sudeep's diary

The Trial

2014-11-21T15:33:00.002+05:30

When God asks
About the kisses that were missed
Between two lips that came so close,
Would you have an answer?
Would I?

- Veerankutty

(Translation by myself)

The Popularity of Nonsense and Possibilities of a Counter-Culture

2013-12-18T10:46:00.000+05:30

A paper on popular culture.

The full text and pdf can be found here.

[An abstract : The first part of this paper tries to analyze the ways in which 'popular' culture becomes popular and the role that racism and hatred plays in the same, citing a few explicit instances of prejudices that have appeared in Indian media over the last few years. It includes a news report in Mail Today that dalit women appointed as cooks in schools of Uttar Pradesh divided the schoolkids on caste lines; a blurb on a Sunday Times of India story that listed reservation as a social evil along with crime and corruption; a cartoon by Jag Suraiyya and Neelabh that considers Mayawati's figure ugly; reports on wikileaks 'revelations' about Mayawati without mentioning that the source the information is journalist circles of Lucknow; instances of Malayali obsessions of making moralist judgements on women and their hatred towards migrant labourers from other states and a nursery rhyme that plays up the 'white pride'. It is followed by instances of how the subalterns internalize the Brahmanic cultural supremacy and become a part of playing to the galleries knowingly or unknowingly.

The second part first reviews some theories on the power of mass media and considers some possibilities that the popular nature of the popular culture offers to counter the underlying racism and hatred, mainly in the Indian context. What follows is an overview of some of the contemporary cultural resistances in India, both outside the mainstream and within the mainstream. Two recent events that created disturbances in the dominant cultural sphere, one a television advertisement of a soft-drink and another a batting display by West-Indian Cris Gayles, are taken note of.]

[An initial Malayalam version of the same appeared in Pachakuthira monthly, Published by DC Books, in its July 2013 issue.]

Lunchbox? No, Thanks..

2013-10-01T12:37:00.000+05:30

Men would be happy to have a woman cook tasty food for them, and I guess most of them would be happier if she is not his wife. Enough reason to fantasize an old-age relationship.

As for women, many women are still thriving to find a way to the man's heart through his stomach. Marriage or an 'affair', pleasing a man's taste-buds is the measure of her happiness.

'No, thanks' to 'The Lunchbox' -- somehow it gives me digestion problems.

Collective consciences of a sick society

2013-02-19T17:53:00.003+05:30

Justice Basant is not the only person who believes that a girl who loves someone more than her parents is "deviant / abnormal" and that she can not be raped, she can only be a prostitute. He is only voicing the judgements of a sick society that almost always criticizes the woman whenever there is an assault on her.

The Supreme Court judges who decided on capital punishment for Afzal Guru wrote down in their order that "the collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to [him].

Unfortunately, these collective consciences cannot be hanged to death by a law or by a court order.

The friendly matches of 'Kadal' and 'Devasuram'

2013-02-19T17:48:00.001+05:30

Maniratnam's 'Kadal' reminded me of Malayalam 'Devasuram'. In both the films, on the surface it is a battle between two white men. However, beyond that surface we realize that it is only a friendly match between them, and it is the women who are untamed, the Muslim who has become rich and the fisherfolk who are 'uncivilized' and 'violent' -- who have to be tamed / shown their place / shown the path to god -- who are the real baddies. I think I understand why Rupesh Kumar said a Kadalakramanam would have been easier on him.

Feel good, feel good (Cheating Veating allowed)!

2012-10-25T13:35:00.000+05:30

I watched English-Vinglish in its first week itself. It is not just a well-made movie. I felt it is awesome on the technical front. Sridevi, French artist Mehdi Nebbou and Adil Hussain do their job to perfection. The younger actors match up with their seniors if not outperform them -- especially Shivansh Kotia who plays Sridevi's son. The music and visual departments also gel well with the film. To its credit, the film also has an emotional premise that most Indians, men and women alike, could relate to. The family and the problems within.

And at the end, it is a feel-good film more than anything else. Like all feel-good films, it makes you go back home happy. With tears in your eyes if you are the soft kind.

Alas, it was a feel-good that requires you to erase from your memory almost everything that you saw till then in the film. It is a feel-good that deceives the viewer in me, just like how it deceives all the central characters in the film. Cheating, I wanted to shout.

Nobody has been complaining that they felt cheated, probably because people are happy feeling happy. Critics also gave their thumbs up for this movie, most of them giving it four stars or more out of five. Taran Adarsh of BollywoodHungama.com even called it an inspiring film with an overwhelming message.

So what is the message? That one should stick with one's family, no matter how humiliating it is? It is this 'inspiring message' that is packed in a feel-good speech from the protagonist Shashi (played by Sridevi) towards the climax, which masquerades as an address or an advice to a newly-wed couple.

