It seems Selvaragavan was edgy about the screenplay of the movie, however he seems to be confident about the story, with no second thought, it is definetely a dare move in Indian cinema, atleat in tamil movies, a fantasy movie, with an absurd historical base.
First thing which gnaws me is the need of Karthick in lead role, I feel that any supportive actor can do that role without any injustice to that character, I dont mean that Karthick has done some injustice to that, I mean it is clerk job and a manager is not required. Director seems to be in hurry right from the beginning, movie unveils with “theru Koothu” , a traditional street play, which tells about the last king of Chola dynasty who evaded his son to a distant unexplored land to safe gaurd him from Pandia’s who attacked Tanjavur, the capital of chola dynasty. Its not a real history as per the disclaimer of the movie, it seems Directorthought that this historical background might give more weightage to his fantasy, and it did, and yeilded criticism from purists. I personally believe that these criticism are artifical, may be for the popularity of the movie, and inculcate the urge of watching this movie, and this worked.
If director would have spent little more time in screenplay, the movie would have been a block bluster, every role in this movie is well defined and every one has done there part exceptionally, except the director’s part and screenplay, right from the beginning from theru koothu, to the chola period, it looked like a abrupt transition, it required lots to analysis to correlate, this transition, something like this, I’m watching at 20th century part all of sudden I was moved 1000 yrs back, yes the theru koothu is about this 1000 yrs story, that need to be filed and smoothened in the story, not sudden u-turn.
All traps that chola’s created quickly whisked me to Mackenna's gold, Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and a Japnese movie for the last trap of sound, I’m not saying its wrong that it is copied, but Director would have taken steps to present this in an acceptable manner. Like most of the Hollywood and Bollywood movies, this movie has got some logical errors too, but obvious one should be avoided, like the Quick sand Trap, when Anita Pandian (Reema Sen), first stepped on the quick sand, it opened and stayed opened for few mins, where as other quick sand traps closed immediately, so that they can step on and check if that is a quick sand and step out immediately.
Tamil Purists concern about showing Chola as a tribal/cannibal, I’m on Director side on this, he might be Chola and cultured/civilized king in Tanjavur not in Minggu Vah island, he is a tribal here, he dont have chefs to cook food for him with species and all as in Tanjavur, he is a tribal here, and his continues starvation and expellsion from the outer world would have forced him to cannibalism, this is obvious, if you would have watch Man Vs Wild, or Survivorman in Discouvey channel, you will get what I mean, again as other things overlooked by the Director, this too was stepped over. If Director would have taken little more time to look into these details, this movie would have become a history in Tamil cinema, I accept that will increase the movie time, let it be, people who are used to watch 3 hrs movie, will watch 4/5 Hr movie as well, just like Lord of Rings, which was 4.3 Hrs movie, and a box office hit.
Now probably you would know, what I mean by abrupt transistion
I hope with all these inputs and corrections Director is going to come back with Part 2, Just like James Camaroon, who corrected all his mistakes in Terminator – I, and gave Terminator – II which was a block bluster, I believe Aairathil Orvan – II will emerge successfully, undoubtfully Aairathil Orvan – I is a dawn and Aairathil Orvan – II probably be the bright day.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Civic Sense
Civic Sense
It’s not a bad word to elude, it is something that every one of us must know and practice, it is the social responsibility that every one should posses for the welfare of society, as per our constitution we all have rights to Speak, to write but it doesn’t mean we have rights to speak aloud/rubbish in public places, to scribble rubbish in public properties, remember the same constitution says that “Your liberty stops where others start”.
What does it mean? You have all the rights to swing your hands as far as possible while walking, constitution gives you that rights, however constitution restricts the same if your hand intrudes the other person’s, in short your rights should not cause an inconvenience to the other person, whether it is a law or not, it the basic common sense that intruding in other persons area physically or mentally by your acts or thoughts is unethical. I hope no one with sense will disagree this. However we all witnessing such non-civic sense activities daily in our day to day life, like playing music/commentary aloud in public buses, spitting on the public places, throwing garbage in the public places, when I say public places that includes staircase, public transports, street, common area in your flats/offices. Most of us know that this is wrong, and shouldn’t be doing however we still do it. Few of you might ask me what is wrong in playing music aloud in buses/trains. After all it is entertaining that too free of cost, let me ask, them a question.
