The Jester in the Darbar

After a really looooooooooong hiatus in terms of watching any movie, let alone a Rajni one, I finally broke the shackles and went ahead and watched Darbar. For the ~6$ early morning show on a Friday and a 7 person theater occupancy (out of perhaps 150), I would say paisa vasool! That, and a typical old school Rajni fare is always a good welcome from the breaks in the immediate past.

Here are my feelings.

1) The movie itself is good time-pass for a traditional Rajni fan. It conforms to the standard stereotypes of a Rajni pot-boiler, which is what a Rajni fan would always want (independent of what they tell you about time, ageing, etc.)! And unlike movies such as Kabali or Kaala, there are no social messages or justice-seeking andolans, something anyone with common sense would always welcome from a Rajni movie.

As they say in Tamland, go watch a Bhaarathiraja movie to get your daily dose of social messaging; go watch a Rajkiran movie to see how high the lungi can go and still appear non-offensive; go watch an Ajit/Vijay movie to figure out the bronze medal winner; go watch a Kamal movie to not understand the psycho-babble; and go watch a Rajni movie to have pure fun.

2) As usual, they ran out of villains in Tamil/Telugu/Kannada cinema including Rajni himself (Enthiran). So they had to bring in another "Bollywood" villain in Sunil Shetty. This follows the recent trends of Akshay Kumar and Nana Patekar, after they explored a Chinese/Malaysian guy in Kabaali. Who next? SRK, Aamir or Salman? Who knows?!

3) As is common with most recent Rajni movies, Rajni has to be a super-hero of sorts although with some gray shades to hide his white hair. This took the form of a family-loving respectable gangster, who has now morphed into a cop (a bad one, as he himself says).

4) That said, the "mad cop" part of Rajni showed a lot of promise before they nulled it all and followed the usual fanfare of Rajni-isms. A mad guy is mad when he does not know why he is mad; not when he knows why he is. Very quickly, Rajni moves from the very lovable (at least to me!) mad guy imagery to an almost moronic sentiment-infused hero. Just to say that the cringe-worthiness of sentimentalism here pales into comparison with the old fare from the mad 90s. Rajni is typically best when he is in a "don't care" state like in Moondru Mudichu or Avargal.

5) The movie diverges itself from a "typical" Rajni-fare in almost totally lacking punch dialogues. The heroine role for Nayantara is a non-starter. She is there for almost no reason and I have no idea why she would accept such a non-role except to return a past favor to the Director.

6) The comedy in Yogi Babu is underwhelming. Given the recent parade of Yogi Babu-isms (aka his clean strike of a nonchalant uncaring loose-talking schaedenfreudish capers), this one seems like a total loss. I am not sure why Yogi Babu would accept such a role except to follow in the long tradition of Goundamani-Senthil-Vadivelu-Vivek-Santhanam to have paired up as a side kick to the Superstar. 

7) From a Rajni point of view, there are some glimpses of his old self with lots of dialogues from his badass characters interposed in between, but with no justice to any of them, sadly. There was definitely a chance to make him more anti-hero than he has been in his last few avatars. But that was neither attempted, nor did the attempt go anywhere. In fact, it did not even approach the "MG Ravichandran" character in Sivaji.

8) The daughter role for Nivetha Thomas is a lot better than Nayantara's, but somewhat oversold and underdone. It is a bit of a (at least Tamil) unrealism for a daughter to try to find a spouse/companion for her ageing father.

But the thing that may take the cake is the more recent Tam fare of taking complex technical terms (either from communications, cryptography, medical or beyond) and building a sorry excuse for a story that has logic!

Instead of a mythological aagaya vimanam (a flying saucer) that can be pooh-poohed as "lacking rationalism," how easy it is build a subdural hematoma (Linky) that can kill you in two hours?! How did a hematoma not create instant death, but delayed it by two hours to give a fleeting excuse for sentimentalism for the daughter to post a FaceTime video to be seen beyond death and to build Rajni's anger potential in his time of lows?! In any case, how is it that a hematoma is not treatable in a trauma care that can also induce a five hour coma for Rajni himself?! And btw, who induces a five hour coma for a concussion?!

I am no medical expert, but the reality is that when you can mix a few buzzwords and make it sound ah-so-right, it passes muster in much of the world, as that is how life has always been :).

9) The villain role in Sunil Shetty had so much promise for punch dialogues, so many deep strategies, and a deeper intelligence which should make the Vaseegaran character (in Enthiran) eat the dust in terms of helplessness. All of that is just plain wishful thinking as the villain character has been assassinated with a ruthless and a sorry spectacle in terms of mindlessness and brainlessness.

10) My main mirth with the storyline is how Murugadas has taken creative liberties in portraying cops. I am no cop, and I am not related to one, but if this movie is expected to be a compliment to policing and how sorry a job it is in India, I am appalled at the chisel to make this deity.

Policemen (and more recently, policewomen) in India live a mostly sorry life acting as everything from marriage counselors to Panchayat for caste issues to prestige issues to social harmony maintenance to nabbing real dopes from chain snatchers to cell phone stealers to pickpockets to roadside romeos to blue and white collar criminals. A policeman (and woman) usually has no real schedule and can go from the high of people bestowing flower petals on them for kicking to the curb gang-rapists to being kicked by the same people for being doormats for politicians, IAS cabal, etc.

A policeman (and a woman) job in India is highly stressful and usually comes with more of side benefits and prestige than real pay. Of course, a number of policemen (and women) make money on the side to arbitrate peace in a sullied form than what the rule book ever so states.

That said, no police department is going to let go of a single comrade's death or hurt that easily. It may end up being unsuccessful, but there is always an attempt to score one past the opponent in forms that cannot be openly stated lest the human-rights nazis jump on you. None of the big city's department would let go of 10s of their comrades' sorry death in shame and forgetfulness. That may make a good storyline, but that is so not true. Further so, no big city needs a Chief imported from elsewhere to fix its woes, even a Rajni :).

Bottomline is: If the Director thought this was a movie offering a tribute to the policemen (and women), it so is not the case!

Scorecard: Rajni 70/100, Sunil Shetty 30/100, Murugadas 50/100 for trying to restore sanity in the field against the likes of Pa. Ranjith, Future 100/100 (now that I know that the ship has sailed out of the Mariana Trench).

The problems that maketh Tamland

It has been a long time of vanvaas, but it has been probably worthwhile to remain silent. But then they also say, "don't speak ill of the dead." And if we follow that maxim to the hilt, we would never talk about anyone or life in itself, since we are all eventually dead anyway. So I will ignore such maxims perhaps to my own peril.

1) Mu Ka was a great Tam litterateur and no one can take that away from him (not even Lord Yama!). He also ably contributed to nation-building by putting his foot down for the devolution of what were then Central rights more to the States --- a principle accepted much later by the Sarkaria Commission for the stability of modern India in contrast to a million mutinies in our extended neighborhood. Foremost amongst these was making a common cause with a wide base on issues of Tam pride in times that mattered the most, a much needed succor from the onslaught of the Congress-i/Jan Sangh-i/Samyuktha Socialist Party version of intolerance in the bygone era including those from the Nehru family, Raj Narain, etc.,  as well as many stalwarts from Tamland such as Rajaji, Satyamurti and Bhaktavatsalam. It may have been a mere coincidence that he and the other DK/DMK stalwarts took to protest on behalf of Tamil for what he/they felt, but in ensuring the version of the Official Languages Resolution, 1968 in the way it did (http://rajbhasha.nic.in/en/official-language-resolution-1968), he/others ensured that there was a lot less misery for a large section of the Indian population over time.

2) More to his credit, following his own misrule from 1989-91 and JJ's misrule from 1991-96, he did not get too bogged down by details in terms of who/what affiliation ran/wanted to run a certain business or how they ran it, as long as he/his family/party got his 5-10% cut (a precursor to the infamous Jayanthi tax or the Mr. 10% jibes at one AA Zardari across the border) letting Tamland march towards industrialization and progress in its own way, independent of whether it was an ADMK front or a DMK front ruling/misruling it. Both ADMK and DMK ensured continuity in terms of policies as long as they got their choicest porterhouses (no pun intended).

3) Much of DK/DMK's rise to fame is/was correlated with the meticulous use of the newly arrived propaganda medium in the form of films to social messaging whether it be caste affirmation in the form of self-respect/suya-mariyaadhai and non-Brahminism, Tam language pride, or social evil eradication. And in that segment, a lot of credit goes to people such as Mu Ka and the atheist-turned-theist of "Arthhamulla Hindhu madham" fame Kannadhaasan as well as brilliant orators such as Sivaji Ganesan, SS Rajendran, KR Ramaswamy (who is conveniently forgotten today), etc. all of whom could sting a bee like no tomorrow, let alone like one Ali. The imprint of the Soviet/Communist revolution on all that propaganda as well as social messaging cannot be ignored, as well as the deep reasons to rename oneself from a Dakshinamoorthy to a Karunanidhi, all the while going for a Muthu, an Azhagiri and then a Stalin instead of a planned Ayyadurai (a morphed version of Periyar 'Ayya' and an Anna'durai'). What that says about what he valued the most is left to one's own imagination!

4) That said, Mu Ka knew which side of the bread was buttered the best and played both BJP and Congress masterfully, as the time of the day demanded it. Like CBN in 2018, he sided with BJP and Vajpayee in 1999 and then dropped out of the coalition when BJP/NDA suited his needs less (that movement began as early as 2002, but nevertheless). He then sided with Congress/UPA and then dropped out of that coalition when he got sucked into inaction over the death of LTTE and more so, the 2G spectrum scam. He had like-minded friends, well-wishers and advisers on both sides of the aisle and kept his rhetoric primarily for the gullible electorate, especially as he aged, mellowing down fast, but not fast enough to witness some beautiful dung droppings such as, "Is Ram a civil engineer?"

5) Mu Ka was also a man of masterful guile in converting pawns to queens on the political checkerboard. If being a No. 3 in CNA's Cabinet to sidelining Naavalar Nedunchezhian with MGR's help first and then planting himself firmly as the CM/Party President face was not enough evidence of this, realizing the gullibility of the electorate that only appreciated the face behind the versatile oratory (and not the playwright) in putting up a Mu Ka Muthu against MGR and when that attempt flopped miserably primarily due to the ineptness of Muthu, to totally removing MGR from the party when MGR demanded the election finances for the 1971 hustings be audited was one too many for even the Frank Underwood's of Tamland.

