urumi is made from the ornaments of dead women and children who were burnt alive in a ship that was going to Mecca, under Gamma’s orders (a nod to Shakuni’s dice in Mahabharata!).

However, the movie slowly carves out a nationalistic path for itself involving multiple characters to give it a pan-Kerala theme and a secular appeal by showing inter-religious love. In Sivan’s words – History is written by the victors, the powerful who won. So was Da Gama a brave explorer or a invader after gold? The film is about a failed rebellion against the Portuguese that happened in the 15th century. So, an assassination plot by a young boy is eventually re-invented as a patriotic theme where Muslims, Christians and Hindus all combine to attempt to overthrow the Portuguese yoke. But at the end of it all, we do not know what happens in the battle, except ofcourse that Kelu achieves his goal.

Sivan wants to make a Pazhassi Raja out of Kelu but despite its dramatic tone and fantastic concept, the movie is quite self-conscious and not very engaging. The presence of the hunk Kelu is almost distracting; he is not much of a leader and is more at ease exhibiting his fighting prowess and draws more attention to himself than he would ideally want to. The action scenes are primarily choreographed in slow motion which unfortunately does not create the tempo that they deserve. They look like post cards with bright photos than battle-scarred scenes that they could have been. The songs stick out like sore thumbs and the movie needed crisp editing to reduce its rather long duration of three hours.

Prabhu Deva serves as an earthy, pragmatic and smart character and the writer gives him the best lines but the script does not demand much from the female characters. Ayesha of Arakkal is a warrior princess and Genelia puts in effort to shed her sweet image and attempt daredevil stunts, playing a mercenary. Gladly the director does not attempt to define her marital status wrt Kelu even though the relationship is clear; this is partly aided by the fact that marriage as an institution was not so sanctimonious those days in Kerala.

Nithya Menon's role is only to partner Prabhu Deva; she is well-endowed, entertains and has her moments but has nothing else to do. Vidya Balan is supposed to be a Bhagavati in the temple who guides the hero but a song and dance which attempts titillation is the best that she is offered. It does not help that the Malayalam dubbing for the characters is out of sync, making us cringe at the paucity of Malayalam speaking actresses.

For a movie that looks at exploring the lives of the people of a definite era, Urumi does not dwell much into the social, economic and religious life of the age – these could help in understanding the nature of the struggle better. Considering the fact that the concept of a nation was not very clearly ingrained then, it is not entirely clear on what drew the poor into the struggle. I assume that both the Naduvazhis and the Portuguese suppressed them and so the nationalist feelings would be difficult to comprehend. Religious conflicts were probably not so acute but the presence of Muslims (Arakkal) and Christians (Local Syrian Christians vs Portuguese Roman Catholics) suggest that the lines were being drawn for larger conflicts.

Urumi is an attempt at historical fiction; so the writer moves out of the confines of historical accuracy and stretches his imagination to soar along with Sivan’s camera. It allows him to develop Gamma's son's character, play around with the role of native chieftains in the struggle and even make a one-man fictional odyssey into a mini-war of Independence. It has limitless possibilities of re-interpretation of facts but he isn't interested in history and is happier to let Kelu guide the story rather than be a part of a larger chain of events (of course, it is the director's prerogative to show us what he wants to tell but I'd love to see more on the trade conflicts and political rivalry on the ground).

While the visuals work overtime to take you to 15^th century Kerala, the plot does not get you a feel of the palace intrigues of a bygone era. There is treachery and intrigue but they lurk at the background and every time you expect the script to kick off, it moves languorously focusing on Kelu and Vavaali’s antics. There are times when you are compelled to be tuned into the intrigue behind this fascinating premise called Urumi (it remains a premise) but when the camera lingers along for a longer time and asks you to keep staring at the visuals, you know where Sivan’s loyalties lie.

I guess that when you go to a Santosh Sivan movie, you know that the optics takes over everything else; in that sense, he is influenced by Mani Ratnam's last few movies. The fact that the concept of a historical germinated during the making of Raavanan adds to that style. So you have great locations, authentic costumes (though I am not sure of the genuine nature of the sub-cast), sweeping visuals which demand attention and awe, magnificent sound recording, apt songs which unfortunately only ebb the flow of the movie and a hype which brings in expectations that are never fully met.

Urumi is commendable considering the complexity and ambitious scale involved in marrying history and fiction but I fancy Sivan will be more at home weaving fantasies than probing history...

***Portuguese officers speaking in their language gave it an authentic ring but why were the sub-titles in English only? Hope the print had both English and Malayalam sub-titles when it was released in Kerala.

In Pursuit of Poonam Pandey

2011-04-04T20:19:00.015+05:30

Is she a model? A super woman? India’s National Asset? Gary Kirsten’s secret weapon? Friends, please put your hands together (clap, you idiot) and welcome the most popular Pandey in India today – who’s more popular than the likes of Mangal Pandey, Chunkey Pandey and Chulbul Pandey put together.

The moment Dhoni slammed a six to clinch the trophy, frantic efforts have been made to trace India’s secret damsel weapon who won the team the Cup for them. All news channels have sent out teams to hunt for Ms Poonam Pandey who has enthralled the patriotic Indian public by claiming to go Full Monty on winning the trophy.

We decided to do our own investigation and snoop around for the various people involved in the manhunt. When BCCI was contacted regarding Poonam’s intent to go nude if permitted, Vice-President K Srinivasan refused to comment citing personal conflict of interest but agreed that Lalit Modi was to blame for this mess. Meanwhile, erstwhile IPL Chairman Lalit Modi tweeted that a he had signed a contract with Set Max giving the channel full rights to broadcast the Poonam night. However, the ICC president cum Agriculture Minister cum sugar baron cum real estate baron Sharad Pawar said that equal opportunity sealed tenders would be called to stage the Poonam night and the highest bidder would be given the rights in case India Cements opts out of the race.

The IB has indicated that Interpol has been alerted to locate Poonam; the bright sleuths have confirmed that they have intensified their search on Facebook, Twitter, Google and intelligence partner Wikipedia to locate her. There was a suspicion that the Pakistanis had kidnapped her as an exchange offer for Kashmir but since the source of this news was Times Now, this angle was dropped. The Home Minister has opined that she may have been kidnapped by Maoists and said that since this is a matter regarding internal security, the army would start a search operation in this regard; typically the Defence Minister A K Antony’s opinion was not sought.

The Finance Minister opined that the Poonam night was a taxable event and 35% fun tax should be paid to the tax exchequer, once she is found. Immediately, BJP’s Chief Sting Officer Arun Jaitley questioned the Government’s intentions to impose this fun tax in these inflationary times; he said that the law was not very clear on the actual definition of fun and that as and when there is a quorum in the House, this point should be discussed. The PM refused to be drawn into this discussion and said that keeping in light the CVC controversy, until all the facts are presented to him, he will not venture any opinion – this surprised bloggers who were ready to swear by the PMs lack of opinion on every issue.

Most Congressmen were unable to take any decision and looked to 10 Janpath to decide on the party strategy but Sonia Madam was too busy celebrating the Indian Victory to respond. The Frog, sorry, Crown Prince Rahul Gandhi was seen checking the Tata Yellow Pages for her address to spend a night with her and understand the problems of the youth better. Congress spokesman Manish Tewari immediately released a statement saying that the Government should consider declaring Poonam’s assets as national monuments to protect them from the likes of communal forces like Narendra Modi. This spurred the BJP to launch a Poonam Yathra to counter the Govt propaganda but this was cancelled at the last minute stating traffic constraints in Mumbai (insiders claim that this was abandoned due to differences in opinion between Perpetual PM In Waiting Advani and the RSS but this info could not be verified).

All main Indian channels carried exclusive stories of a Wikileak emanating from Wikipedia which said that Poonam was photographed bathing in a canal in Venice, raising speculation of an Italian hand to this entire conspiracy. The BJP immediately demanded Sonia Gandhi’s resignation saying that Poonam was part of the Bofors kickback offered through Quattrocchi. However, reading the fine print of Wikipedia suggested that Poonam may have been part of the entourage of models who had entertained Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, thus explaining the Italian sojourn. This led to the BJP immediately retracting from their official media recorded statement claiming that they were misquoted by the press. Silvio laughed off the accusation that he was too old to be involved in such amorous escapades but the ever forgiving Italian public was nevertheless impressed by his latest strategic foreign policy thrust.

Times Now claimed to have found a copy of the World Cup Winning Dossier created by honorary Indian citizen, Gary Kirsten with the help of unemployed IIM grads, lying in its Mumbai office. The document typed in Comic Sans Font size 12 is named as Operation Poonam Reloaded and provided incriminating evidence of the underhand (leg) means used by the team to reclaim the Cup which traditionally belonged to the Indian team but had been lent to the Aussie team on a long term lease. While the details of the report were never published, sources close to Arnab Goswami claim that it contained the minutes of the meetings of the Indian Think Tank listing the various positions that Poonam was identified to play to ensure that we won the Cup.

NDTV also indicated that they had carried out a sting on the Tatas which indicated that Ratan Tata, in cahoots with Niira Radia, may have used Poonam as bait to bring about changes in the 4G policy and buy spectrum. While no one has any idea what 4G stands for, it was universally agreed that Poonam is definitely more valuable than spectrum and the phone scripts must be exposed. While this was being debated, CNN-IBN published a photo of Barkha Dutt sharing a drink with somebody who mysteriously looked like Poonam; this was vehemently denied but the spectrum story died a sudden death immediately after this expose.

Leading feminists in India led by animal lover Celina Jaitley held a candle light demonstration in broad daylight asking to bring Poonam back home since she represented the true Indian woman, who was willing to sacrifice everything for the love of her country. However, peace loving groups like Ram Sena and Shiv Sena have demanded that Poonam be banned from entering the country since she was an insult to Indian women. The progressive MNS party however took a step further and mentioned that as a Bihari, she should also no longer be allowed to step into their sacred Maratha land.

India’s Human Rights Activists led by the redoubtable Arundhati Roy demanded that Poonam must be given full protection and the Right to Strip be made a fundamental right since there was the truest form of self-expression. Since there was a long list of groups in queue whose sentiments had been hurt by Poonam’s actions, the Government constituted a panel of self-proclaimed intellectuals which included among those Aamir Khan, Chetan Bhagat and Subramanian Swamy, to understand the true impact of this loss of sentiments.

India’s Flying Sikh the full-nonsense Sardar Navjot Singh Sidhu responded crisply on TV saying in no uncertain terms - My dear friend, adversity is the true test of one’s character. The camaraderie and bonhomie unleashed by this damsel in distress would go a long way in revitalizing, soothing and elevating the battered spirit of the poor Indian common man, who has long found himself traumatized by the multiplier effect of the hyper galloping inflation, coupled with the double whammy created by the myriad scandals of the populist Indian polity. This was reported the next day exclusively as a major headline by the Times of India followed by a detailed 24 hr panel discussion chaired on Times Now by Arnab Goswami to understand what the Sardar said.

Madhur Bhandarkar has said that he plans to direct a movie called CRICKET-The expose which would expose the soft,dark underbelly of the dealings between cricketers, models and bookies and everyone else watching the movie. There would be an item number Poonam Ki Jawani with guest appearance by the subject herself; this story has miffed Katrina Kaif who plans to sue Bhandarkar for violating her copyright on jawani. Reports say that Mallika Sherawat has been approached to play the leading character; rumours abound that she may turn down the role because she is busy laying good word for her Oscar winning performance in the movie HISS. Large hearted Pakistani cricketers were also roped in to give the movie a realistic feel but everyday infighting among the players has delayed the shooting schedule.

Not to be left out, renowned Malayalam filmmaker Paambu Vasu who has directed avante garde classics like Yavanam Oru Shaapam, Avalude Thazhvarathinte Thanalil and Nabhikalkkappuram announced that his new movie Pournami Raathrikal will be loosely based on Poonam's struggles in life. However, the movie has run into repeated hartals across the state for unknown reasons; senior hartal analyst Fijin Baby, writing in the national daily Manjadi, believes that the protests may have been triggered by Shakeela Chechi's fans upset at director Priyadarshan's reported attempt to remake her mega hit movie Kinnara Thumbikal with Akshay Kumar in double role to fill screen space.

Latest update – India’s Opposition has dismissed the existence of Poonam Pandey dubbing the entire plan as Poonamgate and has claimed that no such woman exists and this was a strategy by the Congress to deflect attention from the various scams plaguing the government. Pranab Mukherjee has said that that a PAC would look into this while the Opposition has demanded a JPC investigation but eventually all main parties walked out of the House. In the midst of this entire conundrum, the Common Male waits with bated breath and a clenched fist...

In an unrelated story, the Malayalam newspaper ~~Matrubhumi~~ Malayala Manorama ran a front page cover story suggesting that the fact that there was a place called Dhoni in Palakkad indicated that Dhoni had his roots in Kerala; the report by local correspondent Minnal Babu proudly claimed to have identified the hotel where Dhoni’s parents had spent time during their honeymoon, thus firmly establishing his Kerala connection and giving the State something to cheer about in the midst of the election season and Sreesanth's sparkling bowling display in the World Cup. This story also sparked off huge celebrations leading to the Kerala State Beverage Corporation meeting its annual sales target within 2 days..

The World Cup Returns Home

2011-04-03T19:06:00.003+05:30

April 2^nd 2011, Mumbai – a piece of Indian cricketing history that will be cherished for years to come. Many of us have heard our parents talk about the 1983 World Cup triumph where Kapil Dev’s Dare Devils emerged from nowhere to stake their claims to be World Champions. It is a moment that has been talked about on every occasion and many of us wondered whether we can witness such a moment again. Now, finally, my generation has a World Cup memory of our own to boot about and the Men in Blue pulled off a fantastic victory in Mumbai to etch their names permanently in history.

India started off as the pre-tournament favourites but their reputation often preceded them wherever they went. We knew that we were among the top-3 in the tournament but winning was a different ball game – it was a habit that we had not yet acquired. Under Ganguly and now Dhoni, the Men in Blue were emerging out of their shadows but a World Cup victory – surely, you must be joking, we can’t do that but then sometimes, just sometimes dreams also find their way upto God’s conspiratorial schemes.

The Indian batting was the strongest of the lot but we also added the rider ‘on paper’ in hushed terms just as investment products carried a warning at the bottom of the document. In the group stages, we had beaten the minnows handsomely but struggled against England and South Africa. The England match got the fans and experts livid at our thread bare bowling resources – Zaheer was mean and lean but the remaining forty overs were almost like prayers to the Lord to rescue us. HE heard us and we just about survived a Strauss onslaught and came out battered but still undefeated but the South Africa match was a harsh reminder of what was in store for us.

The match against the Proteas was billed as the competition between the best batting and bowling teams in the tournament. Viru, Gambhir and Sachin battered the South African bowling attack and a 350 was in sight until the batsmen committed hara-kiri at the altar of the latest cricketing strategy calling ‘batting powerplay’ (batting powerplays seemed to be more like millstones around the neck of batting captains). The batsmen stumbled but bowlers and fielders dished out strong performance till the ultimate over from Nehra where 13 runs were conceded with ease. The shoulders drooped again, the critics drew their daggers out, the experts smirked at our capabilities while the whimsical Indian cricket fan started writing elegies and expecting the worst. The team then beat the ragtag Windies team which seemed just a shade better than the minnows but still a victory was still a victory.

The Quarter finals finally arrived after weeks of surprisingly robust 50 over games which drew crowds in decent numbers. For the first time in more than two decades, India was tipped to be the favourites to beat the Aussies. The Aussies looked like aging patriarchs playing from memory; with no McGrath, Warne, Hayden or Gilchrist, the team was at cross roads, almost akin to their predecessors in the early 80s. The experts said that this was the best time to beat them, they had no great match practice and looked jaded against the Pakis.

At Ahmedabad, there was drama of course when the great man Ponting worked his way to a fantastic century finally getting out to a reverse sweep (a shot which nobody had probably ever seen Ponting play); the champ was down but not yet out and he had preserved his fighting spirit for the tough games. The Indian batsmen started well, wobbled a bit, almost made heavy weather of the chase but thanks to Yuvaraj and Raina, they pulled off a tense but convincing victory. The cricketing Gods had finally said good bye to the once most powerful cricketing team on the planet and the World Cup awaited a new prince to be crowned.

The semi-final against Pakistan was arguably the most hyped spectacle in recent media history and office goers were glad to give their regular jobs a miss to be a part of history (?). It wasn’t a great cricketing match by any standards but if the team needed to play the toughest, most stressful match before the finals, this was it. Dhoni surprised everyone by replacing Ashwin with Nehra on a pitch that did not do much for seamers but Nehra pulled off a fantastic performance. Sachin played a rather forgettable blemished innings but still took home the Man of the Match. The batting almost collapsed till Raina played another small cameo to give the team a fighting total. The Pak team started well but they played into the pressure and were outclassed; the golden oldies Misbah and Younis strangely seemed to be playing in a game which had no bearing with the current one. Despite the odd flourish here and there, it was a comfortable win and India’s WC record of no losses against Pak remained intact.

The final opponents were the wonderful Sri Lankans led by the aristocratic, Oscar Wilde quoting captain, Kumar Sangakkara. The team had an excellent opening pair, an untested middle order and had the 3 feared Ms in their bowling lineup – Malinga, Murali and Mendis. Strangely, Mendis was rested for the finals and there were 3-4 new blokes all thrust into the finals of the World Cup. They were expected to play South Africa for a slot in the final but thanks to the Protean tendency for suicide, they had an easier outing into the final. It was an all Asian final and touted to be the closing finale for two legends of the game to bow out in glory.

The Men in Blue were striking all the right notes – the bowling was peaking when it mattered and the batsmen were doing well, though not necessarily doing full justice to their reputation. Yuvaraj’s excellent overall performance had strengthened the team immensely; Sachin was among the leading run getters of the WC and Zaheer Khan led the bowling figures. The fielding was a class apart from its normal abysmal standards and the presence of Kohli, Raina and Yuvaraj were saving close to 20 runs in every game.

The finals took off on a cautionary note with a dream first spell by Zak and a decent enough one by Sreesanth (another gambit by Dhoni). The Indian bowlers played all the right notes and a total within 250 seemed in sight until some swashbuckling hitting in the end overs of Zak took SL to an imposing total of 274 – a total never before chased in a World Cup final. Mahela Jayawardene played a silken, cultured, crafty knock full of touches and nudges, with no hint of any form of violence against the leather – it was a knock that was possibly destined to take the Lankans to the trophy except ofcourse it turned out to be unfortunately a piece of cricketing trivia as the only team to have lost despite scoring a century in the WC finals.

When Malinga polished the two stalwart Indian openers, the nation let out a collective gasp; had the Men in Blue flattered to deceive again? But two young men decided to attempt to change the script – young Gambhir and Kohli (he was born in the post-83 era) stuck to the crease, played with a cause and took the attack to the opposition but with no attempts at flamboyance. The fairy tale ended when Dilshan pulled off an excellent catch to dismiss Kohli and in walked the captain Dhoni (to everyone’s surprise). The captain was in no great form but he wanted to make a point to both himself and the world and he decided to take the attack to the opposition – a bold move which eventually won him laurels and us the game. They played Murali and Malinga with due respect, went after the others and the ploy worked – eventually, when Gambhir got out for a fighting 97, we were standing at the threshold of a famous victory. The batting powerplays and Malinga came to play but today they were ordained to win and they cruised at the end with Dhoni finishing off the match with a memorable six over long off.

28 years is a long wait and the triumph is sweet and almost surreal. Ganguly had initiated the transformation but could not take it through to the final stage; Dhoni was the man destined to do the honours. He took risks, stuck to his instincts against all conventional logic and when the big moment arrived, he took the battle to the opposition. Even when the battle was won, he almost looked confused, unsure how to react and remained at the background in a rather understated way but few would doubt that he is the best ever Indian captain (a job arguably more demanding than the one Manmohan Singh has). My memories of Gary Kirsten at the crease were of a boring, unattractive work machine but the soft, unassuming coach returns to his family definitely a contented and a much admired man in India.

The Men in Blue played for the nation and the Little Master – the man whom my generation has been privileged to watch right from his teens to where he is now. Virat Kohli expressed this sentiment beautifully when he said – Sachin has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years. It's time we carried him on our shoulders.

Thank you Sachin, Dhoni, Gary and the Men in Blue – the images well remain etched in our memories for a really long, long time. On a more sober note, two weeks back , Dhoni's boys were pilloried for being chokers and now they are National heroes. Such is life and its glorious uncertainties - when the going in on your side, the nation is rooting for you but when you are down in the dumps, they want to smell your blood. I'm sure Dhoni understands this feeling just too well...

Discovering My Mother Tongue

2011-02-26T15:49:00.003+05:30

Last week as I waited at the airport with a copy of Madhavikutty’s Balyakala Smarnakal, it almost seemed to surprise a few that someone was reading a non-English book – acceptable at railway stations maybe but at airports, was it culturally out of place? It is kind of unfashionable to strut around with a vernacular language book when even writers like Salman Rushdie proclaim that Indian English writers are far superior to writers in Indian languages.