Shashi, a very much married Indian woman who is confronting her attraction to a french guy during her short stay at New York, goes into a denial of herself and tries to defend her lack of choice with this speech. The essence of the speech is that family is the most important thing in one's life because (i) it is only in a family that two people can feel equal, (ii) your family would never let you down, and (iii) that your family members cannot be judgmental about you.

She appears to be telling that to herself and to the audience who are watching the film, than to the newly-wed couple. Because she knows that is not the case, and so do we.

Earlier in the film we have seen her family letting her down often, being judgmental about her and we know that she and her husband have never been in an equal relationship. As is the case with most of the families. But that is not what we have been telling ourselves. That is not what we want to believe.

Marriage and family are sacred institutions that we do not want to hurt. We want to make ourselves believe that our family is all that we have to fall back upon. That the family would stay with us even in the worst of times. That the family members would not let us down. So what if most of the time our family members let us down, what if they always take you for granted, what if it is never an equal relationship, what if they are almost always judgmental -- we will try to consider it all as an aberration rather than the rule. We want to force ourselves into forgetting that family is often the source of our unhappiness, and we want to feel good that we are with our family. Because there is no escape from it. (And those who are not married are considered a threat to the society.)

Through this speech, we can feel Shashi's desire for social security and familial acceptance surpass her guilt of having to reject her French lover who respects her as an individual. Her niece, who supported her 'free life' till then is also happy that she ditched that outsider (he's outside the family, outside the caste, outside the religion and outside the nationality) and chose to stay with her husband.

No wonder that it makes us all happy.

The husband who watches the film is assured that the wife would not leave him and run away, no matter how bad he treats her. He naturally feels good about it.

Children feel good that their mother will put up with all the crap they mete out to her and she would stand by them in any case. Yes, there is a chance that they are reminded how insensitive they are. (“When I was young, I used to be embarrassed by my mom's English too. The movie reminded me of how narrow-minded I used to be”, says a quote featured on English Vinglish facebook page). But that does not matter, because they can afford to be narrow-minded and can take their mom for granted. You could make it up all by taking her to this film. (“For all the times you have been rude to your mother, make up to her by taking her for English Vinglish”, goes another quote on the page).

Wives/mothers feel good that it is not only them, even a Sridevi cannot be honest to her own feelings, despite being in a city like New York. They make themselves believe that by sticking to their family despite all the humiliations, they are essentially standing for themselves. (“We all go through some or the other sort of humiliation in life. When our weaknesses become a source of mockery for everyone. A few of us succumb to such situations and others like Shashi fight and stand for themselves. Kudos to Gauri for giving us such a wonderful film”, says Roshni in another featured quote.)

I think that is where the film fails. It fails to capitalize on the potential to develop into a real path-breaking film, and it settles for a laddoo-for-all success formula instead. Yes, that is also where the film succeeds, and Gauri Shinde deserves credits for the same.

Song of the Coastal Lillies

2011-12-17T14:06:00.000+05:30

Neythalin Paadal (Song of the Coastal Lillies), a music video by Pedestrian Pictures.

Some links below.

Why the Nuclear Liability Rules need to be modified Dr. A Gopalakrishnan in DNA.
(Dr. A Gopalakrishnan is a former chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board of the Indian government)

Why The Media is Nuked, by P K Sundaram, a research student at JNU.

Koodankulam: Indian democracy under nuclear threat, also by P K Sundaram.

("When charged with sedition under the same section of the Penal Code in British India, Mahatma Gandhi said “sedition is the highest duty of the citizen”.

The government has resorted to slapping an 1860 vintage legislation (Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code) against the agitating people in Koodankulam. In this colonial provision enacted by the British, “to excite disaffection towards the Government established by law in India” is defined as sedition. The cases, including 121 (waging war against country) and 124-A (sedition), have been slapped against 3,015 persons, including leading activists like Dr. S P Udayakumar, M. Pushparayana and Father Jayakumar..")

Starting Koodankulam reactor without sufficient backup water would be fatal, by R Ramesh, V Pugazhendi and VT Padmanabhan.

Koodankulam Anti-Nuclear Movement: A Struggle for Alternative Development? Srikant Pratibandla, Institute for Social and Economic Change, 2009.

Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant Is Destined To Reset The Nuclear Priorities In India -- Buddhi Kota Subbarao, former Indian Navy Captain, Ph.D in nuclear technology from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Certificate

2011-12-17T13:47:00.000+05:30

Kapil Sibal is a well-intentioned guy. Please do not misunderstand him.
(yours)
N Ram and Praveen Swamy
(paid news on the front page of The Hindu, December 7 2011)

All about Belly, All about Magic

2011-07-18T17:04:00.001+05:30

Ever since its release, Delhi Belly was being flaunted as bold, and a "ground-breaking and inventive" comedy (see Taran Adarsh's review). Nikhat Kazmi (Times of India) said that "it re-writes all the moth-balled rules of an ageing industry".