6) The typical stick to beat Mu Ka is with the epithet bestowed on him by the MGR-demanded Indira-instituted Sarkaria Commission (a different one) report: "the man who institutionalized scientific corruption in Tamil Nadu politics" (not a paraphrase from the report, but the tenor of it). But a more realistic assessment of him is more of a man who institutionalized family politics in Tamil Nadu. All others from that era have mostly fallen wayside except his family. The numerous episodes in which the DMK leadership were sidelined to ensure the pre-eminence of the Mu Ka family starting with the Maaran-Mu Ka tag-team to promote Mu Ka Muthu over MGR in the late 60s and early 70s, followed by the vanvaas as the Ram-loving Mu Ka called it (the 1977-1989 interregnum with three ADMK governments), and the early 90s' sidelining of folks such as VaiKo when he became too big for his boots in being more-Tamil-than-Tamil, or those actions that sidelined K. Anbazhagan, Arcot Veeraswami, and even the scions of the Maaran family and Azhagiri, all in favor of one Stalin.

7) As much as Mu Ka moved away from the literary Brahminical Tamil dialogue delivery that was common during the 40s with a more colloquial and mass understandable Tamil dialogues that could easily reach out to the vast majority of the people, one could also accuse him of failing to move with the times as his screenplays bombed in the 90s. While his 80s renditions such as "Paasapp paravaigal" and "Paalaivana rojakkal" were still reasonably connected to the audience, his final film screenplay for "Ponnar shankar" was one distasteful and badly mangled version of what would be a pre-eminent story of the Gounder community. As expected, the movie miserably bombed at the box office.

8) A lot has been written about Mu Ka not losing a single election from 1957 to his death. But not much has been said about the 1991 scraping in the Harbour constituency (an 890 vote win) coming as it did in the wake of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination and the disrobing of JJ in the State Assembly by Durai Murugan. The other winner in that elections on behalf of DMK was Parithi Elamvazhuthi, someone who was tom-tommed to be one of the DMK greats that defied a sympathy wave in the Egmore constituency in those days. But if one looks 25 years later, Parithi is spending his time in the ADMK vacillating between OPS and TTVD gangs/camps, further bolstering the credentials of Mu Ka for sidelining everyone in the party except Stalin. Stalin, by the way, lost in the Thousand Lights constituency to KA Krishnaswamy (a family member of KA Mathiazhagan, one of the Five Founders or Aimberum Thalaivargal when CNA left DK to form DMK).

9) The other less talked about event is his skipping of the 1984 Assembly elections when he more or less knew that he would be ousted in the aftermath of the sympathy wave following Indira Gandhi's assassination, MGR's reasonably ok governance from 1980-84 despite his kidney failure, the sympathy in Tamland for MGR and the beaming videos from Brooklyn, as well as the charisma of Rajiv Gandhi. In some sense, Mu Ka had a good premonition of the whacking the DMK alliance would take in the polls (195/234 won by ADMK) and quite easily skipped the elections. MK Stalin had again lost to KAK in the same Thousand Lights constituency in 1984 also (in what was his debut fight at the Assembly level).

10) All this said, Tamland's pre-/post-independence electoral period can be neatly delineated into three or four eras depending on one's biases.

The first era from approximately 1940 to the mid-60s witnessed populist Congress governments carrying over from Gandhi's messages, with often incorruptible and clean leaders, only mightily burdened by their philosophical and ideological inclinations as they came from elitist Brahmin/forward caste/well-to-do families. Even the Opposition in this era could not find corruption or personal animosity against the likes of T. Prakasam, Ramasami Reddiar, Kumarasami Raja, Bhaktavatsalam, Rajaji and Kamaraj. In fact, the handing over of the baton from Rajaji to Kamaraj took the sting out of the likes of EV Periyar quite quickly.

The second era began a bit earlier in the mid-50s and continued through the mid-70s with the rise and popularity of the Justice Party/DK, social reform, anti-Hindi agitations, a transformation from a "vengaayam/kattumiraandi" religious/linguistic depictions to one of "ondre kulam, oruvane devan", and the rise of film icons such as Sivaji and then MGR to prop up the DMK to power. A lot has been written about whether the 1967 win of the DMK could be attributed to the shooting of MGR by MR Radha, but most likely even if this event had not happened, the social/linguistic churn would have meant a rise of the DMK at some point in this period.

The mid-70s to mid-2010s (a really long period) is basically the era of bipolar disorder in Tamland (pardon the pun) from sun-rise to son-rise, the demise of ideology and the natural reversion to the mean in the form of compromises, nepotism, money-making/corruption and caste re-affirmations in the form of petty and fissiparous outfits such as PMK, VCK, PT, DMDK, MDMK, IUML, etc., support for pan-Tamil causes across the globe with no heed to Tamil causes and issues in the state (e.g., VaiKo), and basically vindictiveness and melodrama that has often no parallels anywhere else in India (perhaps!). This is the period that completely drove away any space for nationalist/reasonable parties in Tamland, much to their own detriment, but perhaps reaffirming faith in the idea of India (in contrast to what the current Opposition dispensation would have you believe in) that one can start with a demand for a Dravida Naadu and end up with a demand for a Bharat Ratna instead! But then Periyar is in a thidal, Anna in a samaadhi, MGR in a mani-mandapam, may be that explains the trajectory that is Tamland, perhaps!!

With the passing away of both JJ and Mu Ka, we have a giant vaccum that cannot be filled in by the likes of the 4-5 percenters (aka Vijayakanth, Ramadoss, VaiKo, Thirumaa, etc.). Nor can they be filled by the likes of PC and the essential jokers in Satyamurti Bhavan. Completely out of picture are the nationalists in Kamalalayam. Just because that name sounds similar to Arivalayam or Anbagam, the BJP cannot overnight replace the Dravidian front with its own agenda. In fact, what is the agenda of BJP in Tamland, one wonders. May be nothing and that is not too bad in a way! This vacuum that corresponds to the fourth era sees the likes of Rajnikanth and Kamalahassan trying to wade into.

In fact, I did witness a surreal event before Vishwaroopam-II that was played out in the movie hall in the US --- an in-your-face petty propaganda clip for Kamal's party, MNM. Gone are the days when subtlety used to be an art-form with phrases such as "Anna, nee naalai aaluvaai" to "thalaivare" or movie titles such as "Kaanchi Thalaivan", or even Rajnikanth's quasi-political dialogues couched as real movie dialogues in such movies as Padaiyappa and Bhaasha. This in-your-face propaganda and the distancing of the party name itself by calling it a Maiyyam or Maiam (however that is written in English), instead of a Kazhagam or a Katchi (loosely translated as either an Organization, a Grouping, or a Party) + a more South-centric focus rather than a Tamland-centric focus (not quite sure what exactly would come out of it though) just stands quite opposite to what used to be status quo. Not much good is likely to come out of such ventures, especially if one has to see Vishwaroopam-II as the first-post MNM movie to showcase a new-Kamal, if there really was one who indeed needed a rebranding.

The continuing strong anti-Shaivite stand in some form or the other starting with Anbe Shivam and continuing through Dasavatharam and now Vishwaroopam + a world where all establishmentists speak a Brahminical Tamil (laughable even it were only a fraction true) + a confused stand on terrorism (with dialogues such as "religion does not cause terrorism, but people do" quite like the NRA's stand on gun violence) does not portend an intelligent yet unintelligible Kamal who is trolled by all and sundry. This is more of a useless idiot (in contrast to the useful idiots) wanting to be a do-gooder who is probably just the wrong pressure valve in a state filled with an enormity of confrontations, complications and confused histories.

The other side sees Rajnikanth's political fantasy-world with an always ueber-correct hero now having to confront political quagmires where one does have to make a significant compromise, and can and does get trolled ceaselessly in such ventures. This front is also not likely to see a great future ahead even if it presents a mirror to the hypocrisy of the state and its erstwhile/current crop of self-declared leaders (unabashed anti-Brahminism/anti-Hinduism, but with the reality of someone who cannot skip a yellow shawl for decades + need to pull the plug on an Ekadesi and a quick burial on Dwadasi so that one can attain saranagati at the lotus feet of the same venerable God who one can veritably question as if one is a Nakkeeran-lite just because they have read Tamil well + a clamoring for a burial site despite having pretty much a good chunk of Madras in one's possessions + a corrupt regime that is tolerated and accepted as lawful/reasonable/forgivable, let alone a bigamy + countless other accusations). Primary reasons for Rajni's failure would be the strong pulls and conflicts that he has to handle + the unrealistic expectations that he has already projected (real or imaginary) + the poor health he will have to confront in building an organization from the ground up despite the presence of enough of his rasikar mandrams + a changing reality of a significantly aspiring middle-class where there is no unquestioned loyalty to anything ideological/to any person, even if reality seems otherwise, etc.

With a similar age class as Modi and MK Stalin, these two film stars have probably 5-10 years (if at all!) of good/reasonably healthy life before all their vices start taking a real effect on their well-beings. This chasm is not likely to be filled by the different power centers in ADMK and its splinter-ist outfits corrupt as they are, nor is there an alternate hope when the reality of DMK's family-centric agenda comes up to the forefront. Whether such chasms get filled up by pro-leftist anarchist outfits that supposedly emancipate marginalized outfits or worse, pro-Tamil outfits with an axe-to-grind on every Tamil problem in this vast wide world, or whether they get pushed back by caste re-affirmation fronts, or whether there is a space for moderate yet nationalist forces would be an interesting problem to witness, if only one was an outsider peering in. For an insider peering out, these are bound to be eternally uncomfortable events where one lays low, watches the surreality of modern Tamland and its various actors get played out in real-life Big Boss type events, and possibly troll away to one's merriment!

Sadly, we may not have to witness anyone asking for a plot near the Cooum in a long time to come! That may be the only comforting reality in the short while!!

Lingaa works, par dil maange more ...

