Mamooty Vs The State of Gujarat

There's little doubt in my mind tat if u ask Mr. Mamooty which is the place he hates most in India the answer would be Gujarat... This birth place of Gandhiji whose ppl are famous for their resilience against calamities, both natural and man-made, has become an eyesore for this great actor... This came to light after Mamooty's remarks at a DYFI meeting that the presence of DYFI in Gujarat would have prevented the 2002 riots... Being the responsible citizen ( with a known left inclination) that he is, it is natural for Mr. Mamooty to express his indignation on what may be described the most horrible "communal carnage" in independent India... His outrage is even more justified by the fact that the state which is supposed to guarantee protection to its subjects played the part of a silent partner in the whole episode... But his claim that DYFI could have averted this butchery is nothing but an over statement...

He is talking abt an organization, which along with the SFI, is responsible for the largest destruction of public and private properties in our state (Kerala) as part of their hartals, dharnas, marches etc... This is an organization whose strategy for political domination mainly involves physical suppression of its opponents... As such the comments make you wonder on what factual basis it is based... Further take the case of other states with left domination... After Kerala the CPM is dominant in Bengal nd some other north eastern states... Why is it that this model organization was unable to thwart the massacres in Nandigram??? Why are they helpless in suppressing the ever increasing Naxal problems in the North East??? And more recently, why did this peace-loving non-violent group take part in the most organized political vendetta in our state's history by methodically eliminating the RSS-BJP workers in Kannur after the CPM state conference in Kottayam...

Mamooty's comments wud have been apt if they came from a leftist leader... They are known for their obstinacy and dogmatism and often come out with the most frivolous explanations for their actions... { The leader of this very organization recently stated that the impasse of public life during a hartal is a reflection of the citizens empathy towards it... How immature and removed from truth is the leader if he mistakes the apathy of the public for empathy??? }... But its is wholly unexpected from a person like Mamooty... He is undoubtedly one of the kings in Malayalam filmdom and is loved, followed, and even worshiped by a large majority in the state... The fans are from all shades of life and such politically biased comments would only alienate the star from the crowd... If he still claims to be an ordinary man with the right to speak out nething, then the public also has the right to treat him ordinarily... Then why did this ordinary man become so worked up and arrogant when a fan touched him during his promo works for the movie Roudram???

His tirade against Gujarat doesnt end there... In every film after that he has managed to mention the state one way or the other... In the film Nasrani he talks abt how the police remained silent when the mob went on rampage... At least tat movie had a situation for this reference to be made... But I was wonder struck when he made a reference to Gujarat in the movie Kadhaparayumbol... There was no reason whatsoever to make the reference and it was a one-liner included in the middle of a rhetorical dialogue...

If the actor is trying to insert elements of social responsibility into his movies then why doesnt he include the excesses of all the political parties in his films??? Why does he only speak along the lines of a communist and take up their propaganda in his movies???

The simple fact is that he is using his star value to impress his fans towards his political direction... He is trying to mix his reel life and real life... He may see his actions to be completely justified and it is sad that he doesnt realize his folly... There are actors with different political allegiances in different industries and it is scary to think what the fate of Indian films will be if they also indulge in such political manoeuvering thru their movies.....

Bourgeois Bureaucracy

This post is in response to a comment i saw on a friend's blog. The blog was an unbiased scrutiny of the indian polity and the "i am helpless" attitude of indians. The gist of the comment was something like this-- "Have u seen yes prime minister.. That ll give you an indication of how much power the politicians truly have"...

My first response was one of mirth... I cudnt fathom the rationale of a man comparing the exaggerations in a satirical with the real world... I quickly concluded tat he must be a post modern junkie, belonging to the burger-pizza-coke generation, who is so hooked up on serials tat to him they represent reality more than newspapers n history books...

But further reflection showed tat his views are not at all isolated... Majority of the Indians see the civil servants as a bunch of corrupt, self indulgent n irresponsible bourgeois, in spite of the fact tat they are among the best brains in the country... The politicians play their part to perfection in propagating this image by blaming the officials for every failure of the government... This throws up a couple of questions:
If the officials are responsible for every failure then they must also be the ones behind every success of the government... How come the credit of success is always given to the ministers while every failure is the result of an erring official???
How can officials be blamed for govt policies??? The policies are drafted by the cabinet, the officials are responsible only for implementing them... As such the failure of the policies must be seen as lack of foresight on the part of the govt; the only blame tat can be leveled against the officials is in the delay of implementing the plans... But then bureaucratic red-tape is a well accepted drawback inherent in ne such system...