I waited for the film eagerly, and finally when I saw the film, it was not a complete disappointment. But is it really a path-breaking film? I had enjoyed Mithya (2008) and Sankat City (2009) (two other recent Indian comedies with mix-ups involving under-world / gangsters in the backdrop) as much if not more. (Delhi Belly poster had high resemblance of Hangover -- I guess it was intentional.)

In contrast, Salt n' Pepper was yummy overall (concept, execution both), living up to the accolades it received. One could smell the freshness. It hardly had any 'story' but it held the viewer's interest almost throughout the film. I'd have rated it a great film if it avoided:

1. The repeated laments about a woman's life being incomplete without a man,

2. The scene where the husband lifts the burqa and says "shubanallah" (I found the first burqa scene funny), and

3. The song scene in the second half -- it was plain boring to me.

I'd still rate it the best Malayalam film to have come out this year. Above Adaminte Makan Abu and Traffic.

(My friend Rajeev later told me the first Burkha sequence in this film was 'inspired' from Marai Porul, a Tamil short film by Pon. Sudha.)

Cheers to Aashiq Abu. Cheers to the writers, Syam Pushkaran and Dileesh Nair. Cheers to Lal, Shwetha, Baburaj, Asif Ali and Mythili. Many cheers to the producers and the audience.

[PS: I believe in Magic. I believe in the Deathly Hallows. I believe in J. K. Rowling.]

Vappa

2011-07-18T11:11:00.004+05:30

Vilayatyeri Imbichikoya started his social work by taking TB patients to government hospitals at a very young age. Imbichikoya won the first Nawab Rajendran foundation award for his contributions to the society.

He was always busy helping out people to access their rights -- be it health, government welfare schemes or more routine things like filling out forms and applying for government jobs. (The formal education he could boast of was four months at school -- first standard.)

Sri Imbichikoya, Vappa for us, passed away at the age of 62 at Medical College Hospital, Calicut this May. I consider it a blessing that I could meet him and get to know about him when he was alive. And it puts the responsibility on me and Bena, Umma (Ayisha) and others who remain to carry the good work forward.

[the photo was taken after he fell ill, early May 2011]

Down with Corruption

2011-04-08T23:00:00.001+05:30

After the world cup, it is Anna Hazare time. Everyone is speaking up against corruption, lighting candles, skipping lunch. Kashmir to Kerala, Gujarat to Kolkata (I doubt if it goes beyond that). Aamir Khan to Baba Ramdev to Barkha Dutt to Lalit Modi.

Sure there were one-off voices that refused to join this frenzy. In Open magazine, Manu Joseph wrote that Anna Hazare has always been someone who sought media attention.

I don't think it is bad to seek media attention. But I believe this is an easy "solidarity" and a comfortable "revolution" of the middle class. They will continue to remain corrupt, the caste-class nexus continue, the Lalus and Rajas will get tried for corruption, the Chidambaram kind or Kapil Sibal or Manmohan or Ambani kind of corruptions will never even be called corruption.

It was Facebook that offered some relief from this madness. Yes -- the same facebook that worked as the backbone for this new "jasmine" revolution.

Anoop Kumar linked to this story and said: "Read about the heady mix of caste and corruption. On how an honest dalit, a top official, is treated for trying to crack down on corrupt officials under him." (The news was from Kerala.)

Karthik Navayan wrote: "Where were you, Dear Anna Hazare, when Lakhs of Crores were misused (and still misusing) and diverting which are supposed to spent for development of Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes under Schedule caste sub plan and tribal sub plan? is this Not corruption??"

Rasshad Al-Hindi wrote: "....if only Irom Sharmila was Anna Hazare."

‎Kuffir Nalgundwar wrote: "it's not about anna hazare.. he's been roy-ized by several 'civil' society celebrities who consider themselves the 'right' people to rule. it's not about corruption either. it's about hindu society's inability to digest even formal democracy and its tendency to send the 'wrong' people into parliament."

Ajith Kumar A S wrote: "a great chance for revolutionaries to enjoy fighting against corruption without being charged with UAPA! Anna Hazare is calling! hurry up"

Sanjeev Sreedharan wrote: "the idea of mother india that looms large over this reformation is undoubtedly more dreadful than any corruption that could befall the subcontinent." (see image)

‎Dilip Mandal wrote: "बिल्कुल जातिवार जनगणना विरोधी आंदोलन (मेरी जाति हिंदुस्तानी) और आरक्षण विरोधी आंदोलन वाला माहौल है। मुट्ठी भर लोगों का आंदोलन, क्विंटल भरकर मीडिया कवरेज, आरएसएस का समर्थन, हवन, गायत्री मंत्र, सिविल सोसायटी फिल्म स्टार आदि का समर्थन, राजनीति को गाली, सरकार के साथ अंदर से तालमेल।"

Anu wrote: "its like taking a dip in the polluted ganges to become pure, again. this anti-corruption angst comes complete with a mela feeling too. so pious i feel right now."