Coming in the backdrop of ueber duds like Kocchhai-adiyaan and Kuselan, and unbelievables non-pareil such as Endhiran, Lingaa is a simple deja vu tale on many counts. And it works, for a Rajni fan, despite what the critiquing neanderthals and High Court paramatmas could say! That means, the box office is/will be a-ringing, and there ends the economics lesson.

But beneath that account book lies the why-s, what-s and wtf-s. Here is my take on some of these.

The good-old Rajnikanth movies of the early- to mid-90s (before Superstar became S-U-P-E-R-S-T-A-R) such as Rajaadhi Raaja, Adhisayapp piravi, Muthu, to name a few, used to be believable tales that took off on a tangent, with ample space for comedy (situational as well as contrived), new-age Thirukkurals (on everything from faith, politics, way-of-life, and love), detestable villains who played their role perfectly, beautiful heroines at their personal heights as a set-piece (all those Kuluvalilles, Adikkudhu Kulirus, Selai kattum pennukkorus were primarily a highlight on the music and the heroines rather than on Rajnikanth), followed by an unbelievably funny yet idiotic fight sequence that noone could have rationally cooked up except as the climax of a Superstar movie.

Lingaa is all that, and more. I wont regale you on the positives, as they need to be rewinded, many a time. I will bore you on "the cup is half-full" moments, for that is often missed out.

The side tale is believable, fantastically so that it could well be the main tale rather than a sidey one, and hemmed in perfectly given the eternally parched nature of much of Tamland. This is the second big water war movie in Tam this year, with Vijay's Kathhi capturing the urban-rural dichotomy on water issues nicely (within the caveats of Tamland's movie-making of course). Rajnikanth's role of the British-era 18-gun salute zamindar transforming himself into an ICS Collector is filled with historical inaccuracies, especially so for the pre-World War II stage in 1939, but not necessarily discernible to a Rajni fan and the historically inept hoi polloi Indian. The desi version of a John Pennycuick and Arthur Cotton rolled into one tries to leverage their ongoing valorization efforts in different parts of India. There is the usual Kallanai-Kodiveri argument on dam building in Tamland, yet there is no finger pointing elsewhere (thankfully!) except at nature's fury perhaps. Even the British have been treated relatively softly with positives highlighted as much as the humans come in different forms-type argument. While that soft tone is typical of Rajnikanth movies, it still leaves a jarring note to the absolute perfidy that was the British rule. Only ignoramuses can find positives (net or otherwise) in the British rule.

Like Thanneer Thanneer (that original water war movie that begins with a kid losing his balance and losing the water he has collected with some effort, after picking up -- funnily enough -- a Rajnikanth picture on the way-side), this is a movie with a politician tale in the background. Nevertheless, the politician-villain continues the transformation of the Rajnikanth villain club from the hallowed heights of Ekambaram (Senthamarai in Moondru Mugam), Mark Anthony (Raghuvaran in Baasha), Neelambhari (Ramya Krishnan in Padaiyappa), etc. to the dud level that it has become with characters such as Adi Seshan (Suman in Shivaji), somuchso that Rajnikanth had to cook himself up as the villain in his next tale in Endhiran. This villain is not even a caricature, he is beyond a damn dud who cannot even confront Rajni with one tale of intrigue/sophistry despite being an MP. Even a pale version of a Perumal Pichai or a Saniyan Sagadhi or a Muthupandi would have made a better villain any day.

The heroines are as expectedly under-used and showcased primarily because that is what they have signed up for. And like most of the heroines of Rajnikanth's movies, they will be quickly forgotten for they have better career highlights than this movie. It is clear that age has slowed down Rajnikanth and with all those attendant constraints, he cannot shake a leg, not even comparably with Sonakshi Sinha. Yet when he does, however limitedly, there is a deja vu moment. And of course, noisy requests for encore from the faithful. The unbelievable stuff is limited to one stupid fight sequence at the end. Impressive is KS Ravikumar in limiting the crapfest to the very end, and that is one sharp turn from Endhiran, thank god for small mercies.

Rajnikanth's earlier movies used to be known for a fantastical comedy line, with all those paa-paa-paambhu, jalaja jalsaa, saathvikam-prachodhakam-bayaanikham scenes, not necessarily out-of-sync with the main storyline. The comedian used to be a counterfoil (Goundamani in Uzhaippaali, Senthil in Padaiyappa, Vivek in Shivaji) or a challenger-of-sorts (Vadivelu in Muthu and Chandramukhi). While Santhanam tries to reprise the counterfoil role, the comedy in Lingaa is half-baked with Santhanam's presence guaranteed only because he is the numero uno comedy king of Tamland today. Most of the blase dialogues and the context of these comical interludes appear to be a grand misplacement and a waste of time for everyone including Santhanam. Even Vivek in Shivaji appears to have done a far better job than Santhanam's debut in Rajnikanth movies. At close to three hours, the movie is quite slow and boring in phases (especially the British India scenes) and could have helped with at least a 20 minute cut. AR Rahman continues his fare of dishing out somber bores* across the board -- a far cry from his shake-a-thons in Muthu or Padaiyappa or Shivaji or most of his numbers from the early- to mid-90s.

Despite all the negatives highlighted, Lingaa works because it is paisa vasool (despite being 20$ a pop) for a Rajni fan, as simple as that. It is a deja vu movie in how it smoothly ties a Maanik Baasha of days gone-by with a Kaasu-panam-duddu-money-money reality. From the word go, Lingaa Lingaa sounds like Baasha Baasha and that is not meant to be an accident. There are many such un-accidentally constructed parallels/reminiscences into different scenes to appeal to the deja vu generation. In general, it is deja vu for those good old KS Ravikumar and P Vasu days, which were suddenly interrupted by the need-to-be-pseud Shankar days. It is a simple lesson to Rajnikanth in what a post-Shivaji landscape should ideally have been. While those seven years cannot be gotten back, there is still space for a real blast from the past with the next Ravikumar feature that is to start filming soon. That hopefully means that Shivaji may not be the Himalayan peak of a Himalayan career and Lingaa may only be a small way-stop in that journey perhaps. And one also hopes that someone can convey the message to his daughter that she can find someone else for her boring farce. Sorry, business is business and a fraction of the Indian GDP is tied to this machinery!

But more than all that, the deja vu lies in the unabashed theism that used to be Tamland cinema and Tamland at large, before the need-to-be-in-sync-with-the-new-powers-that-be kicked in. The highlight of the movie to me is the slow but well-laid out connect from the credit reel of Rockline Entertainment to the Shiva Thandava Sthothram played playfully somewhere before the one-third stage. With a name like Lingaa, one could nt have gone too wrong in that messaging, I guess. Unlike the Mani-Raavanan combo (the movie I meant) that was straight from hell, this Shankar-Raavanan combo (the sthothram) will always remain an eternal powerful hit! Therein lies the simple lesson of Lingaa on the reality of life: dissing the gods is as much hard work as praising Him!!

* Ok, Mona Gasolina is fine after a few hears, especially nice to see someone like Mano reinvent himself after years. But one cannot ignore the closeness of this song with Nenjukkulle and therein lies the rub, southern style yodelling or chamber music, its all deja vu again.

Revenge of Kochhai-adiyaan

I watched Kochhai-adiyaan (as it is supposed to be spelt in Tam instead of the more fancier but incorrect Kochadaiyaan) and had a lot of impressions on the latest Rajni movie.

The title itself could mean anything from "saint with the shaggy/mangled hair" or "man with the shaggy/mangled truss of hair" depending on how one parses the Tam. In any case, it is a pointer to Shiva just like some of his previous movies have been (Arunachalam, Annamalai, the yet-to-come Lingaa) or to the son of Shiva (Padaiyappa as in Aarupadaiyappan, Muthu), etc. It is an open secret that Rajni has embraced the quintessential Tam god in Murugan as is seen from the character names in most of his movies that are based on Murugan's 108 names. As for the main character's name in this movie, Ranadheeran, if one parses the Tam right, it means "the braveheart who won over pain and suffering."

Semi-spoiler alert!

As someone who grew up with such fare as Mandhirikumari (Linky), Aayiram Thalai Vaangiya Abhoorva Sindhaamani (Linky), Marmayogi (Linky) and as someone who digs into the historical Tamland filmi fare in Black-and-white as well as the later Eastman color, as much as the sociological fun- and farce-fest of the 50s through the 90s, it has been a sad tale that this genre has been essentially wiped out by the lack of imagination, lack of plotlines, lack of enthusiasm for a four-hour potboiler of intrigue, drama, vengeance, and twists and turns from the T20 generation, mismatch in investment between art direction and the grandeur of current day cinematography, etc. And even if dished out in some form these days, Tamland historical fare is an utterly casteist tripe a la Ponnar Shankar. In this midst comes Kochhai-adiyaan, which though it cannot hold a candle to some of the late 40s and 50s fare, is still brilliant in terms of intrigue and suspense in the storyline.

The movie starts a complete dud by insulting a Tamlander's sense of pride in the diction of the language with a rambunctious tripe that will make folks such as SS Rajendran and RS Manohar turn the other side in their graves with immense angst at the state-of-affairs, even in supposedly historical fare. While Rajni himself has no awesome command over the language, it has been his impeccable timing, stylish dialogue delivery, comic sense, and the dialogue construction that has set him apart from his peers. With essentially no comedy in the movie, even with the recreation of a Nagesh character (who sadly is drunk all the time, much like in his younger years in real-life), and with plasticene abundance that denies the possibility of timing and flow, it all looks downhill and hopeless from the beginning.

The dud continues with an introductory scene and song (typically setting a high bar for the Rajni show that follows for the next three hours) that fails to capture a hardcore Rajni fan's cochlear imagination. The sad death of AR Rahman's musical flourish and depth is probably noticeable to many, but every good thing has to come to an end, I guess. As someone who still digs for the underappreciated in Rahman's fare from the early- to mid-90s (Linky 1 and Linky 2, for example), the last few years have been a blur and this movie continues the trend. The height of introductory agony is to watch an abominable plastic Rajni's plastic horse leap over a plastic cliff that is unbelievable even for a Rajni fan who is willing to suspend reality for the sake of Rajni.

