Fake face behind the real mask

Viswaroopam - A movie that has been the talk of the tinsel town for the past few weeks.

Usually movies by Kamal are prefaced by controversies. But this movie has controversy written all over it. A movie that has highlighted the hypocrisy of everyone. A movie that has showcased the growing intolerance. A movie that has, once again, highlighted the callous nature of our government and a toothless system - be it judiciary or any government organisation. A movie that has brought to light the gnawing and growing divide between the lack of co-ordination and control between center-state form of governance. You can keep reading things, both in fine print and in obvious bigger fonts, but most of the events surrounding the movie are something that is not specifically attributed to the movie alone. Its too much even for the fame crazy Kamal.

When the initial trailer's were released, many people didnt had a favourable opinion about the movie. Soon came the bombardment of them. With every postponement of a release date, there was a "making of the movie" video followed by another mish mash of a trailer with few extra seconds thrown in. At one stage, with decreasing hope of the movie ever seeing the light of the projector, thought the entire movie would be released in trailer itself, another "first" of its kind in the entire universe ala universal hero style. Then came the DTH issue. Considering the power-cut setup prevalent in TN, everyone were wondering how the DTH setup will workout. Unless and until, the distributors announced, assured power supply till the time the movie was playing atleast, felt it was all set for fail. There were way too many spin offs happening at that time on how the movie would benefit/kill the movie theaters. It sounded like a path breaking approach to movie release and probably might've brought a genuinely original change to movie watching experience. But, as with any innovative attempts, it was thwarted again.

Then came the religious angle. I've always wondered, why most of our heroes, especially in South, despite having a muslim name, rechristine themselves with a hindu name or a name devoid of any religious undertones. This is not the case with Bollywood i guess. Atleast, they get to keep their names and at time even flaunt their identity. And not just that. There were hardly any movies based on muslims, their lifestyles and though i am sure there must've been countless tales to tell from their side too, the reason for ignoring them could just be attributed to their touchy nature? The minority card is something that trumps and triumphs over any logic or sense and has been used "religious"ly often. Another view point could be that the story tellers, be commerical or art genre people, cater to the majority of the crowd, the hindus. So the movie machine, going by the name of several woods from sandal to tolly to kolly, bringing disrepute to the flora, keep churning the same stories with different cast and crew, year after year and decade after decade. Even their sense of fashion is a wheel in motion, repeating itself every 3 decades.

The movie watching public have been brainwashed (mostly braindead by this time) into a setup, which they've almost grown to believe as real. The media, in all its entirety, had a huge role to play in perfecting this image. Couldnt be any more ironic that, an industry that survives on running images , have successfully negated reality. We have grown to see the same images and stories and articles repeated time and again that, most of us have grown immune to the content and its real meaning. How many of us even bother to read about bomb blasts on Iraq or Afghan or even Kashmir for that matter. Its just another blast, with different death count and venue (in all probability the venue would also be same considering that there are hardly any more place left to bomb in these regions) and unless the gore and inhuman nature of the kill is described in detail on primetime, no one even bothers to read them fully.  Its been understood that, if its news from these regions, then its expected to be of this kind. And the fact that, the all powerful western media moguls, believe in this doctrine, doesnt help either.

There has been literally hundreds of movies based on islamic terrorism. Its repeated to such an extent in our own gabtun vijaykanth and Action king Arjun's movies that, it had become a running joke and even that joke has become stale!! And the fact that most of those movies were blockbusters only goes to prove that it wouldnt have been watched and the performances (if not) applauded by audience from other communities alone. That is the only sore point which one can raise against the people protesting the release of Vishwaroopam. Had they protested for each and every instance of a similar depiction on other movies or content, this protest would've been understood, appreciated and even would've been supported widely. Its their muted response and silence all this while and sudden show of spirit to a movie, that is actually doing thriving business on the lucky hype it garnered due to the unexpected publicity. Goes on to prove again that there can never be such a thing as bad publicity!!

No one disputes a product certified by ISI (to be clear i meant the Indian Statistical Institute..not the infamous same name agency from across the border). Its supposedly the defacto authority on quality. Likewise, how much ever one debates it, the very purpose of having a central governing body like censor board, is to ensure quality and considering the power and clout of cinema over general public, especially Indian public, the role of censor becomes even more serious. Despite periodic slips, they've generally been a non controversial body almost scared of releasing anything that might create a ripple in the society. Many a good movies have been killed by the same board. When a state government, with blatant disregard for the apex body, decides to ban a movie, despite being issued a clean chit by the board, it only goes on to say the current equation on center-state governance, with the states blatantly ignoring the directives from the center - be it releasing movies or releasing water. Even the judiciary plays safe game, by delegating the verdict to out of court settlement. Cmon..who in their sane mind would want to have their families ghaeroed or house stoned.

Intha post start pannapovay ithoda "roopam" romba perusa therinjathaala rendu parta split panniten. Movie review on next post :D

Comments

Asha said…
Hmmmmm.......but it came at a time when one of the minority leader was arrested for defamatory remark against other community... it ran for only morning show on friday...was taken off theatres and banned thereafter at my city( ...kamaloda jadhagam appidi polirukku he is synonymous with creativity but controversy seems to be his twin.paavam.

hope to catch it....when it releases
KC! said…
ippo mudiva yaaradhai attack panreengane therilaye :)) mudhalla thought it was kamal, but the post attacks all angles!
gils said…
defamatory!!! antha speech text paatheengala?? inflamatorynga athu...loosuthanama he has spoken...
gils said…
@KC:
:D:D ellathiyum thaan...oru thavaru seithu athai terinthum seiyara athanai perukum thaan :D
Vincy said…
Ore oru chinna doubt gilsu.. intha postla ennna solla vantheenga? :-) ;-)
gils said…
lol :d the sorry state of affairs :D
Ramesh said…
Was reading from top to bottom catching up on blog posts unread for a few days and I found this second (or first depending on which way you read) post on the blasted movie - so much that I shall protest loudly. This movie does not deserve two posts from the master blogger

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