Assume that one of your close friend or relative is hospitalized and with critical condition, with all worries in the world you are heading to the hospital, will you be interested in hearing a music/cricket commentary, let it be India vs Pakistan finals or A.R Rehman’s or R.D Burman’s or llayaraja music, definitely wont, rite? To make this situation little worse if you are enquiring persons condition over the phone and your co-passenger is playing music aloud, will you be entertained or frustrated? It’s the same case for your co-passenger you don’t know what mood he is in? It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t enjoy music/commentary while travelling, you can do it very well, that’s the reason why headphones were invented, so that you can enjoy the music without disturbing others, worst than this using profanity in buses/trains especially when kids are your co-passengers.
Spitting on the streets is another big inconvenience and unhygienic as well, not everyone on the streets where footwear thou, if you are the one who fast for sabrimala you would have experienced that inconvenience, you could imagine now. Probably this is the reason why the footwear’s are not allowed in few air-conditioner showrooms or par lour’s, as they know for sure that you would have stepped on few spit tings on the street, worst than this is using public places as rest rooms, think how embarrassing it will be for the females passing by and vice versa?
Keeping loud cell phone ringtones, avoiding queues, over crowding buses, parking vehicles blocking/scratching others, even occupying any common space for more time when others are waiting for the same are few practices which we tend to do often knowingly, and we always find an excuse for these non-civic sense activities, few such excuses are “it is cool”, “time crunch”, “over crowded”.
With a proper time management, over crowded buses/trains can be avoided, we all know that in peak hours the buses will be crowded, and transport authorities are not concerned about increasing the service, it’s because we are all accustomed to travel in congestion like herds, any which ways you are going to travel in there buses, so why should they increase the service which is a over head expense for which the returns are same as before, if at all you stop travelling in crowded buses showing a considerable deficit in their revenues they are not going to increase the service, and its not going to happen over night, it’s a question of self respect as well, check my earlier blog Fatalistic or Irresponsible, as a social animal, it becomes our responsibility to adhere such civic senses, if not for the welfare of the society, but to tell our next generation that we are civilized.
It’s not a bad word to elude, it is something that every one of us must know and practice, it is the social responsibility that every one should posses for the welfare of society, as per our constitution we all have rights to Speak, to write but it doesn’t mean we have rights to speak aloud/rubbish in public places, to scribble rubbish in public properties, remember the same constitution says that “Your liberty stops where others start”.
What does it mean? You have all the rights to swing your hands as far as possible while walking, constitution gives you that rights, however constitution restricts the same if your hand intrudes the other person’s, in short your rights should not cause an inconvenience to the other person, whether it is a law or not, it the basic common sense that intruding in other persons area physically or mentally by your acts or thoughts is unethical. I hope no one with sense will disagree this. However we all witnessing such non-civic sense activities daily in our day to day life, like playing music/commentary aloud in public buses, spitting on the public places, throwing garbage in the public places, when I say public places that includes staircase, public transports, street, common area in your flats/offices. Most of us know that this is wrong, and shouldn’t be doing however we still do it. Few of you might ask me what is wrong in playing music aloud in buses/trains. After all it is entertaining that too free of cost, let me ask, them a question.
Assume that one of your close friend or relative is hospitalized and with critical condition, with all worries in the world you are heading to the hospital, will you be interested in hearing a music/cricket commentary, let it be India vs Pakistan finals or A.R Rehman’s or R.D Burman’s or llayaraja music, definitely wont, rite? To make this situation little worse if you are enquiring persons condition over the phone and your co-passenger is playing music aloud, will you be entertained or frustrated? It’s the same case for your co-passenger you don’t know what mood he is in? It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t enjoy music/commentary while travelling, you can do it very well, that’s the reason why headphones were invented, so that you can enjoy the music without disturbing others, worst than this using profanity in buses/trains especially when kids are your co-passengers.
Spitting on the streets is another big inconvenience and unhygienic as well, not everyone on the streets where footwear thou, if you are the one who fast for sabrimala you would have experienced that inconvenience, you could imagine now. Probably this is the reason why the footwear’s are not allowed in few air-conditioner showrooms or par lour’s, as they know for sure that you would have stepped on few spit tings on the street, worst than this is using public places as rest rooms, think how embarrassing it will be for the females passing by and vice versa?