The urban educated Indian is essentially a polyglot; he normally speaks English, his mother tongue and another language, possibly Hindi or the language of the state he is in. But there is some sort of an identity crisis (my favourite subject) with this plethora of languages that he has to indulge in to survive. Thinking in a language, speaking in one formally, another informally and struggling in some others makes it a bit of a jamboree.

At the age of three, I moved to Hyderabad moving away from the rural idleness of my village in Elappully to a small, conservative urban city unspoilt by the denizens of the IT world. We quickly learnt to use English as our primary language and the mother tongue was slowly getting eroded; the only usage was at home and when we visited Palakkad during our summer vacations in May. Honestly, language did not mean anything to us at that time and we were comfortable ranting in English and Hindi; cultural identities come to the fore much later when you grow up and try to identify yourself with a group or a community.

Mutashi taught us to read the Malayalam alphabet in our early teens; I remember it was a small little book called ‘Learn Malayalam in 30 days’. Luckily, the lessons stuck for some time as I looked at cinema posters, bus routes and magazines but the script may have faded from my mind if not for the cable revolution that swept our lives in the mid-90s.

Tough to imagine there was a world when there was just one TV channel – our good old Doordarshan where the only strains of regional language used to be in the form of the regional movie that would play every Sunday afternoon, after the news for the hearing impaired. The movie shown may have left a lot to be desired but still that was probably the only time when Indians watched other language movies faithfully. Of course those in Palakkad would recollect watching Tamil more on TV because DD-Kodaikanal was clearer than DD-Malayalam.

It was the 1996 Cricket World Cup and we finally welcomed cable TV into our lives. The World Cup went but along with it, it also brought Asianet into our lives- our first glimpse of Malayalam viewing outside Kerala. Suddenly, there was a quantum leap in our exposure to Malayalam with a host of TV serials and movies occupying our drawing rooms and ensuring that the diaspora could now live outside the state but still be tuned to it. Cinema and literature are the most popular forms of expression of language and so would you be surprised by the changes that a vernacular TV channel brought into one’s lives?

Mohan Lal, Mammootty and Yesudas were undoubtedly the icons who now connected us to our language. But I recollect that the person who caused me to be enthralled with cinema and especially Malayalam cinema was Sibi Malayil. Imagine as a first time viewer, when you are exposed to Bharatham, Kireedam, Sadayam, Thaniya Varthanam, Dasharatham and His Highness Abdullah in less than a span of a month – intense, powerful language of cinema which hooked me to the medium. Of course there were also many others like Padmarajan, Hariharan, Bharathan, Sathyan Anthikkad, MT etc. who slowly but surely converted me into a Keralophile.

It helped that as an engineering student in Coimbatore, there were so many students from Kerala and so the language blossomed and it eventually replaced Hindi as my second language of communication. Regular trips down South ensured that there was a more constant flow of the language from more quarters and not parents alone (Funnily, my interaction with Achchan and Prashant veered towards more English at the same time) ensuring that despite being in Bombay, I could still breathe the language.

Our marriage increased the Malayalam quotient in my language tremendously (interacting in Malayalam on the phone with her for the 9 month period between fixing the marriage and the marriage was a challenge to my language skills but I survived!!!) but I still had not breached the literature frontier. I had earlier tried reading English translations of Malayalam novels – The Demon Seed (Asuravithu), The Legends of Khasak (Khasakkinte Itihasam), Kesavan’s Lamentations (Kesavante Vilapangal) but to be honest, I think it was more of a deliberate attempt to relate to one’s culture and not the literature. Translations are important but when you are well aware of the milieu and the culture, they can be jarring and out of place. When you anglicize the Nair tharavadu, the visual appeal falls flat, especially for someone who understands the backdrop and the language of the place.

Two works of art suddenly pushed me into attempting to read Malayalam – reading Basheer’s The Walls and watching Renjith’s Pranchiyettan and the Saint. The simplicity of The Walls was spell binding and as I imagined Mammootty speaking in the film as I read, I wondered whether I was missing out on the beauty of the original language by shying away from reading it in its original form. The thought lingered within me; at the same time, we watched Pranchiyettan and I loved the dripping humour in the script, which would have worked only in its original language and Trichur dialect and translation could never have done justice to it.

And so after due consultation, I ordered a few Malayalam books online, primarily by MT and Basheer and a set of short stories by Padmarajan. My maiden attempt was Aparan by Padmarajan and it was a total failure - the 3 page long story took an incredibly long amount of time and for all that effort, I was not even able to fathom half of what I read. I guess I was jumping the gun, so I stepped back and approached Basheer's Mathilukal, a far more easier but nevertheless enriching exercise. The starting trouble had been overcome even if the pace was quite slack.

Short stories and novellas by MT and Basheer (strongly recommended to first timers to try Basheer and never O V Vijayan initially) followed till I finally had the confidence to read a full-fledged novel, MTs Naalukettu – a look at the changing (crumbling) world of the matriarchal Nair tharavadu. Of course, wifey dear is there to constantly help me in understanding the language and helping whenever I am stuck – you need someone to help out frequently at least initially.

There are a few more books now adorned on my shelf waiting to be read as I alternate between English and Malayalam. It is a nice little pleasure to suddenly discover one’s own language and make up for years of neglect of the same. But it is not an easy experience – you need patience to waft through the material word by word, the reading pace is pretty slow, the language bounces above the head on many an occasion and you need help when you are stuck but it is an enriching feeling nevertheless.

Books are fairly affordable in Kerala and you get translations of several unknown Latican American and African writers in small bookshops (Is there any surprise that someone like Marquez is so popular in Kerala?). A book in Malayalam which costs about Rs 100 costs about 300+ in its English translation. In Bombay and most cities, there are big air-conditioned bookstores, where you can browse books and buy videos, have coffee and spend ample time practically buying nothing; the books here sell at prices five to six times what a book in Kerala costs.

It is important that you should value your mother tongue but I don’t want to sound parochial and say down with the others. Let’s not blame anyone and insist that parents and relatives must speak in their language only so that the language does not perish; after all, the primary motive of a language is to communicate so you cannot insist on speaking a language at the cost of clarity of thought. Practically, an English medium education puts us at an advantage and it would be foolish to discard the advantage that it bestows in our work lives but equally, it would be wonderful if we do not neglect our languages.

I find a more cultural binding with my language rather than with my religion; it would be a pity if I had to sacrifice it for the sake of convenience. It helps in deriving some sort of an identity for an urban Indian who struggles to find his roots as he is displaced from what he calls his own..

Arjunan Sakshi

2011-01-30T18:48:00.003+05:30

Ranjith Sankar’s ‘Passenger’ dealt with a common man’s reaction to a problem and how his ability to react can make a difference; ‘Arjunan Sakshi’ takes off on a similar tangent but Ranjith is slightly more ambitious here. He puts the common man protagonist in a situation where he is forced to react and not remain a mere sakshi to the issues being faced. The canvas is broader but the approach unfortunately skids on a slightly simplistic and predictable plane, grounding my expectations fuelled by Ranjith’s debut.

'Arjunan Sakshi' starts off with an anonymous letter which arrives at Mathrubhumi office from somebody called Arjunan, who claims that he is witness to the murder of Feroz Mooppan (Mukesh), the former Kochi Collector. Anjali Menon (Ann Augustine), the journalist who publishes the letter is threatened by unknown people to reveal Arjunan's identity while Roy Mathew (Prithviraj), an enterprising architect who lands in Kochi to join a real estate firm, is mistaken for Arjunan and gets sucked into the plot unwittingly.

The conceptual premise is promising – he is a man who is mistaken to be a witness to high profile crime and has to bear the brunt of the antagonists. He lands himself in a piquant situation and is shoved to a corner but instead of being a mere witness, he decides to fight back. The backdrop of an urban congested Kochi plagued by a weak administration, crony capitalism and ‘ready to crawl when asked to bend’ press gives the movie a realistic feel.

Ranjith has the right intentions and the film makes a bright start but is handicapped by the execution not matching the concept. While the story builds up and creates tension with alacrity, it slowly loses its grip on the plot and so situations become convenient to tighten the loose strings in the plot. To give credit to Ranjith, he does not give Roy any heroic aura and allows him to take wrong steps but the path seems simple enough, without too many speed breakers.

The Feroz Mooppan case remains unresolved despite attempts by both the local police and the CBI. The fact that a common man with no connections in a city is able to track and identify the killers makes it such a mundane thing that you’d wonder why the police or even the CBI were unable to crack the case. Let us assume that this is primarily because of the high profile of the people involved in the case but till Roy attempts his own investigation, we have no idea of the suspects in the case.

If there was a governmental culpability in mishandling the case, we are not told about it. And if this was the case, it does not hinder Roy’s investigations in any way and he proceeds with his snooping without facing any trouble from anyone. The cops sympathize with the predicament that Roy finds himself in but are not willing to help without sufficient leads to work on, however is the sympathy genuine? We are not too sure about this; the moral ambiguity in their actions helps in adding greater intrigue but at the same time, it makes one wonder whether the attitude of the cops towards Roy is driven by their exasperation with such fly-by-night TRP-driven stories or their intention to let sleeping dogs lie.

A particular media channel picks up the story of the attack on Roy and the news quickly flashes on the identity of Arjunan. But after the initial hue and cry, the media goes totally silent and despite multiple attacks on his life and the death of the Collector’s father, the media is strangely absent. The Police Commissioner says that since the story is no longer fresh, the media is least bothered about following up on the story but do we sense that sufficient time has progressed for the media to junk the story? No, we don’t; instead it comes across just as a tool that the director uses to hammer the media for what they are worth.

Initially, Roy is hounded by his opponents and attacked on a couple of occasions and he realizes that taking his story to the media could protect him but just as mysteriously as the subsequent lack of media glare, the attacks also cease giving him sufficient breathing space to conduct his investigation independently. The screenplay seems to create these triggers as and when there is a need to build in momentum in the plot than follow a more logical flow of events.

Roy Mathew is a young flashy architect who has studied in Mumbai and worked extensively out of Kerala and his only sojourns to the state are a few weekly trips which are pretty rare. Maybe I am wrong but I strongly suspect that Roy’s language hardly shows him as an expatriate in that sense. He’s blissfully comfortable in the language and the culture of the place, though the director drops in a few hints at his unease. Wouldn’t the character worked equally well if he were a home grown guy who returns to his state after a few years? Maybe an outsider brings in a fresh perspective to things; he does not accept the things they are and questions them.

Thankfully, the director steers himself of any romantic angles in the plot and sticks to the direction of the plot faithfully till the very end. Such an approach works well in case of thrillers which work at break neck speed but to that extent, the movie has a more leisurely pace. Roy is in serious trouble but is he a loner? Do we know anything about his family and friends- wouldn’t either of these two blocks be his main rallying points in such an emergency situation?

We come to know that the Kochi Metro Rail passes through important hubs in the city and the murder of Feroze Moppan is connected to the builders who are unwilling to give up government encroached land. The issue is highly debated in the media, the plan layouts are available in newspapers and it does not require an investigation by Roy to suspect who the conspirators are. It is clear that some of these malls have come up illegally on government land but clearly, they cannot come up one fine day without governmental clearances – but the role of the State is not questioned, except for a couple of token dialogues. It would be interesting to know what would be the government response in case the encroachers were poor people with no housing facilities and not big malls.

‘Arjunan Sakshi’ makes its point about incompetent governments, public apathy and developmental conflicts and does not get too preachy but largely remains a murder plot waiting to be resolved by th hero. Ranjith wants us to break out our comfort zones of family and comfort, look at the real world outside and make a difference but as we leave the theatres, I strongly suspect that it falls short of making us do that.

*** The Kochi Metro Rail forms the crux of the issue here and Ranjith endorses the idea of a metro rail in Kochi whole heartedly but I assume that the Metro Rail here is a mere symbol of the development that the state needs because it is a moot question whether an expensive option like a metro rail is a preferred option to a cheaper and probably better alternative like BRTS in smaller towns that carry a lesser load than the main metros. Our one size fits all solutions for development needs more thinking...

The Communication Journey

2010-12-19T20:18:00.002+05:30

When Mark Zuckerberg created an application called Facebook, it was another application that changed the way people communicated with each other. Friends were “connections” and simply clicking on a ‘Like’ button said so much more than what realms of words could say. As a budding 30 year old who has learned to accept Facebook as yet another necessary evil, I feel sometimes so overwhelmed by the changes that have taken place in our interactions. We were part of the transitionary generation that saw how modern communication changed so drastically.

The 80s kid was not so different from his earlier generations when it came to communication. The poor inland letter and post card still swayed heavily in our lives; there was practically no other way that people communicated with each other and so secretaries were still relevant at that time. The ubiquitous red shining post box and the messenger – the genial postmen – were revered objects in any household. You were careful to tip him lest he decided not to give us our letters (I remember a serial in Doordarshan which was about a postman who dies one day and his son realizes that there are hundreds of unposted letters that his father had left; he decides to be a nice man and posts the backlog of years, resulting in difficult situations..can’t remember the name of the serial).

Letter writing was an important part of all language classes – 20 marks in the Class X exam – and I remember students were always unsure whether the From Address needed to be written to the right of left and where the subject of the letter had to be written. Inland letters at 1 Re each were widely used but post cards were dirt cheap and typically the poor man's favoured choice. They became hugely popular thanks to Siddharth Kak's 'Surabhi'. The huge popularity of the programme lead to the Government introducing competition post cards and increasing their price.

While letters and post cards were friendly stuff, telegrams were the spooky ones. Normally telegrams were associated only with deaths and bad news; I guess bad news always travelled much faster. Since the pricing of a telegram was based on the number of words used, we would often argue on what to be put in a telegram. I have a slightly happier memory of the telegram; my class X exam result was sent to me by Achchan by telegram while we were enjoying our summer vacations in Palakkad.

We never had a telephone in those days and the STD booths which dotted the surface of India were the only way to call up people. Since people rarely had telephones then, the STD booth only served to make phone calls to offices and schools. The phone booth was a brain wave of Sam Pitroda and played in important role in connecting rural India to the rest of the world.

When I joined my engineering college in Coimbatore, we realized that the phone had become a necessity. During initial days of the college, I would call up our neighbour’s house in Hyderabad at night and they would call my parents who would promptly wait there till I made a phone call again. The logistical difficulty and embarrassment of this situation was overcome then by finally applying for and getting a landline phone. This was in 1996-97 and by then many houses had land line phones but then we were a bit slowly to catch the consumerism wagon.

Despite the land lines catching up a lot, I continued my romance with writing letters. If I had to write less, I would use an inland letter but I preferred writing in normal A-4 pages and sending them to home through postal cover, duly stamped based on the weight of the cover. We were a strongly democratic family and I enjoyed pouring my words on those A-4 sheets and Achchan/brother and I would discuss everything under the sun in all seriousness. Every time we returned to the Boys Hostel from college, we would search for our names on the Notice board to see if we had any letters. The hostel warden would then hand over the letters to us; of course, there was a suspicion that the wardens opened letters that they suspected were from girls and then closed them back (I have no idea how they would figure the gender of the writer of the letter)!!!

Making phone calls from college was also a tedious job; there was a public booth and boys and girls would crowd the place by 8.30 pm (the night rates were probably half the day ones) and it would be almost an hour by the time the entire exercise of making the phone call was completed. The bills would always be high in the absence of an electronic meter and a couple of rupees here and then still pinched. Of course, the phone booth had also become a meeting point for throbbing hearts and so the college started separate booths for boys and girls!!! The telephone book was an important piece of stationary those days where everyone’s names would be arranged alphabetically and we always remembered the numbers of the names that were frequently used.

The first time I saw a mobile was during the days of TECHWAVES – a symposium conducted by our department Production Engineering in college. I think it was in Sreeprabhu’s hands that I saw a mobile. The rates were close to 16 Rs/minute and that too for incoming; you would be a fool to even think of buying a mobile then. The pager had come and gone and it was a device that was consigned to the footnotes of technology pretty fast.

It was in my first or second year that I created my first email ID. Vivek helped me in creating a Rediff email ID and taught me how to use it except ofcourse I did not have anyone to mail to. Browsing the internet was still a premium activity and not so easy; we were told that using Internet we could search for a lot of stuff but I am not sure it meant anything much. Our antennas were more receptive to the use of Internet when we were told by net savvy guys that the net was the best place to search for porn and the only website that we knew was Google – the world that showed everything that you ever wanted to see and know (even what you didn’t want to know, actually).

During MBA days, most students had a mobile but not me as I was a day scholar. My brother had a bulky Nokia mobile but it was still out of bounds then. My first mobile came through my first salary and even then it came of a necessity of being in touch with family since I was in Mumbai and they were in Hyderabad. A bright, shining Nokia handset with a decent prepaid charge of about Rs 500 which was used primarily for receiving calls and making missed calls (It is interesting to note that 25-30% of all calls in India are missed calls according to a telecom survey done 2-3 years ago).

The phone rates have fallen drastically since then and the mobile is a device that is practically found with everyone even if the primary function may vary from people to people. I am still happy with a mobile that helps me in making and receiving calls and sending messages but with the advent of new phones, basic telephony is probably out of the way. Land line phones in urban Indian homes primarily serve the purpose of acting as Address proof documents but it is still present in most homes and for old people, mobiles are still difficult to handle.

Communication is much easier now and so while the ability to communicate is there, the intent to do so still has to be there but social networks help in masking the lack of intent. Orkut introduced the power of social networking and so suddenly long lost friends came back to our lives. Private lives were much more into the open and interacting was through ‘scrapping’ but looks like Orkut is going the pager way – decimated by the power of Facebook. The whole world’s is one big networking place and everyone who can connect to the network now has a profile.

Simply clicking on a button and messaging people on Facebook has made interaction so easy. People simply put down their private thoughts online and want everyone, including strangers to read them and even respond but honestly, other than your near and dear, why should it matter to anyone else what you to do day in and day out?

Friendships are not formed by connecting or networking with people; the web simply creates a mirage where people sitting on laptops talk to each other and the world because of our craving to be recognized, liked and wanted by more and more people. When we update our status, it is a message to everyone else that you want to be heard. Imagine what would happen if you keep updating your status and not a soul responds—don’t worry, that would not happen..the Facebook edifice may not ever be written..

Image Courtesy - http://www.intoon.com/cartoons.cfm/id/68559

A Twilight Dream

2010-11-14T16:08:00.003+05:30

Every few months, we make a trip make to Kerala and the joy of going back to one’s home town has never been diminished despite so many years. After marriage, there are two of us now who keep making plans about the trip and despite the difficulty of getting our tickets, we manage to do it every time, even if it sometimes requires a 32 hour journey (like the trip we made this month).

In the midst of all the bonhomie of going back to one’s roots, there is a strong disconcerting thought that always plagues me. In every trip, we meet people, primarily of the elder generation, who wait for someone to communicate with them once a while. Every household or tharavadu has aging members, who have their medical problems but would still be interested to meet you. They would remember the family to which each of us belongs and go on a tangent about the family history; courtesy prevents us from stopping their flights of fantasy.

Many houses that I visit have grandparents who wait for their near ones to make their annual visit while they spend their time wallowing in front of boring television melodramas or reading the plethora of magazines that dot the Kerala paingili magazine circuit. Usually on the TV stand or the drawing room shelf, I see family smiling photos of their offspring beaming from distant lands – Gulf, US and Bangalore are the hot favourites I encounter regularly.

While the drawing room is in sync with the current generation, the rest of the rooms are more or less a reflection of the older times. The old grandfather clock still ticks in a few houses while the store room has a stock of all those things that I had seen in my childhood but have now made way for modern equipment. There are a few albums with those rare black and white photos that are slowly withering away after years of neglect; but they still hold a value unlike the snaps that adorn my laptop now.

The golden oldies have a similar set of complaints whenever I visit them – failing health, safety concerns, loneliness and very prominently the unavailability of maids to take care of household work. I see sprawling houses and a lonely car parked in front of many of the houses I visit but these are silent houses which break into joy only when kids come in during their school vacations. The outside money has brought in wealth and spending but not reduced the insecurity brought about by living alone.

The inhabitants battle a sense of boredom and live every day waiting for a call; so every marriage, child birth and pooja is a source of entertainment for the people. Regular stories floating around of old people being attacked and robbed when alone has also led to the growth of flats even in a place like Palakkad – something which was unthinkable even a few years back. Many of them have found refuge in God and karma and left things to fate – once upon a time staunch communists cannot seek Marx in times of depression.

The maid problem seems to be a Kerala-specific problem, a developed nation issue where menial labour has few takers. Most houses fund it difficult to hire and subsequently retain maids because it is much more lucrative to do small time Government jobs that pay more. The MGNREGS, with all its issues, is helping in giving better paid employment opportunities in the State but the unlikely fallout seems to be the maid availability issue.

This may sound like a trivial problem when you keep the lofty ideas of socialism in your mind but for many, this is a serious concern. It is compounded by the fact that lack of jobs at a more educated strata have led to a massive migration of people to other places. So, what you have is eventually a set of oldies who have to fend it out all alone, without sufficient support to run the house.

As things stand, the rapid spread of modernization, growing urbanization and crumbling of joint family system have led to an increase in the insecurity and loneliness among the population. We all have faced bouts of loneliness but there was always a future to look forward too but what happens when we touch the autumn of our lives? Will our children be somewhere in the vicinity to be available at our beck and call? This is a truth that will come to haunt all of us one day and I shudder to think of how we will manage this scenario.