I will end with another comment from Anoop: "The problem is not that the Lokpal bill will unleash anything against the dalits. The problem is the hypocrisy of indian civil society in defining the term corruption and limiting it to politicians."

[Thanks to my facebook friends and to Rasshad Al-Hindi. Anoop Kumar is likely to come up with a more detailed write-up on this issue].

Numbness

2011-03-16T19:34:00.000+05:30

Feeling numb, seeing TV footage from Japan. Hope the people of Japan recover from this disaster.

The only positive fallout is that there is some talk about the hidden costs involved in generation of nuclear power. Today there was a programme on Manorama TV that discussed the risk that the radiation levels cause to people living near the Tarapur reactor. [Here is an old post from this blog on the nuclear option.]

Seven Dead Husbands and a Live Film

2011-02-26T00:58:00.002+05:30

Saat Khoon Maaf tells the story of Susanna and her seven dead husbands. Based on the story Susanna's Seven Husbands by Ruskin Bond, Vishal Bharadwaj gives us a film that outperforms all his previous films.

It takes patience to sit through the first 10-15 minutes of the film. But that is true with any Vishal Bharadwaj film -- including the much celebrated Omkaara and Kaminey. I did not watch Omkaara in a movie hall, so I purchased a CD. I tried watching it several times, but it did not move beyond the first 20 minutes. For more than a year the film remained unwatched :-) (I first thought it was my problem, but later a friend shared a similar experience with Omkaara.)

But as one survives those initial hiccups, there is realization that it was worth it. What awaits us is an experience that we have not had on Indian screen yet. Priyanka does a great job as a woman who keeps seeking love, and so does her associates. Those who came to watch a serial killer Priyanka are in for a disappointment. Because she is not the kind of "killer" we are familiar with.

Her husbands do not have much screen length, but they also do their parts well. Niel Nitin Mukesh, the Russian actor and Annu Kapoor get the meatier roles among them, and they make good use of it. (Now I think I know why Mohanlal refused to act in this film -- he was offered the role of the husband who dies of Viagra overdose.) Irffan Khan's character could have been developed better. That one episode appears unconvincing compared to others.

The male viewers would feel jealous of Vivaan Shah's character. Susanna is in love with him -- so much that she never marries him.

In an interview given to Indian Express, Ruskin Bond had said that "My only regret will be, I couldn’t be cast as one of Ms Chopra’s seven husbands. Guess I am too old for that." He makes it up by playing a cameo in the film.

Bandini, Mother India and Ek Haseena Thi are three other prominent fictional Hindi films that told stories of women who kill others. It would be interesting to study Saat Khoon Maaf in contrast with them.

Women Start Cheating in Kerala

2011-01-30T23:06:00.000+05:30

"..It must have been in the beginning of twenty first century that women started cheating on their husbands in Kerala. There are references to such relationships in Malayalam films that came out circa 2010. While Cocktail (2010) had cheating as its central theme, Traffic (2011) has a cheating wife and a betrayed husband playing important roles. Another 2010 film Pranchiyettan and The Saint has a casual mention of Khushboo's character cheating on her husband.."

Cannot rule this out if one were to write history based on mainstream Malayalam films. With all the problems that I have with these three films, I think one must thank them for that one character that was almost non-existent till now in Malayalam films -- the cheating wife. We have had cheating husbands, though we could not imagine justice playing out in the form of having them paralyzed or the wife running them over with a car.

(Thanks to Devadas, Prasanth et al for the discussions on Google Buzz).

When Loknath Sharma becomes our Brand Ambassador

2011-01-08T11:09:00.001+05:30

Grand Kerala Shopping Festival is going grand. Selling this festival is one Loknath Sharma and one Major Mahadevan. Do not scratch your heads if the names are not very familiar -- they are characters from a Malayalam film titled Kandahar.

Nothing new about this. Having sponsors, models or "brand ambassadors" selling products and services is common practice. But what makes this one interesting is the fact that it has cleverly undone a policy decision taken by the Kerala government a few months back.

[Old news in brief: The government of Kerala decides to make Amitabh Bachchan the brand ambassador for Kerala tourism; This move faced opposition from within and outside the party as Amitabh was the brand Ambassador for Gujarat; (Mid-Day: CPI-M against making Big B as Kerala tourism brand ambassador, Statesman‍: Stiff opposition to Amitabh Bachchan as Kerala tourism ambassador) Succumbiong to these pressures the government backtracks on the decision.]

We also got to hear that Big B was not very happy with the whole episode. (Not made Tourism ambassador, Bachchan slams Kerala : Indian Express‌, 2010 March 25).

That was about nine months back. Now we see the same Amitabh Bachchan disguised as Loknath Sharma and selling another business initiative of the same government. All major newspapers carry colour advertisements on their front page every day, featuring images of Mohanlal and Amitabh Bachchan. Huge hoardings in all big cities of Kerala. The bigger ones have the Government of Kerala symbol of two elephants prominently on them. To make sure we don't mistake the face to be that of Amitabh Bachchan, there is a small script below (smaller than the "Cigarette smoking is injurious to health" in the old cigarette ads) that says: "Major Mahadevan, Kandahar" and "Loknath Sharma, Kandahar". Intelligent.