Keeping loud cell phone ringtones, avoiding queues, over crowding buses, parking vehicles blocking/scratching others, even occupying any common space for more time when others are waiting for the same are few practices which we tend to do often knowingly, and we always find an excuse for these non-civic sense activities, few such excuses are “it is cool”, “time crunch”, “over crowded”.
With a proper time management, over crowded buses/trains can be avoided, we all know that in peak hours the buses will be crowded, and transport authorities are not concerned about increasing the service, it’s because we are all accustomed to travel in congestion like herds, any which ways you are going to travel in there buses, so why should they increase the service which is a over head expense for which the returns are same as before, if at all you stop travelling in crowded buses showing a considerable deficit in their revenues they are not going to increase the service, and its not going to happen over night, it’s a question of self respect as well, check my earlier blog Fatalistic or Irresponsible, as a social animal, it becomes our responsibility to adhere such civic senses, if not for the welfare of the society, but to tell our next generation that we are civilized.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Food for Soul – Divisions
chaatur varnam maya sristam, guna karma vibhagaasha -- Gita
While discussing about the reservation based on caste system, with my friends (don’t sigh I’m not here for that discussion), as the conversation becoming hotter, it moved slightly away from the topic and we started arguing why caste system and how it all started. Ram one of my friend said it all quoted in Veda, that caste system has been invented/implemented by Veda, he quoted the above slogan from Bhagavad Gita.
There were to and fro statements on the same, which I thought to explore and see how close Ram is on this, and it also looks to me as an incomplete sloka. I first want to understand the meaning of this slogan and complete the same.
Chaatur Varnam maya sristam which means four divisions were been created
guna karma vibhagaasha based on Qualities (Guna) and Work (Karma)
This way Lord Krishna himself has said through the Bhagavad gita, that he is held responsible for divisions (Varnas) of people, based on Work and behavior, anyways why this division is required, if there is no such division then this caste system would not have been existed. Now the question is are divisions necessary? Are they for any good? How this world would have been if there is no such divisions.
I started exploring further on this, as this is getting interesting, divisions are in every part of our life, yes, that is true, how? Take for an example our body, head is not same as toe, torso is not same as your thighs, mouth is not same as ears. I know you want to tell me that these are organs and not divisions, and it is parts of the body. Exactly I don’t deny that, what is the body then? How it looks like? If you look deep into it, there is nothing that you can show as body; it is a collective resemblance of these organs (divisions). Once you start removing these organs one by one from the body, you will see nothing there, because body does not exist, if at all it exists, it exists only in the collection of these organs (divisions).
If at all, the body has got no divisions, how it would look like, can you imagine? To the best of my imagination power, it will be like a sphere, because any geometric shape (except circle) will have divisions. There won’t be any difference between the ear, nose, eyes, mouth and all, including the excretional organs, so disgusting. This implies that divisions are implicit and it applies to almost everything that we know, from body, cars, bikes, aircrafts, to land (sea, mountains, plateaus and all) to globe, galaxy, Milky Way and all, divisions are inevitable.
Fine, let divisions be inevitable, why it is imposed by Veda (as per Lord Krishna in Gita), let me ask you one quick question before we proceed on this, if you are asked to become an organ of the body, which organ you would choose to become? Probably, Eyes to see beauty, Ears to hear, Mouth to taste, Nose to smell, Hands to touch, Legs to walk, you probably will choose any of these organs, but I’m sure that no one will ever choose to become Anus to excrete, its only job, it has got no pleasures like other organs, let me tell you a short story here,
Once body organs fought with each other, claiming they are the greatest of all. Eyes said I’m the greatest of all organs, since I show the path to all of you, Brain said, I’m the greatest of all, since I analyze what is seen/shown and decide the best, Heart laughed out loud and said if I haven’t pumping the blood to you (Brain) then you will suffocate to death, so I’m the greatest, and so all the other organs started telling there best feature to claim the greatest of all award, during which Anus is about to say something, all organs interrupted the Anus, and said, you stink, you are no good, you are not the greatest but worst of all, with this insult Anus kept his mouth shut, for next couple days, there is no way the in toxins get out of the body, the blood was not clean, the hemoglobin count came down drastically in the blood, because of which the nourishment that supposed to be supplied to brain was disturbed, brain was going crazy because of which it was not able to send signals to eyes, ears, nose and all, which are failing to sense, Spleen was bulging because of intoxicated blood and so the heart and all other organs. Now all organs understood the importance of Anus, and its job, they all spoke Anus and said you are the greatest of all of us and apologized for their behavior other day. For which Anus replied, I’m sorry for hurting you all, I just want to let you know all, that we all are greatest in our jobs, we don’t have to compete with each other to prove who is greatest of all.
