Happenings......

It’s been a while since I have scribbled something….not that I have a string of people yearning to see a new post every second day! Whilst there is so much happening around us across spheres, it was still difficult to zero in on a specific area to ponder and pen down thoughts. In such a case, I though the next best option (read shortcut) was to touch upon a few ‘happenings’.

Rajneeti………

The first thing that crosses our mind is Advaniji ki Rath Yatra! I wonder its relevance at this stage, especially as he is more of a ‘former future prime minister' with no bandwidth among his party men and the masses. He was on a rath yatra against corruption while one of his party’s poster boys was in jail / hospital (interchangeable when it comes to VIPs) for corruption. What’s more is a bomb that was found in Madurai on the same route as his yatra. Who in their senses, will want to disrupt a harmless rath yatra? Anyway, that’s for the security agencies to ponder.

Discussing Rajneeti without talking about Annaji and Lokpal is a non starter. A lot has occurred since his last fast and it’s no rocket science to conclude that things are not in his control anymore. His core team members like Bhushan, Kiran Bedi and Kejriwal are under fire for diverse reasons. Few of the core members have walked out from the morcha and as I speak through my blog, his blog is defunct as his blogger has a different take on the way things are happening. All said and done, let us give the man some credit for the clean notions, but it’s about time he realized that it’s not easy to control even a small group, leave aside a political party. To borrow a word from an article I came across……… “The moot question is that if Anna Hazare cannot get three or four people of integrity in his core team, what would be the fate of Lok Pal?” Read more at…… http://www.sify.com/news/bedi-and-kejriwal-not-the-perfect-role-models-news-columns-lkyxvvfbhch.html

Reports also suggest that the political stand in the Hissar bye-election was purely based on his eagerness to teach a lesson to the Congress and it had nothing to do with corruption. And yes, he always wanted everyone to respond and talk when he was on fast (including the Prime Minister), and when all these allegations against his core members surfaced, he was conveniently on mauna vrath. Despite all claims, although his last fast grabbed a lot of eyeballs, it didn’t get the desired results, thus forcing him to settle for something very inferior to what he bargained for. No Lokpal was passed nor did we see a time-line in which it will be passed. In all probability we can see one more fasting in the near future and the question is how much support the media will give him this time around.

Movie time…

Diwali season, apart from the family diplomacy, is movie time for any Tamilian and am not a rebel here. It’s just the question of which movie to see first and I picked Velayudham, a Vijay film, for the Diwali day. I came out smiling and I was entertained. I had a good time…… No claims of changing the face of Tamil film or saying something new…… it’s simple entertainment (of course, one should like Vijay and his antics to enjoy this one). As it stands, we won’t get to see a Vijay film in its true sense in the near future as reports suggest that his future projects are being directed by the likes of Shankar, Gowtham Menon and AR Murugadas. Next stop was 7 am Arivu, a Suriya film which generated lot of hype. It was a damp squib… While I appreciate the hard work and intensity of Suriya, the makers didn’t know whether to entertain or educate. This movie didn’t do both. I personally believe that liking a film is all about the mindset in which you enter the movie hall. You go with some expectations and you always judge the film against your expectations. The third one I ventured into was Ra-One, marketed to such an extent, that it became a duty of any Indian to have a dekho and by the time I decided to fulfil my responsibility, the critics had crucified the movie and SRK. From where I see it, it was the comparison that did the damage. It was an admirable attempt; it was time-pass; it was paisa vasool. Instead of appreciating SRK for a good attempt, the critics and media chose to crucify him by comparing it with Salman’s ‘cut and paste’ films which did good business. Yes, the Rajni piece was a joke.

And finally….Books…….

Revolution 2020 – that’s the title of the new book by Chetan Bhagat. A potboiler, which is a rehash of his earlier books that offers nothing new.