Those who opposed the earlier move to make Amitabh our brand image appears to have been done in by this trick.

[Images: (i) Ad on the front page of The Hindu, December 25; (ii) A hoarding in Kozhikode city]

[A Malayalam version of this note was carried in Countermedia. The images were removed for some technical reasons.]

LSD and Ishqiya: Indian films come of age

2011-01-03T21:05:00.000+05:30

This is not one of those year-end round ups. I am as tired of them as many of you are. For some reason or the other, I could not write about these two films that I watched in the early months of the year gone by. LSD: Love, Sex Aur Dhoka and Ishqiya. I loved them.

There are many reasons why I love them. I do not intend to do an essay here.

Babban's question to Khalujan, "Aapka Ishq Ishq, Aur Mera Ishq Sex?" rips through our "divine love" hypocrisies, and the final shot of the happy triplet breaks the cliched notions of the pairs made in heaven. Provocative right from the title itself, LSD went one step further and did a tightrope walk on the thin lines between love, sex and deceit.

Exceptionally catchy "Dil To Bacha Hai Ji", racy "Ibn Batuta" (Lyrics: Gulzar, Music: Vishal Bhardwaj), crazy "Love Sex Aur Dhoka..", controversial "Tu Nangi Achchi Lagti Hai" (this was changed to "Tu Gandi Achchi Lagti Hai" in CDs) and totally mad "I can't hold it any longer" (Music credits: Sneha Khalwalkar / Dibakar Banerjee, Sung by Kailash Kher, Sneha) provided a complete musical feast. Dil To Bacha Hai Ji has been more or less a unanimous choice as the best track to have come out last year.

I'd rate LSD above Ishqiya for the form that we were not used to.

[Images: Film posters]

Shahina the Terrorist

2010-12-22T16:35:00.000+05:30

This report about my friend Shahina came in Malayalam newspaper Janmabhoomi. Titled "Shahina tried to sabotage the Delhi blast case as well", it says "Shahina, who tried to sabotage the Bangalore blast case, is understood to have tried to sabotage the investigations of the Delhi blasts that happened in 2008 September."

So how did Shahina sabotage the Bangalore blast case? By exposing some bogus witnesses the Police had manufactured. The case against her is that she intimidated and tried to influence the witnesses. (A video of her "intimidating" one of the witnesses could be found here).

Seeing this report in Janmabhoomi, I don't know whether to cry or laugh.

In this case, I know Shahina and was with her during the post Delhi blast days. So I know this is nonsense. But in many other cases we see similar reports -- in Janmabhoomi, in Mathrubhumi, in Kerala Kaumudi.. and we tend to believe at least a large part of it. Because we do not have any reason not to believe it.

This news tells me how foolish I was. A late realization, but I think better late than never. Thanks Shahina for being a twist in the story. I know it has not been that great an experience for you, but still.

* * *

(In September 2008, a significant part of an article by Shahina that appeared in The Hoot was used in an email that the media houses received "from Indian Mujahideen". She wrote about that experience in Hindustan Times later. The blog post mentioned in that note can be found on this diary, here).

Terrorist Factory

2010-11-27T10:10:00.001+05:30

"The criminal engineering of making an unmaking of a terrorist is nothing new, but for me it is new. I traveled to Kudaku to meet the prosecution witnesses in Madani case. Prabhakar, Yoganand and Rafeeq are the three witnesses who gave the testimony that they have seen Madani in the place with Naseer. Among the three, Yoganand and Prabhakar are BJP activists. I took the interview of K K Yoganand and Rafeeq. Both of them disclosed that they have seen Madani only in Television. Yoganand saw him in person for the first time when Madani was brought to Kodaku for staging the whole drama of 'evidence collection..", writes Shahina.

For more, see the report in Tehelka: Why is this man still in Prison?

Thanks Shahina for taking this up and taking the trouble to talk to the witnesses. The Kerala media and the public -- Hindus, Christians and Muslims alike, except some who did not mind getting termed "fundamentalists" -- seemed to take Madani's Kudaku visit for granted. And there were movies like Anwar that gave a second judgment on Coimbatore blasts.

Good that you are with Tehelka, you are here to tell us these stories:-)

Notes From a Diary, A Note of Thanks

2010-11-26T17:17:00.003+05:30

I am happy to share the news that I have been selected for Sangam House writer's residency programme this year. (From the website: "Every winter the Sangam House invites approximately twenty writers to live and work at an arts institution in southern India. Each year, half the invited writers come from the South Asian subcontinent and half from other countries around the world. Sangam House is open to writers in all languages and disciplines - we welcome fiction and non-fiction writers, poets, translators, playwrights and screen-writers..")