Slowly but steadily, the intrigues catch up and we are revealed the tale within a tale within a tale (as much as I could count). And then comes the father-Rajni, walking like we all wished a real Rajni would have done on the stage (and shaming the son-Rajni in the process who walks like an oaf, with no insult meant to to oafs), and setting the floor alight with his unabashed Shivathaandavam dance moves that would have put a Prabhudeva at his prime to shame. If only that plastic Rajni was substituted for a fraction of what we saw in Thillaana-Thillaana (Linky) with a beat like in Kuluvaallille (Linky), both from Muthu, we would have got our 20$ worth for the 3-D picturization that seemed short (two hours), needlessly extravagant and useless to tell the tale that it was.

Despite being simplistic, the Hobson's choice faced by the father-Rajni character is something that I have (surprisingly!) not seen in my as-many-years of watching pot-boiler historical fare. There are two not-so-smooth changes without much explanation in the son-Rajni's character in the movie: from one of a loyal soldier to a loyal soldier of the other party, and a loyal soldier to a man with a burning pain that can only be set right by providing a rightful ending for the villainous character(s). Having seen enough reruns of Murattukk Kaalai and Paayum Puli, I know the difference between the acceptable from the indigestable. When Rajni (the epitome of Tamland values that he has shaped over the last three decades) is made to dance to such abrupt dichotomies like ripping the jugular vein of certain characters and doing a Thevar Magan (even if only as revenge), it becomes too jarring to watch, appreciate, love and remember Rajni by. Any amount of wise Rajni-isms that come out as supposed punch dialogues cannot compensate for that loss in confidence and trust in the supposedly sensible hero who is anything but that. And the punch dialogues fail because they are neither punchy nor dialogue-y.

Many of the characters are hopelessly shoddy with it being difficult to recognize beyond a select few. If there was a Sarath Kumar and a Jackie Shroff, I did nt miss them a beat! A Yamunai aatrile eerakk kaatrile Shobana and her stickler father Chaaruhassan would have rotfl-ed at this current Dasavatharam version!! And a Nayanthara would have saved her blushes for it was Deepika who has to carry the ignominy of plastic degeneracy!!! The basic plotline for this story by KS Ravikumar would have seen far greater justice in his hands than in Rajni's daughter's hands. The KSR-Rajni combo came up with Muthu and Padaiyappa before this, both earth-shattering (at that point in time) revenge tales that had a certain political undertone after the excesses of the 1991-96 JJ regime that came to power in the sympathy wave after RG's assassination. Come 2014, and this movie's TV advertisement rights are with the incumbent party in power, ADMK -- a reflection of why Vishwaroopam went through such turmoil before its release.

Tamland is not yet ready for motion capture nor is the state-of-the-art in motion capture a substitute for real action with real people. As the movie progresses, one gets to understand much of the revenge talk in the movie. The movie's central theme is revenge: revenge of Kottaippattanam on Kalingapuri for its deceit instead of a straight and ethical battle, revenge of the son-Rajni against the father-Rajni's unseemly suffering at the hands of the Kottaippattanam king, unquenched revenge of the friend who pits statecraft over friendship, revenge of the friend who pits friendship over statecraft but only after taking what his due was (unfriendly though it was), revenge of the kings who care pretty much about their own reputation and sustenance over what is right, and so on.

When Sivaji was released in 2007, the heartland of IL was flooded with Rajni fans who all enjoyed themselves to what then was an epic! And not everyone was a Tam!! Fast forward seven years, I have seen a nearly empty Kuselan (again in IL), a nearly empty Robot/Enthiran (in the middle of a raucous Sri Lankan Tam community in Melbourne), and now a nearly empty Kochhai-adiyaan. This story is also a story of revenge that has been served raw and cold: revenge of time where even Rajni ages and cannot dish out his usual fare (dance, fights, style and all things that make Rajni Rajni), revenge of the other daughter (with supposedly good intentions) who ends up hurting the brand and fan-base more than helping it, and revenge of the gods who cannot allow for a Sivaji to be bested for after all, Rajni is Sivaji, Sivaji is MGR and MGR is Sivaji.

Even if I have to wait a la Vishwaroopam II for what the next two hours are supposed to fill in vis-a-vis the knots that have been left untied, it is a sad commentary that I am looking forward more to Vishwaroopam II than to Kochhai-adiyaan II. On to Lingaa, and just like with the hockey team that disappoints me over the years, I shall lose no hope.

To death with hope!
For man can die, but hope cannot,
For Rajni can blunder, but his legacy cannot,
For kamal can wonder, Rajni he is not!

Sense of Tamland

There is really nothing new one can say about the massive Modi win except sounding a monotonous bore grinding the same old half-truisms. In any case, I will stick (for the time being) to opinionating on Tamland only because I feel that I have not read any sensible analysis and parsing of the numbers so far. 

1) General trends: The BJP and its partners took part in 38 constituencies (barring the Nilgiris mishap) of which 14 contested on a DMDK ticket, 8 on PMK, 7 on MDMK and 9 on BJP (including the KMDK and IJK candidates). Of these, there were two first place finishes (Kanni and Dharmapuri), six second place finishes, 29 third place finishes, and one fourth place finish. 

The fourth place finish of PMK in Naagai was one of wrong candidate selection -- a non-existent PMK fighting in a reasonably deep South seat which is somewhere close to religious polarization than to caste polarization. The two first place finishes were ones where strategic alignment worked successfully, Pon. Radhakrishnan in Kanni and Anbumani in Dharmapuri. If the Congress and the DMK had aligned, there is a good likelihood that Pon. Radhakrishnan would have finished second (just as in 2004 and 09). Dharmapuri (in North Tamland) presents a more confusing picture. While the caste violence between the numerically vastly dominating Vanniyars and Adi-draavidars (a Dalit sub-caste) and the subsequent action against the PMK partymen and leaders by the ADMK regime had meant that the Dalits were in favor of a ADMK candidate, the ADMK bent down to demographic destiny in picking a Vanniyar candidate. Also, picking a Vanniyar candidate was DMK. With the waters murky, some BJP-MDMK-DMDK vote bank alignment helped Anbumani cross the post by around 75000 votes -- a performance that is not much to crow about given the Vanniyar dominance in the seat. 

The six second place finishes were in Coimbatore, Erode, Pollachi, Tiruppur, Vellore and Virudhunagar. Of these, the first four are in the Kongunaadu-Gounder belt, Vellore in the Vanniyar belt and Virudhunagar in the Naicker/Naidu belt. That said, none of these were close finishes with the ADMK walking a winner comfortably in all the six seats, which just goes to show how caste consolidation behind a rainbow coalition was an ephemeral idea from the very beginning. Of the 29 third place finishes, there were close contests (defined as approx. 10K votes) with the second place candidate only in Aarani (PMK candidate) and Perambalur (IJK). Five seats were complete washouts (defined as < 1 lakh votes): North Madras, Dindigul, Karur, Thanjai, Tiruchi. Of these, four were contested by the DMDK (the other by BJP in Thanjai) showing how much DMDK punched over its weight in the coalition. Of the eight seats contested by the PMK, their candidates got over 2 lakh votes in 5 constituencies. On the other hand, DMDK could get over 2 lakh votes in just 4 of the 14 contested whereas for MDMK, this number was 3 in 7. 

Almost all the constituencies had the classic Chandu Lal Sahu episode in some form or the other. In some seats, it was a clear case of a prop candidate with the same or similar name (Chandrakasi vs. Chandragasan, etc.), in some seats, it was a creative way to introduce confusion (K. Nandagopalakrishnan vs. K. R. Radhakrishnan). Clearly, Tamlanders have some weird unique names that cannot be easily copied and there is the oft-mentioned statement: "vote for the [xyz] symbol." Those two probably explain the nonchalance of the mainstream parties to this menace. 

2) Modi wave: There most definitely was a Modi wave in Bihar and UP (and much of north and west India for that matter), but whether there was one in Tamland requires some serious statistical introspection. In the last elections, none of the BJP candidates except Pon. Radhakrishnan from Kanni and the eternal-party-hopper Su. Thirunaavukkarasar from Ramnad could get anything over 50K votes. Ela Ganesan could get no more than 43K votes in South Madras. In 2014, this scene has changed dramatically with 6 in 9 of BJP contestants securing over 2 lakh votes. Ela Ganesan in fact could win over 2.5 lakh votes, a no mean feat even in South Madras given that it has most likely no more than a few 1000s of upper castes (aka Brahmins). If Ganesan could sew up so many votes, it must have come from the educated, aspiring and climbing middle-class, of which there is plenty in South Madras. Only the total BJP washout in Thanjai is surprising given the temple town's vibes. So yes, there was a Modi wave, but not as big as in UP and Bihar. But big enough to be noticed and recognized. However, whether this is a sustaining wave is a 108$ question.

3) Deep south and religious faultlines: I define the deep south as the four semi-religiously polarized constituencies of Thirunelveli, Thoothukkudi, Kanni and Ramnad. It is remarkably surprising that the BJP contested only Kanni and Ramnad of these four. May be the fact that BJP could not secure anything more than 50K votes in the last elections had something to do with this calculation. But in any case, the story of Kanni has been told before. In addition to the lack of DMK-INC coalition, too many Christian candidates indeed mucked up the broth in a case of reverse polarization chronicled well here: Linky. The same can be said for Ramnad except that Muslims replace the role (to a certain level) of Christians in Kanni.

The strong showing in Aaduthurai of a MMK candidate is most likely because of the DMK vote bank which got transferred to MMK instead of Mani Shankar Aiyar of INC. The only other faultline that is seen is in Vellore with a strong third place finish by the IUML candidate. Again, the DMK vote bank that could have been transferred to the IUML candidate is suspect behind this strong finish.

4) Caste faultlines: The Vanniyar-Dalit fistfight in Dharmapuri spilled over into killing the bonhomie between Ramadoss and Thol. Thirumaavalavan of VCK. It was no wonder that PMK jumped at the opportunity presented by the INC's bumbling (Linky). Even some new-found bonhomie could nt help Thirumaa pull a fast one over the ADMK candidate. To rub salt into the wounds, the PMK candidate finished 30K votes behind Thirumaa, a sharp drop from the 1 lakh margin in the previous election.

The case of PT's K. Krishnasamy in Thenkasi is similar. The Pallar/Devendrakula Vellalar-Thevar faultline is seen even if the constituency is SC-reserved. The MDMK candidate finishes a strong third to rub salt into the wounds festered open by the ADMK whipping.