Economically, we find ourselves as part of a generation that receives no pension; so what you earn and invest now is our only source of income in the twilight years. With spiraling medical costs and an increasing life span, we are committing ourselves to a substantial medical assistance as time progresses. Remember Aparna Sen’s touching 36 Chowringee Lane where the teacher Violet Stoneham is finally back to her loneliness as the young couple which dotes on her suddenly disappear from her midst. Eventually there will be just the two of us sorting out our old age trivialities and maybe waiting for the final call….

It is such a bitter truth to accept that once we age, we may not be so important at all – there would be the next generation who starts believing that we are impediments in the growth of this country. As I touch 30, I have already started feeling slightly cut-off from the current lot of teenagers who are born and live in a much more connected and consumerist world. Probably aging would start much earlier now and as you touch 40, you may be part of a population that is already past its prime. When companies hire and promote employees practically every year or two, there would come a time when you realize that Nature has caught up with you and maybe it is time to re-utilize your talent in better ways.

Just wonder whether begetting children is something that people do as an investment for their future. We have children thinking that one day when we grow old, there will be someone to take care of us when the legs tire and the body is no longer one's friend. But when the same children do not have time to be at your side, will there be a tinge of regret? I guess its a generation to a generation thing - after a few years, we are more attached to our children than our parents and we realize this when we grow up.

Sometime back, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, while referring to the ageing population had observed: Trees grow stronger over the years, river wider and like with the age, human beings gain immeasurable depth and breadth of experience and wisdom. That is why older persons should not only be respected and revered but they should be utilized as the rich resource to society that they are.

Image Courtesy - http://kakkat.blogspot.com/2009/06/ill-lay-still-walk-on-me.html

Pranchiyettan & The Saint

2010-09-26T12:00:00.006+05:30

The last time Malayalees fell in love with the musical Thrissur accent in cinema was when Mohan Lal’s Jayakrishnan drenched us in the rains of Thoovanathumbikal. Now, more than 20 years later, Mammootty, unassumingly brings to life a rich businessman in Thrissur who wants to create a name for himself but always fails ('oru vedanikkunna kodeeshwaran'). Director Renjith, who is emerging as something of a dark horse for ailing Malayalam cinema, creates a language and cinema that is innovative, funny and at its satirical best.

Chirammal Enashu Francis (Aripranchi or Pranchiyetta as he is known by all) ails from a rich family that is traditionally into the business of selling rice. But he has an inferiority complex about the fact that he is not that educated. And so Pranchiyettan hankers for social acceptance. He expands into jewellery, construction, finance and other businesses but is unable to shake of his name as a rice merchant.

With the help of Vasu Menon (Innocent), he makes multiple attempts to buy easy fame but all come to nought till he eventually accepts the futility of it. His interactions with Padmashree, an interior decorator who paints the walls of his house as well as his heart and Pauli, a wayward kid who is in danger of failing his Class X exams, finally give him a destination in life.

The movie deals with Pranchiyettan’s identity crisis and his need to find meaning in life –he believes that people’s respect is what will satisfy him and he is willing to resort to unscrupulous ways to buy that respect. He competes in a local club election but is defeated; he arranges a felicitation for the Oscar award-winner Gafoor Chekutty, but his presence is relegated to the backstage. He is not someone who helps others for the sake of respect but wants to get noticed for the good work that he has done in the society (he even keeps receipts of all these donations as an evidence of the help done!!!).

In a mockery of the Indian system of doling out awards to willing buyers, he tries to buy his way to a Padma Shri by bribing a few middlemen. His name eventually features in the recommendation of the State list of Chhattisgarh (!!!) but despite the promises, he is cheated out of the award. The scene where Pranchi and team try to create a profile for him to justify the award is brilliant – it starts with the various attempts to eulogize his character and ends with the profile writer stating that the difference between winning and buying an award is akin to the satisfaction of earning money vis-à-vis the fear of losing one’s money.

Pranchiyetta is a shrewd businessman but not exactly worldly wise; he is smart enough to win land deals but he has blind faith in people and is taken for ride by many – the politicians who swindle him of the money he spends to get a Padma Shri, the auto driver who uses his friend’s son as a bait to make some fast money and many others who come to him regularly to borrow money on some pretext or the other.

He has his own complexes owing to his lack of education and smartness. He loses his girlfriend, Omana (played by Renjith regular Khushboo) in school to a classmate Jose (Siddique) and they get married later on, adding to his agony. His relationship with the these two characters is interesting –Dr Jose reminds him of his failings in love and education but it is still a love-hate relationship which does not create any stress in their lives. Even when Pranchi’s driver tries to provoke Jose by telling him that Omana has come to see Pranchi in mysterious circumstances, he waves away any suggestions of suspicion.

There is an openness in the relationship between his ex-girlfriend Omana and Pranchi. Pranchi is still troubled by seeing his Omana with her husband but they are still close enough to confide in each other, without any hesitation. Recall Omana talking about her husband willing to do anything to win and how Pranchi says he still finds it uneasy when he sees the couple. Omana remains a good friend and introduces Padmashree to Pranchi, recognizing his naive and honest heart.

Padmashree’s relationship with Pranchi is clear to the viewer but their background romance is highly understated and it would have helped if Renjith has built in more meat into their relationship. Does she love him or is she grateful to him? We do not know because the story is seen from Pranchi’s eyes only. Her feelings for him are not shown to us till the end and even then, it looked an attempt to tie the loose ends and not a convincing finale.

Renjith loses a bit of his focus in the second half especially during the time Jagathy makes his appearance as a Gandhian school teacher, who tries to teach the young Pauli. The transition from the first half to second half is slightly off-track here and you have two different tales being told – Padmashree and Pauli – in the movie but these two characters are like two chapters in a book, being read at different points of time, without a fluidity of context.

Though Padmashree is his leading lady, Renjith puts in more effort to weave Pauli’s plot into the narration. Pauli’s inability to pass the exam is understandable and Pranchi’s affection towards him builds up gradually. His initial obsession to make him clear his X exams is replaced later on with an understanding of the ground realities. Pauli’s troubled life at home brings him closer to the kid and helps him in taking his final decision on the boy’s future.

Renjith brings in the Divine Touch here again as in Nandanam through the character of St. Francis - a delightful cameo by an Australian theatre actor Jesse Fox Allen (with voice over by Renjith himself), who slips into the Thrissur accent to allay fears of his devotee. However, unlike Guruvayurappan in Nandanam, the saint has no active role in the proceedings; he is a listener and a device that Renjith uses to move across chapters in Pranchi’s life. But the saint gets to mouth the dialogue that had the audience in splits - he mocks at the Malayalis’ propensity to grab anything and stand in any queue as long it is free. He asks anyone who goes to Velankanni or Guruvayoor to pray on his behalf so that he can receive the Lord’s blessings without making an effort (My translation sucks big time, I agree).

Now, we do not know for sure whether the three visions of Pranchi at the end are true or if he's actually seen the saint but these are his visions which help him to understand his destiny. They help him forget his past misgivings and build a new future, in the company of Pauli and hopefully Padmashree. There is no great transformation that happens as the movie closes; Pranchi still seeks fame (he tells Pauli that only if he had seen the saint, he would have had a witness) but there is an acceptance of life’s uncertainties now and that is the real victory.

The Thrissur accent helps in adding humour in the dialogues but thankfully, the accent is not overbearing as in Chattambi Nadu or Rajamanikyam. With the exception of Jagathy’s forced humour, most of the characters are restrained and the director does not give into the temptation of using caricatures as in many comedies – the satire crackles under his pen and the characters simply deliver as per the script. So, even minor players like the driver, the cook and the politicians leave a mark. Mammootty as Pranchiyettan delivers a performance that is at once warm and naive – you love the simplicity of the man and even when he tries to be unscrupulous, you cannot loathe him.

A movie like Pranchiyettan &The Saint gives us a reason for celebration because it takes us back to a time when writing was an integral part of the film. Renjith serves us a fun-filled satire with his potshots on religion, politics and moral values in the society but takes care not to be preachy – a trap a lesser director could have fallen when dealing with saints and simpletons. The humour is in the writing and there is not even a slightest hint of slapstick fun here – many of Pranchi’s dialogues are funny but they are not contrived even the slightest bit (notice how effortless it is when he asks Padmashree whether the painting she brought as a gift is a left over from the art gallery sales or why the painting is drawn with the person’s back facing the image).

After Kaiyoppu, Thirakatha, Paleri Manikyam and now Pranchiteyyan & The Saint, it is time we sit up and wait for every Renjith movie that emerges out of his pen now. Hopefully, the slam-bang movies and fiery dialogues made famous by him are now a thing of the past….

***When we watched the movie in PVR-Goregaon on Saturday evening, the movie was met with applause. Now, that is something that should gladden the hearts of Renjith and all fans of good cinema.

Being Realistic About Kashmir

2010-09-19T00:47:00.004+05:30

More than 100 civilians have been killed in the last 3 months as Kashmir boils in a fury that we have not seen in recent times. There is a clear revolt in the streets of the Valley and we must face it – it is not a Pakistani plot but led by enraged young men and women. No party has any idea on how to quell the violence and the state bleeds as violent protests and demonstrations paralyze it. The National Conference demands autonomy, the Congress prefers status quo (something that Narasimha Rao had elevated to an art) while BJP wants to crush the revolt.

Omar Abdullah has not gained any brownie points for his governmental incompetence – but seriously, would changing the Chief Minister make any difference? When the State is besieged by rebellions throughout the year and the administration is left to the army, can the CM change things? You could argue that only a man in touch with the Kashmiri common man can make a difference; but then this is just as true for any political leader in this country. Those who think that Farooq Abdullah would have done a better job, better think twice – are we talking about one of the men who was responsible for the 1987 poll rigging in Kashmir, a turning point in its politics?

Everyone knows the history of Kashmir – the fact that state which may have become independent or part of Pakistan is now in India primarily because Maharaja Hari Singh agreed to cede to India in order to protect his kingdom from Pakistani tribal warlords. But that was 63 years back and we still have not been able to resolve the Kashmir issue that rocks every conference where India and Pakistan try to sit and talk to each other. No one has a magic wand to resolve it and all the smart alecs who talk about giving solutions are living in a fool’s paradise.

The Government’s announcement of 50,000 jobs and the creation of a panel to study the creation of more jobs are small efforts that are taken with a pinch of salt in the Valley. The economic package will only work with a proper political one but then India has never won any fans for its dismal and insensitive handling of provincial challenges. The strategy never changes – whether it is Kashmir, North-East or Punjab; the Centre props up a few leaders, buys or bullies its way through other factions and finds itself in a position where it is stuck in a Catch-22 situation.

The 2002 elections were a starting point of a change in the ground realities in Kashmir. Elections were held and there was wide participation by the people; the extremist groups slowly started losing their hold on the masses and there was a hope that moderate groups like the Hurriyat can be brought into the administration. Negotiations with moderates like Sajjad Lone, Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Farooq were attempted but all this has come to nought in the past couple of years. New Delhi must take most of the blame for dilly-dallying and not doing enough to rope in moderates and allowing hardliners like Geelani to call the shots once again.

Currently, the biggest stumbling block is the controversial AFSPA – the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), which was passed on September 11, 1958. It conferred special powers upon armed forces in "disturbed areas" in the states of North-East and was later extended to Jammu and Kashmir in July 1990. The Defence establishment is not very keen on repealing this abused act and though most political parties (except the BJP) are keen to repeal it or at least dilute it in Kashmir, no decision has been taken on it.

AFSPA was meant to be used under special conditions but unfortunately, a draconian act like the Act can never serve its purpose for long. There is no doubt that the AFSPA is the biggest obstacle in trying to bring immediate peace – we must do away with it in totality or at least gradually – and release important political prisoners. Today’s Kashmir is not what it was in the 90s – foreign influence is on the wane and the state election turnout has been very positive. Kashmir needs a proper civilian government and the government has to be run through proper political administration and not by the military.

The State police force needs to handle the ground job and get the army only to protect its borders. The Armed Forces are not equipped to handle law and order problems and you cannot justify using them against your own people. As the death toll rises in clashes between the armed forces and the protesters, witness the reaction to other protests like the Jats going berserk in Haryana. They did much more damage than the stone pelters in Kashmir but no army was brought in; it was left to the police to settle things and there were no deaths reported due to police firing.

In the last one year, India has lost ground majorly and allowed separatists to make a comeback. Knee-jerk reactions like banning SMSs, pre-paid mobile connections, media and cable channels will only increase the burning rage; the State must learn to respect the civil society and safeguard its rights. Today, there are powerful forces demanding a trifurcation of the main regions of the state – Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh – into separate administrative units but this is dangerous.

While the onus is primarily on the State and Central Government to understand the Kashmir psyche, it is also high time for Kashmiris to be realistic about their options. Are choices like independence, autonomy or alignment with Pakistan workable?

Azaadi is a utopian dream; there is no way any self-respecting country can relinquish land mindful of the geographical and political complexities of the place. Kashmiris would be foolish to believe that they can survive independently surrounded by India, China and Pakistan. Independence will only encourage the likes of Taliban to try to wrestle their way through to occupy the Valley, with tacit support of Pakistan and China, thus creating another Afghanistan like situation. Kashmir is not about the majority Muslims alone; ask the minority Kashmiri Pandits (who have been victims of ethnic cleansing making them homeless) and Sikhs and they would be happier to be aligned with India.

Bad governance is a malaise that is present everywhere in the country. Police excesses, administrative apathy and corruption have corroded India everywhere and this is not a Kashmir specific problem. The Indian bureaucracy has treated Kashmiris no better and no worse than they’ve treated the rest of India. Will throwing out the Indian element of the administration cure that? I doubt that.

Autonomous Kashmir can be a way out but then isn’t the Indian Government answerable to the rest of the nation too? If Kashmir can be autonomous, why not Tamil Nadu or Manipur or Gujarat? Historical and cultural differences are hardly significant to treat Kashmir separately – those reasons are applicable to just about any other state in India. Doesn’t Article 370 give Kashmir a special significance which we don’t have? Kashmiris need to be convinced that they are governed by somebody from among them and not a candidate whose strings are being pulled by the Centre. What we need is greater decentralization and that is the need in every state and not just Kashmir but again this is not specific to Kashmir alone; local level empowerment and devolution of power can help in making a more federal India.

Aligning with Pakistan is not a very popular option now even for Kashmir. PoK is miles away from any autonomy while Mohajirs are second class people in Pakistan. Hardliners like Alam Bhat and Asiya Andrabi may want to be a part of Pakistan but they are perceived by most Kashmiris as fundamentalists who do not understand Kashmir and its soul. But the political environment is changing; the pan-Islamic identity of the Kashmir struggle is slowly gaining ground. In the last 2 years, the moderates find themselves more and more sidelines and separatist leaders like Geelani have started calling the shots again.

Historical prejudices are hard to resolve but then if we start trying to correct every perceived historical wrong, there is no end to it. LoC is a reality that we better accept; there is no scope for ambiguity – Kashmir is an integral part of India and this is the only way forward. Improving on the existing reality is critical but ignoring the very ground reality is foolishness...

Image Courtesy - http://www.twocircles.net/2010aug16/tcn_cartoon_kashmiri_leadership.html

Seeking A Religious Identity

2010-08-31T22:27:00.009+05:30

We just completed 63 years of Self Rule and despite the odds of managing a small conglomerate of billion odd noisy plebeians, we have survived. We have a healthy mix of people who believe India is truly on the path to achieving world leadership as well as cynics who believe ‘Shining India’ is a mere marketing gimmick popularized by the Government’s brand managers. Of course, we all know that the Truth is somewhere in between – just like everything else in life but when you are pressurized to take a stance, you are forced to take cudgels against one group or the other.

The need to identify oneself with any particular group is important to avoid being an outcaste. If I were merely Pradeep, I would not represent anything at all – it would just be a small irrelevant name lost in the thousands of Pradeeps that you get when you do a Google search. But if I were to identify myself as a forward caste, middle class Hindu Keralite Indian, I suddenly give myself rights to speak on behalf of many of “my” people. It may not matter how meaningless these identity groups may be to me but my being a part of them casts certain requirements on me.

The most prominent of these identities that I argue with myself on a regular basis is my religious faith or sometimes the lack of it. Whenever I am critical of anything that is part of Hinduism, I am accused by my family and friends of being pseudo-secular (being called secular is no longer in fashion) and not a good Hindu. When my religious identity is questioned, I asked myself- Am I a bad Hindu? What does it mean to be a good Hindu? Does being an idol worshipper or a temple goer entitle a person to a greater degree of Hinduness than someone who does not subscribe to such views?

I was born an atheist (kids have these bouts of atheism which peter out to faith for many) but have moved to a more centrist approach on religion where I have accepted that religion is a vital ingredient in our lives but its role is more of a cultural one. Cloaking spiritual practices in religion helps in their sustenance; I see many of my colleagues fasting regularly but this practice is more an identification of their culture and has very little to do with spirituality.

Studying in a college which had its foundation in Faith did not help necessarily in converting me but it did give an exposure to an alternate faith (‘alternate” from my perspective) and forced me to question my atheism. Our Director was a Swamiji (a saffron-clad IITian who we called ABC in jest) and we met many people who had given up their dreams to follow AMMA; but at the same time, there were swamis who demanded respect and seemed incapable of humility. Spiritual power is exhilarating and it can lead to a situation where men in saffron demand commitments from commoners without themselves surrendering to the requirements of leading such a life.

My attempts at understanding religion took me on many paths - Reiki during MBA days, Raja Yoga through Brahmakumaris , Transcendental Meditation taught by an enterprising firang when in ICICI and recently Vipassana but it has always been difficult to tread on one path for long. Nevertheless, these experiments have largely made me sceptical of religion - it creates a Dvaita polarised view of the world when we start associating ourselves with our religion instead of being a mere human.

It’s funny how life forces you to accept things or look at things which you want to avoid. I have always distanced myself from organized religion, especially a temple but I am now married to someone who is firmly rooted in temple worship. My wife’s family has a temple in their precincts and they are quite grounded in the idea of religious rituals; the temple is their most prized symbol of identity which they relate now in this era, when they no longer own the farmlands in the pre-EMS days.

I am now expected to be a part of important temple functions which I personally find redundant but even though my mind rebelled initially, I am learning to accept it as a compromise that I need to make after marriage. Being a liberal would mean adjusting to situations as long as it hurts no one I guess - winning brownie points in a debate is not the only thing that matters!!! If there are people who find peace in temple rituals and idols, so be it. I have no right to impose my opinions on people who find bliss in this form of devotion. After all, if our common goal is to find happiness and even if our paths do not converge, how does it matter?

Religion has a cultural essence and one starts becoming aware of it, especially when there is a perceived threat to one's identity. With the looming threat of terrorism and minority appeasement, there is a revival in the demand to identify and unite in the name of Hinduism. How many times have we heard that we Hindus are not united and so we suffer, learn from the Muslims? We may not practice our religion the way we were taught (I don't think we are ever taught this, of course) but when it comes to debates and any form of public stances, our enlightened souls start to identify with our religion.

We are all born to a certain religion and there is no choice involved there, even though one may choose to covert later on. When we see something in our family that we believe is not right, should we not raise our voice against it? Or do we stay quiet silenced by the fact that another family has the same issue but there is no one who is complaining against them. Religion is a tool which creates some procedures and processes for us to follow so that we can go along the right path but the tool cannot replace the actual path of spirituality. The path of spirituality does not mandate religion; religion is just a beginning, after a certain growth in our spiritual levels, we can discard it. When the path becomes an obsession, the destination slowly starts moving out of the horizon.

I have been critical about Sabarimala and Guruvayoor for their policies of not allowing women and non-Hindus respectively into their shrines. People have defended it saying that these are age-old practices and should not be disturbed but thoughts change over a period of time and what was right at any time in history may not be so relevant now. There are many institutions that we accept the way they are because it has always been that way but an institution needs to change with times to continue being relevant.

At the end of the day, religion is a personal matter but the pursuit of privacy in India is a selfish one. Sometimes, you may need to exhibit a certain amount of faith to get people to believe that you believe in HIM but then even better, why bother to even show. Isn't it so much easier to leave people to exercise their own judgments without you bothering to explain?

It is not easy for Governments to disassociate themselves from religion but it is precisely their role that has complicated what is essentially a matter of faith. The Government panders to symbols of militant groups from various religions and neglects areas where reform is essential. So, the Uniform Civil Code becomes a symbol of minority persecution instead of women empowerment and banning books becomes a law and order issue instead of a question of freedom of expression. Big Brother is adept at using religion to play vote politics and many of us play along with it, ignoring the implications that this means.

While it is easy to be critical of the rest of the populace and act like the perfect liberal, it is so easy to gloss over one’s own prejudices.Nisha Susan in a nice little article in Tehelka tries to look at her and her family’s jaundiced approach towards religion – an article which has inspired me to question my own prejudices and understand whether my actions have any disconnect with the philosophy I believe in and keep harping about.

I realize that while being a liberal is fine, I have my own faith systems like everyone else sometimes making it difficult to see my own inner assumptions about life. It is a bit like Paul Haggis’ Crash where the people who believe in being fair and honest in their assessment of others suddenly make a slip and their prejudices surface leading to a problem.