It is true tat the politicians depend heavily on officials nd take thr advices... This is natural considering the educational qualifications most politicians but these advices are in no way binding... We have so many instances of ministers doing a volte-face blaming only officials for actions which whr started by them... Take the cases in this govts tenure:

The major one was the Munnar eviction drive spearheaded by chief minister's man friday... When things started gettin messy the chief-minister washed his hands off the whole affair... The leader of the team is yet to be given a new post...
The second member of the team got transfered twice after tat once for implicating the kin of the PWD minister (the second one) on a dubious land deal...
The resignation of the former chief secretary resulted from the govt tryin to blame her for their failures... The merchiston land deal n the HMT land deal has both been blamed on the officials...
One final case is tat of valarpadom evicts... The police used force to remove people from their homes... The CM later explained it as the actions of the collector in response to the remarks of PM's principal secretary...

These are very few of the cases that comes immediately to memory... From the time of our independence officials have been made the sacrificial lambs to cover up the failures of the govt... The simple reason is that the politicians need to face the public every five years for elections... To win they need to blame someone else for the miseries of the people... When you are in the opposition u blame the govt; when you are the govt u blame the officials... The officials, on the other hand, neither has to face elections nor do they ve the right to speak out... So ve never learn both sides of the story...

I am in no way tryin to justify the bureaucracy... The system in our country is highly inefficient... The stranglehold of politicians on officials is just one reason... The concept of a bourgeois bureaucracy is however outdated... It was applicable to the Vice-Roys who ruled our country on behalf of her imperial majesty the Queen of England {I love sayin it :)}... What we have now is a complacent bureaucracy, which is happy to neglect the well being of the citizens as long as they can secure their posts by serving their political masters..........

MCPs of the malayalam film industry

For ages i ve been listening to critics crying thr heads off complaining abt the male domination in the malayalam film industry... Feminists have been lockin horns with the actors for extending thr domination from the real world to the reel world... The latest came tirade was in an article on indian express.... Actually it had nothin to do with film.... It was criticizing(as usual) the recent series of public interest advertisements from the KSEB advising ppl to conserve energy by switchin off all the electrical appliances esp durin the peak load hours.... It is the actors who "chastise" the women 4 wastin power.... This makes the writer wonder whether it is yet another form of female oppression.... What this did was, all the opinions; regarding the inefficiency of the board n the imbecility of the ads; which the writer had built up till then, where destroyed in an instant... What it also did was that it got me thinkin on why everyone is so hell bent on portrayin malluwood as the haven of Male Chauvinistic Pigs...

I confess that i am neither a qualified film critic nor a multi-lingual film expert.... But from what i ve seen, it is only the english movies that give the fairer sex their fair amount of time in the limelight... All the indian film industries; whether it be bollywood, kollywood,tollywood or mollywood; r more or less male dominated... The reason is tat films r more or less a reflection of the society... They all ve some society as the backgrnd nd hence will also inherit the goods nd evils from them... Western Society, even with all its handicaps, is among the most gender equivalent communities in the world... There they treat ppl as individuals with the same rights in everything not as men nd women.... Thus in almost every film v ve a female lead with the same importance as tat of the male protagonist.... Even in films tat dont need a female character thr ll be one by the side of the hero till the end....

Our country has always had a male dominated society... This is the case north south east n west and this is wat is on display in all the woods mentioned earlier.... How many hindi movies r thr with powerful female roles... U may come up with examples like Bandit Queen or Mother India or even Black... But try as u might u still find tat they only form a miserly minority.... Malayalam films also have such occasional instances of female grandeur... Thr r other woods in the above list that dont have even a single movie of this genre(actually most of them ve never had a project tat cud be categorized as a good movie. All they do is churn out trash after trash)...

Then y r malayalam movies always made the victims.... One reason cud be tat actresses in our industry stay in business for a very short period after which they get married... The ideal example is manju warrier.... But thr counterparts in bollywood stay in the industry till their mascaras can no longer hide thr wrinkles, gettin into new affairs every couple of months, creatin controversies before finally settlin down for marriage... I assume tat this creates a false impression regardin thr talents as an actress n tat may be the reason y they r never criticized....

Ne other reasons cotinue to escape me.... But one thing has to be cleared... We watch movies for entertainment... So y dont these ppl let us enjoy the films irrespective of whether it is male dominated or female dominated nd criticize the movies for wat they r worth... Wat does gender difference have to do with enjoyin a gud movie.... In this world whr everyone is demandin 4 reservations, v can only hope tat the ladies dont go up in arms demanding sops to ensure tat they get enuf lead roles in movies...