I did not have any work published in print, so it was a compilation of some posts published on this diary that I submitted as a writing sample. This gives us a reason to celebrate on this diary, and adds some pressure on me to keep making quality posts.

I am thankful to those who have been reading my diary. The ardent followers as well as occasional visitors. People who have connected with me on social networking sites and those who prefered to remain private readers. And those who augment the posts with their comments -- the named and the anonymous.

As a token of thanks to my readers, I have touched up the notes that were compiled for Sangam House submission and made it look like a book (Titled "Notes From a Diary". Back cover shown here). Thanks to Bena who helped with editing. It is free (and free to share), so those who'd like a pdf version please mail me at my gmail id sudeep dot ks. You could also read it here as a google document.

It could have been worse, but isn't it bad enough?

2010-10-04T16:55:00.001+05:30

If you thought this judgment was bad, imagine what would have happened if the judgment said the land belonged to the Waqf board.

"..however, I must also confess my immense relief at the Court turning down the claims of the Sunni Waqf Board, not because I believe that the Board’s stance is wholly without any merit at all, but, rather, simply because had the Court favoured the Board (which is what many of my Muslim friends had rather naively expected) it would certainly have provoked Hindu hordes into unleashing yet another massive reign of terror against hapless Muslims all across the country..", says Yoginder Sikand. It sums up the motivation of the verdict and shows how silly is the "call for peace" sounds heard all over now.

But before we hail this historic peacemaker verdict, let us ask this question:

"..As a friend of mine, a fellow agnostic, brilliantly expressing my own reaction to the judgment, quipped, ‘Are we now to be governed by Hindu shariah?’" [Ayodhya Verdict: Musings Of A Now Hardened Agnostic, by Yoginder Sikand]

Also see: Thol Thirumalavan, Dalit activist and MP from Chidambaram, speaks about the verdict (Tamil Video, on youtube).

* * *

Some interesting responses from some of my friends, on the facebook:

Anu: third hindu epic is 10,000 pages long. seeking english to sanskrit translators.

Bobby: the next title suit should be about the ownership of Kerala - created by Parasuram's axe - but owned once upon a time by Mahabali and taken by stealth from him by Vamana!!!!!! Wonder who all would be parties to this litigation!!!!!

Bindu: appalled again that proclaimed democracies are just theocracies in disguise. from yesterday, not even in disguise, i guess.

Sandali: Breaking News: Now that the existence of Lord Ram has been proven, Sita's descendants have moved the Lucknow bench of the High Court (since that's where his birth was proven yesterday) seeking intervention in the abandonment of Sita by her chauvinist and masochistic husband that eventually led to her unique suicide in the end.

A poet from the streets of Bombay fades into memory

2010-08-17T12:58:00.002+05:30

"When I was born it was without a name
When I go, I will leave a name behind.."

He did. For those who did not know Narayan Surve, there is nothing much one can find on the web. I think the best publicly available documentation of the poet's life is Narayan Gangaram Surve, a Marathi film by Arun Khopkar. It had noted theatre/film actor Kishore Kadam playing the poet, and had touching visualizations of his poetry. Apparently, this was also the first Marathi film to win the national award for the best film in Short film category.

Narayan Gangaram Surve : Part 1 (25 min)

Narayan Gangaram Surve : Part 2 (20 min).

Surve grew up in the streets of Mumbai and was raised by a mill worker. He did not have the privilege of going to school. Yet he learnt to read and write, and wrote poetry on the life around him. He passed away yesterday. Just like the mills and mill workers, just like "Bombay", the poet of Bombay has also faded away into the world of memories.

The Art of Copying, Sathyan Anthikkad and Values

2010-08-12T18:00:00.002+05:30

Let me clarify first -- this not a post that make fun of copying. Let us consider films for instance. I don't think a film is bad because it is a copy. I believe copying is an art and also a political act. It is also known in other names -- inspiration, adaptation. With due credits, or without giving any credits to the "original". (Whether the word "original" makes any sense or not is a different question. Every writer/film-maker gets an idea from somewhere. It could be some real-life events, a story they heard somewhere, or many such stories. Let us leave that part for now.)

So why is it that I don't consider copying a crime? If one knows the job reasonably well (and does it reasonably well), the viewers stand to gain. There is absolutely no point comparing that work with the original.

Take, for instance, some of Priyadarshan's early films in Malayalam. Most of the Malayali filmgoers that time did not have the remotest chance of watching One flew over the Cuckoo's nest. They saw Thaalavattom and enjoyed it. It was certainly one of the most entertaining films made in Malayalam around that time. Does it make any sense to compare Thaalavattom with One flew over the Cuckoo's nest, except may be for academic purposes? Similarly, I think both Bluffmaster (Hindi, 2005) and Gulumaal (Malayalam, 2009) were reasonably good rip-offs from a hilarious Nine Queens (Argentina, 2000). I watched Nine Queens very recently.

