Born on the Fourth of July

Case: Tom Cruise, Bryan Larkin, Raymond Barry, Carloline Kava, Kyra Sedgwick, Music: John Williams, Directed by: Oliver Stone



Every time I turn critical of Cruise, his fans tell me to go and watch this movie. My preconceived hangups about him pressing hard, I reluctantly rented Born on the Foruth of July. Despite the hangups, I must admit grundgingly that he has done a fabulous job. The performance is quite powerful though the movie is disappointing. This will be the first movie set in the 60s that I would not have liked. Because apart from some faint Dylan in the background, some half-hearted references to civil rights movement and heavily about Vietnam, this movie represents very little of what I have conceived to be 60s America. To me, 60s America is Forrest Gump and Almost Famous. And it is also about hope, dream and rebelling. Born on the Fourth of July is about some hopeless patriotism, dreams dashing down and heart-wrenching hopelessness of life. Didn't touch any chord in me.

Nevertheless, that's not why I got down to write about it in my blog. This is a big director, big actor movie. But even a most gutsy actor in India can't do a role similar to this, nor a most gutsy director would make a similar film. The protagonist of Born on the Fourth of July is not a hero. Of course he is a hero if you want to look at it honestly. But the movie portrays that his patriotism is blind, his bravery is confusion, his regret is half-hearted and his fight is a failure. From the wrestling match in the school, he begins to fail and it stops only towards the end. I was surprised to know that it is a true story and this movie is based on the autobiography of Ron Kovic the real man.

I still can't substantiate why I wasn't touched by this movie. It could be because of the pulp patriotism, or excessive emotions, or the very theme, or just Tom Cruise. But I recommend you watch this. Because chances are very high you will like it.

Also, more importantly, you will never get to see a movie like this in Indian languages.

Assault

I was in Pondicherry last weekend. Due to peer pressure, I very reluctantly went for a new Tamil movie. First five minutes into what the media called the latest blockbuster, my head went dizzy at the amount of noise blared through the speakers. I quickly ran out, went to a nearby medical store, picked up a cotton roll, went back in, took a couple of pieces and and stuffed them heavily in my ears. This, to some extent managed the noise problem.

Alas, there's no such cotton available for the eyes. The movie is already declared superhit and its director is touted to be the next Mani Ratnam. It had a very wavering script knitted with some very foolish scenes and some mindless, heart-numbing stunt scenes. Nobody explains why something is happening on the screen. A scene is there merely because it looks good and offers some entertainment for that moment. Thanks to the audio volume and also to some unimaginative sound mixing, all voice levels are equalized to the same sound output (including the BGM) and all characters speak in unmodulated, insensitive tones. The scenes and developments are identified only through the characaters themselves. Good guy, good girl, semi-good (glamourous) girl, and of course the bad guy. The result was a very unimaginative, loud, garish presentation of what the media calls a slick, taut presentation. Somewhere along, I figured that even a plagiarised story doesn't seem to help lift the movie, so I tried hard to sleep in the hall, with some little success though. Nevertheless, when the trauma ended, walked out of the hall with a mild headache.

They say that bad movies are an insult to your intelligence. I guess they not just that. They are an assault on your sensibilities.

Sex, culture and some thoughts

Nandini, my friend from Hungary, ordered me to write about the latest developments on Moral Policing in Chennai.

Those non-Tamils or those who came in late will need a brief background. Recently, two separate incidents became a major talk of the town in whole of Tamil Nadu and to some extent South India. First: in an interview, Kushboo, a leading actress of the ninetees mentioned that pre-marital sex is quite prevalent and a sensible man shouldn't expect his wife to be a virgin. Second: the discotheque of a leading five-star hotel was raided by the cops. Surprisingly the local media barged in with them and took pictures of the partying crowd. The next morning, the local dailes flashed with big, color pictures of women drinking and dancing in the disco. Subsequently, the bar and the disco in the hotel was closed. Now the issue is in the court.

These two separate events erupted a huge controversy and made the public agitated. Some wanted Kushboo to apologize. Some wanted her jailed and worse some wanted her extradited. Both incidents were seen as a threat to Tamil Culture and increasing assualt on the pious youth who should otherwise be focusing on their studies or the job.

Actress Kushboo

Before I begin to analyse these events and their fallout, I have to record my views on these. About Kushboo's statement, I strongly agree with her and it's about time someone told our men this. In my opinion, pre-marital sex should not only be considered 'normal', it should even be encouraged among our youth. In India, most men marry for sex and most women marry because their parents want them to. Until then, men remain sex starved and women remain frustrated. An active and healthy pre-marital sex will douse the fire in both and they can actually focus on more productive things such as their studies or career or work. This will also stop people from treating puppy-love or infatuation as true love. If not all these, this will at least stop our film-makers from cashing in on the frustration by sick, b-grade movies that almost border on porn.

About the second incident, I consider that instead of suing the hotel, the police should have sued the papers for infringing on others privacy. But I also read another report that the hotel was running the discotheque without a legal permit. If that's the case, it should be enquired and that justifies the raid. It still doesn't justify the media barging in!

Now why do we go berserk at these developments? Why should people scream at Kushboo's statements? Who are these people who claimed to be protecting the Tamil Culture? As usual, I have a problem with the word 'culture'. What do they mean by culture? Which period of our lives can they call as 'pure Tamil culture'? We certainly cannot talk about the last two thousand years because we had the influence of sanscrit, muslim invasion, buddhism, jainism and of course famously the British cultures. So going back 3000 years, in the Sangam literature, the Aga Nanuru is full of references of out-of-marriage sex. The protesters may certainly not have read these ancient verses to understand what the real culture consisted of.