The above story tells that divisions are not bad, but discrimination is. This is what exactly told by Lord Krishna in Gita, let me complete the slogan now,
chaatur varnam maya sristam, guna karma vibhagaasha
tatsye karthaaram mavibthi
agarthaaram aavyayam -- Gita
We discussed the first line already, lets explore the second and third
tatsye karthaaram mavibthi – means, yes I’m the one who created this division.
Lord Krishna is not denying that he created the divisions, he’s not hiding his face, with great boldness and authority he says “Look Arjuna, I created these four varna’s based on their Karma”
agarthaaram aavyayam – means I’m not responsible for these divisions.
This is the contradiction of the previous sentence, now Lord Krishna says, I’m not responsible for these divisions, we all know that Lord Krishna is mischief and playful, we might tend to think that he is playing with the words again, but it can’t be, he is preaching Gita to Arjuna he cant be playful, he cant be mischief now, then what actually he is trying to preach Arjuna. Lord Krishna actually meant was “I’m not responsible for the Discrimination”
So the complete meaning of this slogan is
“I created these four varna’s based on their karma and guna, but I’m not responsible for the discrimination's between them”
If not Lord Krishna, then who is responsible for these discriminations, its none other than we, don’t try to escape, remember when I asked you which body part you would like to become none of us, has said would like to become Anus, we discriminated our own body organs, we also discriminating our own fellow brothers, based on these divisions created by God.
As per Veda, Brahmana’s are born from Head, Shatria’s from Shoulder, Vaishiya’s from Thighs and Sudra’s from the Lotus feet of MahaVishnu.
So they all born from one body, they should not be discriminated, and they can be discriminated only if we discriminate body organs, which we are actually, rite? And remember prostration is done only to the Lotus feet of Maha Vishnu, not to Head, Shoulders or Thighs, no Alwars/Nyanmmars wished to prostrate Head, Shoulder or Thighs but the Lotus feet.
It was always told like this “Kamala Paadha sharana gadhi”, as per my knowledge no Jeer/follower or preacher prostrated “sharana gadhi” to head, shoulder or thighs, but feet which gets utmost importance. So if at all Vedas are responsible for discrimination, then it should be the other way round, Sudra’s should be given more importance then Brahmana, it reality it was not no, so it clearly implies that these verses (Veda/Gita) was misinterpreted by selfish morons to cause this discrimination for their self benefit, but blaming Vedas for the same.
While discussing about the reservation based on caste system, with my friends (don’t sigh I’m not here for that discussion), as the conversation becoming hotter, it moved slightly away from the topic and we started arguing why caste system and how it all started. Ram one of my friend said it all quoted in Veda, that caste system has been invented/implemented by Veda, he quoted the above slogan from Bhagavad Gita.
There were to and fro statements on the same, which I thought to explore and see how close Ram is on this, and it also looks to me as an incomplete sloka. I first want to understand the meaning of this slogan and complete the same.
Chaatur Varnam maya sristam which means four divisions were been created
guna karma vibhagaasha based on Qualities (Guna) and Work (Karma)
This way Lord Krishna himself has said through the Bhagavad gita, that he is held responsible for divisions (Varnas) of people, based on Work and behavior, anyways why this division is required, if there is no such division then this caste system would not have been existed. Now the question is are divisions necessary? Are they for any good? How this world would have been if there is no such divisions.
I started exploring further on this, as this is getting interesting, divisions are in every part of our life, yes, that is true, how? Take for an example our body, head is not same as toe, torso is not same as your thighs, mouth is not same as ears. I know you want to tell me that these are organs and not divisions, and it is parts of the body. Exactly I don’t deny that, what is the body then? How it looks like? If you look deep into it, there is nothing that you can show as body; it is a collective resemblance of these organs (divisions). Once you start removing these organs one by one from the body, you will see nothing there, because body does not exist, if at all it exists, it exists only in the collection of these organs (divisions).