Forget foreign films. In fact, it does not even have to be from a different language. Consider Sreenivasan's 1998 movie Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala (also in Malayalam). It had an irresponsible husband and his wife as central characters. It made people laugh, made people think. More important, a lot of people watched it. Unlike K R Mohanan's Swaroopam, which had a similar theme and also had Sreenivasan in the lead role. Even as K R Mohanan denies it, many people believe that Shyamala was a commercialized extension of Swaroopam. And I think Sreenivasan deserves credit for taking it to a wider audience.

As long as there are no complaints or "conflicts of interests", I think it is good to have copies. A copy could also happen by pure coincidence. Recently, there was a mail making rounds that Avatar was a remake of Vietnam Colony. Hindi film Aamir had striking resemblances to Filipino movie Cavite, though the director said he had never seen Cavite.

But there are some copies that irritate. When one wishes that the director did not apply too much creativity of his own. For instance, take Sathyan Anthikkad's remake of Pursuit of Happiness (2006). It is called Katha Thudarunnu, released earlier this year. The first is about a father whose wife left him has to raise his kid by himself, and the latter about a mother whose husband was killed has to raise her kid by herself. For a detailed comparison, see this post by Jo. May be he thinks that Keralites cannot digest a father bringing up a son alone. Or he is afraid suggesting such a possibility would damage our "value system" that is created for (and by) men for their convenience.

This is the Sathyan Anthikkad we have been seeing of late. One who makes only safe films, that are supposed to carry "social messages". In Bhagyadevatha he carried a message that paying up dowry solves all problems, including that of dowry. In Innathe Chinthavishayam, he showed the hero sending three women (who were living a happy life) back to their useless husbands, carrying home the message that the onus of "holding a family together" is on women. Vinodayathra was another nightmare, apparently copied from a Korean film. Worse, he got a best scriptwriter state award for that film. (Copy or no copy, I think we have had enough of Sathyan Anthikkad. Can't believe he is the guy who made Appunni once).

In an interview given to Deshabhimani Varika, I see him claim that women and children can go watch his films without worrying about violence. Unfortunately, violence in his films (especially on women) are worse than what we get to see in "violent" films like Chota Mumbai or Big B.

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[This post is inspired by Jo's post "The story never ends" and the comments there and a discussion about Sreenivasan on a mailing list.]

Thank God it is not P = NP

2010-08-10T12:52:00.006+05:30

Last Friday the news broke that someone has proved that P ≠ NP (read P is not equal to NP), answering one of the age-old problems in computer science. In simplest terms, this amounts to saying that there are some problems that cannot be solved easily on computers, no matter how fast the processor is.

The proof (rather claimed proof) is spread over hundred-odd pages. The person who did it seemed serious -- he sent it to some people who are really good in the business, to check if the proof was foolproof. The mail got forwarded in many directions and someone immediately posted it on the net (yes, I think it was a silly thing to do), and the name Vinay Deolalikar became familiar in a day. Mailboxes flooded with queries about the correctness of the proof. (I came to know about all this only yesterday, as I was traveling this weekend).

Some people were sceptical about the proof, and justifiably so. Scott Aaronson literally bet his house on it. He said in response to one comment on his post: "If P≠NP has indeed been proved, my life will change so dramatically that having to pay $200,000 will be the least of it."

That explains the seriousness of the proof. If a USD $1,000,000 prize money announced for this problem was not proof enough.

One my friend said, thank god he did not prove P is equal to NP. As that would mean all 'hard' problems in computer science have a solution that can run in a reasonable time on a computer, and many people like him (and me) would become jobless.

This is the latest update I have seen: Issues in the Proof that P≠NP (Dick Lipton's blog).

But is is not dismissing this as yet another publicity gimmick. "..the author has advanced serious and refreshingly new ideas of definite value, and deserves time and space to develop them more fully", says Lipton. Which means even if the proof is not complete, it is likely to lead us to a correct and complete proof in the near future.

The paper can be found here (pdf).

Divisive Mindsets at Work

2010-07-30T13:54:00.000+05:30

There hasn't been any posts on this diary since the one on Raavan. A lot of things happened during this time.

First there was an unfortunate incident of a college teacher's hand getting chopped off in Kerala. I wrote about it on Kafila. [A Dialogue with God and Dialogues that go missing, with Bobby Kunhu].

The frenzy created by the media and the ire against one community are still on the high. A couple of days back the honourable chief minister came up with a statement that said some Muslim groups are working with an agenda of making Muslims a majority in Kerala. (Numbers suggest otherwise -- The decrease in population growth rate between 1981-91 and 1991-2001 is 34.2% for Kerala. For Malappuram district, it is much higher: 40.4%. We can wait for 2011 census figures for the current trend.) I think that statement from a chief minister of a state was extremely irresponsible, in the mildest terms. He even hinted at a 'reverse Love Jihaad', of Muslim women 'trapping' Hindu men. (A report on the sources of the 'original' Love Jihad can be found here: "Love Jihad was no Farce").

