Swades...a flop or was it made to look like one?
Earler I had written a post about Swades & the state of the Indian film industry as a whole, in this blog. I had said then that some channels & crititcs were competing with each other to tell us how bad Swades really is. This article looks behind the scenes of a shady game played by some vested interests to tarnish Swades & also makes it clear on what triggered this bad reviews.

If someone dares to be different and succeeds, some film industry folks have so much of a problem that they calmour to pull him down. It's another thing that they can't dare to be different, and stick to their sole formula and inflict the audiences with similar mushy romances year after year. For someone who's made 'Lagaan', which went to the oscars, Ashutosh Gowariker is braving the storm of detractors who're hell-bent on running his 'Swades' down, in favour of a slow & boring 'Veer-Zaara'.
Veer Zaara was Yash Chopra's directorial venture after a gap of 7 years. At the same time 'Swades' was being made & they never wanted it to be such tough competition to their magnum opus. And this seems to have instigated the vested interests to raise their ugly heads & dub 'Swades' as a box-office dud. They launced a vilified campaign against 'Swades' and a massive promotional one for 'Veer-Zaara', which includes putting colour ads in newspapers claiming how 'well' the film has done at the box-office. It doesn't make any difference to them that in reality, Veer Zaara was actually being shown in half-emptyhalls.

According to reports, it's the media-savvy guys at Yash Raj Films & Dharma Productions who're controlling the course of these reports that 'Swades' has bitten the dust at the box-office. Probably beacause somewhere along the way, they realised Ashutosh was making a superior film than theirs. And this is something that wasn't acceptable to them, that an upstart could race ahead of them on sheer merit of sicerity, hard work and belief in his subject. And that also, minus the hype & hoopla that their names generated each time their ventures were ready for release.

Yash Raj Films released their Veer-Zaara with a record 700 prints. There were reports about how they were muscling the multiplex owners to screen atleast 8 shows daily, leaving little or no chance for the other releases. Going by this strategy, it's not difficult to interpret that the production company was not too optimistic about this love story running for weeks. But Yashraj Films was not going to allow their film to be labeled a disaster, which it actually was. So a concerted campaign was launched to hype 'Veer-Zaara' to the extent that it would get hammered into people's heads that even if the film was not a hit, atleast it was on safe ground. And the only other film that could steal the thunder from it was 'Swades', so it was conveniently victimised by this movie mafia.

When 'Swades' finally hit the screens, it garnered a positive response, both at the ticket counters and with the critics. Some even called it "the best film of the year". But the industry, or should we say certain sections of the industry, were not happy with this development. And so, the anti-'Swades' mission was initiated. Sadly for them, it didn't make an iota of difference to the audience at large. Even as these insecure few continued bitching about the film, 'Swades' continued drawing the audience. As Jaymin Panchal, the manager of Inox multiplex in Mumbai says, " It's such a great movie. With every passing day, crowds are increasing. We have the last show that starts at 10:45 & even that is going packed". The GM of E-Square multiplex in Pune says, "It's a movie for the classes. It's doing great since its release. The collections in the first week were 98% and the status of advance booking is tight for the coming weeks too".
On his part, Ashutosh was hopeful that the audiences would respond to an honest film & the collections would prove the point. But there wasn't much he could do to stop his detractors from damaging his film.

This tells us why the critics & movie channels were competing with each other to give bad reviews to Swades. Also the music channels always placed Veer Zaara's songs ahead of A.R.Rahman's touching & soulful songs in the song rating shows, even when Swades audio was selling like hot cakes. I remember the report shown on Headlines Today on next day of Swades's release, in which they said the collections were bad. Also, that jughead critic Taran Adarsh was saying it's a really bad movie. He's the same man who hailed the mediocre "Veer Zaara" & "Rok Sako To Rok Lo" as classics. This was the same thing that happened to Mani Ratnam's "Aayita Ezhuthu" last year. So this shows that we should no longer believe these reviews & reports of eminent critics. It's for us to decide if the movie is good or bad.....
NB:-Parts of this article are from the February 2005 issue of Stardust.
Your Crusader, Praveen

Palayam Underpass...a new chapter in development
Marking a milestone on the State capital's road to development, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday threw open the underpass at Palayam, constructed in a record seven-and-a-half months, for vehicular traffic.
It marks the completion of the first phase of the ambitious capital city development scheme. The Government & the workers of Punj Lloyd ltd. are to be congratulated for the speedy completion of the job. Its a step in the right direction & if the govt. continues this in the same vain, our state can make great strides in the future.
In the first two days after the opening of the underpass, traffic blocks were the order of the day. It was mainly due to the confusion that arose after the routes were changed. The situation is expected to better 9 in the coming days as things settle down. After the construction of the proposed flyovers, city traffic will be really smooth flowing.
Anyways, lets wait for some real make-up for this old & grand city.

