Friday, November 11, 2005

Pleasure or Pressure?

Long back I took an owe to say goodbye to personal posts once for all. The feeling of being exposed made me so restless that I banned myself from them. But not when I extremely want to scream loud about something the whole world does not care to hear. My screaming starts now.

‘When the occasion demands u cannot say no. Leave ur stubbornness. I have seen people coming out beautiful, and you badly need an external support to make yourself presentable.’ I have been hearing this for the past few weeks, wooing me to visit the parlor.

I know what to do. I hate lectures and advice. I won’t budge.

I was so mulish and made up my mind against the visit to parlor.

Sometime back, I was with my friend in a shop selling beauty products. As my friend was into the product she wanted to buy, I saw a couple entering the shop. The woman willingly digged out the lotions kept, while the man found it a little difficult to accommodate himself in that place. He whispered into her ears and moved out.

When I thought again, I knew that I felt the same way when I first entered this shop to accompany my friend. My subsequent visit to accompany them did relax that embarrassment to some extent, but never enthused me to spend a rupee there.

I never thought that I will yield to pressure and be in beauty parlor, bearing all the painting done on my face. I was compelled to the core that I started to have guilty conscience of denying something too good to myself. As two guards accompanied me to the parlor, the beautician caught hold of me and decided what she should do.

‘She needs bleach’. She proclaimed. I resisted. ‘Well if u don’t like, I won’t insist.’ She said.

So being content that nothing unreal will be dumped on me to resemble a white clown, I decided to co operate.

But I was deceived. The funny patch smeared made me uncomfortable and I shouted. ‘Are u feeling the heat on your face? Is it unbearable?’ asked the beautician soothingly.
So u thought I won’t be able to bear that uncomfort? I am brave. I immediately closed my mouth and said, ‘nothing too bad. I will bear it.’

One after the other, the processes continued, and I imagined my face to be a specimen for the new joinee in parlor. At last, everything did end, relieving me of the great doubt whether this will stop or not.

Tired with unpleasant face, I came out. One of my guards confidently asked, ‘how do u feel now?’ in Rajini style.

I said, ‘lighter. Lighter by few hundreds. ’

Those were the moments I felt how tied I was. The most worst moments can be when we force ourself to do something which we disgust, when we are compelled to explain the world why we have such a feeling, when we know for sure that our words make little sense to others making them to brand us as proud, vain and stubborn.

For sure, that would be my first and last visit there.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Maja - Kadi Sazaa

The opening scene was so threatening that we believed it would be an action movie. The villain Biju Menon with treacherous weapon in his hand kills an innocent looking guy. So we nail bitingly waited for an action packed film.

But in the next scene, when Vikram and Pasupathy, the foster brothers fight on the streets, their usual habit to decide who won, and with Manivannan, their foster father, being the judge, we revised our opinion and prepared our mind for a comedy dhamaka.

When they decide to give up mugging and settle for some decent living, we thought it is going to be a thorough family entertainer, with Vikram raising high to become a great entrepreneur like Rajini in Annamalai.

When they decide to give up their lorry for the sake of woman Pasupathy loves, we decided it is going to be a romantic movie from that moment.

So as every scene passed, we kept on guessing. But Shafi had a directorial touch in every scene that we remained confused till the end of the movie.

But no, I saw ads in tv proclaiming it to be a comedy movie. Vikram took it too seriously, that he almost cracks jokes even at the very serious sentimental scenes. The extremely hilarious moments come when vikram forcedly marries Asin, and after few scenes, he gives lecture why this marriage should not persist. He realizes how illiterate he is and how bad his past was. He hilariously narrates these to Asin, pleading her to break the marriage. The whole theatre tried hard to control laughter. Because it would be intellectually incorrect to laugh at an emotional scene. But that was really funny.

The next hilarious moment was when Asin narrates the ‘thali mahathuvam’ to Vikram. Really Shafi should be patted on his back for his confidence. It needs tremendous courage to release that movie, to add to all this, to advertise it as the best comedy of diwali. The wonder is, the theatre was jam packed. Vikram’s brand name pays.

But Shafi realized the hollowness in story, and felt a probable loss it seems. Hence he had been extremely cautious not to spend too much. Asin’s costumes looked like 250 rupees costumes from Saravana Stores.

Though I had no idea who the music director was, I vaguely guessed it to be Vidyasagar. He is remake of Deva. Capable of giving worst output, yet managing to retain a decent position. My guess turned out to be correct. The songs were nothing but clatter and only during those song scenes I realized how deprived we women are. If only I happened to be a male, I would have forced myself out to have a relaxing ‘dum’, no matter whether I had the habit of smoking or not.

Asin had no role to play. Neither have I believed Vikram had any. But it was admirable that she did not turn out to be an obnoxious dancer with dirty steps.

In short, maja is not even worth watching in thiruttu VCD. I am sure, after few months sun TV will announce, ‘ulagath tholaikkatchigalil mudal muraiyaaga, Vikram nadiththa ‘maja’.

At home, having the liberty to switch channels, with no need to get tied up to our seats, we can really enjoy that movie, enriching ourself clearly how a masala movie should not be shot.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Being Unbiased

Being unbiased. It is really difficult. Whenever I write, it is easier for me to be forceful, and stress whatever I think, rather than thinking whatever is right. I believe that way is easier for anyone. Also I never bothered to be unbiased. I need not be, right?

But those who write for their daily bread have to be.

Unusually, I found the front page headlines of today’s (31.10.05) edition of The Hindu written in first person. Then I noticed that the author was none other than N.Ram.

That was a beautiful narration of Ram’s telephonic conversation with Natwar Singh. Natwar singh pleaded innocence and time will tell the truth.

Natwar singh may or may not be guilty. But the treatment given to him was special.

The same newspaper handled stains murder case differently. Even before conclusive evidence was available, every magazine unanimously blamed Bajrang Dal and BJP. It was to such an extent, that the both these parties were almost concluded as criminals. The damage caused to them was too much.

At last when Bajrang Dal was given a clean chit by CBI, none of these newspapers found it necessary to regret in a line even. That made a small bit of news. That is it. It was hard to believe that almost half a decade after this stains murder case, still some people believe that BJP has its hand in it. For public, Bajrang dal is synonymous to BJP. In late 1999, BD was acquitted and still the news is to reach the ears of great number of so called ‘elite’ Indians.

Also in Godhra issue, one sided verdict was given by Indian press, blaming BJP alone, completely forgetting or conveniently forgetting the other side of the coin. This has been happening for quite some time and The Hindu is not the only exception. To be clear, whole press is full of these exceptions and unbiased writing is in miniscule.

The sad part is, even the elite section, which have the capacity to judge what is right and what is wrong, find it easier to outsource opinions and conclusions. It is easier to embrace others opinions. Left with much lesser time for their personal life even, we cannot blame that community wholly.

But it is high time that press should really understand its responsibility and give some meaningful output. The chance given to Natwar was unnecessary. The defamation caused to BJP in earlier occasions was unjustifiable.

Apart from this penchant writing, the undue publicity which these newspapers give is really annoying. While Clintons and Musharaffs visits and the places of their interest were discussed in detail, taking utmost care not to miss anything 'interesting', the scientist Stephen Hawkins visit was covered with lesser enthusiasm.

All said, The Hindu has to be appreciated for one thing. The wide coverage and in-depth news it offers. Still I have not found a substitute for it and that is the only reason why I am still sticking to it.