Sivaji arrives, at last!

POLITICS IS RAJNIKANTH'S 2.0

“Tell them that I have arrived”, says Rajni in his latest flick Kabali. This is how the social media is describing his entry into the political arena.

Eighteen years after dropping hints of his political aspiration, 'Super Star' Rajnikanth finally announced his plunge into politics as a year-end bonanza for his fans, sweet surprise for many voters and packed with jitters for fellow politicians of Tamil Nadu. As promised, our 'Annamalai' stuck to the date Dec 31 to make his positive announcement. After a fruitful film career, he has now logged in to the second version 2.0 for politics.

The troubled waters of Tamil Nadu politics is a perfect launch pad now for this new fisherman from Poes Garden. What could have been a better opportunity for this 'Kollywood Basha' to explore than the political vacuum created by the death of 'Puratchi Thalaivi' J. Jayalalithaa and the AIADMK becoming a 'divided house', deterioration of health condition of DMK veteran M Karunanidhi and the inability of his scion Stalin to fill his shoes, irrelevance of Dr.Ramadoss' PMK, insignificance of Captain Vijaykanth's DMDK, the BJP's failure to bloom, disappearance of Vaiko's MDMK and the near washout of Left parties.

It is not as simple as God proposed and our 'Arunachalam' announced his foray, but proper home work had apparently gone behind the decision. As a former bus conductor, he would have not only planned the journey better, but also decided on the passengers who would get the 'tickets'.

Rajni was at the butt of ridicule in the social media in the form of trolls and memes, thanks to his initial hesitation and subsequent vacillation. The much-debated, though delayed, political entry has put an end to speculation among his fans, who are visibly enthused to work for his success like 'Robots'. The younger lot among the sexagenarian hero's fans would have by now turned 40 plus, having perennially waited for the golden word from 'Sivaji - The Boss'. It is a plus point for him as the fans will also bring along their family votes. The delay is a blessing in disguise, indeed!

Spirituality, charity and righteousness are his Moonru Mugam (three faces). It seems to be in tune with his avowed policy that Rajni has coined a new term 'spiritual politics' (Aanmeega Arasiyal) to offer to the public, which he will have to elaborate the next time he wields the microphone. Be it a policy decision or announcement, Rajni should ginger it up with a big bang and dramatise it better than his fellow stars from the tinseltown Vijaykanth, Sarath Kumar and the latest entrant and long time pal Kamal Haasan.

Let us hope that Rajni will not retreat from his decision to stay in politics. Of course, if this 'Chatrapathi' says it once, it is understood to have been uttered a hundred times...!

Gods lead by example in Yoga

Yoga is not just a physical and mental health recipe passed down by sages and practised since ages, even the celestial beings have performed Yoga, if one goes by the iconographic evidences.

The champions of Yoga, right from Sage Patanjali, have not merely prescribed the physical postures and soothing meditation to posterity, but also made the divine beings as 'brand ambassadors' of Yoga. This is evident from the scores of fables from the Puranas, which describe them as doing penance, or idols sculpted and consecrated in various temples, showing them as sitting in 'Yogic' posture.

One can see many in the Hindu pantheon of gods as performing penance. Lord Shiva is mostly shows as doing penance, while seated on Mount Kailash. He is depicted as Adi Yogi, whose mammoth statue was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Isha foundation premises in Coimbatore last year.

 Even the Pashupathi seal, linked to Harappan civilisation, has the protagonist in the Yogic sitting posture. Several temples in Andhra Pradesh have the presiding deities in the sanctum sanctorum sitting in the Yogic posture.

Yoga Narasimha

Narasimha, the lion-headed Hindu god, is commonly found in Yogic pose, as can be seen at Tirumala and Ahobilam temples. In Ahobilam, he is called as Yogananda Narasimha, which indicates his liking for Yoga. The famed Yoga Narasimha statue at Hampi in Karnataka shows Him as wearing the Yoga Patti (belt bringing the knees together). Lord Ayyappa is always seen in Yogic posture, with folded legs. Apart from Sabarimala in Kerala, the posture is retained wherever His temples are built across the world. Though pictorially he is shown occasionally as sitting on a tiger, the iconography always adheres to this Yogic posture.

