Subramaniapuram



Subramaniapuram is no ordinary movie. A quick glance at the promotional posters and stills will tell you that. Watching the movie will confirm this more. There are no good-looking characters, mind-boggling stunts, item-songs, ‘punch-dialogues’ or any other regulation Tamil film imperatives. The pace is quite slow even by the standards of art-house Bengali or French movies. It’s grim in its outlook and the story is Shakespearean tragedy.

Yet the film that was released very quietly with less than 150 prints is currently running to packed houses. Number of prints and screens has subsequently been increased and it is expected to garner the collection usually assured for some of the ‘happening’ actors.

The film has defied every excuse the mundane ‘commercial’ directors slap on the audiences for including hackneyed elements in their work. One thing, after a long gap and since the invention of stead cam, the camera does not circle fiercely around the 'hero' or make him stride in slow motion with an ear-deafening music.

Another, the film is set in the early eighties, the era incongruous to history filmmakers. Making period films is a rare phenomenon in the Indian film industry in general and Tamil industry in particular. Those who venture go 800 or more years backwards and represent that period quite poorly. Subramaniapuram recreates Madurai of 1980 with meticulous passion. Except certain nuances, the story does not depend on its context to be based in eighties but it clearly depicts the director’s notion of creating a visual freshness that does not depend on editing or camera gimmicks, both are handled quite conventionally purely relying on the period and the performance of the actors to make the impact. Since Autograph or Kakka Kakka, no other director has dared to be so true to be himself like Sasikumar has been in Subramaniapuram.

The story is only incidental and stripped off its period and raw attitude, would remind you of a few yesteryear flicks. However, as the whole of Tamil populace has felt heart-warmingly, what is being offered is not a fresh story, but an attitude that is breathtakingly audacious filmmaking. In the midst of mind-numbingly formulaic Kuruvis and brazenly self-indulgent Dasavatharams, people like Sasikumar infuse a new lease of hope in those who want to see genuinely good movies.

That includes the entire Tamil Nadu that is now flocking the theatres for Subramaniapuram.

The answer lies in the middle



Having garnered the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) support, Congress is quite enthusiastic about the prospects of the nuclear deal. Mayavati’s vicious imputation of SP being anti-Muslim is emphatically silenced by Abdul Kalam endorsing the nuclear deal. Now it is official that the deal is going to be activated from India’s side. Unless US Senate or oncoming US elections bring in any hurdles, it would be safe to consider that India is on its way to be proudly becoming part of the world’s glorious nuclear club. There are going to be restrictions and conditions applied to this club membership and the fine prints are going to outweigh bold fonts. But then, no one these days gets to be have a free reign in this club. Not even a rogue nation like North Korea.

In this high-pitched drama played feverishly by everyone, the Left stands to lose immensely. Having been ostracised by every other party in the country, with their base in Bengal eroding hurriedly, now having abandoned by the centre, they ought to conduct some serious review meetings. Hardly few people genuinely believe that this deal is unproductive and oppressive. If Left withdraw support and enforce elections, they would be blamed for having wrought instability when the inflation is zooming northwards. If they do not, they would simply become a laughingstock. There is every reason to believe that the Left will settle with being cantankerous than becoming clowns.

The other party which loses in this game is BJP. At least the Left had some ideological compulsions to repudiate the deal but BJP, whose government actually started this process with the US, began to oppose the deal with the contemptuous anti-Congress stand has exhibited cravenness in not standing up to the deal. BJPs support to the deal would have further alienated Left and exposed the hollowness of their argument. With the deal going through now and Congress scoring enormous brownie points, BJP too remain isolated from the centre-stage. The nation witnesses a rare event of both Left and the Right wings standing in one line and being the newly emerged middle-wing standing opposite to them.

Nevertheless, this government might collapse on the floor test. With fuel prices, Amarnath, inflation and the omnipotent anti-incumbency looming large, Congress might lose elections. Left might slowly walk into the sunset – not so heroically – and fade out into the end credits. But the future India with adequate energy-reserve will remember Manmohan Singh fondly and thankfully. The man who made the elephant dance has achieved another feat. Of calling the commies’ bluff.

Demography of communalism…



The fire sparked in Amarnath is burning the whole of Jammu & Kashmir. Muslim gangs brought the whole state to a halt in the past week and now it’s the turn of the Hindus. Hindu gods will be terribly upset if we don’t put up an equally good show, if not better.

When the Kashmir government tried to allot 40 acres of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) temporarily, the proverbial hell broke loose in J&K. The Hurriat Counsil, Yassin Malik and other separatists joined ranks with National Conference and PDP in their protests. Many people were killed and injured and in some places the police had to open fire to contain the mob.

PDP, a Kashmir based party whose leader Mufti Muhammad is a sympathiser for separatists' cause but is part of the fragile state coalition headed by the Congress. He pulled the plug off the government and it faces floor test in the assembly on 7th. Fearing the collapse of the assembly, the Congress hurriedly revoked the land transfer order. But their fate still hangs precariously.

The protesters argue that this land allocation would change the demography of the land. When the Congress acceded to their demands, BJP cried foul saying the government is playing into the separatist’s hands. Religion seems prominent in both the claims. And dirty politics seems evident in all the moves.

Religious extremism is evident in the term ‘demographic alteration.’ In 1986, due to communal riots, 350,000 Hindu Pandits fled Kashmir. Nobody cried about demographic alteration then. In plain English, some additional Kashmiri land will go to a Hindu temple, which is wrong: Because Kashmir belongs to Muslims. The leaders of Kashmir could not have been more blatant in pronouncing their communalism. Pity that nobody noticed.

Beyond the ‘demographic’ cause, every other reason the leaders provide seems flimsy and often laughably absurd. Omar Abdullah claims that there were no arrangements for the pilgrims for last 160 years and asks why now. The answer is: For so many years there were no metro rail, inter-state highways, expressways etc. It doesn’t mean that we can’t build them now. The same argument holds good for Amarnath as well. Besides, the pilgrims have been undertaking hazardous trekking every year and the government must assist in ever way they can.

To think of it, many years there were no terrorist activities in the Amarnath area either. Why now?

Qazi Afzal of PDP complains that the government doesn’t have the rights to transfer the land. The order says that the land is being ‘given for temporary use’ because the government doesn’t have permanent transfer rights.

Regardless of the arguments, a few things must be made clear. The question of ‘demography’ must be summarily dismissed. Kashmir is part of India and hence there is no question of Muslim demography or Hindu demography. As Ashok Pandit commented, if Haj pilgrims can have accommodation structures all over India, so can Amarnath pilgrims in Kashmir. Congress’ decision is simply knee-jerk and goes into the long line of their impulsive mistakes.

In the middle of the heat and dust, an important issue appears to be forgotten. Environmentalists have feared that constructions in the forest land would impact the fragile ecology of the Himalayan terrain. This was pointed out very early but now lies buried in the debris of Islamic fanaticism and reactionary Hindu extremism. However, due to the flared sensitivities, those 40-hectares are going to remain untouched now. Sethu Canal, an ecologically disastrous project will never be operational thanks to communal politics on Lord Ram. Amarnath Land is another case in this chapter. So the environmentalists now thank the fanatics from both sides and then relax.

If only there was a temple or god-related problem in the Narmada Valley…