5) Three idiots: Three members of Idinthakarai/PMANE (Linky) that took part in the protests over the Kudankulam nuclear plant took part in elections as AAP candidates: SP Udhayakumar from Kanni, Pushparayan from Thoothukkudi, and Jesuraj from Thirunelveli. The net votes received by these rabble-rousers were 15K, 26K and 18K, so much for their credibility. More power from the power plant, please.

6) Azhagiri: With DMK suspending MK Azhagiri from the party, he was on a one-man mission to scupper DMK and Stalin's chances anywhere and everywhere. That he saw the complete decimation of DMK is no surprise given Tamland's bipolar disorder in terms of love affair with one party/coalition. Whether Azhagiri was indeed responsible for the decimation is a bit questionable though. In Madurai, he vowed to push the DMK candidate Velusamy to the third or even fourth position. However, Velusamy finished a strong second. Ditto for Theni where the DMK candidate came a strong second. Given that even a swing of a few votes in each ward could push a winner to a losing position, Azhagiri did get away with what he wanted despite their being limits on what Anjaanenjan can do (aka Anjaanenjan can fly, but not do a rope trick!).

7) Happy to see 'em get whipped: Mani Shankar Aiyar from Aaduthurai (my home town of sorts, courtesy my paternal side). Suffice it to say that, Modi's win is important because it takes upward mobility (in politics) in India from the realm of the improbable to the possible, provided one aspires for it unabashedly and with unapologetic determination -- a lesson reinforced in the vaporware circles of academe. Anyone who pisses on the climbers deserves to lose and badly so. MSA ended up fourth with < 60K votes, which just goes to show how much he badly depended on the DMK coalition to win 3.2 lakh votes last time around. Glass house, stones, anyone?! 

The bequest of Sivagangai from papa-jaan ex-Home/Finance minister was not enough to help the one-man destroyer of Indian tennis (Linky), Karti Chidambaram, get a win from there despite Sivagangai being a Nattukottai Chettiyaar bastion of sorts. Despite the Chettiyaars' philanthropy all over Madras and in Chettinaadu in particular, the deference people have for the Azhagappas, the Muthaiahs and the Annamalaiars does not easily translate to the Chidambarams, go figure! Given the high impact that the Kaanaadukathan Annamalaiar had on people in the vicinity, it is indeed a remarkable surprise to see a one-man demolition army three generations ahead. As for me, I am just happy to see that PC at least bowed down without too much mud on his face. Now if only he would have closed shop on his lectures to Modi over the last few days and let his son roil in the muck, it would have been even better. 

The other progeny to bite the dust again was EVKS Elangovan, the grand-relative of Periyar. Swapping Erode from where he finished runner-up last time to Thiruppur only got him the wooden spoon with less than 50K votes. In a land where the catcalls of "Anna naamam vaazhga, Periyaar naamam vaazhga" have been hijacked by a semi-theist outfit, it is indeed a no-brainer that there are so many DKs, let alone *MKs. 

It is indeed a pleasure to see the flopshow of VaiKo in Virudhunagar. Only a glutton for punishment would like to see one more LTTE fanboi shackle India's hands in normalizing relations with Sri Lanka with a carrot and stick approach, a much needed Modi-JJ bandwagon that could set things reasonably ok on the ground in Sri Lanka over the next few years. 

8) Corruption: If the BJP candidate had indeed filed his nomination papers right, Andimuthu Raja of the 2G infamy could have actually won the Neelagiri seat given that the BJP candidate would have split the ADMK votes happily. That around 3.6 lakh voters did not see a problem in electing Raja again shows how corruption is not so much of an issue with which one could whip up sentiments in Tamland anymore. Gone are those Rajnikanth's 1996 avatar days, may be people are just that numb of the sordid reality that is political India. If so, more power to them! Harping endlessly on corruption never got any society cleaner than a completely agnostic one. One point failure models like AAP and their fanbois can keep harping endlessly on how corruption-mukt-India is ah-so-great, but what is needed is not a mukt for corruption, but a mukt for unreasonable corruption. 

9) DMDK and BJP: The no-name brother-in-law of Narasimha aka "Tamland's original transformer-buster" came in third at Salem (and ditto for the DMDK candidate in Madurai) -- a far cry from the days when DMDK was touted as the replacement for DMK and ADMK. That should bring a sobering calm to those who tout the BJP to be a replacement to the *MK parties in Tamland. That reality seems more wishful than real, more fantastically fictituous than fanatically factual, especially given that BJP has repeatedly shown no interest or keenness or alacrity in understanding what drives Tamils. That accusation in the light of a super-strong performance might seem orthogonal, but someone needs to drive home the point that winning one polarized seat, a dynasty does not make. 

Giving a speech in Hindi in Madras may buy a few curious looks and a polite "hmmm", but that does not translate to wins that matter. For that matter, an outfit that goes with the name "aam aadmi" can hardly make any inroads in Tamland, even if Tamland is not necessarily completely agnostic to corruption matters. As far as BJP goes, aligning with casteist outfits like PMK, DMDK and MDMK might have helped an eternal runner up in Ponnar into a first place, but that does nt sync with holding a nationalist chip on the shoulder often enough. But if that was the norm, there could never have been an alliance with an LTTE-ambivalent (at best) DMK or for that matter a Khalistani-ambivalent SAD in the first place. 

The DMK's numbers are not exactly numbered in Tamland. The DMK is a resilient family-first unit that will be around in some form or the other for at least the next decade and more. While Mu Ka and Stalin draw an eerie parallel with Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, there is already a next generation in the form of Udhayanidhi who is all that Mu Ka Muthu could never be. What DMK lacks, just like what the ADMK lacks in a more serious form, is a strong rank and file that is deep in terms of intellect or strategic thinking. DMK leading men such as Naavalar Nedunchezhiyan, NVN Somu, Veerapandi Aarumugam are no more and it is not far from the day when more will pass away. That the idealistic enterprise has transformed into a family business with a hand in every profitable pie is no surprise. Yet, the business-first mentality will make the unit survive in some form. 

Less can be said about ADMK given the absolutely asymmetrical power structure of the organization. Nevertheless, the ADMK's steady vote bank today (the Thevars) is not necessarily available for poaching by the BJP. One look at the ADMK candidate list shows how JJ has been cultivating pockets of deep influence in the Vanniyar and Gounder belts, in addition to the traditional Thevar belt. Some post-Congress feelings in the Naadar community is also seen to lead to some bonhomie with BJP and to a certain extent with ADMK. The broad point being, the lack of a second rung leadership hierarchy NOW does not in any case disabuse or suspend the (magical) formation of such as and when the need arises. The eternal truth is that nature abhors vacuum! 

10) Net winners and losers from the hustings:

Winners: JJ, BJP/Modi, Pon. Radhakrishnan, Anbumani Ramadoss 

Hon. mention: Azhagiri 

Losers: Stalin, the Maarans, A. Raja, Vijayakanth, Vai Ko, Dalit parties 

Hon. mention: Today's Chaanakya with a 7 plus or minus 3 seat prediction which was always laughable in the first place for anyone who has a grasp of what drives Tamland 

Getting rustic again...

Sometimes one has to take a break, sometimes one has to brake the break, sometimes one has to call it quits. Let us say that I am in the second stage. Getting to write again something seriously requires a silly one to begin with.

And since I have seen a few Tamland movies of late, why not do a semi-surgical examination of this type of claptrap? Why not? Also, this type of topic goes well with the coming Tamil new year.

I have seen two types ("types" would be a big word given that every movie is a type of its own, but I mean it in a half-silly way) of movies in Tamland these days: the village type theme or a retro theme as in the 70s and 80s, when things were more village-ish even in the Madras side. This type of movie is rife with caste, violence, luv, family H&D tales, people who use red hot chilli peppers for brushing their teeth and ergo get affronted at the drop of a hat, drip vengeance in every ounce of blood, and so on. The comedy is more typically rustic: there is the usual belly farting jokes, there is also the usual schaedenfreud-ish jokes where one guy gets hurt and everyone except that guy (and may be even that guy) laughs. There is the dripping sarcasm that typifies Tamland films and especially so certain pockets of Tamland where sarcasm is better than in Madras. Of course, comedy has to be situational, else it will stand out like a sore thumb. Then, there is the violence and gore as a recurring leitmotif. Overarching both comedy and violence, there is dirt and grime. There are things that are not so polished and is often uncouth, something that will put off the urban side or will be in sync with the rustic side of the urban polity. Since many of us grew up in dirt and grime (in my case, the late half of the 80s and the wrong half of the 90s in a typical non-agraharamish South Madras neighborhood), it is what is in sync with our growing-up days.

And then there are the polished movies, more urban tales, it-vity tales, Gen Y tales, college-goer setpieces, growing-up stories and other nutty pieces of crap. The pseud factor in most of these movies is high. One needs a typical Siddharth or an Arya or Vijay to fit into these movies. Here, the comedy is more of the typical Madrasi fare, often with a sidekick meant specifically to dish out comedy. While I do not discount the fact that a sidekick comedian's role is a tough one, they are just that, a sidekick. Like, for example, a "nanben da" Santhanam or a "Kaipulla" or a "theeppori thirumugam" Vadivelu or a "Chaari-Sorry saar" Vivek or sometimes even a Vijay. This comedy is typified by crap talk, petty talk, tall talk, and of course, the two distinguishing features: peter-talk and paruppu-talk (aka pseud-ish Madras-giri and its Tamland cousin). There is the usual dripping sarcasm + social message based comedy that has always found a refuge in Tamland films. There is also a tale, which is usually a masala, but sometimes really a tale. 

The first type of movie appeals to the rustic side of Tamlanders, who apparently seem to be more common than I expected them to be. It appeals to people who don't want to go back to rustic Tamland, but want to see it in the movie and reminisce the good old days. Those who want to bring out their inner rusticism to life, even if it is just for a three hour period. The second type of movie appeals to the urban side of Tamland. This set seems pretty small relatively, but that is pretty much what everyone wants to imitate. Newly minted Madras-bhashai becomes a massive hit overnight. Even jargon and pet-themes that were popular in certain colleges and in certain pockets become overnight famous everywhere. I mean such universal jargon/terms such as dhommai, dubooku, dokku, mokkai, koomuttai, devaangu, nngoyyale**, etc., have become the lingua franca of the angry and sometimes the happy-drunk Madrasi. And when the auto guy in Madras uses it, one knows that everyone uses it. Of course the auto guy uses it in anger or pain or for livelihood reasons, many use it for comic relief and because, sarcasm thy name is Tamland. 