Yoga Rama

Rama is mostly depicted in a standing posture carrying a bow and arrow and hence it is quite uncommon to see him in Yogic posture. There are quite a few 'Yoga Rama' temples in Rayalaseema, the prominent ones at Peddaputta in Kadapa district and Singanamala of Anantapuram district of Andhra Pradesh. These temples may be in ruins or out of popularity, but they send a strong message that Yoga is as ancient and as significant as the Gods. 

Yoga Srinivasa

It is surprising to see Venkateswara also in Yogic posture at the little-known Yoga Srinivasa temple, situated behind Gangundra Mandapam in Tiruchanur, Tirupati. This privately-managed temple, facing the 'Padma Sarovaram' tank where Goddess Padmavathi is believed to have appeared, is considered to be one of the ancient in the vicinity.

Meanwhile, the deities in lying (reclining) posture such as Ananta Padmanabha, Govindaraja or Ranganatha are also considered to be performing Yoga. In mythological parlance, the deities are said to be in 'Yoga Nidra' (yogic penance or trance), which should not be construed as slumber.

Now, the question: When the celestial beings show the way to humanity to perform Yoga, how many of us are listening...?

(Info credit: Sivakumar Challa of Archeological Research Group)

HATE SPEECH OR INTOLERANCE AT IIT MADRAS?

Students of the present generation have always been under constant fire for being too indifferent to their contemporary society, buried as they are in their mounds of books, thus conveniently ignoring the goings-on in their immediate surroundings. Here's one exception that has raised his voice against a guest speaker delivering a very special lecture, which indicates that he was in fact intently listening to the lecture.

I am referring to Abhinav Surya, an M.Tech. student of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, who chose to protest against the tone, tenor and content in the lecture delivered by retired army officer Major General G.D. Bakshi, as part of the Extra Mural Lectures (EML) on the eve of Independence Day. He not only criticised the speech by dubbing it ‘hate mongering’, but also went to the extent of lodging a complaint with the IIT Director Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi.

          Mr. Bakshi is one such person who never hesitates to call a spade a spade, as known to his followers. As any other ex-serviceman, he’s always brimming with patriotism and a sense of pride about the nation. Going by the high position he has held, his knowledge about the way the (armed) forces work and his constant watch of Indo-Pak activities from close quarters, one can easily assume that he’s talking plain matter-of-fact and that his views are not at all hawkish.

          It is common knowledge that a speaker often laces his speech with heavy dose of knowledge pertaining to his domain. If a Veena player is invited for the EML, it will be a different ‘gyan’ for the students about Raga, Tala and Pallavi. An environmental scientist is known to talk a lot on global warming and the ever-growing hole to the ozone layer. Similarly, an ex-serviceman who had served in the highest echelons is only expected to echo views on his arena. The views thus aired are generally several rungs above that a common urban dweller’s mind can reach.

Going back to the intro paragraph, the Gen-X students are not only very different, but very indifferent too. Especially the students of premier national institutes are often accused of being bothered more about the torque of their four-wheelers, higher RAM for their smart phones and comfortable dollar conversion rates, than about the issues plaguing the society, right from poverty to national security. Agreed, there are two ends to the spectrum of any topic, the acceptance and tolerance levels move from left to right (or bottom to top, if “Left” and “Right” could be mistaken as ideologies). We can assume that an unassuming Abhinav Surya was comfortable at the left end and Mr. Bakshi’s virulent part of the speech bordered on the extreme right, causing a wide gap to appear between the two. The perspective of other students can be plotted somewhere between the two extreme ends, going by their levels of tolerance. If Mr. Bakshi’s speech was extremely hate-mongering, could the other way be Mr.Abhinav Surya was extremely intolerant to a perspective that is different from his?

He has quoted in his letter about Mr. Bakshi as saying “In our generation we split Pakistan into 2. Your generation should split it into 4. Only then we can live in peace”. From a common man’s view point, this statement is quite objectionable and indeed contains ‘hate stuff’. From the macro level, he was only referring to what could have been a strategy adopted in the past for better national security, an affirmation of scattered occurrences, a series of events worth chronicling or at least, an honest confession by an officer. The army will not mince words when it comes to plain speaking, as it is in the know of the atrocities committed for decades from across the border and the extent to which the country has been made to bleed, literally and financially as well. ‘Love thy neighbour’ had failed to cut ice as far as India’s sixty-year-old neighbour is concerned.