If at all, the body has got no divisions, how it would look like, can you imagine? To the best of my imagination power, it will be like a sphere, because any geometric shape (except circle) will have divisions. There won’t be any difference between the ear, nose, eyes, mouth and all, including the excretional organs, so disgusting. This implies that divisions are implicit and it applies to almost everything that we know, from body, cars, bikes, aircrafts, to land (sea, mountains, plateaus and all) to globe, galaxy, Milky Way and all, divisions are inevitable.
Fine, let divisions be inevitable, why it is imposed by Veda (as per Lord Krishna in Gita), let me ask you one quick question before we proceed on this, if you are asked to become an organ of the body, which organ you would choose to become? Probably, Eyes to see beauty, Ears to hear, Mouth to taste, Nose to smell, Hands to touch, Legs to walk, you probably will choose any of these organs, but I’m sure that no one will ever choose to become Anus to excrete, its only job, it has got no pleasures like other organs, let me tell you a short story here,
Once body organs fought with each other, claiming they are the greatest of all. Eyes said I’m the greatest of all organs, since I show the path to all of you, Brain said, I’m the greatest of all, since I analyze what is seen/shown and decide the best, Heart laughed out loud and said if I haven’t pumping the blood to you (Brain) then you will suffocate to death, so I’m the greatest, and so all the other organs started telling there best feature to claim the greatest of all award, during which Anus is about to say something, all organs interrupted the Anus, and said, you stink, you are no good, you are not the greatest but worst of all, with this insult Anus kept his mouth shut, for next couple days, there is no way the in toxins get out of the body, the blood was not clean, the hemoglobin count came down drastically in the blood, because of which the nourishment that supposed to be supplied to brain was disturbed, brain was going crazy because of which it was not able to send signals to eyes, ears, nose and all, which are failing to sense, Spleen was bulging because of intoxicated blood and so the heart and all other organs. Now all organs understood the importance of Anus, and its job, they all spoke Anus and said you are the greatest of all of us and apologized for their behavior other day. For which Anus replied, I’m sorry for hurting you all, I just want to let you know all, that we all are greatest in our jobs, we don’t have to compete with each other to prove who is greatest of all.
The above story tells that divisions are not bad, but discrimination is. This is what exactly told by Lord Krishna in Gita, let me complete the slogan now,
chaatur varnam maya sristam, guna karma vibhagaasha
tatsye karthaaram mavibthi
agarthaaram aavyayam -- Gita
We discussed the first line already, lets explore the second and third
tatsye karthaaram mavibthi – means, yes I’m the one who created this division.
Lord Krishna is not denying that he created the divisions, he’s not hiding his face, with great boldness and authority he says “Look Arjuna, I created these four varna’s based on their Karma”
agarthaaram aavyayam – means I’m not responsible for these divisions.
This is the contradiction of the previous sentence, now Lord Krishna says, I’m not responsible for these divisions, we all know that Lord Krishna is mischief and playful, we might tend to think that he is playing with the words again, but it can’t be, he is preaching Gita to Arjuna he cant be playful, he cant be mischief now, then what actually he is trying to preach Arjuna. Lord Krishna actually meant was “I’m not responsible for the Discrimination”
So the complete meaning of this slogan is
“I created these four varna’s based on their karma and guna, but I’m not responsible for the discrimination's between them”
If not Lord Krishna, then who is responsible for these discriminations, its none other than we, don’t try to escape, remember when I asked you which body part you would like to become none of us, has said would like to become Anus, we discriminated our own body organs, we also discriminating our own fellow brothers, based on these divisions created by God.
As per Veda, Brahmana’s are born from Head, Shatria’s from Shoulder, Vaishiya’s from Thighs and Sudra’s from the Lotus feet of MahaVishnu.
So they all born from one body, they should not be discriminated, and they can be discriminated only if we discriminate body organs, which we are actually, rite? And remember prostration is done only to the Lotus feet of Maha Vishnu, not to Head, Shoulders or Thighs, no Alwars/Nyanmmars wished to prostrate Head, Shoulder or Thighs but the Lotus feet.
It was always told like this “Kamala Paadha sharana gadhi”, as per my knowledge no Jeer/follower or preacher prostrated “sharana gadhi” to head, shoulder or thighs, but feet which gets utmost importance. So if at all Vedas are responsible for discrimination, then it should be the other way round, Sudra’s should be given more importance then Brahmana, it reality it was not no, so it clearly implies that these verses (Veda/Gita) was misinterpreted by selfish morons to cause this discrimination for their self benefit, but blaming Vedas for the same.
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