Your Crusader, Praveen

A Novel way to protest
Last week, there was an interesting sight in front of the secretariat. A group of men were cleaning the walls of the secretariat & repainting it. Don't think they are professional painters. They were the members of the computer dealers association of kerala protesting against the Kerala government's decision to import used computers from abroad. & what a novel way to protest???
The aim of conducting protest marches is to attract public attention. But most of the marches, which get public attention by creating road blocks, fail to bring to notice the issues because of the sheer number of these marches. What these marches & violent protests failed to get, was achieved by a group of young men, with a creative & constructive mind.
The student organisations & political parties should take a leaf out these guys' book if they want to get noticed & also to get public support. Resorting to violence is not going to get them any public support. & if they do something like this then Kerala could also become one of the most beautiful lands on earth without any strikes, violence & above all a clean & green state.

Hartal Casualty 

Kerala the corruption free state!!!!!!!!!
A few days back, a survey report by an organisation called 'Transparency International' said that Kerala is the least corrupt state in India. These findings were publicised widely in the media.
But my own experiences makes me disagree with these findings. As many of u know, its almost impossible to get anything done from the Government offices without emptying your wallet. I am perplexed thinking about which all departments were included in the survey.
Take for example the procedure for getting your driving license. Its impossible to get license if you go on your own, without the help of a driving school. The officers would somehow find a reason to deny you, even if you do everything right. But if you go through a driving school, you will be given more than one chances to show the correct signals.There is a fixed amount for passing each student from a particular school. This is collected by the officer's agents sitting inside a car just near the test venue. The officers collect this money later from these agents.
The scenario is same in high offices also. Only difference is, it is on a large scale..to the tune of crores.
And this is the state which is the least corrupt one in the country? Imagine the plight of all the more corrupt states..if this is the least corrupt state!!!!!
Plz comment on your experiences of corruption in Govt. offices or do u disagree with my opinion?
Your crusader,Praveen

Hartals & the people of Kerala
Hartals have become a regular affair for keralites. Atleast once in a week, any of the umpteen political parties will call for a hartal, citing the usual "anti-people rule of government" as a reason. We've grown used to it that we take lots of preparations to celebrate this unexpected holiday.
Amidst all this stands tall Pulluvazhi, a small village near perumbavoor, where the day to day life goes on as usual even on hartal days. The people of this village have united & decided to carry on with their day to day life even on hartal days. After initial opposition, the political have also surrendered to the iron will of the villagers. This is an important lesson for all Keralites, who submit meekly to hartal calls even from 2 member parties. What can the parties do if all the shopkeepers open their shops & all the vehicles come out on the road.
The above said scenario may be dismissed as impossible by most of you. But there are ways. The media should stop reporting the hartal calls of every party. If the papers & channels don't report it, how are the people gonna know that a hartal is announced that day. This will lead to a complete failure of the hartal. But the media should strictly take this stand as they have a moral commitment to the readers. Initially, there might be resistance, but it will surely die down. Also, the vyapari vyavasayi ekopana samithi can tell all shop owners to work as usual, which will help in a bigger way in the fight against hartals.
The hartals are having an adverse effect on our already dented economy. We shouldn't allow this to continue unchecked. So lets join our hands in this fight to save our state.
Your crusader, Praveen

Swades....& the mind of the Indian audience...we the people
"Hesitation to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress."- Swades directed by Ashutosh Gowariker starts off with this quote from Mahatma Gandhi. By making Swades, Gowariker was actually caarying out the idea contained in this quote. He didn't hesitate to make a film on an untouched subject, that too one which is absent of all the commercial flavours. A film so true to heart and which truly deserves the title 'film which smells of our soil'. The soil need not be Indian...beacause this is a film which brings the same feelings of love for motherland to whichever country's native...be it India, China, Russia or any other country.
But the irony is that we Indians didn't like it. And why? Because it didn't have the usual tearjerking mellodramas, the necessary skin show(which is the USP of some of the superhits last year) & most of all, what is a patriotic film without some Pak-bashing dialogues, anti-USA comments or some of the usual stuff these kind of films are made of. We Indians are so programmed to resist change...we still like Mahesh Bhatt's Hollywood inspired(blatantly copied) movies, Anu Malik's copied & yet repetitive tunes, Yashraj family dramas, the usual boy meet girl dramas...whatever work which treads a different path from these are rejected by the audience(barring a few exceptions).
So what was Swades all about? Swades is a story of a NASA scientist, Mohan Bhargava (Shahrukh Khan), who comes to Charanpur, a small village in India in search of Kaveriamma (Kishori Ballal), the woman who took care of him as a child. His mind is touched by the plight of the villagers in rural India. They lack basic amenities & to top it is the caste system and related problems. This is not a made up story. It shows the true picture of a contemporary rural Indian village. The landlords in these villages frame their own laws & the villagers abide by it.
Swades can take credit for two of the most touching moments ever in the history of Indian cinema. One is when Mohan sits in the train sipping his mineral water bottle, when a boy selling water comes to him. The film is unmissable for this single scene itself...so touching & a strange feeling, never experinced before, came to me when I watched that scene. The second is when Mohan brings electricity to the village. An old woman faintly utters the word ‘bijli’ as a light bulb brightens her face, which symbolised the state of rural India today.