Image Courtesy - http://www.last.fm/user/mitrado/journal/2008/02/23/trs_atheism_vs_religion_cartoons

Development Notes From Kerala

2010-08-02T16:32:00.002+05:30

Mouthing platitudes like “India lives in its villages” comes easy but understanding rural development is an altogether different ball game. The Kerala Government, through its channel DD Kerala decided to market rural development stories at prime time and thus was born Green Kerala Express. GKE, in a span of 100+ episodes, took us through an expedition through several villages in Kerala to understand the work being carried out in rural/semi-urban Kerala and appreciate the work done by local bodies. Palakkad, Thrissur, Alappuzha and Trivandrum came out well on top among the various villages while Kottayam, Idukki and Kasargod were probably the least impressive.

A few thoughts that I had as a viewer of this experience:

Agriculture needs support to survive – Governmental apathy and bad governance is pushing the farming community to ruin. Corporate takeovers of prime agricultural land at subsidized rates (helped by ready-to-bend governments) is being marketed to people as life savers for people but see what Vedanta has done in Orissa and Coca-Cola in Palakkad and you understand who benefits from such tacit support. Obviously, waiting for the rains and doling out subsidies is not the solution – there has to be a larger concerted end-to-end solution to promoting agriculture. Villages like Palamel, Puthussery and Perambra have linked NREGS and Kudumbasee to reclaim land and make them fit for paddy cultivation. Aryanadu Grama Panchayat launched an innovative programme called Vitthu Mudal Vipani Vere (from seeds to sales) which ensured that the farmer receives seeds, financial aid, inputs on agriculture from experts and finally has a means to sell his produce at a fair price. Small farmlands are not sustainable because of the high cost of labour – one way as demonstrated in Trivandrum is group farming where a set of farmers come together and till all their lands together and make an earning, in proportion to their area.

Women Empowerment in development – The way a society treats its women indicates its level of progress. For all the impressive social indicators clocked by the state, the conspicuous absence of women in the public domain remains as a paradox of the Kerala model of development. Kudumbasree is a woman oriented, community based poverty eradication project launched by the Government of Kerala with the active support of the Centre and NABARD. The programme has 37 lakh members and covers more than 50% of the households in Kerala. Built around three critical components, micro credit, entrepreneurship and empowerment, the Kudumbashree initiative has today succeeded in addressing the basic needs of the less privileged women, thus providing them a more dignified life and a better future. The mission aims at the empowerment of women, through forming self help groups and encouraging their entrepreneurial or other wide range of activities. Kudumbashree, when combined with NREGS is working wonders for its women folk - for the first time equal wages are really paid and this has boosted the earnings of women and their status in the family.

Illusion of Rural development = Agriculture – While agriculture is the backbone of the rural economy, it is not the only sustainable activity. Many villages in Kerala, with the help of Kudumbashree, have created entrepreneurs who focus on dairy farms, fisheries and small scale units. Most of the activities have mostly acted as supplementary sources of income but there is recognition that such jobs generate money and people with no agricultural land can actually be helped by Kudumbashree and other Governmental agencies to run their own units. In Elappully, dairy farmers are now supplying milk to households, hotels and various other establishments in the panchayat and have branded it “Elappully Farm Fresh Milk.” Despite selling only the remaining milk to Milma, they have been able to earn a turnover of Rs.7.5 crore. They have also launched various value-added products under their own brand name. The presence of a large number of water bodies has brought marine farming (fish, shrimps) in several areas, with an active support of the panchayats.

Organic farming is Viable – Some time back, I had a talk with an uncle of mine who is a farmer; he grows the produce required for his own consumption and the rest is sold in the market. While he uses organic means to take care of the crop that he consumes, he sprays fertilizers on the rest. He says that no farms can survive only on bio-fertilizers and that the produce is affected adversely, without chemical usage. This is a rather common mindset and many farmers follow this style, however, GKE has shown that this is could be a misconception. Adat grama panchayat home to about 3,000 acres of kole paddy fields, has successfully launched itself on the organic path to farming and set a model for panchayats elsewhere in the State. The panchayat commandeered Kudumbasree units to process its organic only paddy and began marketing the rice under the brand name Adat and followed it up with Kerasree organic coconut oil. Mararikulam, Kudappanakkunu and Sreekryam have started their own selling outlets for organic vegetables.

Efficient Labour Utilization –NREGS has played a critical role in ensuring a minimum wages programme for workers who register with it. But it may not be always possible to provide employment on demand through works of productive nature at all times of the year. Also, to ensure requirement of labour for crops in agriculture season, it may be better to follow a system of running rural works only during the slack season, as demonstrated by Elappully Panchayat which has drawn its own NREGS calendar. A few villages like Kannadi and Sooranadu North have implemented the concept of labour banks to tide over the shortage of skilled labour. Kozhikode Municipal Corporation has a Swabhimaan Multi-Purpose scheme to provide service for works like plumbing, wiring, plucking coconuts, etc. for which there is a scarcity of labour now. It boasts that to call for help, one has to log on to their website and place his/her request and a person would be dispatched within an hour to resolve the problem.

Greater Decentralization – Most organizations in the country work like the Congress Party where workers have no say and everything is decided by the Central High Command. While this approach works fine for specific areas like defence and foreign affairs, day-to-day governance requires a more federal approach from Centre to State to Village to Gram Sabhas. Panchayats are better placed to understand local needs and will be more accountable than an outside person/entity. Bringing governance down to the local level would also help in better management of local resources. A few experiences in Kerala and Karnataka prove that a performing panchayat can not only improve the delivery of services to the locals, but also help in improving administration by improving revenue collections. Aryanad (in Trivandrum) now uses a concept called participatory budgeting where all the social minded individuals of the village come together in November and for a period of 4 months, they discuss, debate, budget and prioritize all projects for the forthcoming year. This has ensured a 100% completion of their projects and being in sync with the State’s budgetary plans.

Universal Education – Kerala’s biggest success story has been its success in primary education. But is 100% literacy a true figure or is it mere 100% enrolment; studies need to be carried out to estimate the student retention percentages in every school. Student attendance is a big challenge and with the RTE in place, more effort will be needed. The mid-day meal remains the main strategy of the panchayats but this has been streamlined with focus on nutrition (inclusion of vegetables and nuts, along with kanji), special classes for weaker students and starting tuition centres in SC/ST centres to encourage them to join schools. It is heartening to note that Malayalam medium schools have begun to devote attention to English, with special focus on speaking and reading skills (A government school in Elappully revealed that parents insisted that English be taught only as a language and not the medium!!!). Many panchayats have started initiating special neighbourhood classes, night classes and extra tuitions with greater focus on students from weaker sections to encourage them to integrate with the mainstream.

Environment-oriented growth –Environmental clearances are mere formalities that are provided in under- the- table meetings, rendering their certifications irrelevant. Since Kerala has limited public land, it has been decided to take up eco-restoration works in degraded forest lands. Palamel panchayat in Alappuzha, in its interactions with GKE, mentioned how the panchayat had to fight illegal occupations and mining in their village to stop the farms lands from going bare. Over a period of time, they have managed to reclaim private wastelands and converting them into fertile beds. Eloor (Ernakulam) has an energy sena of children who educate the neighborhood houses about energy planning by which they could lower the total electricity consumption by about 20% in each house. Akathethara in Palakkad launched an initiative of planting trees over roadsides by linking with NREGS to retain its sustainability. Over 1 lakh trees of different species have been planted so far and approximately 90,000 trees have been sustained in the effort. Bio-gas plants have been started in several villages to utilize the wastes generated in the villages. To make the environment movement more sustainable, people involvement is needed and they must be convinced of the utility of listening to Nature. Villages are now being encouraged growing fish in a large way because of its role in cleaning up water bodies, in addition to generating supplementary income to its people.

Infotainment is Marketable – When DD Thiruvanthapuram Kendra launched GKE, there were sceptics who dismissed it as another education programme, out of sync with audience tastes. But today when the programme has ended its successful run, it has gone into television history as a show that attempted to make a difference. The concept was innovative and so was the actual implementation – you had young, peppy anchors (who could actually speak Malayalam well), an intelligent and qualified jury, SMS campaigns to encourage viewers (SMS has a small weightage only unlike many other shows) and a prize money worth fighting for. As part of the branding, the sets were green and well-lit, the music was ethereal and the anchors travelled to villages only in cycles. The State Government spent close to 4 crore as prize money for the show and has been advertising heavily to promote sanitation as part of its Clean Kerala campaign (remember the days of family planning and immunization ads on TV, do you see any TV channels doing this now?).

FIFA World Cup 2010 - A Perspective

2010-07-12T18:49:00.008+05:30

After 116 minutes of struggle, the underachievers, Spain, finally got the better of the other perpetual underachiever, Netherlands, to be crowned World Champions. The match was not a top draw one and until the latter part of the second half, no team seemed competent to break through the other’s defence. In a foul marred scrappy match (did the Dutch create a world record for the most carded team in a game?), Spain just managed to pip the Dutch to the post and win glory.

It was a commendable Dutch performance in terms of strategy, especially the strong defence (specifically Van Bommel and Mathijsen) but it wasn’t a pretty sight to see them ambush the Spaniards and reducing the game to a slugfest (can De Jong’s kungfu kick into Xabi qualify as anything else other than thuggish?). Their plan was to get up close and personal and they held out till the very end till the weight of the all those cards finally stopped them. The Oranjes would reckon that Arjen Robben should have put across the two simple chances and taken them to the trophy in normal time but the Spaniards too missed out on many opportunities until Iniesta finally managed to breach the Dutch goal. Spain was the better team but it was a pretty close fight (literally).

We deserved a better final after the wonderful Group Stage matches and even more entertaining 3rd place play-off but I am glad Spain won. If the Dutch had triumphed, it would have been bad for the game because there is no place for the way they approached the match.

Mahesh: I disagree this time around with the phrase that the best team won. On paper Spain (and Argentina) was one of the better teams, but per world cup showing, the best team was Germany, Nederland, and Uruguay.

A look at the top teams:

Spain

Pradeep: The La Furia Roja stepped into South Africa as the hot favourite and went all the way to the podium, in a spirited display of educated technical football. They started on a wrong footing stumbling to Switzerland and were patchy at times (as in the Paraguay match) but did well to grind most of their opponents and win through their superior ball possession skills. For all practical purposes, La Roja is the Barcelona team, sans Messi and their success in the last couple of years mirrors the success that Barcelona has been enjoying. The Spaniards, with their pressing strategy, played with immense patience ensuring that in all the games their ball possession was superior to their opponent. The semi-final with Germany was a lesson in clinical football where the Germans were outclassed by a classy team. The team is well balanced with the most creative midfield (Iniesta, Xavi and Xabi) in modern football and a strong defence (Puyol, Piquet and Sergio Ramas). They did not score too many goals but their phenomenal ball possession meant that the opposition was always defending, with very few chances to gain control of the match as Germany realised. Of course, it is unusual for a World Cup winner to score to just 7 goals (despite high levels of ball possession); for all the creativity displayed in the midfield, they just do not seem to have a great finisher (which Messi does for Barcelona). They may have been a tad lucky at times but then surely, Dame Luck needed to smile a bit to crown the best team in the World Cup.

Mahesh: They were lucky. Out of the 10 players starting the game 9 are from Real Madrid or Barcelona ( Torres plays for Liverpool and CapDe Villa plays for some Spanish team:Valencia or Sevilla. not too sure). Even better was the semi-finals and finals where Torres was benched and Pedro brought in (another Barcelona product). Swiss actually played in a very efficient and organised way, thus beating Spain. It became such an embarrassment that Spain was just playing possession game for the rest of the tournament. I would have loved to see them play some attacking football. Again just my views, but Spain did not deserve to win the cup this time ard..

Outstanding Players: Xavi, Villa and Iniesta.

Germany

Pradeep: They came, they saw, they conquered but sadly only the hearts of the people and not the Cup. The German team, under Joachim Low, played eye-catching entertaining football (in continuation with Klinsmann’s attacking style started in FIFA 2006) and taught Latin America a lesson or two in Joga Bonito. In almost all the games, they managed to score early and hold on to their lead till the mid of second half and then slaughtered the tired opposition by their relentless attacking. The young, multi-ethnic team won many fans for their open and counter attacking football (Socrates called them the true successors to the legendary 1970 Brazilian team) but were stopped by the tactical efficiency of the Spaniards. The free flow of the Germans was literally choked by the spectacular Spanish midfield and lost the battle comprehensively (even though the score line of 1-0 may suggest otherwise). Give the ball to the Germans and they are all over the place and so the Spaniards just cut off their oxygen (did the Germans actually have 51% possession of the ball!!!) and got them to play in closed tactical manoeuvres which starved them. The young brigade of Muller, Oezil, Khedira were finds while the old warhorses- Schweinsteiger (not exactly old at 26!!!), Klose and Podolski- gave excellent support. The young team has raised high hopes and FIFA 2014 could see the team at their peak.

Mahesh: German teams have always been bull ones and they just push and shove around the park and I hate them. Surprisingly this time around they played some scintillating football. May be the new generation. but it was fun to watch them play, although I still hate them as they defeated England and Argentina ( the two teams that I cheer for). More than Mueller's absence,Joachim Low let them down in the semis with poor strategy. He very well knew how the Spanish are going to play and instead of starting with Trochowski (who is more defensive), he should have started with another striker Gomez, to really supplement Klose.. Reverting back to the 4-4-2 variation rather than having a 4-3-2-1 variation. This would have strengthened their midfield and cut the Spanish passing. Else they should have done a 4-5-1 variation which Swiss did effectively to nullify Spain.. Low actually put them in a no man's land.

Argentina

Pradeep: Right from the beginning, the football was only about Maradona and Messi and remained the same way till the end. They attacked well in the league stage against smaller opponents and though Messi did not score, he was the main playmaker. Their initial games raised a few hopes of Latino magic but it was always going to be a tall order for an Argentinian team that struggled in the qualifiers and just about sneaked through in the play-offs. In the Q/F, they were however whipped by the Germans and played the price for a defence that never existed. Messi received practically no support with the exception of Tavez who was running across all over the pitch; they seemed such a rusty outfit against the well-oiled German machine and were simply dismantled by their opponents. Maradona is no great strategist and he simply relied on the players to just go out and deliver (being a genius makes it difficult to understand trivialities like team strategies) but the team were nowhere near the class of the previous WC team which had the likes of Crespo, Messi, Saviola, Veron and most importantly, Riquelme (who refused to play under Maradona and retired). There was over dependence on Messi to deliver but the Argentinan midfield was no Barcelona and simply gave way to Schwenstiger and his boys who controlled the area with absolutely no difficulty whatsoever. The defence was always the pain area and while it was ok to play that way in the league games this way, better opponents would have hit them in this area.

Mahesh: My team is Argentina.. Simple logic and everyone has been pointing this out to the Diego Maradona (greatest ever player) that he cannot play Central Defenders on the Full back positions.. One of the teams were going to rip them apart and it turned out to be Germany... Lesson learnt for Diego as he has an extended four year term now..

Brazil

The current Brazilian team may not possess the same elan of their illustrious predecessors but Jogo Bonito has been conspicuously missing since the late 80s anyway. Dunga’s boys were joint favourites with Spain; they played pragmatically and had a similar approach as the Spanish in controlling the ball (strategy not implementation, mind you) but were outwitted by the Dutch in a game that were theirs to win (atleast till the Dutch struck their first goal). The dominating game in the first half was suddenly lost and they seemed to suddenly mentally disintegrate and hand the match over to Netherlands. A slight defence lapse with some bad luck thrown in (Sneijder’s goal) and suddenly, the team looked lost for ideas. Kaka struggled throughout and Robinho seemed the only player capable of pulling off a goal; though the defence was strong, the midfield did not create much of an impression. Surprisingly, one of the most talented teams in the world did not seem to have enough bench strength in the WC to make things happen and they were waiting for the opponents to make mistakes than create chances.

Netherlands

Pradeep: Holland has always been the delicate underperformer whose style endured them to the public but victory always eluded them. Successive teams always faced comparison with the ‘Total Football’ of Cryuff and Neeskens but this Oranje team was not the most brilliant team from Holland or even in the World Cup. And yet the Dutch produced some of the positive football that has brought them this far in South Africa. They played as a team brushing aside the constant rumours of inner team conflicts relying on a hard, straight; physical game. In most games, the Dutch sparkled in the second half with the likes of Arjen Robben, Sneijder and Kuyt emerging as the key men, along with Van Bommel as a key defensive cog. Their play in the final may not have earned them too many admirers but it was effective and they managed to control the Spanish Armada and almost took the game away from them. In the semis, they stunned Brazil with a strong counter attack and forced them to lose their cool and the match, unlike the Spaniards. Robben would rue his missed chances in the final but with eight yellow cards, 14 shots to Spain's 21, 28 fouls to their 19 and 37% possession, Spain was the better team.

Mahesh: My teams of the tournament. They were brilliant in all the games and had the energy, willingness and patience to win the finals. Wonderfully, controlled Spain during the game. People would say that getting an Yellow card is bad, but depends on the foul. Except for Robben, I would say all the cards that they received were good ones. Unfortunately, they tried one too many and Heitinga got sent off... Remember Spain only scored after he was sent off.. Robben should have won the game, but somehow he missed it.. they were brave.. Lets see in Euro 2012...

England

Well it is a pity that Rooney did not play well.. I was surprised to see that Rooney was playing in a non-committed fashion. He never went for the 50-50 balls, rather than playing he was okay to make the defender clear the ball and the most surprising thing was he was not effective with one on one marking. I have literally watched all his games for United last season and this is very unlike him..Without him England was no where near to their best.

Uruguay

Cheaters, deceivers, etc.. whatever u want to call them, they played some good team football.. Spain was the only other team who played as a team... Unlucky to progress but Nederland's were too much for them..

A few observations:

1. The Golden Boot should be given to Paul, the Octopus. By the time we had come to the semis, it looked like the punters had more faith in the German octopus than the actual performers. Rumours abound that Paul would be adopted by Spain and rechristened-Pablo.

2. The Vuvuzela was supposed to be the African equivalent of the Mexican wave but all it was to drown the voices of everything around. It was irritating that you could not get to hear the commentators on TV and everytime you increased the volume, the buzzing just increased.

3. The Jabulani (the Zulu word means ‘to celebrate’) ball manufactured by Adidas was criticized by everyone with Fabiano calling it “supernatural” but the Germans who have already adopted the ball for their domestic league had no complaints and kept slamming the ball into the nets. Incidentally, it seems the ball has an Indian connection - the bladder at the core of the Jabulani is made by Enkay Rubber in a factory in Gurgaon, using latex sourced from Kerala (this is not Manorama news!!)

4. The referees played spoil sport and allowed players to dive with impunity (Arjen Robben needs a special mention for his skills) and whipped up cards for no specific reasons other than itchy hands. FIFA’s reluctance may have costed England and Mexico dear (personally, I think England was anyway 2nd best to Germans on the day but why give the cry babies a chance to complain), especially with the whole world watching live on TV. They can learn a techno trick or two from cricket and tennis.

5. The stars were non-starters and were prominent on the papers than the field. Superstars like Ronaldo, Rooney, Kaka and Torres were sadly in another Time Zone and only served as liabilities for the team. Messi may not have scored but he played a role in almost all Argentina’s attempts.

6. The free kick was a non-starter. No one other than Forlan was able to pull off a free kick with any conviction (Jabulani????) and it made sense to indulge in passing than clearing the goal with fancy attempts but it still did not deter teams from attempting it.

7. The gap between the bigger and the smaller teams in increasingly reducing. The Asian Bloc gave a credible performance while Slovakia, Ghana, Uruguay and Chile provided unexpected excitement. France and Italy were knocked out remorselessly without even the pretense of a fight while England limped to the pre-quarters where Germany showed them their place (albeit with FIFA’s help).

My Tournament Favourites

Team: Germany
Player(s): Iniesta, Xavi (Spain) and Diego Forlan (Uruguay)
Future Prospect: Thomas Muller (Germany)
Game: Germany 4-1 England (Pre-Quarter-finals)
Goal: David Villa (Spain v Honduras), Diego Forlan (Uruguay v Netherlands/Semi final)

Raavanan

2010-06-20T20:15:00.009+05:30

After all the hype (so typical of a Mani Ratnam flick), Mani’s ambitious re-telling of the Ramayana is finally here. Fortunately Mumbai, despite the presence of the rabid first Sena family, has a simultaneous release of Raavan in Tamil and Hindi. Mani and Priyan are rooted in their own languages and despite their attempts to be pan-India directors, cultural milieus do not translate easily. So, we decided to grab tickets to the Tamil version (additionally regional movies are cheaper in PVR!!!).

Mani’s Ramayana is set in Ambasamudram, a taluk in Tirunalveli. A ruthless Superintendent of Police Prithviraj (Dev Prakash/Rama) heads an operation to find a tribal leader and lawbreaker Vikram (Veeraiya/Ravana), a supposedly Robin Hood-like figure to the tribals, who kidnaps his wife Aishwarya Rai (Raagini/Sita). The story initially presents Veera as a brutal murderer but it is later on revealed the kidnap has been led on by the death of his sister, as a result of police custodial torture and brutal rape. Similarly, the smart and educated cop emerges slowly as a black character and Raagini slowly realizes that her husband is no saint while her demonic captor has a soft side after all.