Dalit Panthers protesting Kushboo

Tamil culture or even Indian culture, has always been influenced by foreign cultures and new lifestyles. Islam was a foreign idea and India imbibed immensely from it. Buddism was a radically new idea from which too, India gained. It's practically impossible to eliminate all this and trace the 'true and original' Indian culture. Even if we do, it would be so ancient that we cannot implement it in today's society.

So why all this hue and cry? I reckon it stems from three things, insecurity, envy and lack of imagination.

Insecurity, perhaps because we are scared of losing something we think precious. When you don't have money, you think pride is most important. Often this pride is misplaced and miscued. That's why we see the poorest are often the most conservative. Poor Indian women don't wear jeans. Many rich ones wear spaghetti straps.

Envy, also stems from the anger of 'have nots' with the haves. I'm poor and helpless and angry. You're moneyed, happy and contended. You drive the best sedan, wear the coolest dress, sport the swankiest hairdo and date the best looking woman. I ride a rusted bicycle, wear a 60 rupee shirt I picked from T.Nagar platform vendors, and my wife is fat and dark and ugly looking. We obviously look at each other with contempt. And when I get a chance to pound on you, I do it with my best energy.

Lack of imagination has been the weakness of post-independence leaders and general public. How do you eradicate poverty? Nobody has an answer. How do you improve literacy? Mum's the word. India is a complex country with difficult problems. Addressing them requires a great amount of imagination. Our leaders lack that. Our solutions to problems have been based on curbing and not debating. If a film or a book is offensive, it should be banned. If bar dance induces cheap behavioral tendencies, it should be banned. Cigarette is bad, it should not be advertised. Interestingly even decades after the rest of the world have come to understand that prohibition is the stupidest thing, Indian politicians still talk about it and just because Gandhi opposed to drinking, Gujarat still prohibits its citizens from drinking. Considering this, I think the currrent controversy has opened a can of debates across the towns where people actually talk about it. Soon the clarity shall emerge.

Until then, the only responsibility we have is to get imaginative our problems and hope that our leaders too do the same.

Privatisation - The argument continues

I would like to continue Vatsan's argument. Starting with ITI. It's a telephone instrument company owned by the central government and during the telecom monopoly days, ITI was also the monopoly supplying telephonic instruments to the telcom department. Those who have used the telephone instruments during the 70s and 80s will know the quality of those phones. Today ITI is not taken seriously and they cry foul.

I have serious problem with the statement 'profit making PSUs'. The Navaratnas as the nine supposedly profit-making PSUs are called, are not to be sold to private sector because they are doing well.

I have this question: What do we mean by 'doing' well? They make profits? Has anyone asked the question how much profit our Railways is making? And how much they should actually be making? We all know anything and everything to do with our railways is inferior. The coach is dirty, the fans don't work, the coffee supplied in the compartments are pukish, and the drainage water runs through the middle of the track. I'm asking this question: Is it because Railways charges less? No. It is because the contract for all these are awarded to dubious contractors who eat up most of the money and provide inferior quality stuff to railways. The coffee is full of chickory because it's cheap. The fans are made of inferior metal so they rust and stop working.

Where is all this money going to? Who is accountable for all this money? The whole of affluent Bihar and UP is living on Railways money. They win these contracts and supply substandard products to Railways. That's why every leader from Bihar wants to become the Railways Minister because he can make truckloads of money.

Still Railways makes profits. So we shouldn't be privatising it? I reckon the profit of Railways will triple within a year of privatising it and the services too will improve greatly. And believe me the prices will drop. Like how it happened to telecom, milk, airways and every other privatised industry.

'Profit making PSUs' is a miscued belief. Lalu Prasad Yadav is the worst clown of a politician India has ever seen. If Railways is making profit even under his regime, imagine 'how much' profit it should actually be making.

Just on the day I was writing this, Railways witnessed another accident and took away 16 lives due to break failure. I asked my friend who is an ardent admirer of improvements in railways: Why is it that Railways witnesses accidents whilst it is such an ancient technology whereas the airways doesn't register accidents at all even though it is relatively new and far more complex technology? I have to draw the conclusion that it is because it's run by the government. Just like how we witnessed Rukawat ke liye khed hai so often during Doordarshan days. But Railways rukawats are proving to be more costlier than Doordarshan.

All that you said about revenue account going to reduce fiscal deficit happens because there's no accountability. UTI mucks up and the government rescues them with fund allocation. Whose money is it anyways? It is my hard-earned tax money which went to fund the recklessness of the UTI managers whereas actually it should be going towards building expressways across the nation. And where was this government when Eswari or Maxima finance drowned?

More importantly and to bring back the focus, the government should only 'govern' and not provide services, manafacture and sell goods. The government making watches and bread was the hangover from the socialist era where public asset was the norm. Not anymore. Today, the government has no business to be in the business. Government should act more like a regulatory authority and govern and manage capital markets and regulate monopolistic practices. Apart from this, they should worry more about national security, foreign relations, currency and to a little extent, rural management.

If they are not going to do that, I'd be happy if they can use the profits from these PSUs to run the government rather than deducting tax from me.