“Cut-throat” was once a harsh word, but it has slowly sneaked into the management boardrooms while referring to the competition and the need to “kill” it, though not in the actual sense. Similar is the phrase ‘eye for an eye’ that does not mean literally gouging the eye out. When the contemporary world is full of such seemingly-negative words for describing tougher situations, why do the goody-goody students prefer themselves to be seen as extremely good, positive-thinking, violence-hating and good-to-all?

On one hand, there is much hullabaloo over the muzzling of freedom of speech on campuses and on the other, the very student community wants the freedom of a speaker to be curtailed. Where does the need for curbing Mr. Bakshi’s freedom to speak arise, as long as it is not against the nation’s interests? If only one student had protested and all others listened to him without any objection, can we tag the rest as ‘tolerant’ and Mr. Abhinav Surya as being ‘intolerant’?

The truth will see light if the footages of the speech are released for the public. I don’t think the IIT or the organisers of the EML will censor it…!

KABALI....DAwn...!

The Kabali fever touched its peak, making the entire world shiver and finally hit the silver screen on Friday to tremendously impressive openings.

The hype normally associated with a Rajnikanth flick is known, but this one was on a never-before scale. As Rajnikanth's contemporary image for the latest film generally turns out to be the mascot for the entire entertainment industry till the craze subsides, the grey bearded icon turned ubiquitous during the month-long promotional blitzkrieg. For the first time, Rajnikanth's image appeared on aircraft, SIM cards, limited edition cars, silver coins and where not?

A film buff can smell something fishy in the script or execution, going by the last minute (over) hype generated for the film. And unfortunately, it turned out to be true in this case...!

So much was told in the extended first half that the second half had literally very little to convey. It is perhaps for this reason that the film drifted directionless for a while. None expected a gangster movie to move on such a sluggish pace, sagging at various spots. Most of the time was spent in showing the larger-than-life Rajnikanth in slow motion, with the 'Neruppuda' BGS adding sparkle. The movie deserves to have been handled with more care and executed neatly.

The Super Star went beyond his regular stylish appearance and put in serious effort to act wherever required. Kudos to Rajnikanth and Radhika for the emotional scene when the couple reunites after 25 years. We find a lot number of characters in the film, some of them appearing from the flashback to the present. Suddenly we find it difficult to recollect their faces as well as their grey shades.

Pa. Ranjith has put in a lot of effort to extract acting from Rajnikanth. His fiery dialogues, which are known for questioning the rotten traditions, focuses on social upheaval against the bourgeois and Dalit empowerment in this film too. Rajnikanth wears suit for the entire movie and it is not without a reason. The excessive focus on Rajnikanth's attire indicates (as Radhika Apte mentions in a dialogue) that the attire indicates the growing stature of a man (read: a community as a whole). Rajni also states to the villian in the climax that his (again read: a community) development is indigestible to them. These scenes and dialogues inspire the downtrodden sections a lot.

Akin to 'Nayakan', Rajnikanth gets shot by his own, somewhat mentally unstable, man at the end. Does Rajnikanth die or not? The answer to this million dollar question is left to the viewer's imagination, as the screen darkens with a bullet sound. Though this anti-climax is against popular sentiment, Rajnikanth perhaps wanted to convey the message that gangsters will inevitably die at the end, in order to convey a message to the society.

Though endowed with enough technical values, the film grossly misses something. For the average viewer, the story is not narrated in a straight manner. And for the die-hard fan, 'that Thalaivar Rajnikanth' embedded in their mind is not fully unleashed. Finally, it satiates the thirst of neither...!

Having gone to the theatre amid darkness for the early-hour fans' show and after coming out after sunrise, it finally dawned on me that all's not as well as expected and as hyped...!

A tale of two Muslims..!

While one Muslim died on Monday, another is facing the gallows.

The entire nation hails the first one, admires him as an ace rocket scientist, likes the simple-living of the former President and prays for the peace of his soul. On the other hand, the second is hated for his anti-India stand, his dubious role in Mumbai riots and for making a mockery of the Indian judicial system.