The parallels with Ramayana are clear – the repeated references to 14 days/hours/years , Veera’s two brothers, a Hanuman-like character in Gnana Prakasam (Karthik as a talkative forest guard), a Surpanakha character in Vennila (Priya Mani) who acts as the trigger point for the conflict, the rather ridiculous idea of a polygraph test as an Agnipariksha to name a few. The analogies are forced and Mani is faithful to the epic in terms of its characters’ existence but not in terms of the story and so the characters exist since they exist in the original epic and nothing more.

The very premise of retelling Ramayana is exciting-the idea that there is a Ravan as well as a Ram in everyone and each situation brings out the Ram/Ravan in each of us is worth exploring and helps in understanding the epic in more ways than the existing tradition. But Mani has no such interest in bringing out any such moral ambiguity; he takes the easy way out in dangling such an idea initially but chickens out midway to simply do a role reversal of Ramayana, which by itself would not be a bad thing, if not for how one dimensional it becomes.

Dev has hardly any redeemable qualities- he is a hard- nosed cop who simply wants to finish Veera and he will go to any extent to do that. There are scenes written explicitly to make him a villain and you know that the director wants us to root for the anti-hero, except of course that Veera is no anti-hero. Veera has stellar qualities and there is nothing which even makes you question his actions- a trigger happy moral activist, fighting the ruthless government, incidentally using guns and bombs.

Mani has always been a supporter of the rebel though ofcourse, he never takes pains to go the full way and make the character ask whether his actions are justified in any way. We do not know what Veera represents and what is his fight against? We assume that he is probably a Robin Hood and that’s the most that Mani is willing to do to explain the political stance of his protagonist. Instead, Vikram and his men appear like grown up men who just want to enjoy life in the beautiful locations selected by Mani, rather than represent any movement. While the movie keeps harping about Ravana’s ten heads and his multi-layered character, but for God's sake, where is this enigma; he may have existed on paper but is conspicuously absent on screen. He is a rustic nobleman and belongs to a low caste which ambiguously sets up a caste conflict with his upper caste, suave and sophisticated bête noir but this thread is not explored.

The closest that a class/caste conflict arises in an interesting interaction between Veera and Raagini, in the backdrop of a splendid reclining Vishnu in the sea (reminds you of Kannathil Muthamittal) where he wants to know whether her God is flawless and handsome. This sets up the imagery of a clean and handsome upper caste God as celebrated in most visuals vis-a-vis an unkempt, pastoral low caste God who drinks and smokes; was this also an attempt to conjure the idea of a contrast between a Vishnu bhakta and a Shiva bhakta? (except of course, Mani's Raavanan is not a learned brahmin but a low caste hero)

Dev’s character begins to emerge with a sense of moral conflict but quickly descends into an amoral bloodthirsty cop, without much of an explanation- hardly a comparison with Rama. He tortures an armless man to extract information about his abducted wife’s whereabouts, shoots a messenger of peace (the Vibhishana character Sakkarai) in the back after guaranteeing non-violent negotiations and even distrusts his wife. It is almost as if the director goes an extra mile to paint Dev black and there are hints that his marital life may not necessarily be a bed of roses. The climax clearly underscores this point but it looks contrived and only succeeds in alienating his character further from the audience’s sympathies. (***Spoiler Alert--When we are told that Deva used his wife to entrap Veera, the first thing that strikes me is what kind of husband decides to trick his wife and send her into the jungle again to capture a bloody brigand-either he has so much confidence in her abilities or he just does not care- the upholder of Dharma is only interested in capturing Veera.)

Raagini has the best perspective on the two protagonists because of her proximity with them but this is not clearly spelt out. As the movie progresses, she realizes that her husband is not perfect and this view helps her in grasping the moral ambiguity of the situation better. But when the camera is so besotted with her and the equally captivating surroundings, it is difficult to understand her feelings. As she jumps across waterfalls and rocks, she suffers bruises but through Santosh Sivan’s lens, they adorn her face, making us forget her pain. She is desperate to flee herself from Veera’s clutches but slowly, she begins to see him in new light – something that can be explained more from a Stockhlom’s Syndrome perspective than anything else. A couple of scenes and a song establish her love for Dev but the climax hints that all is not well in God’s paradise but is that good enough to warrant falling for Veera?

Raagini is shocked when she learns that Veera was shot at during his sister’s wedding; come on, was she expecting the cops to wait for the marriage to be completed before they attacked ? Of course, you’d wonder how the most wanted man in the place decides to make his presence so evident in the marriage that even the cops find him easily. When Gnana Prakasam gets Dev’s approval to approach Raagini, he immediately locates Veera’s hideout, while our poor cops have no idea where he is!!! Similarly, when Dev suspects her, she lands straight at the villains's den, without any difficulty (stop the train midway, catch a bus and lo behold, we are in Raavanan territory). The final fight happens on a Ramar Sethu bridge and as the battle finishes, it becomes increasingly clear that while Dev is fighting a battle for the establishment, Veera is simply seeking revenge. Veera strikes only when his own people are attacked but Dev, even after reclaiming his wife, wants to put to sword the legend of Veera (possibly the only moral spin).

Vikram definitely steals the show with his powerful performance (quite a contrast to Abhishek in Ravan, I guess) and though there are scenes where he goes overboard , that's more of Mani's doing. Prithviraj is subtle but has limited work to do which he does convincingly with ease. Aishwarya manages to stay afloat but the camera’s fascination with her makes it difficult for us to dwell more into the character. Prabhu as Vikram’s brother is delightful while Priya Mani and Karthik make a mark despite limited screen space.

The movie works in spurts and these are times, you’d expect the movie to take-off but the MBA takes over the auteur and we are left wondering if the story in more capable hands could have been more appealing. I have never been a fan of Mani Ratnam School of Cinema and find it extremely shallow but then, every movie of his generates enough hype to force you to watch it. Enjoy it for the visual spectacle that it is and it becomes easy to digest but a different perspective on Ramayana, it is definitely not.

Director Mani Ratnam is inherently an armchair liberal who likes to take up political issues after sugar coating the script with protagonists who are generally caught up in the midst of an upheaval or who become sympathetic negative characters. Raavanan is no different in the sense that Ramayana merely serves as a backdrop for Mani Ratnam to show his love for breathtaking camera work. Like most of his movies, these masquerade as arty cinema but are eventually technical props – Raavanan, even by his standards, serves as a great ad for the National Geographic Channel and Valmiki is merely a tool in the story telling.

The Second Bhopal Tragedy

2010-06-09T12:03:00.003+05:30

Karl Marx had once said - History repeats itself, occurring first as tragedy, the second time as farce. The quotation cannot have been more aptly applied than to the Bhopal Gas Disaster where the farce in question is the so-called conviction of the perpetuators of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, which makes a mockery of the Indian sense of justice. More than 25 years after a deadly gas leak from a Union Carbide plant caused the world’s worst industrial disaster, which killed more than 15,000 and affected more than 5 lakh people (and many more unreported), a local court yesterday convicted all the accused to a 2 year imprisonment!!! The accused were fined a lakh each and immediately granted bail.

The sentence is not just distressing – it is absolutely shocking to see a crime on humanity escaping such a mild rebuke, under the Indian law. After years of suffering under an arrogant MNC and being ignored by that albatross called Government of India, the people of Bhopal have been delivered the final blow. The victims of the Bhopal disaster gain practically nothing from the judgment; even a moral satisfaction of seeing the big guys behind bars is missing.

The Indian judicial system does not seem to be capable of giving justice to its own people- the main accused has not even been brought to trial and seven others have been given punishments, which equates the crime to a road negligence act, instead of the actual heinous act that it is. If justice has eluded the victims, this is because the governments of the US and India have colluded to protect the guilty. Successive governments have been eager to please US business corporations in order to attract more investment rather than pursue justice.

Even by the standards of the Indian judicial system, a 25 year wait is an incredibly long wait and imagine this is the largest industrial disaster in the world. Will it be wrong to expect a speedy, detailed investigation into an even of such enormity but then we are bound by our law. The only fatalistic expectation that we can have is of Divine justice and karmic punishment for the accused!!!

Various investigations and studies show that a series of negligent decisions taken by the management lead to the explosion of the gas tank, leading to 40,000 kg of methyl isocyanide spilling over to the city. Investigations over the years have shown that the Bhopal plant design was faulty and that there was next to no emergency preparedness — issues that the parent company in the U.S. apparently knew about, according to the groups that conducted the studies. Union Carbide not apply the same safety standards at its plant in India as it operated at a sister plant in West Virginia, US but then you can do that in India and get away with it.

Initially, Union carbide offered $ 5 million as a relief fund but the Indian government rejected the claim and demanded $3.3 billion instead. The original criminal case was settled out of court in 1989, when both Union Carbide and the Government sought to terminate all court proceedings by agreeing for a $470 million settlement. Consequently, Union Carbide paid 713 crore to the government as compensation – 113 crore was paid to those with property and cattle damage while the remaining 600 crore was to be distributed to the kin of the death and injured. But some victims are still waiting to receive even this share of the money.

No scientific survey was done and an arbitrary casualty figure was estimated. As time progressed, the numbers reported started increasing but since the amount was already agreed upon, the fixed amount had to be distributed among the people leading to on an average, each victim just receiving 12,410 Rs!!! As part of this settlement, all the criminal charges filed against Union Carbide were dropped but the uproar caused due to this led to the reopening of cases in 1991.

However, in 1996, the Supreme Court directed that charges against the accused be converted from culpable homicide (which carries a maximum of 10 years) to death due to negligence (maximum sentence of 2 years). So, the trail court cannot be accused of going soft on the accused; the real slackness was demonstrated by the SC Bench (including the then CJI A M Ahmedi) for allowing prosecution only under nominal ground. By reducing the Bhopal disaster to the equivalent of a traffic accident, the prison term for the crimes of Bhopal was brought down from 10 years to 2 years.

The main accused Warren Anderson, who was the Chairman and CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the incident was not even in the list of those convicted. He was arrested and released on bail by the police in 1984 and since then he has turned his back to India. The Indian Government made a plea for his extradition in 2004, but it was rejected by the US Government on the grounds that under US laws, only someone personally culpable for a crime can be extradited. The American and Indian Governments claimed they had no whereabouts about Warren Anderson but Greenpeace traced him to a nine hundred thousand dollar luxury home in New York, where he still lives in ‘anonymity’.

The Indian government seemed to go out of its way to cushion the experience for Union Carbide. The various Union governments in the meantime have not taken on Union Carbide, which is now owned by Dow Chemical. Meanwhile, Keshub Mahindra, Chairman of Union Carbide India Ltd at the time of the Bhopal disaster and now chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra was even nominated for a civilian honor, the Padma Bhushan, in 2002!!! He had to decline in the face of widespread protests.

In 1999, Raj Sharma, a lawyer based out of US, filed a lawsuit in the US against Union Carbide and Anderson, and has been litigating since. And this is what he has to say about the Indian Government - "The Indian government refused to put in even a single line or letter for us. They did not want to be embarrassed in front of Union Carbide, embarrassed to be supporting their own people. I had heard of the government's collusion with the company before I left for Bhopal. I said to myself, 'Don't be naive, this cannot be true,' until I saw it happening with my own eyes," says Sharma.

In a separate US litigation in 2002, Dow Chemical set aside $2.2bn to compensate American workers who were exposed to asbestos at Union Carbide operations but the cost of an Indian life is really not worth anything – for all gung-go talks about being at par with the West, an Indian life is not worth even a mini-percentage of the various bailouts that the US Government does for its greedy financial institutions.

This is in contrast to the way the U.S. government is now confronting BP — holding it squarely responsible for the oil spill and accountable for all cleanup costs. Eleven people were killed when British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in Gulf of Mexico, compared to 20,000+ deaths in Bhopal. The oil spill has caused extensive damage to marine life, birds and the US coastline in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. In Bhopal, 26 years after the gas leak, the soil and the water are still contaminated, with dangerously high levels of toxic chemicals, and thousands still suffering the aftereffects.

British Petroleum has already paid 69 million dollars, just as first installment for the damages caused. That figure could multiply several times, with the company's liability still being decided. In contrast, Union Carbide paid just $ 470 million in compensation for the deaths it caused.

There are disturbing echoes of this history in the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, which the Manmohan Singh Government introduced in Parliament and is eager to push to please the Obama administration. The Bill not merely limits the civil liability of any company running a nuclear power plant to Rs 500 crore per accident (less than a quarter of the dollar equivalent of the Bhopal settlement two decades ago), with an overall cap of roughly Rs 2,100 crore; it also exonerates international companies that supplied the equipment and technology. No equipment supplier in any other industry has such exemption from liability, and no other industry functions with such a cap on the operator's liability. Doesn’t the Bhopal Conviction clearly expose how shallow such a Bill is and the risk that we are going to take to please the Americans?

Shobhan Saxena puts it appropriately when he says in a blog in The Times of India - Today, India proved once again that it doesn't care for its poor… Today, India proved that it doesn't really care for its people, particularly if they have been slaughtered by powerful people from the most powerful nation in the world. Instead of taking on America and fighting for justice for its poor, India is more than happy to sell its dead cheap. Today – on the day of Bhopal disaster judgment -- if there is a failed state in the world, it’s India. It’s not Iraq. It’s not Somalia. It’s not Sudan. It’s India.

It's King Vishy Again

2010-05-13T23:47:00.001+05:30

On May 11^th at about 10 pm IST, when Veselin Topalov shook hands with Viswanathan Anand at the end of Game-12 of the World Chess Championship on May 11th, the Indian Chess King successfully defended his Crown, a feat beautifully compared by Amit Verma in a nice little article to a guy taking a Maruti 800 into a Formula 1 race and winning the championship. It was tougher than his previous three wins and the effort showed as the grand finale swung through various tumultuous rounds of tension before the more patient man among the two finally won his way through.

Most of India was glued to the TV set watching Dhoni’s boys, oblivious of the match being played but then Chess has never been much of a media favourite, though the sport is much more popular now when compared to its status years back when Anand played Alexey Dreev in Madras, in his first major stab at the Championship.

Anand was the slight pre-match favourite, but there was never much to choose between the two men. At 40, he was the aging champion against the relatively younger and tough talking Topalov, who had a one point lead over Anand in Classical Chess.

The pre-game interviews had the Bulgarians ranting against Anand on many an occasion - for being too old (just 5 yrs older than Topalov, of course), too conservative and trying to trick the organisers by pretending he was in Sofia and attempting to postpone the games by his lousy travel plans. He was also riled for not doing enough to ensure that the Championship was held in India, instead of Bulgaria; Topalov has repeatedly maintained that for him "home" is a disadvantage because of the expectations. In Topalov’s words:

The prize fund in our match is 2 million Euro - about 3 million US $ - but if Anand would have made even a minor attempt, it could easily go over 5 million. India is a vast market and Anand is very popular in his homeland. But the World Champion preferred that someone else does all the work and even play the victim. 'Well, you see, I prefer not to play in Bulgaria, but there are no other options.' We were prepared to play in India half the games or even the whole match, but Anand didn't make even the slightest effort to arrange anything about this.

The significance of a venue now is debatable, unlike in the Cold War era, when the Russian-American geo-political rivalries also manifested themselves on chess boards. As mentioned in an earlier post, it was not because Anand did not lift his finger that the match did not come to India. The match was held in Bulgaria (even though the Bulgaria bid is only 13 crore) because the AICF could not get any sponsor; Vishy wanted the match to be held in India but with practically no interest shown by India, the bid was won by Bulgaria. N Srinivasan was busy taking care of Chennai Super Kings to worry about a small event like the World Chess Championship, featuring a local hero.

Bad Boy Topalov, true to form, decided to push the ante even before the play started. In 2005, a rule was framed banning conversation between players to curb the practice of competitors' offering each other draws in drawn-out games. But the rule has been rarely invoked, but Topalov insisted that he would not speak to India’s Viswanathan Anand, invoking this rule. Topalov also stuck to what is known as the Sofia rule in chess where if you need a draw you have to go to the chief arbiter and not offer it to your opponent. Anand had dismissed Topalov's rule saying, "A world championship should be played with world championship rules" but had no option and later on admitted in an interview later that it felt odd to be approached by the arbiter to accept a draw.

The starting date had been the subject of a week of argument after Anand became stranded at Frankfurt airport due to the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic ash cloud over Europe and requested a three-day delay. The volcanic eruption in Iceland disrupted Team Anand's travel schedule but somehow brought the team which was scattered all over, together at Frankfurt before they embarked on an adventurous journey from Frankfurt to Sofia in a hired bus travelling for 2000 kms, across five countries in 40 hours. In the end, the match was delayed by a single day with Topalov playing White in the first game.

But then Topalov has always found it tough to be a gentleman in a sport, which has had a fair share of odd balls. He had earlier raised a tantrum in the 2006 Fide World Chess Championship against Vladimir Kramnik, accusing his Russian opponent of visiting his personal loo too often during play (it was popularly called the Toiletgate). The Russian rejected a compromise of a shared lavatory, accused the organisers of bias, and even forfeited a game before finally winning the game in tie-break.

After all this, when the game started, it took off on a dramatic note with Anand forgetting his opening preparation and being duly demolished by an attacking Topalov. Anand bounced back immediately with a win and what followed were a set of closely fought games, which increasingly exhausted the players. With Topalov invoking the Sofia rule, draws were not easy (something that Anand was not used to since he believes in quick draws in dead positions) and seemed that Topalov had an upper hand in most of the exchanges. Anand had a few more chances but the pressure was enormous and the play suggested that Toplaov had the momentum with him as he tied down Anand with his fighting abilities.

Then came the decisive and dramatic final game against the run of play which might have been won and lost by Topalov’s aggression and maybe superstition! Topalov admitted after Tuesday's loss that he had avoided a repetition draw on move 26 because he was afraid of going to the rapid tie breaks. Partly because Anand is one of the great rapid players of all time, but also because the tiebreakers were to be played on Thursday the 13^th. And the 13^th was the same day that he had lost his rapid tiebreakers against Kramnik in 2006.

Vishy is known for his rapid chess playing abilities and so it was a bit surprising to see him lag behind Topalov in every match in terms of the time. But then chess circles also know Topalov as somebody who plays fast to trick his opponent – part of his psychological warfare. It involved a bit of bluffing and taking the fight to the enemy camp and a lot of strategizing.

In an interview with The Hindu, Anand admits being surprised by Topalov’s strategy - One of the things we assumed was, he always likes moving around in matches. This means, he'll play an opening for a couple of games and then move on to the next one. His match strategy in the past was never to stand his ground. Kind of hit-and-run strategy. So, whether consciously or sub-consciously, we had made this assumption the basis of our preparation. But he stood his ground. He did not switch his openings.

Followers of the sport may recollect the 1995 PCA World Chess Championship Final between Anand and Kasparov in New York, to understand the impact of psychological warfare in the sport. After eight successive draws, Anand had drawn first blood but Kasparov struck back with extreme ferocity. Game-10 showed Kasparov at his fiery best tactically as well as psychologically – so you saw him glaring hard at Anand, slamming doors, walking swiftly and creating an terrifying aura around him. Anand lost the match and the finals and Kasparov declared after the match that Anand had been well prepared for the chess, but not sufficiently prepared psychologically.

Much water has flown under the bridge since then and the young man is now a much mature player, who has learnt to handle the pressure of performing at the top for close to 10-15 years now. Topalov had his strategy cut out and definitely put across a brilliant effort in ensuring that the Championship was a well-fought see-saw battle and what eventually separated the King from the Vanquished was his aggressive and blustering indiscretions, as he tried to force a win. Topalov may go back ruing his move but his success has been largely brought about his ability to take risks and play aggressively and there are times when the gambit just fails and it happened finally in the most crucial match of the final.

In a sport where odd balls are the norm rather than the exception, Anand is a living proof that nice guys can finish first and he is the game’s best World Champion ambassador. Can we take a break from analyzing the antics of Dhoni's over-hyped team and celebrate the success of a true champion atleast now?

P.S. The next challenger to Anand in 2011 will be one among the following players – Veselin Topalov, Gata Kamsky, Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand, Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, an organizer nominee and the runner-up of the Fide Grand Prix. The 19 year old World No.1, Magnus Carlsen (earlier trained by Kasparov), is already tipped to be a future World Champion and it would be interesting to see the Crown Prince battling the King in future - a position that Anand may have found himself when squaring off with Kasparov!!!

Let the Sleeping Watchdogs Lie

2010-04-29T22:57:00.004+05:30

The One Man Army has finally been shown the door. After years of flaunting his power in the erstwhile halo corridors of the Indian cricket establishment, the Big Boys decided that it is time to stop the circus and let the Wise Old Men step in. So, outgoes showman Lalit Modi and incomes Amin, backed by a coterie of unsuspecting BCCI honchos, who slept when Indian cricket burnt. Nothing has changed; the main conman has been shown the door while the architects of the circus, watch amusedly at how they have effectively brought in IPL under their control.

