Diwali ,TV And Some Musings
One more occasion . One more day packed with movies, movie-walah interviews and endless commercials in TV…
Family and friends were called and a happy Diwali was wished for and one heard all of them say , after the required niceties, “We have to watch the match”.
You’d think someone held a gun to their foreheads and forced them to watch cricket matches [or movies for that matter].
Prayers [ Mother God, here is my this year’s list.Dont make me wait] and sweets later ,[ One's own make and sent ones from neighbours and friends] settled before the TV, Sun was showing Chennai 600028, a Lagaan like movie minus any stars.
It was refreshing to watch makeup -less faces, their loves, losses, aspirations and hopes.
Two teams from Chennai , play a cricket match, fight it out for cup that would take them in to team India.
One of them wins after a long battle and you guessed it, in the last ball of the last over and a character quips, ” Just like our Indian team. A match that could have been won easily, they drag it and win it in the last ball.”
One wishes getting in to team India was that easy. Getting there and staying there require God fathers or God brothers …no I shall not discuss things like these on a bright day like this.
The credits rolled and the channel was hurriedly changed as Jaya TV was showing a Vijay movie.
For the less informed, Vijay is a sort of Junior Rajnikanth and we get a vicarious thrill watching him bash up 15 corrupt guys at a time.
The movie was “Madhurey” [ spelt that way thanks to Numerology].
A chap by that name sells vegetables in Koyambedu market but talks to mysterious people once a while. We come to know he is really Maduravel IAS who lives in a sort of self imposed exile as there are serious charges against him.
A bad guy called KTR [ played by talented Pasupathi] has got the collector’s secretary cum lover killed and the blame is on the collector.
Maduravel [ Vijay] collects evidence [ video graphic –don’t ask whether this is permissible in courts-these movies are like candies to us and are not meant to be logical] against KTR [who is as charismatic as the hero ,we actually like him] is helped by another honest official and they are helped by a honest Government. [ haven’t you read fairy tales? Stop asking questions].
Plus, in reality all bad guys have a nexus with each other and they are touchingly protective of each other when in trouble.
Cute chaps.
You wont find “stand –alone” baddies like KTR in reality. So what?
This is our escape to fantasy and it feels good while we watch them.
The irrepressible villain , when he knows he is facing the gallows, decides to blow Madurai city up with the free cell phones he has doled out to people.
“
You know why we remember Kannagi? Because she was chaste? No !Because she burnt Madurai”.
Yeah. KTR could be right.
Vijay plays the angry young man to the hilt here and takes KTR along with him in an oil tanker , parks the vehicle near the signal tower and blows the signal tower , the oil tanker and KTR up…and walks nonchalantly away…
The credits thanked two IAS officers for information on the system and one wondered for the first time about the powers IAS officers have...
I mentally whistled [as haven’t learnt the art of whistling] and felt a bit hopeful about the World.
But , when KTR drawls “KTR rom....ba kettavan” [KTR is a ba....d guy] we smile.
May be Pasupathi is too good as a villain or
we are attuned to admiring badness.
After a break ,[ folks have to eat too],we watched another Vijay movie [ Gilli] in Sun again, on and off.The match had started and we HAD to watch that too in between.
Gilli is also about teaching a lesson to a bad guy [ Prakash Raj] and the hero who is a kabbadi player.
The fast paced movie was interrupted by too many commercials and the viewers heroically managed to watch it anyway.
Here too ,like that cricket movie, the hero wins a cup at the end and the bad guy is killed in the melee that follows. Not the hero’s fault and we feel happy as he gets the heroine as well.
Just as we thought we were done with TV and got ready for dinner, friends called saying they were coming over with their kids.
“Normally we don’t move out of the house when a match is going on. But you people are more important.”
Yours truly beamed like those high mast lights in the stadium, set the living room in order, got some sweets and coffee ready and waited.
They arrived and settled before TV , cursed the Indian players as the last over was being played.
The man was too stressed thanks to the match and dunked the badushas in to coffee and ate all of them. [bad-Ushas?]
And the lady covered her face and muttered“MurugaRamaKrishnaKappathu!”[an SOS message] …and frequent visitors to this site would know yours truly is a Gnani in cricketish matters and sat like a nonchalant Western movie character [ minus the cigar and wide rimmed hat] .
Yours truly was more worried about her sofa that was being chewed up by stressed out friends.
The match was over and after some indignities were heaped on the home heroes, situation returned to normal.
2 + 2 kids ran around the house screaming and shouting for reasons only they understand why and both sets of parents insisted that their respective offsprings were the worst behaved .
The day ended and I went to sleep thinking about how many officers like Maduravel IAS [ Or honest police officers like Saami Vikram or golden hearted NRI’s like Rajni Shivaji] we’d need to set things right .
We don’t really know but I am happy we have the movies anyway.
Happy Diwali!!!
**********************************************************************
© 2007 Copyright narensomu.sulekha.com
********************************************************************
Close
Reply | | Report Abuse