India knows what to look for and what not to nit-pick when it comes to good men and bad men. No Indian looked at Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's religion when adoring him as his own family member. Had the divisive mindset been there, as has been projected outside the country, Kalam would have neither ascended the highest position, nor would he have become the darling of the Indians.

The other side of the coin has the Memon who has been awarded a death sentence for his role in Mumbai blasts. Whether death sentence has to be done away with is a different cup of tea on the human rights front, but the argument put forth that he has been sentenced to death only because of his religious background is absurd. Research shows that only 5 p.c. of those awarded death sentence in India so far are Muslims. Unfortunately, there are voices against the judiciary even within the country. Even people holding responsible positions wag their tongue so carelessly on such a sensitive issue. It so happens in a vibrant democracy, unless the judiciary takes offence and declares it as contempt.

The world does not have to teach secularism to our country. We know whom to admire and whom to abhor. Playing the 'Muslim card' is too old a trick and I hope the parties shun it and focus on their development, in real terms.

As a friend pointed out in a lighter vein, there is no threat to secularism in India, as long the Ramzan Haleem and Christmas plum cake titillate the taste buds of the friendly Hindus..!

Bahubali: A film of epic proportions...!

Finally, the mega movie of Tollywood is out amid huge expectations and to overwhelming response.

Not only the team's painstaking shooting and post-production effort for two years, but also the maverick marketing effort during the last two months, seem to have paid off, as the film has evoked a roaring hype on the first day. Prabhas and Rajamouli carried the film throughout on their shoulders and the result is evident. The body-builder has really slogged it out for offering a fine performance, which, without an iota of doubt, will remain the best in his career. However, I find something missing in his magnetic eyes. Is it the charm in the romance scenes or the fire in the fighting scenes? 

The movie was chiseled to perfection by the master sculptor S.S. Rajamouli, who appears in every frame of the movie in the form of his trademark grandeur. It's the turn of the audience to watch awe-struck as the scenes navigate through the picturesque waterfalls to the exuberant palace via the snow-capped mountains.  In some scenes, it is hard to tell the real scenes from those created in the studios through computer graphics. The aerial depiction of Fort Mahishmathi appears to have drawn inspiration from his previous flick 'Magadheera'.

Hunk Rana as the cruel king Bhallala Deva talks little, but evokes a sense of fear and repulsion. Snow white Tamannah Bhatia moved beyond hip-shaking to portray a powerful role by wielding the sword. Expected Anushka Shetty to don the 'Arundhati-like' royal look yet again, but as the aged queen, imprisoned and shackled for 25 years, she presents a dignified role.

The film clearly takes Telugu film-making to a rung higher. In spite of the all the hype and the film's ability to maintain it till the end, there's something that an ardent Rajamouli follower will find missing. The hero enters the heavily-guarded fort in no time, making a mockery of the multi-layer security system. Similarly, when he walks up to his shackled mother, the overwhelming emotion in the face of Anushka is clearly missing. The war in the flashback takes a lot of time, but still does not sag. The film proceeds on expected lines and there's almost nothing that is not unpredictable. The only thing unpredictable is when the curtain comes down with a thud, alongside a message that 'Bahubali 2' will be released in 2016.

At the end, the hero rescues his mother from the cruel king. No points for guessing that the sequel will focus on senior Prabhas wedding Anushka in the flashback and the junior Prabhas killing Rana to avenge his father's death. Sathyaraj, Ramya Krishna, Nasser have powerful portrayals, while Rohini and Sudeep leave a mark. M.M. Keeravani's indelible impression is hard to miss in the background score, rather than the songs. The loud cheers that Rajamouli's brief appearance as a bartender evoked from the audience is indicative of his growing visibility, especially on television and social media in the recent months.

After 2 hours and 45 minutes, one finds the end very tame and sudden, with nothing great achieved till then. The 'divide-into-two-parts' might have been a result of the elaborate script and the lengthy taking, but it has to be seen if Rajamouli & Co will be able to retain audience interest on the sequel. On a positive note, the unit has enough scope to mould the sequel going by the response to the first part.

Hope the hype does not kill the real interest of the audience...!

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