Lalit Modi had made enough foes in the last few years as he strode over the map of IPL, brandishing his powers as a third world dictator, forgetting that what goes round comes around. Three years ago Jagmohan Dalmiya was hounded out from the BCCI over charges of corruption and embezzlement. Among his detractors, Modi was the shrillest, announcing on one occasion that Dalmiya would be sent to jail. Modi has now been dumped even more unceremoniously, and the charges against him are far more severe. Among other things he has been accused of fixing the auctions; of creating slush funds; manipulating broadcast deals and many more things.

The media is gleeful and there are obituaries about the man who sometime back was a knight in the shining armour – a man who changed the face of Indian cricket and hailed as a champion of the big brand called IPL. The moment Modi is axed, the Government says that there is nothing to probe against Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel and the focus would primarily be on Modi only – everyone wants a Fall Guy, and we have one, actually two – an ex-Foreign Minister, who was driven out.

BCCI honcho Shashikant Manohar says:

Now most of the contracts have been entered into without the consent of the governing council and they’ve been brought to the governing council after the contract was signed.

Ok, Picture this now - One man sits in the IPL office, conducts auctions, draws contracts, awards it to his people and makes money. After all the hard work of corruption is done, the papers are brought to the IPL Governing Council (Governing what????) and the Wise Men sign over the dotted lines of the contract, without batting an eye lid. Smart guys, they now that Collective Responsibility is not applicable in BCCI Constitution and in case anything goes wrong, all they have to do is point fingers.

You have 3 cricketers in the council, who are rubber stamps and have absolutely no idea what is happening – maybe they are simply naïve; after all you can’t call Gavaskar, Shastri and Pataudi corrupt or incompetent? The very idea of bringing them into such a Council would be to bring about a greater legitimacy to the its workings and provide a certain amount of checks and balances to such a system. But if it did not even read the contract or debate it, what the heck did this glorified council do - Make money by doling out contracts to Modi's kith and kin???

But then we must not forget that it is a nice little cosy club out there. BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan owns Chennai Super Kings, Gavaskar and Shastri have commentary contracts with BCCI and the IPL, the chairman of the national selection committee Srikanth is a brand ambassador for CSK. And this is what is publicly known. Practically, everyone has a close political association – If Congress has Rajiv Shukla, BJP has Arun Jaitley and you have the invisible hands of Sharad Pawar controlling many more stakes. Last week, Times Now has reported that in the previous season, BCCI awarded 5 million to the semi-finalists. Cool, right!!! Srinivasan transfers money from BCCI’s coffers to his and we call it ‘conflict of interest’ – whose interest??

Now, BCCI is a chameleon which keeps switching between being a public body and a private body as and when it wants. When a demand is put forth to bring in more accountability and bring BCCI under the ambit of Tight to Information, it suddenly becomes a private body, which cannot be questioned but when the same body asks for tax waiver or the right to control cricket in India, it becomes a public body working in the interests of Indian fans!!! In reality, BCCI is a registered society under an obscure law in Tamil Nadu and has de-facto control over cricket in India, without any legislation or form of accountability. It receives enormous benefits and concessions from Governments, buys land at throw away prices and gets tax exemptions for selling national interest.

You must commend the role of media in this IPL Show. They praise Lalit Modi, go overboard in selling the IPL Brand, sitting mum over the so-called “conflicts of interest” and instances of corruption for so many years and suddenly, there is that smug WE TOLD YOU grin. There are stories of how Modi literally controlled Rajasthan, fixed deals and created a crony capitalistic regime in IPL – but why was the media silent all this while? Many of these facts exist in public domain but not a single query was raised so far on all this. The media was seduced by the big money, parties and prime time entertainment and the watchdog just slept through this spectacle till the tweet war between Tharoor and Modi shook things up.

Watch how Arnab Goswami (my pick of the worst of the English journalist showmen) grimaces and questions the legitimacy of all the deals done in IPL, casually dropping in a match fixing query and being so indignantly self-righteous. It is ridiculous that after shamelessly, blindly and unquestionably backing Modi and the IPL, media men start the demonizing act so fast without a qualm for journalistic impropriety (something only reserved for Shashi Tharoor, it would seem).

The Times of India, which is the first to cover every event on the planet, reports today that the BCCI claims that there is no conflict of interest in N Srinivasan’s ownership of CSK because he had informed the then BCCI president, Sharad Pawar about it. How convenient!!! Don’t you even to ask them how silly and ridiculous such a claim is!!! Our press friends paint the town red accusing Modi of running a parallel administration in Rajasthan, with the help of Vasundhararaje, but when the same man is at the helm of IPL, they do not see the same avarice, the same conceit and the same schmuck around him.

When franchisees were putting in an absurd amount of money without any clear indicators of great returns in the future, why was the media silent? If the IPL contract says that franchisee holdings must not be disclosed, isn’t there a reason to suspect that something is amiss here? Bangalore is suffering from massive power cuts but as the city reels under the shocking power situation, the Chinnaswamy stadium is flood-lit so that IPL matches can be held using subsidized power. The Government gets a pittance to provide security to the players and even has the gall to waive off the entertainment tax (though in the same breath, it argues that farmers cannot be waived loans entirely). So, there are two sets of rules for two different sets of people and the watchdogs do not give a damn!!!

Suddenly, no one wants to talk about Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar – a couple of convenient news items who have been dropped now, since there are no more leaks available about them. In Shashi Tharoor’s case, there was a potential case of misappropriate behaviour and maybe even corruption, but most of it remained accusations which were never substantiated. The mere fact that there is a woman does not automatically translate into sleaze, sex and drugs – a story so fondly carried home by the media. Since his resignation, there is practically no news about the two and after Amin took over, the channels have also gone silent – they have a new story now about Madhuri Gupta spying scandal and the old story is no longer appealing.

So, Congress has the moral high ground by choosing to throw out a minister on the basis of suspicion while Raja, the charge sheeted (not tweet accused, mind you) minister, stays on because he has enough backing. BJP hollers on Tharoor but remains mum when greater evidence is brought to the fore against NCP ministers and their people. When the political establishment has its hand in practically every pie of the sports administration, is it inevitable that the sport starts stinking? Stories of match fixing may not be true but they gain credence primarily because people lose faith in the way the game is run – so every match is fixed and every cricketer is a two-timer.

Personally, I give two hoots for IPL and do not care what happens to it but the future of cricket in India is now sub-twined with it. If the administration were to cut down on the frills and the mindless vaudeville and concentrate on the game, it has a future - forget the national level cricketers, atleast the others get a chance to play and make a future for themselves. But the brand needs credibility and the need is to have a professionally managed body for cricket, which is transparent and run with a high degree of accountability. When the match fixing scandal broke out, it gave the BCCI an opportunity to clean its stables but after a few peripheral changes, nothing ever changed.

Modi has been cut to size by the Grand Old Men of the Game and how does it help the sport? All that has happened is that one layer has been peeled off and another layer has been carefully pasted across, without altering anything at all. There will be a small talk of transparency and public interests but after some time, it will disguise itself in a new avatar and be served to us again in all its nauseating glory– after all, the show must go on!!!

P.S. Incidentally, N Srinivasan also heads AICF - All India Chess Federation - and since his takeover, the federation has practically been inactive. The Anand-Topalov World Championship Match is currently being held in Bulgaria (even though the Bulgaria bid is only 13 crore) because the AICF could not get any sponsor. Vishy wanted the match to be held in India but with practically no interest shown by India, the bid was won by Bulgaria. Clearly, the Chess World Championship is not worth the money for the CSK boss.

Image Courtesy - http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?265180

Sustaining Agriculture in the Long Run

2010-04-11T20:15:00.007+05:30

Whenever I talk to my folks back home in Palakkad about plans to probably go back to our village one day and try my hand in agriculture, I am greeted with well-grounded scepticism. The apprehensions are pretty clear – high labour costs, poor water management, low sales price and lack of support by the Government and industry to sustain careers in agriculture.

Despite being the top-ranked state in the suicide industry, Kerala does not lie within the suicide belt of the country, when it comes to farmer deaths. The state has vast tracts of land and is well-endowed in terms of natural resources and so would ideally qualify to be a good player in the agriculture sector. But there is still a mood of despondency I notice whenever I visit the place.

However watching Green Kerala Express raises my hope and gives a slightly different perspective. In its mission to zero on the best panchayat in the state, it chances upon several villages, where people and the administration have come together to give agriculture another chance and prove that despite being a poorer cousin, farming can be a livelihood tool with a much larger impact than the others.

For an average Malayalee, Kudappanakunnu in Trivandrum is known primarily for being the base station of Malayalam Doordarshan Kendra but a wonderful facet of the village was brought to the fore in one of GEKs episodes earlier this week. Employment opportunities were once few and far between in this village and agricultural land was practically zero, primarily due to its proximity with the main town.

Then three years ago the panchayat in collaboration with the local Krishi Bhavan implemented the Karshika Karmasena project – a project to harness the youth of the village to revive agriculture in the area. The Karshika Karma Sena launched by the panchayat has 25 agricultural technicians (a euphemism for workers) who are trained in using modern agricultural devices such as the power tiller, brush cutter, soil digger and sprayer.

“The karma sena was started as a means to combat the intense labour shortage in the region,” said C.L. Mini, Agricultural Officer, Kudappanakkunnu panchayat. “The cost of cultivation can be brought down significantly by using agricultural technicians,” she added. The technicians assist interested clients right from selecting a plot for farming to marketing the produce.

Today, these workers earn close to Rs 7500 per month working in fields where they help to cultivate a variety of mostly-organic fruits and vegetables that are later marketed and sold through the Karshika Vipani Kendras. The wages are paid as monthly salaries through an SBI Account opened nearby for the employees and they are also entitled to EPF.

This is a sustained ecological and agricultural movement where the entire community had come in to help, resulting in making Kudappanakunnu a Green Panchayat. The technicians are educated persons and work on lands taken on lease by the Panchayat at low rates. Mind you, these are not workers and they are given proper training by the Krishi Office; additionally, machines are used for most tasks (including tree-climbing and tilling), making it a highly productive enterprise. In addition to the use of machinery, subsidies in the form of seedlings and low cost organic fertilizers were distributed to the technicians, abhorring the use of expensive pesticides.

Kudappanakunnu presents a case where the community and the administration came together to implement an innovative solution to tackle the issues of wastelands and employment. When more than 70% of the country depends on agriculture for its livelihood, it is important that rather than doing away with it in the name of development, the idea should be to enhance the scope of agriculture and utilize it better.

Moving from Trivandrum to Kannur, we now come across the village of Chembilodu, which is unique that every house in this village has a kitchen garden. As part of the Panchayat’s initiative to ensure that no land in the village is wasted and to promote food security, a directive was given to the people that they need to maintain a kitchen garden and grow vegetables themselves.

As a result, close to 4000 houses have vegetable gardens where ladies finger, cucumber, spinach and pumpkin are grown, which is used for local consumption. Anything extra is then sold outside to the markets by the villagers; this has dramatically reduced the food prices in the region and added an extra means of livelihood for the people. Additionally, the villagers use organic fertilizers from their household waste and have abandoned the use of chemicals totally, leading to a healthier vegetation.

It is important to realize that such a movement would not have happened without the active role of the villagers as well as the Panchayat in changing the face of the village. It is laudable that the administration took the initiative to not only revive the agricultural produce but also revive barren lands in the place, leading to more than 40 hectares of waste land becoming productive again.

Most people would say that agriculture is no longer relevant to our growth and that the government should look at promoting industry at the expense of farming – this explains the almost non-questioning of creation of SEZs haphazardly to businessmen. When an Infosys asks for large tracts of land at rock bottom rates, it is a legitimate business demand but when the farmer wants protection from dumping and other duties, we view it as protectionism and dub any support to the farmer as socialist interference.

Subsidies is a bad word in the economy now – as we move towards embracing greater role for private companies, we demand that no one should get a freebie and everyone should earn them. But let us understand that, this is not a perfect economic world and that the State has a greater role in bringing up the poor than increasing the wealth in the country (the trickledown theory is a classic case where the trickling down never really happened). Writing off bad debts by farmers is foolishness but then tax holidays and waivers for corporate is smart capitalism (This year alone, the budget gifts over Rs. 500,000 crore in write-offs, direct and indirect, to the Corporate Sector)!!!

Quoting Sainath on this:

In India, people have the perception of "subsidies" being given to farmers, and this is one of the reasons why the urban folks think that farmers need to improve their act. But the vast majority of this subsidy is given not to the farmers themselves but to fertilizer producers. The "farmers" who get this subsidy are called Birla, Tata and Ambani! Also, this is given in such a way that the more you produce the lower the rate of subsidy, and the smaller amounts you produce, the more higher the rate of subsidy. In theory, this should support the "small farmers", but in fact the large producers overproduce and understate their output, just so they can avail of the higher rate of subsidy.

But blind subsidy is equally silly, more so in our case where implementation is abysmal (Remember Rajiv Gandhi’s famous comment-Out of every rupee of subsidy only 15 paise reach the targeted populace). Most successful villages, as seen in GEK, have worked on a strategy of providing subsidies to take care of the infrastructure, followed by regular support to ensure that the subsidies do not go waste. A more directed approach towards subsidies (which UID is aiming to do) will possibly make the entire exercise more useful.

Traditionally, Indian farmers have flooded their fields with water using canal irrigation. Canal irrigation advocated through large dams (a by-product of Nehru's fascination with Russian style of mega structures) have never been popular with farms - massive land loss to construct costly dams are one issue while farmers are plagued with the problems of depending on agencies to release water as and when they want and wastage of water through evaporation. But the Government has never sort to promote the use of drip and sprinkler irrigation, which is far a cheaper and more economic option - something that Israel has excelled in.

The Government further focuses on market needs and so expensive cash crops are encouraged, at the expense of poor food crops. This has not only forced farmers to abandon traditional farm crops but grow these crops on a large scale, creating a massive monoculture, which erodes soil value slowly. When the Agricultural Minister is more pre-occupied with starting sugar factories and advocating wine cultivation in dry lands in Maharashtra, is it any wonder that the State looks away when farmers look to it for guidance?

Pawar pushes for greater cuts in import duties on a large variety of crops, as the Indian farmer struggles to sell his produce. Even while being in WTO, India can charge duties (even upto 150% as in cotton) but for mysterious reasons, we have decided to be pro-West in our approach. So, while European and American Governments dole out large amounts of cash subsidies to their farmers, we force our farmers to sell their produce at absurd prices and expect them to sustain their livelihood without any complaint. What explains the Government importing food at high prices when many of the crops rot here in godowns, lying unutilized?

Agriculture contributes close to 17% if India’s GDP but it is largely a poor man’s story in India today. Policy issues in the mainstream media tend to be about the economy but the ones pertaining to agriculture do not merit sufficient space – lack of glamour as well as interest contributes to this. The key word is outsourcing and so prominent bloggers, who are self-appointed economists also, bemoan the fact that after so many years, India remains largely a rural populace.

An agricultural policy that moves out of the ghosts of the Green Revolution is important, as we struggle to maintain the relevance of agri-business in the country. Successful villages have shown a way out to keep agriculture in the forefront with greater focus on watershed management, organic farming and greater administration support. As we hurtle towards globalisation at a rapid pace, will the Indian farmer increasingly become a mere suicide statistic or a critical driver of our GDP? It is a choice that we have to make and make it pretty soon.

Green Kerala Express

2010-03-20T18:10:00.012+05:30

The President of the Karumalloor Grama Panchayat is facing the arc lights for the first time but he remains unfazed as he confidently fields queries from a jury on the development initiatives undertaken by the panchayat and explains how 250 acres of barren land was transformed into 750 acres of fertile agricultural land in a matter of years. The jury is suitably satisfied by the video presentation, the data provided to them and the village’s response to their queries and they award the Panchayat 46 marks out of 60.

Welcome to GREEN KERALA EXPRESS – touted as India's first and biggest social reality game show (possibly the world’s too), which aims to find the best Panchayat in Haritha Keralam. The contest is based on the performance of each local body in implementing programmes relating to sustainable agriculture, conservation of water resources, food and social security, Kudumbasree, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), health, education, energy, housing, women’s empowerment and participation in grama sabhas in the state of Kerala. The first phase covers Grama Panchayats and the second phase will focus on Urban Local Bodies (Corporations & Municipalities together).

Doordarshan has done yeoman service in covering rural India for several years, starting with its Krishi Darshan and other socio-cultural programmes which are incidentally still watched in rural India (though the lure of daily soaps have probably torn away people from such programmes). Now, in an inspired piece of programming, the Thiruvananthapuram Kendra (DD Malayalam) is telecasting this 100+ episode show where villages compete with each other for a Kaun Banega Crorepati (yes, the winning village gets 1 crore!!!), highlighting their grassroots-level, sustainable developmental projects.

Kerala has 999 village panchayats, 53 municipalities and five municipal corporations. Two months back, DD had invited entries from local bodies. Around 200 local bodies sent their proposals, with 10-minute documentaries. Each entry was subjected to scrutiny by a couple of Technical Committees, based on the performance of the panchayat as understood from the filled-in questionnaire and other materials and input.

The jury shortlisted 150 out of 999 panchayats and a Production team was assigned the responsibility to visit the villages and make a short film based on the information submitted to them. The selection is to be narrowed down to 15 panchayat projects at the end of this first screening stage, and to three by the end of second for the final show. Of the total prize money of Rs 3 crore, the winning village would walk away with the 1 crore prize, funded by the state government.

In each episode, the film made by the panchayat is screened in front of the jury along with a short profile of the village followed by the video prepared by the production team. Then, a panchayat representative — with a group of villagers — comes into the studio, talks about the project, and fields queries from a jury comprising experts from various fields. Post-this, the jury awards them a score and the SMS voting for the village is announced.

The brains behind this fascinating game show are two humble bureaucrats - Doordarshan Assistant Director Sajan Gopalan and C-DIT Deputy Director K Mohan Kumar, who conceived it as a travelogue-type reality show which focuses on rural Kerala. The show has been produced by the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) for the Local Self Government Department (LSGD), Government of Kerala. The Doordarshan Kendra, Thiruvananthapuram, Suchitwa Mission and Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) are its co-producers.

The programme, which would be a unique documentation of grassroot-level positive initiatives, should inspire other local bodies to deliver better results... To add entertainment elements, there would be a little bit of drama and celebrities as members of the jury. Although the show would not have all the trappings of popular reality shows, audience would get a chance to SMS for their favourate panchayat and its project

says Sajan.

There were initial apprehensions on the quality of a DD sponsored programme but thankfully, the first few episodes (started on March 1st) of this daily half hour interactive show have proved sceptics wrong. The sets carry a green hue and the anchors are cheerful youngsters who give it a professional look. We have seen enough tantrums being thrown by judges in game shows but thankfully down south, the decorum has not yet been shattered and the producers have not resorted to unnecessary melodrama or audio-video jugglery which characterize most such shows.

Instead, presenting in such a format has ensured that it is an engaging exercise in intellect, without alienating a majority of viewers. The programme also has a fantastic title track, composed by Dr Sreevalsan J Menon. To add to the show’s green flavour, the programme anchor tours the panchayat only in a cycle, as he goes about talking to various villagers. Keeping in tune with the latest trends, the winner panchayat and project will be judged partly on SMSes sent by audience. DD has also roped in film stars to pitch in their support for the programme, trying to reach out to a wider audience.

The judge panel consists of two permanent jury members (Vineetha Menon, head of the department of anthropology, Kannur University and K.P. Kannan, former director of Centre for Development Studies), two technical jury members (such as environmentalists R.V.G. Menon and M.K. Prasad, agriculture expert R. Heli ) and a celebrity judge.

The choice of Padmapriya as a celebrity judge is an interesting choice (her lack of Malayalam knowledge could have been a hindrance in such a show but then she is a Ph.D student in Panchayati Raj Development!) and it presents to the contestants a chance to interact with an intelligent woman, who has taken up acting as a profession and not the usual bimbos who turn up in many shows. The primary focus of most of the interactions have pertained to agriculture, health, education and employment, specifically on the fufillment of NREGS objectives.

While most villages have done their homework, there are exceptions too who cut a sorry figure too - like Kalady village whose data provided was incomplete and incorrect and the representatives were hard pressed to answer questions put to them (including the incredible claim of providing only 8 man days under NREGS but being the highest disbursal of NREGS funds in Ernakulam!!!); the President was quick to blame paucity of time and the clerk for providing the data. The presence of an intelligent jury ensures that villages are asked questions properly and the mediocre ones are weeded out, as exhibited during the sessions.

It is interesting to note that in most Panchayats, the funds alloted to them (atleast on paper) have not been fully utilized, so is the issue of insufficient funds a valid reason? The fact that in many places changes have happened due to active intervention of the Panchayat (financially and culturally-like not alloting numbers to houses who do not co-operate as in Karumalloor or reclaiming occupied land near the Kalpathy river to protect it by Akathethara panchayat) gives an insight into the power devolution in rural areas; unlike in urban spaces where people do not even know their neighbours. Greater decentralization has helped the local self governments to take decisions on their own.

There have been a few interesting stories that have emerged in the episodes so far:

• Adattu, in Thrissur, a village that ditched pesticides for organic farming

• Cheriyanad, in Alappuzha, the country’s first litigation-controlled and legally-literate grama panchayat

• Nilambur (under the leadership of writer Aryadan Shoukath), in Malappuram, attempts to become the country's first dowry-free village

• Elappully, in Palakkad, a model dairy village with significant work in the field of dairy development and restoration of water bodies in the area (and it is my village too which is leading with 51 marks!!!)