Then there was news about how the induction of Dalit women as cooks for the mid-day meals in schools in Uttar Pradesh angered a section of people. A report on it on the India Today website was very funny, in a sad way. It was as if the schoolkids were all living happily together, and then some "Dalit cooks" came and divided them. I first wrote about it on The Hoot ("Casteist reporting" -- The report on India Today site has changed since then) and followed it up with a post on Insight young voices blog ("Dalit cooks expose divisive mindsets").

All this is certainly disturbing, even if it isn't suprising. It tells us how divided we stand. It tells us we have a long way to go in our journey to becoming a civil society. It tells us progress cannot be gauged in economic terms alone.

Raavan, in times of (Chidamba)Ramayan

2010-06-21T13:57:00.005+05:30

Govinda as Sanjeevani Kumar

All the shortcomings notwithstanding, I want to salute Mani Ratnam, Sharada Trilok and Shaad Ali (producers of the film, according to Wikipedia) for what they have almost done. To make a film on the Indian Government's Operation Green Hunt on the tribal population of this country, and release it at a time when the operation is at its worst.

The film has Vikram playing Dev Pratap Sharma, a dutiful police officer. He represents the state (just the way PC and the mythological Ram do) and is a symbol of all the supposedly moral values (which appear extremely immoral to many of us). Mani Ratnam is careful enough not to project him as an evil person per se, even as he does not mind attributing some villainy to his brother Lakshmana Pratap Sharma. All the nonsense that Dev does is part of his duty. That includes playing a drama of questioning his wife's chastity as a ploy to trace the path to Beera's den and to eliminate the "evil".

Aishwarya plays the Bahurani of Sharma family, a role that is not very different from that of the Bahurani of the Bachchan family. No wonder she naturally comes about as the stupid white woman. All that she has to do extra is some song and dance sequences, and we know she is not good at that. Let us forgive her.

Mani's current favourite Abhishek (I think his best performance till date was in Yuva) plays the title role -- of Beera Munda, a young tribal leader. The name holds heavy resemblance to Birsa Munda, a tribal leader who lived more than hundred years back in time. He was also young (he died at the age of 25, in the year 1900) and was a local hero. [Birsa Munda (1875-1900) was a tribal leader and a folk hero, belonging to the Munda tribe who was behind the Millenarian movement that rose in the tribal belt of modern day Bihar, and Jharkhand during the British Raj, in the late 19th century making him an important figure in the history of the Indian independence movement, says Wikipedia. Mahashweta Devi has written a novel on that story, called Aranyer Adhikar]

Birsa Munda

Beera is being presented to us as a strong, rugged beast of a man. That is how the character is described on the the film's website. The description continues: Anti-establishment, non-conformist, voice of the underdog, and fiercely protective of his people; He's the beacon of hope for the oppressed lot and the pride and shame of Laal Maati. Nicknamed after the mythological daemon Raavan, he is a saint and the sinner.

Oh lord, please forgive Mani Ratnam. This is what he and his urban middle class fan following can think of at best of a tribal hero. He has to be "a beast of a man", he has to be a shame of Laal Maati (I don't think the resemblance to Lalgarh is a coincidence), and he has to be a sinner. As an obedient actor, Abhishek constantly tries to put up a cruel face. Thankfully, neither the actor nor the director seems very much worried about making him look like a tribal. The 'beast of a man' reminds us more of a "cruel Jamindar's Goonda" stereotype.

One my friend said, had Birsa Munda been a cult like Che Guevera or Bhagat Singh (it is not difficult to figure out why he is not), Mani wouldn't have dared to do this.

The most interesting character in the film is that of the Salwa Judum. He is called Sanjeevani Kumar the forest guard, played by Govinda. He knows Beera is good and that he is a God to the people there, but he helps Ram in finding his Sita and in eliminating Beera.

Why does he do that? It is not just those thirty silver coins. That is the only way he can survive in this system, as he is very much part of the system. He is Hanuman. He is you and me. He is Mani Ratnam. She is Sharada Trilok. He is Shaad Ali Sahgal.

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[I checked the web for reviews, and liked this one by Cath Clarke in The Guardian that calls the film plain sexist: "..May be it's the forest air, or a touch of Stockholm syndrome, but she takes a liking to her captor; heaven knows why since Bachchan hams it up like Toshiro Mifune at his most snarlingly crazy-eyed. Meanwhile, her husband (Vikram) gives chase, bearing down with the full weight of the law. Which is hardly surprising since flashbacks show what a cracking wife she is, fetching him his dinner while singing sweet songs and dancing alluringly.."]

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[ Images : Govinda, Abhishek and Aishwarya in Raavan, from the film's official website.
Birsa Munda, tribals and the British forces, from Shaheedsmriti.org ]