And then there is an unsaid third type (you should have expected that by now, knowing me very well). In this type, there is a bridge between the first and the second type of movie. The amount of bridging makes the movie appeal to an even broader audience than normal. Some of the better hit movies have something appealing to everyone. There is a rustic element either in the form of the protagonist who acts punch-drunk (Soodhu kavvum, Rummy, Varuthapadaatha vaalibar sangham) or sidekicks who take you back to those parts of life that you never want to see again (Yuddham sei, Aadukalam). And then there is the pseud element (Theeya velai seyyanum kumaaru, Raja rani, Maattraan, Aarambham). Or often both.

There are people who seem to have type-casted themselves in one type of role. For example, it is hard to expect a Vijay Sethupathi or a Sivakarthikeyan to don a pseud role. Typical of the upward mobility that has been Tamland film-dom, it is still hard to expect either of them to land such a role given how status quo is loved in the film world in general. On the other hand, it is hard to expect an Ajith or a Siddharth or a Madhavan to do anything but pseud roles. Vijay of course is the eternal college-goer, much like how Vikram or Surya is the eternal cop and how Vijayakanth dons double duty as a cop and a Maxwell's equations-defying transformer-buster. Speaking of transformers, transformation in roles do happen... A Parattai could become a Paayum puli, a Sappaani could become a Sagalakala vallavan. Sometimes, they start off as a Sakthivel who becomes Chinna thevar by the middle of the movie. and Thevar magan by the end. Managing that transformation (both real as well as in the minds of people) is more of an art than a science. Now that folks like Sivakarthikeyan and Vijay Sethupathi have established themselves as bankable stars with serial hits and mega-hits, it is a 1001$ puzzle whether they can become versatile Rajnikanths, let alone a less overacting hundred-role-toting kamalahassans.. 

That transformation, if it does happen, will be a further commentary on the state-of-affairs as much is everything else that happens in Tamland filmdom. Till then, rejoice the fact that: The masala as we knew it is dead, Long live the masala.


** nngoyyale... I love that word because Tam grammar cannot take a word that starts with a half-sound and here we have a word that is so-unTamil and yet so popular. By its very existence, it has defied the Tamland grammarians who can all throw a sword at you with their half-aruvaal moustaches (Ma. po. si., anyone?!) and burn down the house if they so wish (Nakkeeran types, not the new one but the old one). In a way, this very "word" means nothing if you look at the sky and exclaim, something if you look askance and deliver, and everything if you look at someone and mutter it. It has become the quintessential onomatopoeia of new age-Tam. It is the alpha and omega of cusswords. You could start a sentence with nngoyyale as in "nngoyyale, sollittu vandhuttiya," or end a sentence with it as in "vandhuttaan da, nngoyyale," or just have that alone in a sentence "nngoyyale". It could be added as a prefix or a suffix to many things as in "adinngoyyale." It could be used by women in buses when oldies harass them with their age-defying stomach-churning kasamusa aka gilmaa aka jalpaans aka any series of finely-tuned sounds that is intended to mean that. It could be used by school kids playing cricket on the street against anyone who acts cocky with them including class teachers, but of course under the radar. It could be used by college kids on rival gangs or policekaarans (or policekaarars or policekars depending on who you are) who ask them to "take the 20" for going without license or RC book or insurance or road tax documents. It could be used to mean "teri maaki" without*** actually saying it in so many words. It could be a snide "I am pissed with you" type claptrap too. It could well be a filler. It could be whatever you want it to be... or whatever not... its dirty and beautiful.. its a sociologist's delight and a grammarian's kryptonite... its one man's tool and another man's cool...

*** Even though etymologically, nngoyyale comes from a Tamland version of teri maaki, it has now become a guruvai minjina sishyan. It is a word of its own, in a class of its own, with a purpose of its own. 

Response to a comment on the Madras Manade post

I found this comment on the post on claims to Madras city (http://dharma-yuddham.blogspot.in/2011/12/chennai-illai-madras-tales-from-city.html):

Comment:
The account given is evidently partisan as it is apparently written by a Tamil or a Tamil sympathizer.If history is written by an interested party, truth suffers. Go back to history. The city developed around the settlement (Fort Saint George) permission for which was given to the British by the Nayaks, Telugus, who ruled different regions of the province. The Nayaks controlled the coastal areas from Pulicat to Santhom.After all Chennai is a name derived from Chennapattnam, a village named after Damarla Chennappqa Nayaka. When readers wrote to The Hindu, your own paper, to keep politicians out of the issue and hold a referendum, it was not taken note of.If the Tamil leaders were so sure of their numbers in the city, they would have agreed for a plebiscite to settle the vexatious problem. Neither did they agree to the Wanchoo committee recommendation to allow Andhras to share Madras as capital for a limited period. It shows their intransigence, well supported by Nehru indirectly. The evil genius Rajaji, who is supposed to be a leader of national stature, was so cruel that the Andhras were forced to go overnight and put up tents in Kurnool to serve as capital. What is this "greater contact" of Tamils, Kalki, a writer of so repute and is supposed to be universal in his outlook. speaks of. He acted as a mouthpiece of Rajaji unashamedly. When so many readers wrote to The Hindu to keep politicians out of the issue and hold a referendum the Tamil leaders simply ignored it to their convenience. As there was genuineness to the Andhra Cause there was no response in support of Tamils from Tamil leaders themselves.

Response:
From what I can guess, the author of the piece that you are criticizing is most likely Tamil rather than Telugu. But he could as well have been a nobody. The point of his article was to expound on the claims and counter-claims on Madras city.

Madras did not exist in the form we know it today prior to the setting up of George Town (the then Black Town, which slowly merged with the White Town established by the British). Madras in the form it exists today has known of a substantial native population (by which I mean a predominant generation that has been born in Madras and grown in Madras) only over the last 60-70 years. Madras has primarily been an immigrant city, and even today caters to a large "immigrant" population from all over Tamil Nadu and also the rest of India, especially with the boom in IT, manufacturing and construction industries. While not as cosmopolitan as Bangalore or filmi Bombay are, Madras still maintains its ethos of crappy conservatism (copyrighted) by limiting/discouraging free-for-all immigration inside the city limits by an artificial and socially structured process of reverse gentrification.

That said, Telugu speakers have remained a significant part of Madras in the 40s as well as today. I know of enough cases of some version of Telugu spoken at home followed by fluent Madras Tamil conversations on the street. Nevertheless, claims to Telugu speaker majority are a bit of voodoo science. There are enough evidences to point to the fact that Telugu speakers were NOT more numerically preponderant than the Tamil speakers in the 30s and 40s. The 1941 Census under the British points to a 15-70 split (or so claims the author of the piece). From my understanding and studies in the by-gone days (on which I wont bet my paycheck, except for a first order claim), the 15% in 1941 census reflected a growing percentage of Telugu speakers in Madras city from what that number stood at in the late 19th century.

There are multiple reasons to explain that trend. Foremost of which was the rise of limited private enterprise in Madras city under the British. As is usually the case, the most sought after factor in private enterprise was kith and kin, followed by trust in the form of local, regional, religious and linguistic bonds. With trade and business firmly in the control of Telugu speakers (vis-a-vis the Tamil speakers), it was only a matter of time before the non-land owning Telugu speaker percentage rose in Madras city. Another important factor behind the rise of Telugu speaker percentage was the rise of South Indian cinema from the late 20s through 40s and beyond. Bilinguals (Tamil and Telugu) were a common feature as was the free use of resources (capital, people, ideas and audience) from all over Madras Presidency. With the cinema industry acting as the springboard for all types of social revolutions (version 1.0), Madras city attracted all kinds of people from far and wide. If the Telugu speakers had made a claim to Madras city and Andhra Pradesh in 1961 instead of 1951, there is a good likelihood that Madras city would have become a part of Andhra Pradesh.

There are no vexatious problems as for the claim of Madras city -- neither then nor now. The "referendum" idea makes no sense either especially when census figures are right there to look at. Even discounting a 20% adjustment from Tamil speakers to Telugu speakers, for whatever be the reason, there is no case made for Madras city as a part of Andhra Pradesh, if it is one vote per person. However, the idea of equal votes for all is an illusory fancy that titillates the imagination of socialists of all hues. In practice, every person can claim only as many votes as per the decibel level of ruckus they can raise. If that is the case, sure there is a vexatious issue to resolve. Unfortunately, I am not too bothered about such problems as I have enough of my own.

Vishwaroopam, Thalaivaa, Madras Cafe, ...

(Or) Trends in Tamland....

The behavior of every political party on matters pertaining to Tamil identity (whatever that means) has been/is predictable to a large degree. What varies across party-lines are the nuances and fine-prints. This has been the case since competitive multi-party electoral reality with a reasonable representativeness became the norm in Tamland (circa early 40s). Any party that defies this natural dictum gets banished by the electorate, either slowly over time as happened with the Communist/socialist parties from the late-40s through the 60s, or in a jiffy as was the case with the Congress party in the 1957-67 phase. In this sense, Tamland is not unique, with similar trends identified and witnessed across India.

Given this background, what does one make of the Tamland pressure groups' clamor to ban the movie "Madras Cafe?" What does one make of the trends in Tamland, in general? Here is my take based on my understanding of history. There are four lines of thought that come to my mind from watching the trends in Tamland over the years.

1) Weakening hold of ADMK and DMK: Both ADMK and DMK have been around in Tamland for a long time to systematically master the full-circle art of propaganda and populism, short-term vs. long-term electoral strategizing trade-offs, victory followed by shoring up the support-cast, and resilience following defeat in electoral battles. In terms of leadership, both parties follow the classical Indian model of a tree hierarchy in contrast to the hub-and-spokes model that is common among the Communist outfits. While the tree hierarchy with an asymmetrical leader is advantageous in making quick business decisions (an obvious need for a well-oiled democracy), the hub-and-spokes hierarchy can be constrained by the ideological differences between the first-among-equals. On the other hand, the former hierarchy is more susceptible to a decapitating strike than the latter.

While Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi have been de facto bosses of Tamland (in turn), neither can boss around the boss of them all: time (the theists might prefer to substitute time with god, but Mr. Karunanidhi will prefer the irreverent rationalist idea called time to the reverent "venghaayam" of an idea called god, one might hope). It is amply clear that the hold of Karunanidhi, even on his own family, is not steady over the last decade, let alone on his party and the state. With two sons, a daughter and a couple of nephew's sons seeking to control the party, and a large clique from the families of the fellow travelers in the DMK saga seeking to align themselves with the most likely victor, DMK is passing through a stage where the post-Karunanidhi phase is assured to be a civil war. On the other hand, the multiple anti-corruption cases and the copious amounts of biriyani have had a lasting impact on the hold and health of Jayalalitha. With no second-rung in her party to pass the baton to, Jayalalitha is still confronting the ghosts of confessions from her partner-in-crime that seems endless. A capricious nature, that has resulted in a large number of sharks hurt by her past actions baying for her blood (as and when the opportunity may strike), means that the leader of the ADMK is a leader alright, but one who has to watch her back all the time.

2) Hedging the bets: In addition to the weakening hold of the ADMK and DMK on power politics, their hold on Tamil identity matters is also vanishing slowly, but steadily. Decades of brushing aside (see Footnote 1) the casteist-religious dynamic of Tamil society by the supposedly-unifying theme of a mythical Tamil identity is dying a slow and visible death. I personally do not find hiding behind the mythical Tamil identity a good or a stable long-term solution provided the real differences between different sets of peoples is held at the personal and family level, rather than induce a noxious circle of calumny and abuse at the societal level. But, I digress.

Overtly caste and religion-driven political outfits such as PMK, DMDK, KMK/KMP, MMK/TMMK have flowered aplenty in Tamland over the last three decades. While one could empathize with the Live and Let Live dictum that seems to twine through India, certain outfits present a good case for being banned outright or asap. Except for the common theme of "munnettram" (progress/progressive), "makkal" (people) and "kazhagam" (organization/group), none of these organizations have an ideology or a vision that is beyond the narrow and tunnel-visioned. As a result, these outfits have not burst across the seams except past their own unique support base. A case in point is PMK (the successor of the Commonweal and Toilers parties of the 50s) whose vote bank and vote share has stabilized at 5% and is primarily in the reckoning only in the Vanniyar-dominated North Tamil Nadu belt surrounding Madras city.

Being survivalists, they have forged ties with the DMK and ADMK in turn and then, going alone with bridges burned on both sides. The ADMK and DMK have found these petty parties to be "useful idiots" in hedging their bets on their loosening hold on different segments of Tamland society. But more importantly, when in union with either ADMK or DMK, these petty parties have punched above their weight by acts of connivance using the weight of the two dominant political parties. When on their own, they have acted as a nuisance to the common man with the opposition party remaining silent on their tantrums while the ruling party tries to put down the fire using its resources. As much as one would like to see the negative side of these outfits, I would see the positive in how they expose the self-contradictory nature of Tamil society, especially as championed by the DMK and ADMK (in turn) and also by these petty outfits.

3) Calculus of power vacuum: While the power vacuum in ADMK and DMK and their constant self-doubts has given space to petty outfits, this vacuum has not been filled by the more than life presence of the Congress or the BJP, both entrenched in their own tales of self-pity and paranoia. Gone are the days when a tall leader like Kamaraj walked the length and breadth of the state. Even a poor shadow of Kamaraj like G. K. Mooppanaar could induce more life into the Tamland Congress party than the stale breath that emanates from Sathyamurthi Bhavan these days. That said, even the very name Sathyamurthi Bhavan is emblematic of the disconnect the Congress party has with the demographic of Tamland. A Brahmin and the political guru of Kamaraj sure has good claims to having the TNCC headquarters named after him, but Kamaraj is "Guruvai minjina sishyan" by any yardstick. The Congress party would have bitten dust in the 1957 elections (instead of in 1967) had it not been for Kamaraj forcibly taking over the reins of the party from Rajaji, the support that move got from Periyar in the form of non-Brahminical camaraderie, and in turn, Kamaraj's decency in co-opting C. Subramaniam (Rajaji's nominee for the leader of the party) and M. Bhakthavatsalam in the Cabinet -- both Brahmins and tall leaders in their own mold. Like in Invictus, Kamaraj delayed the inevitable, only to be undone by the surge of father time and the impending demographic bulge against the fortunes of an anachronistic party whose shelf-life had long expired.

Beaten back by the language blues, one would have hoped that the Congress party would have learned its lessons in re-selling itself as the panacea to the hopelessness of the Tamland electorate oscillating between the vagaries of the two *MKs. Not to be, the constant family-centric policies of the Congress party has meant that tall leaders like Marshal Nesamoni Ponniah (who led the efforts in joining the southern Tamil-speaking districts of the Travancore province with Tamland in the state reorganization efforts of the mid-50s), P. Subbarayan (who started off by opposing the Panagal Raja faction of the Justice Party, but later moved closer to Rajaji, CS and Bhakthavatsalam), etc., have been shunted to the back pages of Tamland Congress history. Why, even the Congress (I) vs. Congress (O) split (following the takeover of the party by Indira Gandhi) has not healed in the party with the abuses meted out to Kamaraj by the Gandhi family loyalists still a constant reminder to the Kamaraj loyalists of what the party looks like and will look like. In contrast to being the refuge of the non-casteist with a national vision beyond the petty, TNCC has been at the forefront of inter-caste feuds like the Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar-Emmanuel Sekaran fight, Muthuralaminga Thevar-Shanmuga Rajeswara Sethupathi (deceased Raja of Ramnad and one of the champions of the Justice Party before shifting loyalties to the Congress) fight, Kula kalvithh thhittam and non-repeal of the Criminal Tribes Act during the Rajaji regime, and so on. While these are old stories, the scars remain as constant reminders, especially in rural Tamland where blood flows more eloquently than Cauvery.

In contrast to the Congress, the BJP and its unilateral focus on Hindutva in a state that needs no preaching on its Hindu credentials (with a deep sense of piety despite the enormous stresses induced on such a piety by the rationalist movement) has led to it being a non-starter everywhere except in polarized constituencies with a demographic shift. A constant stand-in-your-face assertion of the BJP will bring it not many new voters in Tamland till the demographic shifts visibly --- a good 40 to 50 years away, based on my biased estimates. In short, the BJP is hobbled by an inability to understand the linguistic ideals of the state, its moorings in Maharashtra and North India coupled with its hopelessness to tailor itself to the needs of a state that is as unique as can be, and a constant with-us-or-against-us catcall that is decided by voters conveniently looking past it, and so on. Thus, for the Congress party to become a force to be reckoned with again, it needs to look past La Familia. For the BJP to become relevant, it needs to win Tamil orators, rhetoricians and cultural stalwarts who can connect with what drives the state and what matters to the state. Fat chance either of these trends are happening in the near future.

4) Aggressive manipulation: A visible power vacuum that is not filled by the national parties is ripe for being taken by the contender(s). Whatever drives the current cultural and political space of the Tamils will be used aggressively by the petty outfits to space themselves as the champions of Tamil identity. This is the precise space that has led to the constant attempts at hero-izing (see Footnote 2) Prabhakaran, Veerappan, and the murderers of Rajiv Gandhi. Not to mention inter-state water disputes like Cauvery and Mullaipperiyar. Of course, while the latter issues need two to tango, the former are primarily a power vacuum where the national parties have been hopelessly beaten at the propaganda game by the petty outfits and the regional parties are dancing to the tune of these outfits which enjoy the first-mover effect.

In this game, no-namers like Seeman and Pazha Nedumaran as well as spent-forces like Vai Ko are all only emulating the grandiose sound-and-fury of the early DMK propagandists with no significant effect in power politics or real power. Where the DMK propagandists succeeded in co-opting the newly educated student population of the 50s and 60s, the current propagandists will find it more difficult (in addition to the difficulties of displacing the incumbents) due to the presence of social media and constant in-your-face non-stop debating on TV. While the current student population (beyond a microscopic minority) are not vulnerable to becoming anti-national by these acts, the rebellious streak that led to the isolation of the Congress party from the state will see no abating, let alone rollback.

Overall, the Tamil identity supporters are wielding a double-edged sword (and would end up hurting their own cause) by picking an axe-to-grind at every eventuality. It is easy to ride the Tamil Tiger, but difficult to dis-mount as the DMK will be able to regale from its tales of woe that was the late 70s through the late 80s. Sooner than later, the petty forces will face a growing backlash from the sensible set of peoples in the state (a good majority) who will add the propagandists to the list of equally execrable parties in the state. No, Rajnikanth cannot help the state as his cigarette fight with Ramadoss was a stalemate because of financial issues beyond his control. And he is picking no fight for he has a better movie to be released any time soon.

Till that eventuality kicks in, the order of business in the state is going to be one of self-censoring. Any movie with a political bent and self-introspection on the course of the more recent Tamil history will have to be shelved if business is what matters. Even caste re-renderings of history like Ponnar Sankar will have to be shelved (as witnessed by the fate of Meendezhum Pandiyar Varalaaru). For folks who had witnessed the plethora of Kattabomman Transport Corporation and Thevar Transport Corporation from the crazy days of 90s, this is de javu all over again. Course correction to be euphemistic, but clear in terms of what to do for those in the entertainment business. The coming years will see a long laundry list of masala madness that was commonplace in the 80s and 90s. The mythical villain will no longer be Pakistani or spouting political Islam, lest it hurt the sensibilities of Muslims. Every non-Hindu will be a good guy/girl, and all the bad guys/girls will be Hindus (as was the case in the secular Dasavatharam as against the non-secular Vishwaroopam). Nor will it be a woman (no matter how thin and fragile and Ramya Krishnan or Kanthimathi look-a-like), or a fluent Tamil spouting man with a coolers (no matter how cool he may be otherwise), or a man with a karakuli cap and a beaten down voice (no matter how stylistically he can whip a sattai).