• Eloor, in Ernakulam, replaced all its incandescent bulbs with fluorescent models with the Panchayat enlisting the help of students in this plan

With most TV channels running out of ideas and resorting to cliched and stupid game shows (like swayamvar tests) and umpteen music shows, it exposes the bankruptcy of ideas that most major channels have. Bringing all these panchayats together and trying to analyse their models of sustainable developments is not an easy job but the endeavour is definitely praiseworthy. Judging a panchayat in less than 15 minutes may be a bit short but keeping the television audience in mind, anything more could turn-off potential viewers.

A lot of constructive work done in many remote parts do not get attention and this show gives an opportunity to witness such work. I do not know what the show’s TRPs are but I sincerely believe that if this show succeeds, it is a success for all those who believe in the power of television to sell infotainment creatively. Incidentally, inspired by this concept, DD is considering plans to conduct a show on these lines on a pan-India level.

Urban India is well and truly divorced from its rural cousin and this show presents an opportunity to take a peek into this world. Of course, the semi-rural/urban nature of Kerala and the decentralization of powers have ensured that this alienation has not reached the extreme end as in most parts of the country. We think that in the midst of an IT revolution, our dependency on agriculture is taking us backwards and the way ahead is to stop this trend. But when you examples of places as shown in the programme where villages have taken to agriculture in a large way and produced fantastic results, you can clearly see the urban-rural divide.

P.S. This show is being screened thrice a day in DD-Malayalam, at 5pm, 8.30 pm and 11.00 pm from Monday to Friday. After daily scratching our heads on what to watch on television prime time, we have finally something to look forward to. Additionally, I guess, it also provides an avenue for us to get in touch with our roots, despite being away from it. Watching DD-Malayalam for the past few days has actually been an eye-opener-serious programming (a bit drab at times) actually exists!!!

Survival of the Humble Brinjal

2010-03-07T18:02:00.007+05:30

When the Union Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh announced an indefinite moratorium on Bt brinjal last month, the decision created a small window for many in India to sit and understand what the fuss is all about, without being swept away in the tides of another flawed Green Revolution, fuelled by the usage of Genetic Modified Crops. It is important that we understand that the Bt Brinjal issue is not a simple Traditional Vs Modernity fight or a rural farmer issue but a complex issue concerning National Security – there are 40+ GM food crops which are in the pipeline and covers every aspect of food security in India.

Bt Brinjal is a transgenic brinjal created by inserting a gene (Cry 1Ac) from the soil bacterium Bt into brinjal. The insertion of the gene into the vegetable is said to give the brinjal plant resistance against insects like the brinjal fruit and shoot borer and fruit borer. In India, Bt Brinjal is being promoted by Mahyco (Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company). If cleared for human consumption, Bt-brinjal will be the first GM vegetable crop approved for cultivation anywhere in the world. GM corn and GM soya are mainly used to feed cattle in North America or go into processed foods.

US multinational bio-technology firm Monsanto (which sells 90 per cent of the world's genetically engineered seeds), promotes GM crops in India through Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech, a 50:50 joint venture between Monsanto and Mahyco. In the 80s, Monsanto developed and patented a technology that enabled inject the Bt gene into seeds, as a result of which whenever a pest attacks the plant it dies. No one knows for sure what happens to the human beings who actually consume it. The scientific community is divided over the effects of this gene on us and opponents of GM (Genetically Modified) Food have raised issues on the health, environmental, economic and ethical aspects of moving over to GM food.

If you were to ask if eating Bt brinjal is dangerous or would cause cancer or any life threatening disease, the upfront answer to that would be an emphatic DON’T KNOW. Bt brinjal has not been properly tested for health or environmental safety though the advocates of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) say that they are safe and are the same as the naturally occurring organisms used to create the transgenic crop.

In October 2009, the Indian biotechnology regulator, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), the statutory body responsible for approving its cultivation in India which is an ad hoc 30-member committee comprising mainly bureaucrats and scientists, gave its approval for introduction of Bt brinjal. The clearance was provided by the GEAC based purely on the data provided by Mahyco and the institutions it used for testing without doing any independent testing!!!

Isn’t this a clear case of conflict of interest- you create a product, do the testing yourself or sanction it and provide data to a regulator and the dumb regulator accepts it, without any form of independent evaluation. The French geneticist, Gilles-Eric Seralini, who was commissioned by the environmental group Greenpeace to check the claims made by Mahyco at the GEAC pronounced the data submitted by Monsanto-Mahyco as insufficient and misleading on several counts and the GEAC wanting in diligence. There are no proper bio-safety regulations for the environmental release of transgenic crops in India, with the GEAC, essentially adopting U.S.-style lack of regulation for GMOs.

The GEAC also says that they were not sure about the long-term health effects of genetically modified food on humans and stipulate that surveillance and long-term follow up should be conducted — essentially saying that you can eat Bt brinjal and it’s fine now but in the long term, it may or may not cause problems. How can the Government give clearance for something as radical as GM food without sufficient clinical trials? Apart from the fact that there were no long-term tests conducted for human safety, the adverse results of the short-term tests on lab rats were actually suppressed.

One of the more touted benefits of GMOs is that they reduce the use of pesticides, making it a more eco-friendly alternative. But there is always a danger of the pests developing resistance to the gene just as some populations of mosquitoes developed resistance to DDT. A Government conducted survey in 2002-03 on Bt Cotton (the first transgenic crop to be released in India) revealed an almost 99% incidence of the pink bollworm, a major pest that attacks the cotton crop.

Monsanto admitted this week that during field monitoring in 2009, the Bt cotton variety used in four Gujarat districts — Amreli, Bhavnagar, Junagarh and Rajkot — failed to control pests. Similar cases have been reported on the American bollworm, increasingly indicating that the pest is growing immune to the Bt gene. Some studies have shown that GM crops have destroyed useful insects as well as changed the nature of the soil (Monsanto had developed a herbicide called Round Up which when sprayed killed not only weeds but also soya. So it developed a GM soya bean which was resistant to Round Up and sold both the herbicide and the seed – a perfect double whammy!!!).

Conventionally in India, farmers buy seeds from the Government (centres like Krishi Bhavan) and then save their seeds from year to year obtained after the initial produce, for further usage. These seeds are diverse and replicable and over the years given the climatic conditions, these native seeds develop resistance to pests and disease attacks. The cost of a packet of Bt Cotton is Rs. 1600 as compared to the non-Bt hybrid that costs between Rs. 380 to Rs 460 because seed costs are higher.

Also since the Bt Cotton plant is not effective in controlling secondary pests like the white mosquito, aphids and other sucking pests, more pesticides have to be used, escalating total input costs. Monsanto patents its seeds and insists on contractual agreements with farmers that they will not save and replant seeds the next season, increasing the price of the seeds when compared to the inexpensive seeds available in the market (To enforce this, it had developed a terminator gene which produce sterile seeds that do not germinate, ensuring that farmers buy the seeds every year).

Another strong argument in favour of the Bt seeds is their claim to increasing crop yields by ushering a second Green Revolution. This is a false promise; Bt cotton destroys bollworm while Bt brinjal prevents the fruit and shoot borer but beyond this, they remain the same in their susceptibility towards other issues. Every year we have bumper harvests but the final produces lie rotting in government godowns and are burnt later on while millions suffer due to starvation and hunger. The problem we face is more related to distribution and less with production, so is increasing the yield through such suspect methods the only way out?

Access to food of our choice is a basic human right; we all can exercise this human right by refusing or agreeing to purchase engineered and manufactured food. But how can we differentiate between a normal brinjal and a Bt brinjal? Monsanto has consistently refused to label its GM foods, leading to most European countries banning GM foods. Moreover, India does not have a proper labeling system to distinguish and inform us of the GM content in our food.

In the words of Jeffrey Smith, author of Genetic Roulette on Bt Brinjal - If Bt brinjal produces allergic or toxic symptoms in the population, it could be years or decades before authorities are able to track the cause. The brinjal is not labelled, so some may get reactions to some meals with brinjal, and not to others isolating the cause is difficult. By the time it is discovered, the brinjal will have contaminated so many varieties; abandoning brinjal altogether may be the only recourse.

There are more than 2400 varieties of brinjal available in India due to local flavours and conditions. Fostering these bacterial genes into the brinjal could rapidly contaminate the thousands of brinjal varieties because the structure of its flower is conducive to a high rate of cross-pollination, leading to destruction of many of the home grown varieties. With an annual yield of 8 million tones, we do not face any crisis in brinjal production. If food security was an issue behind introduction of GM food crops, then why was brinjal chosen though it is not a staple diet? Maybe the answer lies when you are told that Monsanto spends 2 million dollars a day on research – it’s Payback Time!!!

The First Green Revolution in India in the 1970s regarded chemicals as the magic wands to transform Indian agriculture but these same chemicals are now being looked at as monsters that have adulterated many of our crops. The rest of the world may have banned DDT and Endosulfan but we continue to patronise them and kill our people. Now, there is a demand to bring GMOs to counter these same insecticides. We do not know whether the risk that was taken 30 years back is worth it but now do we want to tempt history again?

There is a risk that bio-technology may be branded as a villain and halted totally but surely, there is a middle ground. Maybe many of us are wrong, maybe GMOs will actually help make a difference but then should we not wait till a proper Cost-Benefit and Risk Analysis is done and we have concrete evidence to actually prove this rather than jumping the gun?

Image Courtesy: http://www.polyp.org.uk/index.html

Ividam Swargamanu

2010-02-21T13:08:00.004+05:30

In Ividam Swargamanu, Roshan Andrews and Mohan Lal come together to weave a simple, honest tale tackling the menace of land mafia and the trials and tribulations of a farmer who struggles to save his land in the midst of a corrupt system, a decaying society and a world which is slowly losing its innocence. Roshan casts his net wide enough to bring to our attention many issues but fortunately, none of these deviate from the central theme.

Mathews (Mohanlal) is a farmer who loves his cattle more than anything else. Along with this dad Germias (Thilakan), he builds an ecological heaven for himself in the rustic lands of Kodanadu, after years of hard work. When the real estate ring under Aluva Chandy (Lalu Alex) starts eying his land, Mathews’ troubles start and how he deals with this issue is the core of the movie.

Recent Mohan Lal movies have presented simplistic solutions but thankfully, Kodanadu is no Mithilapuri and Mathews is no Kashinath as in Thandavam (and in many other movies) where the character takes on the mafia single handedly and grinds them to the ground. Instead Roshan Andrews brings on the Satyan Anthikad-Lal touch of the 80s and 90s immortalized by movies like Varavelppu, Gandhi Nagar 2nd Street and TP Balagopalan MA and creates a memorable story, ensuing that Mathews remains a character that we would remember in future too (Looking at its book office fate, I hope that it atleast succeeds in the DVD circuit).

Mathews does everything that he can to stop the sale of his land but Aluva Chandy’s men make life more and more difficult for his family. Eventually, he realises that he needs to be smarter to tackle him and beats him in his own game of conceit. The way this unravels is interesting but it kind of happens too fast and looks a bit too simple and reduces the group of villains to an almost buffonesque state (Reminds you of Khosla Ka Ghosla in this phase of the movie though it is much less dramatic here) . When court cases and procedures go on for centuries and the people involved are in high places (like the Revenue Secretary), it looks far too simple but credit must be given to the director for trying to bring about a solution using proper legal and judicial means, without any form of gimmickry.

The screenplay is concise and to the point, so every scene has relevance and justifies the way characters go about their business. Sunitha (Lakshmi Rai) takes up the case not only because she wants to get back to her trouble makers but also because for her this is linked to her cost of living (the scene where she haggles with a vegetable vendor on the prices is a subtle touch). Prabalan Vakil (Sreenivasan) is the Amicus Curiae and has a job to do but at the same time he is also driven by his concern towards the issue of the loss of agriculture lands to corporates. Betsy, a television reporter (Priyanka Nair) is fascinated by his farm and believes that this is a human interest story which would sell on TV and the fact that Mathews is her mother’s ex-student incentivises this further.

The villagers believe that a township can actually bring about changes – for somebody it is extra jobs, for somebody, it is additional business while for many, it is publicity for a village which has never made it big. The Communist Party initially supports Mathews’ cause but later abandons the cause when they realise that they do not have the backing of people. When a comrade says that the party should stick to its principles and not succumb to popular perceptions, the leader reminds him of the parliamentary elections and the effect of taking such a stand.

The high element of decentralization in Kerala has created a lot of power at the grass roots level and the movie takes us into the narrow corridors of corruption in these small offices. So, instead of taking the conventional route of Ministers and Chief Ministers being involved in big dramas, you have councillors, Church committees, trade unions, village panchayats, block development offices and myriads of governmental offices with all sorts of procedures which seem to have been created just to make our lives more and more difficult. Notice how the Collector realises that the peon has delayed despatching the official notice but is wary to take action because of his standing among the unions. This world never features in Bollywood but finds a prominent place in our cinema (a reflection of how the distinction between villages and towns has still not been perpetuated in most of Kerala).

The writer, James Albert, gives us a bird eye view of the corruption that happens in real estate deals. Jagathy in an excellent cameo as Bhuvanachandran, a document forgery expert, shows how documents are manipulated – despite our cynicism, it is still an eye opener. So, you have mechanisms to forge signatures and Voter IDs, make alterations on the paper through natural means, and make documents look older than they are through innovative methods (The use of various fountain pens for each decade and Chelpark ink to provide that authentication shows the research done). Isn’t it amazing to know that when Government gifts free land to poor people, many of these people do not even exist? Later, a real estate shark like Aluva Chandy forges documents to prove that the land has been sold to him (from people who only exist on paper) and sells/develops the land to make money.

When the movie showcases Mathews’ farm (his farm makes use of intelligent use of natural bio-techniques and avoids the use of pesticides; there is a proper waste management system and the drainage flow is well regulated) and there are rumours of real estate interest being shown in the area, there is a hint that the movie may look at the issue of Nature Vs Development or even the Right to Property but the director quickly settles down for a more conventional script dealing with a farmer fighting the land mafia, making it a Good Guy Vs Bad Guy story. While this is not exactly a cop out, it could have made for a more interesting clash. After all everyone in the real estate business is not a villain; there is a genuine argument to bring about a middle ground in this discussion – but Aluva Chandy is a caricature in that sense, he is a scheming villain who is out to swindle the entire population.

But that should not take away the credits of the movie and these are abundant. Mohan Lal returns to his roots and steals the show with his wonderful presence and he is ably supported by an excellent set of characters. The humour is natural and gladly devoid of Suraj, Harishree Asokan and the rest who have been plaguing most movies nowadays. The script is the hero and while the length of the movie may bother a few people, I was pretty comfortable with it. But what does it say of the Kerala cine goer who is glad to watch Happy Husbands and Chattambi Nadu but shying away from endorsing movies like Ividam Swargamanu, Paleri Manikyam and Bhramram? If even a superstar cannot bring crowds to good cinema, is there a reason to be hopeful?

P.S. This movie also has a personal interest for me. My wife’s tharavadu (with an Anjaneya temple and pond in its precincts) is among the very few places in the heart of Palakkad town, which has not been sold. A couple of years back, their neighbour passed away and his land which comprised many trees and a pond was bought by the Pavizham Group, which has bought many tracts of land around the place. All the trees were cut and the pond was dried out and now, you have the Jobys Mall there – supposedly the first shopping mall in the district. The gentle breeze and cool shade brought about these lovely surroundings has now been replaced by the noisy din of the construction and buzz of the people visiting the mall. Hopefully, our tharavadu will continue to flourish, as it has been doing all these years but when the entire populace is changing, how long can we stop this, especially with the next generation losing interest in maintaining them?

The Case of the Missing Pakistanis

2010-02-01T15:18:00.000+05:30

Diplomacy is a tough nut to crack, especially when the issue is an Indo-Pak issue. It takes a small snub (even imaginary) for the so called peace between India and Pakistan to shred. Every “window of opportunity” opens both ways – either into chaos or peace and inevitably, it is the chaos that makes it mark when it comes to our grand relationship with our neighbours. Lalit Modi, Vice-President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) runs this cash cow called IPL, which incidentally also indulges in cricket as a major past time and is now single-handedly responsible for hijacking India-Pakistan relations!!!

The IPL-3 issue that is being treated as a setback to Indo-Pak diplomacy is at best a business decision where the franchisees who put in the money decided to hedge their bets, play safe and not risk bringing in Pakistani cricketers. Sure, they could have been more taut and diplomatic and put up an honest face saying that looking at the state of affairs in the sub-continent, they were not too keen on promoting Aman ki Aasha here. Isn’t this a rational decision where investors with limited money put in the money, keeping in mind the maximization of their returns?

But then cricket in India’s been a simple game – it is a kind of diplomatic chessboard where every guy has a word on how to play one’s moves. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) claims that the move was a deliberate snub by India and that the Modi must apologize for hurting the sentiments of thousands of Pakistanis. The way I see it, the IPL and India have made fun of us and our country by treating us this way," Afridi said. 'I am very disappointed,' said all-rounder Abdul Razzaq. 'This is a conspiracy to malign us... It was their plan.' Pakistan Sports Minister Jhakhrani told Indian Sports Minister M.S. Gill that it was 'utterly disappointing that not a single Pakistani was auctioned for the cash lucrative IPL'.

The Government also decided to put in feeble comments on how eager they were all to watch the Pakistani players and how Modi and Co had missed this window of opportunity. Rediff reports - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is believed to be extremely upset -- some say even livid -- over the manner in which Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi has ensured that Pakistan players are kept out of the latest edition of the Twenty20 extravaganza. The Indian PM actually spoke, without asking for madam’s instructions!!!! Wish he explained what window of opportunity is it that has been squandered? Maybe it’s time we had a few cricketers to handle our foreign affairs – would be so much easier to shut down terrorist camps and bring about peace.

Union Minister for Youth and Sports M.S. Gill said I trust, that the IPL corporate owners of cricket, have also taken a small lesson, from all this. Everyone must realize, that sports are the bedrock, of people-to-people contact, which we need to promote, with our neighbours. Can someone remind him to try and resolve the sad state of affairs facing hockey in India, with the impending World Cup in February, instead of promoting world peace? Women’s hockey is in a worse situation and the Commonwealth is around the corner but we have left it to the Gods to complete the work on time.

Earlier, Home Minister P Chidambaram had also chided the IPL franchisees, saying the franchisees had done a "disservice" to the game by ignoring the Pakistani players. Chidambaram said the cricket lovers were disappointed by the franchisees' behaviour and felt the entire controversy was avoidable. Of course, if there are any untoward events that would happen, don’t expect the government to gear up to handle the situation? SRK (trying to sound more intelligent than Aamir) chipped in that saying it is sad that Pakistani players were not picked for the event but also adds that such a climate needs to be created for Pakistani players to play (since such a climate does not exist, why the so-called feeling of humiliation at not inviting them?)

The Home Ministry says that there has been a greater outbreak of hostilities lately and the chances of terrorist activities have grown multi-fold in the recent past? Under such circumstances, if some terrorist activity were to happen, what would be the reactions of Indians and Pakistanis here? Can the government promise that Pakistani players would be safe here under any circumstances and protect them (and even Aussies now) from the madness of Shiv Sainiks, who know that they can make the ugliest of remarks and exhibit violence against anyone Bal Thackeray points at and get away with it because the spineless government cannot stop these buffoons?

Skipping an IPL is a snub to Pakistani cricket and has damaged it, says sources. So, if a handful of players make millions, would Pakistani cricket actually be better off? The Pakistani players ignored at the auction were justified in feeling humiliated because they were obviously not judged on merit. But they could have also handled it quietly and taken the moral higher ground but then that’s clearly asking too much from them. By taking measures like cancellation of the visit to India by parliamentarians and the election commissioner and making calls to boycott all sports events scheduled to be held in India, they have merely aggravated the issue.

The IPL is just an investment for the parties who have put crores into it and want to play it safe? How different is it if a private entity decides to start a company in India and decides to play safe and cut all risks. If there were to be a situation like a 26/11 again, will the franchises be able to play the Pakistanis in India (After all, the same Pakistan Governemnt banned its players from playing in IPL-2 stating the same reason)? So, the franchises took a practical call that having Pakistani players in their sides could lead to potential problems. But judging by reactions, the franchises have in one stroke hurt Indo-Pak relations, insulted cricket fans worldwide, embarrassed the country and even brought India and Pakistan to a potential war (What the Mumbai terror attacks could not achieve — an Indo-Pak war — this fresh row could well do that – yes, Pradeep Magazine actually wrote that in The Hindustan Times!!!)

Cricket has, unfortunately, this wonderful responsibility to bring world peace and people still dream that it will bring people together. I must confess that I harboured such thoughts at the height of the Agra Summit hype but as time passes, I have stopped allowing myself to indulge in such inane fantasies. The IPL is a commercial enterprise run by a group of savvy businessmen who can see the fiscal potential of the game; attributing larger virtues of brotherhood is simply foolhardy.

Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

2010-01-17T23:31:00.004+05:30

After a couple of fascinating historicals, William Dalrymple, returns to his roots through a travelogue as his wanderlust takes him across rural India in search of stories that look at how religion and traditions survive in modern India. This isn’t a conventional travelogue – it is more of a biography of its various subjects rather than Dalrymple’s experiences during his travel. The concept of Unity in Diversity has been beaten to the pulp by the media, keen to showcase many superficial symbols of our culture, but he digs deep allowing people to demonstrate this fiversity rather than sticking labels to them. This anthology of nine lives is an interesting mix of the lives of people who represent the various facets of the sub-continent culture, without any glorification.

The anthology begins with The Nun’s Tale in Sravanabelagola which focuses on the life of Prasannamati Mataji, a Jain monk, who renounces a life of wealth to become a nun in search of spiritual enlightenment. The process is a painful and prolonged one but she is determined to go through even if means giving up her youth, material and emotional comforts. But total detachment is not so easy and she suffers from the pangs of suffering from her close friend –another nun who embraces Sallekhana (ritual fasting to death which begs the question whether this is a ritual suicide or not). The austere nature of Jainism with focus on abstinence of practically everything without any tangible rewards which makes it an unlikely choice of a religion to withstand the passage of time but it has survived and is doing just as well.

The Dancer of Kannur takes us to Thalassery where Hari Das, a prison warder becomes a Theyyam dancer during the December to February months and is worshipped as an incarnate deity. Theyyam is a popular Hindu dance form in North Kerala, which takes place in small shrines and is performed by members of the lower caste. Once he dons the grease paint and enters into a trance, he feels an unknown shakti entering him and has miraculous healing powers and people come to him, across all castes, seeking his blessings. For Hari, Theyyam is a tool of social empowerment which has improved the conditions of the lower castes but the reality is that the upper class Namboodris who pay their respect to the theyyam artist during the performance remains casteist outside it. Theyyam can give him the self-respect that he needs but his regular income comes from his other not-so-divine jobs and he is uncertain whether this art will survive modern education.

The Daughters of Yellamma (based in Belgaum) looks at the world of Devadasis – upper caste “temple women” who at one point of time were regarded as honourable professionals, entering the service of God. Sadly, the services that they render (primarily Dalits) have now reduced them to the level of prostitutes with no locus standi in the society. The protagonist Rani from the Yellama cult, herself dying of AIDS and with both daughters dead, however takes pride in her profession and refuses to be compared to a sex worker but candidly admits that for all her bravado, her auspicious status makes no difference to her clients in bed (“There is no devotional feeling in bed. F***ing is f***ing. There I am just another woman. Just another whore"). Due to the various reform movements and the changing social structure, the status of devadasis fell drastically and the system was finally abolished in the 1920s. However, for the quarter or so of a million devadasis in these parts, the system is possibly the only way out of poverty and so it thrives, not in the way it was intended to be. Nevertheless, with more and more devadasis suffering from AIDS and other STDs , this tradition is dying.

Dalrymple then moves to Pabusar, a small village in Rajasthan, exploring the tradition of oral rendition of epics sung by a community of bhopas in The Singer of Epics. He tracks Mohan Bhopa and his wife, Batasi, who are the last hereditary singers of a great Rajasthani mediaeval poem, Pabuji Ki Phad. The epic is performed in front of a Phad, a long sheet on which scenes depicting the life and adventures of Pabuji, a 14th century hero, are painted (Interestingly, there is a reference to Ramayana here as Pabuji is supposed to have gone to Lanka and stolen camels from Ravana!!!). The Phad is considered a divine manifestation – similar to the image of Gods – and the bhopa is assumed to have healing powers. The tradition of oral story telling is all but forgotten in the world and this remains one of the last few remnants of this art, primarily because these poems had been turned into religious rituals unlike the Iliad and other Western epics, where it remained in an art form only. Dalrymple makes an interesting point noting that oral tradition flourishes in minds which are illiterate. The literate do not have the capacity to remember what the illiterate do making it difficult to sustain this fragile art which may totally disappear in a few years from now.

In The Red Fairy, Dalrymple moves out of India and lands in Sindh where the secular Sufi culture is fighting to keep itself alive, despite constant attacks by the likes of the orthodox Wahhabis, Deobandis and Tablighis. There he meets Lal Peri, a Sufi saint who moves from Bihar to Bangladesh and then Sindh to escape minority persecution. The Sufis believe that the search for God lies within and reject the restrictions of religion, narrowly interpreted by the mullahs. Their usage of music and poetry in their rituals and access to women have angered the fundamentalists funded by Saudis and supported by authoritarian regimes, leading to regular clashes, which Dalrymple likens to the Reformation Movement struggle in Northern Europe in the 16th Century. The essence of the Sufi-Islam conflict is best captured in these lines by Sain Fakir, an 80-year-old pir, who says: “The Sufis are a threat to the mullahs because we command the love, loyalty and faith of the ordinary people. No one is excluded. You can be an outcaste, a fallen woman, and you can come and pray in the shrine and the Sufi will forgive and embrace you.” This conflict also reflects the brewing tensions that are also slowly being a part of the Indian landscape and the victor would dictate the way this sub-continent will move.

The Monk’s Tale, set in Dharamsala, chronicles the life of Tashi Passang, a hermit in Tibet, who is forced to give up his monastic vows and take up arms to kill Chinese soldiers trying to destroy Buddhism in the 1950s. He escapes to India, joins the Indo-Tibetan force and even fights in the 1971 Bangladesh War before he finally quits the Indian Army in 1986 and returns to Dharamsala, to spend his last years atoning for the violence he had committed. Here he makes wooden blocks and prints prayer flags and finally takes up monastic vows and robes 30 years after renouncing them. Passang’s belief in karma is intact ("Tibetan suffering is possibly due to the actions of Tibetans when they invaded and tortured Chinese in the 7th century") and he hopes that the Chinese would eventually embrace Dharma and they would all return to their homeland. It is difficult for us to understand the emotional turmoil that a monk undergoes when he takes up arms and later on even fight as a soldier in an alien war. Passanga's faith in the path of dharma and Ahimsa even after so many years of struggle is remarkable and is an ode to the power of spirituality and religion.

South India, especially Tamil Nadu, is a hub for temples and all kinds of local deities and spirits thrive here, in the midst of all the IT hoopla. The Maker of Idols focuses on Srikanda Stpathy, who lives in Swamimalai, near Thanjavur, and is a 35th generation member of the premier idol-making Brahmin family of India. The family makes the idols with the same style and process as has been followed for all these centuries since the days of the great Cholas. Idol worship may have been riled as a blind form of devotion by many intellectuals but it has withstood all attempts to condemn it and modernization has only helped in getting markets even outside India. Ironically, for all the reverence that Gods are held in the country, many of the images ooze with sensuality and eroticism and unabashedly celebrate the union of Gods, especially Shiva and Parvati - a reminder that shringara rasa is an important form of worship in India. Stpathy, however notes with a twinge of sadness, that his son and nephew are not interested in idol making and wonders what the future of this family tradition is going to be.

The Lady Twilight is based in Tarapith, a popular centre of Tantric Hinduism in West Bengal, where we meet Manisha Ma Bhairavi, a tantric Sadhu who worships the ferocious Goddess Tara and drinks blood from skulls. Tantra is widely associated with superstitious practices and sexuality which is abhorred in most parts of India but for Manisha Ma, it is devotional. She looks at Tara Ma as a benevolent goddess who protects her and fellow tantrics and says that the violent blood thirsty image is just one side of the Ma, who can be both kind and violent, as the situation demands. Tantrics oppose all forms of society conventions, break all taboos (using ganja, alcohol and ritual sex) and encourage people to get in touch with their inner self by controlling the power of kama. One may or may not agree with this perception of religion but it is true that such a philosophy exists amidst closed doors in many parts of India and people flock in large numbers to get their problems resolved through tantrics.

The last story The Song of the Blind Minstrel is again set in Bengal on the banks of Ajoy River. Dalrymple travels to Kenduli near Shantiniketan to see a gathering of Bauls (saffron clad minstrels) who meet every year in January, descending into a cloud of singing and dancing throughout the night. The story unfolds primarily through the eyes of a blind minstrel, Kannai Das Baul, who along with this group, keep walking along in search of inner peace. The Bauls live a wild and abandoned life and believe that God lives in the present moment in the seeker of the truth and each man must find his own way. Rather than lecturing and sermonizing, they woo audiences through poetry and music and ask them to look inwards. They also follow a Tantric tradition and embrace breathing and orgasm in elaborately ritualised sexual rites. It is interesting to note that atheistic and agnostic philosophy is not totally new to Hinduism and the Chavarka school of thought in 6th Century B.C. rejected the idea of God.

It is easy to fall prey to the clichés of “Mystic India” and let one’s prose lose in the wilderness of this country but Dalrymple avoids this trap and gives a non-judgmental account of these lives which seem at odds with the rapid pace that the country is supposed to be taking. The writer, the journalist and the traveller all work in tandem as each subject spells out his/her story and Dalrymple fills in the background facts, the history and provides insights on the various events that mark the landscape of the story, giving it a documentary like feel.

The accounts are engrossing and with the wide variety of facts that Dalrymple puts in at frequent intervals, one can visualize the stories as they unfold. Whether it is the tantric cremation ground, the arid sands of Rajasthan or the crowded temple towns of the South, we are present there and moving along with him as he tries to understand a religion, which is totally different in form and structure from Christianity. He finds it interesting that many of these traditions would probably have been shunned in the West but in India, they are looked at with reverence and the practitioners of these various religious forms co-exist in the society peacefully.

Many of the stories have an exotic Oriental flavour to them but Dalrymple largely succeeds in humanizing these characters and bringing life to these various gateways of life which aim at reaching God. There is Bhakti, Tantra, Sufism, Buddhism and many other schools of thought but he does not preach or act like a modern Indian liberal sitting on judgment - he just observes and looks admiringly at the plurality and heterodoxy of a culture that sustains all these sets of beliefs, without infringing upon each other.

A Twittering Predicament

2010-01-02T01:58:00.004+05:30

#Is all that worth it just in hope of making it difficult for a future Headley to recce? R we going 2 allow terrorists 2 make us less welcoming?

# Making it more difficult 2 visit India, return here frequently or stay long hurts large nbrs of innocents, costs us millions of$ & alienates.

These are the 2 tweets by Shashi Tharoor which have been splashed across all channels and newspapers and have generated enough controversy for the man who seems to be in a hurry to usher in an era of e-politics. Did our MoS for External Affairs minister say something that is against public norms or morally wrong? But still Fulbright scholar SM Krishna, an honourable man, felt the need to reprimand his junior while the media has joined hands in gleefully branding Tharoor as irresponsible.

Krishna made his displeasure public saying - “These (issues) are not to be discussed in public. If there are any perceptions, then I think these should be sorted out within the four walls of the ministry; the business of government is far too serious and has to be conducted in a manner in which we decide. The broad policy parameters are dictated, decided by the minister in-charge of external affairs of this country and everyone will have to fall on the same page.''

The Indian government is an archaic piece of machinery which refuses to answer any questions put across it because the public is ill-educated to understand complex matters and it is best left to the buffoons who sit in both the Houses to decide on everything on our behalf (assuming that they decide to turn up at the House and try opening their mouths). But when the State refuses to even divulge the names of the Padma nominees claiming the irrelevance o f this information to the public, you know that you are fishing in deep waters and getting a catch here is going to be difficult. Talking to the public is a blasphemous offence by any standards of public probity defined by the State and the media.

Democracy is a 60+ year old institution in India but the concept remains nascent on many counts. Indian Public Policy is an opaque instrument which, despite numerous amendments, is held so sacrosanct by the polity that any discussion on that is anathema to the State. Everything is kept under the wraps of national security and confidentiality and any challenges to the status quo position of the rules are looked at with contempt. After all, how does the “cattle class” know what is right for it; this is the right assigned to the protectors of democracy by the electorate.

There is also a generational conflict of culture taking place here with the cyber savvy Tharoor talking to netizens directly which is against the functioning of the old school of government. The traditionalists are out of sync with new media and still believe that the best ways to show dissent or call for a debate is by manufacturing leaks and planting stories. The old school is entrenched in the roots of “consensus”, where the High Command proposes as well as disposes and the officials merely carry out orders. A healthy democracy thrives in the presence of dissent and it is time to recognize that public dissent also counts in decision making.

There was a counter argument that the response would be the same if this were a private company and that it is not just the Government which is paranoid when it comes to maintain confidentiality of information. But the difference is in primarily the kind of information that is shared across the table – we are not talking about a company’s pricing strategy but a law which has relevance to all our lives. When it comes to matters of public policy or laws that are public knowledge, what is the rationale of trying to build in a veil of secrecy? Isn’t it a step in the right direction when policy matters get discussed on the net and any form of dissent is well-covered so that public can judge accordingly?

But why is the media propping up the likes of SM Krishna here and targetting Tharoor? When you’d expect them to rally against SM Krishna, the media has tried to act as a partisan referee (read Chris Broad) and stand by the establishment. If Shashi Tharoor had called a press conference and said the same things to journalists, he would be hailed as frank and the law called an ass but now he is irresponsible – the foot-in-the mouth minister who is rocking the boat to show off his technological prowess.

Is it that the likes of Rajdeep Sardesai and Co feel threatened by the fact that by using tweet, Tharoor is directly talking to the public and bypassing the media filters? If sound bytes and “exclusive” stories are available online for everyone to see and understand, then how will the media fabricate grapevine news and flash breaking news? Shashi Tharoor talks directly to half a million people on Twitter and very few newspapers or TV channels have the same reach which is making the media uneasy.

Shashi Tharoor is unfortunately no Rahul Gandhi, whose of pearls of wisdom are scooped up by the party workers and displayed as strings of intellect, and cannot expect anyone in the Congress to stand up for his valid questions. The Grand Old Party is slowly undergoing a transformation but the change is only at the surface level and the definition of inner party democracy is confined by the Lakshman Rekha drawn by Sonia and family. Rahul has publicly railed against the Congress culture earlier and done an excellent job as its top Strategy guy and this would have been an excellent opportunity for him to step forward and stand up for Tharoor but then standing up for lightweights is probably not worth the political rewards.

The Twitterer has ruffled many feathers here but will the Ministry be lost for want of a tweet? Whichever way it goes, all I say is it is nice to have a Minister who talks to the public and we need more of his ilk. Way to go, sir, with a half a million strong twitter base, you have a huge online voice listening to you...

Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha

2009-12-14T21:36:00.010+05:30

It is 1957 – the year the World’s first democratically elected Communist government, under the leadership of EMS Namboodiripad, is about to take over the governmental reins from the Congress. It is also the year when the first rape case is registered in Kerala – Manikyam, a poor low caste girl, is brutally raped and murdered in a small village called Paleri in North Kerala. The investigation into this crime, 52 years later, forms the crux of this intricately executed movie, directed by Renjith, based on T P Rajeevan’s novel of the same name. This is Renjith’s most ambitious and mature work so far and is undoubtedly among the best movies of the year.

Manikyam (Mythili) was the bride of the village idiot Pokkan, the son of one of Paleri’s once-most desired women, Cheeru (Shwetha Menon). The morning after the whole village leaves to see a new drama in the town and Pokkan leaves along with a magician to perform some rituals, Manikyam is found dead in Cheeru’s house.

There is a police investigation but the accused are let off scot-free by a local court, even though the public by and large thinks that the rich landlord Murikkumkunnath Ahmed Haji (Mammootty again) is behind the murder. A private detective Haridas (Mammooty), accompanied by a crime analyst Sarayu (Gowri Munjal), land in Paleri after 52 years to investigate this case but the intent of the team to get involved with this case after so many years is indeed puzzling till we reach mid-stream, when the story introduces a personal angle (a deviation from the novel).

But Paleri Manikyam is not an investigative thriller in the true sense and if you are expecting a CBI Dairy story or even something like Pavithran’s Utharam, you would be grossly mistaken. There is a scene in the movie when a veteran Communist worker asks Haridas the relevance of such an investigation after 50 long years when none of the main players of the drama are alive and Haridas says that this could be an investigation either out of curiosity or possibly a look at the conditions of the period in Malabar when such a story happened and learning from it. (In an interesting conversation when his companion Sarayu says that this is somebody’s life and not a story, Hari replies that after death, everyone’s life is just a story – so relevant to our times). The intent is clearly not a who-dun-it mystery but a slow and steady permeation into the event and it definitely satisfies the viewer who is willing to wait and watch as the story unravels.

The movie follows a complex narrative where the story moves back and forth through the eyes of its various characters. Haridas narrates most of the events and moves along with the various characters in the movie which gives it a quasi-documentary feel at times. A scene which truly conveys the beauty of the narrative is when on one side of the frame we see Manikyam along with her husband coming to the village on a boat after her marriage, on the other side we see her corpse being taken away in a boat, with the narrator standing on the shore in the middle, and making a comment! There is an almost Rashomon like effect we witness as each character presents his own version of the story and we are left wondering where the truth lies. Such narration techniques have not been attempted in mainstream Malayalam cinema and Renjith pulls it off with aplomb.

Paleri Manikyam is set in rural North Kerala in the late 1950s and Renjith, along with Manoj Pillai (the cinematographer), takes us into this world and it is a fascinating effort. Capturing Kerala on canvas is a cake walk for any cinematographer but Renjith uses the backdrop itself acts as a character in the plot, with a mixture of colours which add to the intrigue surrounding the town. The music by Sarath and Bijbal also does not vie too much attention and percolates the background surely but certainly.

The political upheavals of the period also necessitate the role of petty politics in the drama. Barber Keshavan (Srinivasan) is a grassroots communist worker (the conscience of the village as Haridas refers to him) who believes in class struggle and refuses to work on the day EMS is sworn in but he is eventually dismayed to see the party succumbing to the elite, against whom they had battled. In his own words, he is neither a believer nor a communist – just a mere hairdresser. It is his disillusionment with the Party which leads him to provide the valuable inputs that help in piecing together the story.

K P Hamsa (veteran screenwriter T Damodaran), on the other hand, is a pragmatic Communist leader who realizes that the movement needs the support of the rich and is willing to compromise a few things for what he believes is the greater good. While the movie points a finger at the party for its rule in the cover up, you also realize that there was no personal benefit that was intended and was purely for the growth of the party (a rarity by today’s standards). He knows that a classless society is utopia and that the oppressed needs the oppressor to sustain the movement, so the marriage between the bourgeoisie and the Party to suppress the death of a poor girl, who nobody cares for her.

The police investigation in the late 50s was clearly more primitive when compared to today, which meant that the importance of circumstantial evidence and testimony was much higher, in the absence of technological support. Manikyam’s body is carried in jute mats across the river by boat on an overnight journey to Vadakara for post-mortem which exposed the body to further deterioration and could possibly endanger the evidence. The judiciary had to also contend with the fact that this was the first such case before them but we do not know whether the complexity of a rape case was understood at that time.

One weak link in the story is the relevance of the sub-plot involving Haridas and his girlfriend. Sarayu has a broken relationship with her husband, while Haridas has a faithful unsuspecting wife and a pleasant family life, but still he desires his colleague (he interestingly draws a parallel with Ahmed Haji for a similar failing) but this thread is not developed enough for us to draw any form of parallel with the main track.

Maybe if the film moved along interspersed with a few subtle hints regarding their relationship or his family troubles, it could have had a greater impact; otherwise, Haridas simply doing the investigation himself would also have sufficed, unless the lady character added something extra in the plot. Of course, the fact that the actress playing Sarayu also seemed a bit lost at times does not help the cause.

The other area which could possibly have a greater flourish would be the climax - it could have been more underplayed possibly or maybe even skipped because it did seem a tad artificial (especially by the movie's standards). The novel merely mentions Ahmed Haji’s son but the film goes further and builds a climax on the basis of this man, who makes a late entry. I do not want to add any spoilers here but it would be sufficient to say that even without this contrivance, the movie would have worked.

The movie boasts of an interesting cast – a lot of non-professionals were selected by Renjith to play various important roles in the movie after conducting an extensive workshop. This actually helps in giving it a more authentic feel and ensuring that we are not swayed by their usual appearances. The S K Pallipuram character who is the architect of the drama on the night of the rape is a small but interesting character; he also provides Haridas with a missing official report which helps in linking a few vital cogs. He represents the liberal who lies in his drunken arrogant stupor, who wields a great deal of influence by virtue of the might of his words but is too lost in his own world, under the influence of alcohol, to make a difference to the society – eventually becoming a mere pawn in the hands of the powerful.

While most of the actors are adequate (except Gowri Munjal), the pick of the cast are Mammooty and Shwetha Menon. Shwetha is at ease while exuding oomph as well as pathos as the older forsaken mistress of the Haji and is slowly emerging as an actress to watch for in the Kerala film horizon. Mammooty’s performance as Ahmed Haji is stellar and though the character is one-dimensional, it is played to perfection and is definitely a memorable performance (Kamal’s take on this role would be another caricature with more emphasis on the physical self).

My last four movies have been Bhramaram, Kerala Cafe, Loud Speaker and now Paleri Manikyam and if this is any evidence of Malayalam cinema slowly emerging out of its worst phase, then we are definitely in for exciting times. Renjith has once again shown (after Thirakatha and Kaiyoppu) that he is an exciting talent and the new generation (with the likes of Lal Jose, Renjith Shankar and others) is ready to revive the lost art called Malayalam cinema.