He might speak Singhalese, Chinese, Malay, or English. For Indians, that is good too, as the Mount Road paramatmas will be challenged on their worldviews. Do not worry about what the villain utters, for it will be type-scripted into Tamil. That is the only predictable thing these days. That can be bested only if a Tamil dialogue is also type-scripted into Tamil. That could also happen...


Footnote 1: Tamil society was never a non-casteist non-religion driven society rife with rationalism and intellectual discourses. Just as every part of India witnessed backlashes against organized religion and societal order at different points in time, Tamil society saw a big backlash against the entrenched Brahmins in the civil society, education and governmental spheres from the early 20s through the 60s. When the dust settled down, one set of entrenched were replaced with another and things continued onwards until the left-behinds protested in the 80s demanding another cut in the reservation system that is now aped across India (putting the legislation behind judicial scrutiny and upping the ante all the way to affording reservation benefits to around 90% of the state's population). With essentially the entire state not wanting the cart brought down lest it hurt them, the fistfights spread to sectors that are the biggest money-spinners: engineering/medical colleges, entertainment business and support-cast, infrastructure business, real estate, etc.

Footnote 2: One should thank the stars that "Auto" Sankar is not valorized today and noone has dug up the Aalavandhar murder case to bat for Tamil heroes laid low by Kerala business-couple!! While the attempts at valorizing the LTTE have a pan-Tamland impact, the "rebellion" by PMANE at Idinthakarai cannot transcend from being petty developmental green-nik issues to being a Tamil issue.

Academia, Radicalism, and the Publication Industry

Three small reports on these topics:

1) From Linky:

Cruz’s comments about Harvard echo the claims of other prominent conservative politicians and commentators, who like to assert that faculty lounges are nests of radicalism. But are they?

To answer this question, among others, I analyzed data from surveys and interviews with professors, including a nationally-representative survey of the American professoriate, conducted in 2006 with the sociologist Solon Simmons. My research shows that only about 9 percent of professors are political radicals on the far left, on the basis of their opinions about a wide range of social and political matters, and their self-descriptions (for example, whether they describe themselves as radicals). More common in the professoriate—a left-leaning occupation, to be sure—are progressives, who account for roughly a third of the faculty (and whose redistributionism is more limited in scope), and academics in the center left, who make up an additional 14 percent of professors.

Radical academics, it turns out, are overrepresented not at elite research universities, like Harvard, but at small liberal-arts colleges. Most are concentrated in a handful of social sciences and humanities fields, like mine, sociology (in which radicals are nevertheless in the distinct minority), and in tiny interdisciplinary programs like women’s studies and African-American studies.

But who are academic radicals, and what do they believe? This is a diverse category, encompassing social democrats, radical feminists, radical environmentalists, the occasional postmodernist—and yes, some Marxists. All told, about 43 percent of radical professors say that the term “Marxist” describes them at least somewhat well. (About 5 percent of American professors, over all, consider themselves Marxists.). 

In the course of seven years of research, I never encountered any radical professors who advocated “overthrowing the United States government.” Those who are politically committed to Marxism are profoundly concerned with economic inequality and class, believe that things aren’t going to get much better for people at the bottom of the income ladder unless capitalism in its present form gives way, and harbor some hope that things might eventually change—but are generally pessimistic. Radical academics vote Democratic in national elections, but do so holding their noses, seeing the Democratic Party and President Obama as far too centrist and business-friendly.

While it seems unclear that the specific professors at Harvard to whom Cruz was referring would describe themselves as radicals, it is the case that many radical academics see no point in trying to neatly separate their politics from their scholarship. Their academic analyses and teaching often have a political thrust. This can be a source of great tension not just with conservatives, but also with generally liberal professors who believe that politics, scholarship, and teaching shouldn’t mix.

Layered on top of these tensions are generational differences. The social unrest of the 1960s and 1970s led to an influx of radicals in the social sciences and humanities. Scholars who came of age in the 1980s and 1990s often took issue with the radical intellectual perspectives championed by their predecessors. Today a new generation of scholars, influenced by the Occupy Wall Street movement, appears poised to embrace radicalism once again, in the latest phase of a back-and-forth cycle.

Is it a problem for American higher education that 9 percent of faculty members are political radicals? The answer is that far-left academic radicalism is both a weakness and a strength. Were there no radical professors for conservatives to fulminate against—or had radical academics done more to keep their politics and their work separate—there might well be fewer political attacks on higher education today, and greater public support for colleges and universities. Radical professors in the post-1960s period overestimated how much tolerance there would be for them, and how far the idea of academic freedom could be stretched. Also, some academic radicals, privileging politics over scholarship, have waged unproductive battles against the scientific aspirations of their colleagues.

At the same time, academic radicals in the social sciences and humanities have given us novel and important ways of thinking about society and culture. They have alerted scholars and students to previously unrecognized dynamics of inequality around race, class, gender, and sexuality.

 2) On this count, its de javu time all over again in Tamland. An opinion piece motivated by Linky.

Student protests were last seen in Tamland in the mid- to late-50s and the early 60s on the "National Language" imposition issue. The Central Governments under Nehru and Shastri, both in terms of personal ideologies as well as pushed to the brink by the stalwarts who later dominated the Jan Sangh from what is now UP and Bihar and the aam aadmi on the street in quite a bit of "North India", as well as the local Congress regimes under Rajaji and Bhaktavatsalam badly botched their credibilities by pushing the envelope on the language issue.

Sadly, what that meant for the future of Tamland's electoral politics was that opinions got so badly polarized that there has hardly been a space/say for non-regional parties. And a common-sense perspective will be hard pushed to hope that there will be a say for national parties in Tamland in the near-future. And even more sadly, a Tamland precedent driven regional party culture has spread throughout much of India. While one can argue that this is both good as well as bad, precise answers depend on the issue at hand.

What should be the role of a State Government in foreign policy/diplomacy issues? Should WB get a veto over trade relations with Bangladesh, especially if it harms the milling industry in TN (Linky)? Should TN get a veto over bilateral relations with Sri Lanka, especially when there are ample reports on human rights violations on normal people independent of whether they are (former) members of LTTE or not? Should Bihar, Uttarakhand and UP get a veto over relations with Nepal, because of the Madhesi bonding across the borders? Should the states from the Indian Northeast have a veto over border demarcations on the contested India-Bangladesh border? Should a state (TN) have a say when the Central Government hands over an island (Katchhathheevu) to a neighboring country (Sri Lanka) for the sake of good neighborly relations, especially if it harms the livelihood of a subset of its peoples? Of course, Sarkaria commission recommendations do not study these aspects as these things seemed far from immediate in the mid-80s. Even then, the Sarkaria commission recommendations did not get fully enforced especially when it came to the dreaded misuse of Article 356 and one had to wait for the Supreme Court to have its say on the Bommai case, or in the case or river water tribunal recommendations on inter-state disputes where the Central Government could not enforce its neutral perspective due to political considerations. It is time that the Central Government constitute a new Constitutional panel on what should/can be the say of the various state governments on issues under the Central Government list.

But, without digressing, Tamland today is witnessing a student-driven protest time. Independent of whether they have legitimate issues (or not) to protest, and independent of whether they are being supported by anti-nationalist (perceived or real) forces or not, the new reality is that it does not take two to tango. Things do go belly up very quickly and fixing the ground realities and perceptions of angst against the Central Government's inactions take a long time. Further, these are needless issues at this stage in independent India's evolution given the enormity of crises at hand.

What should/could the Central Government do at this stage? Two things: the DMK is not the sole conduit of popular opinion on ground realities in Tamland for the Congress government at the Center. Opening a dialogue with the detested Modi-friend is not only the need of the hour, but also realpolitik. Opening dialogues with no-namers such as Vai Ko, Ramadoss, Seeman, etc., can be done on a need-to basis. But more importantly, opening dialogues with students is not needed to convince them of their futility, but to provide them with a hope that someone from the Central Government is respecting their opinions enough to talk with them. We often get talked to, it is hard for people to talk with. During the height of the language crisis, Nehru sent Indira Gandhi as an ambassador to open a dialogue with the local DMK leaders of that era. And Indira Gandhi did a great job in bringing the DMK to talk with the Center somuchso that the DMK chose to ally with Indira when the situation arose (1971 elections). That the DMK-Congress alliance went belly-up after that is great credit to both sides in the equation.

Without getting too regionally involved in how India chooses to vote at the UN, it is at least incumbent on the Central Government to explain how it has forced/coaxed/encouraged the Government of Sri Lanka to act on perceived human rights violations of Tamils in Sri Lanka, providing a shared vision of dignity and hope within a United Sri Lanka model, reconstruction of demolished temples and villages in the North and the East, etc. How has the Central Government aid announced in 2008 after the end of the War been spent? Any random observer would tend to appreciate the positive role played by the Central Government in this mess, provided they get to see its perspective. As a popular wisdom goes, Good Intentions are not Enough! It is time to talk, to people in Tamland, to the Government of Sri Lanka, to the Tamils in Sri Lanka, and especially to the protesting students in Tamland (independent of their utter stupidity).

3) And finally, from Linky. The report is best read pictorially.

As much as I would like to see the rise of China from a scary-eyed perspective, I would say, "bring it on." My personal experience having reviewed hundreds of papers (if not a thousand and more) that get flooded into the Manuscriptcentral system in EE from China, Korea, Japan, Europe, Australia, India, and even the US has been that most of the papers are junk with stale ideas meant to ensure that the CV gets padded by a few lines this way and that. The new competitiveness that I see from Chinese academics is not a great cause for alarm because of their uber-productivity, but a great cause of alarm for how they flood a system that is already strained at the margins (find three good reviewers for your paper and you will be in the 95th percentile and above in terms of how the review process works). In some of the high eigenfactor score journals, earlier, one could expect profound reviews that makes the author(s) think through their ideas once more. But these days, one should be very happy if at least one reviewer follows your idea deep enough to provide an intelligent response. The simple fact that I get at least a few review requests every week in an area that I have abandoned in all but spirit (and yes, I do accept every single one of them in the vain hope that I will uncover a brilliant idea before it gets published) just tells a random observer how remarkably over-strained the whole system is by the flooding that is CV padding. I pity the IEEE for it has become more of a company culture than a professional association-based community values driven culture --- a sad price to pay for globalizing engineering.

Coming up next: Making sense of the Northeast verdict