When Swades was released, the so-called eminent critics competed with each other to tell us through the channels how bad the movie really is, how long it is & how preachy it is. These are the same guys who hail the repetitive skin flicks as all-time classics. The music channels also didn't give the due importance to A.R.Rahman's soulful tunes, instead preferring, blatantly copied & rehashed songs.

Swades was but loved by a section of the audience, for whom this was a whiff of fresh air amidst all those melodramas. We have to promote these kind of movies if Indian film industry is to rise up from the depths to which it has fallen in the last decade or so. As long as there are directors like Gowariker, Mani Ratnam, Shyam Benegal etc. in our industry, we can hope for a better tomorrow, when the Indian audience will flock to the theatres to see socially relevant films, as a result of which other directors will also be forced to follow suit.

Rallies...bane of Trivandrum

Of late, rallies taken out by various organisations have become a bane for the city residents. These rallies throw the traffic out of gear for many hours, sometimes even for the full day. The vehicles are diverted through already congested roads & people are left stranded in the roads for many hours. And to top it all, the people who take out the rally, also try to control traffic. Traffic police are mute spectators to their high-handedness.

A good solution for this problem is to conduct the rally out of the city limits. There should be a permanent venue for the meetings to take place, preferably in any of the village areas just outside the city limits. The govt. should issue an order to limit the rallies up to this particular place. Stringent action should be taken against those who conduct rally inside the city. The leaders of these organisations should be punished. This would serve as a deterrent for the rally organizers and will in turn decrease the number of rallies.

Your crusader, Praveen

here's my first post on tvmcrusader
Its a poem written by me last yr. Its about the US atrocities in the abu ghraib concentration camps in Iraq.
*********************** THE RAP FROM THE BUSHES*********************
W'rap' it up, 'cause here they come
The so called champions of peace
The self-proclaimed saviours of the world
Scramble for your life, not to be trampled under their boots
Run like hell, they gonna have fun with their belts
Tighten your suits, you cutes, before they loot
‘cause what they loot is not your booty
Hounding you not for your money
Binding you, only for your body.

What they hear is rape without an ‘e’
That’s Rhythm And Poetry
From the foul mouth of Eminem, the Detroit rapper
Or through the shady voice of Shaggy.
But what they do is rap with an ‘e’
That’s Reckless And Preposterous Enjoyment
For the ravenous-minded vultures,
Fed with obscenity right from birth.
Monsters they are, but not of the usual kind
A living shame for even the real ones
They are boys from hell, here to build one.

Lick their boots, you needn’t do
But sip their closet, they’d make you to.
And here they start a new kind of market,
Where you can trade oil for current.
Electricity, they’ll give for u a handful
Not through wires, but in your bare hands
Maybe on the whole body, for the more fortunate
Heard of food for oil, but not current for oil
That’s the way the world is heading,
A killing kick for a loving kiss.
Those guys who wept watching Rambo’s onscreen hardships
Now laugh all the way at your plight.

Today starts the new soap opera
Neither at Broadway nor at West End
But on the innumerable tabloids
Splashed with paparazzi snaps,
Of those dark yet ‘famous’ rooms
Of where else but Abu Ghraib,
More of an Abu Grave,
Where you are having the ‘time’ of your life.
Gold bearing trees sprout
On the tabloid head’s backyard
With your blood & sufferings as fodder
They rake-in millions with your rapin’ stories
They care only about the trees, not for the fodder
So what becomes of you?
Your body in pains, your life in ruins
Where have u to go, whom have u to see?

But take hope, my dear Iraqis
What they did to u, is what they have done
All these years, from times immemorial
In the prosperous land, that was my India
Which was bubbling with wealth, when they came
Eventually leaving it in a state strugglin’ to find its feet
That’s the Western tradition, their legacy & their history
Which has only stories of their innumerable conquests
Of battles of gore, projecting phony heroes
Of their incalculable wealth, gained from mindless loots.

That’s the Whites, Bush or Blair,
George or Louie, whoever they are,
One thing’s for sure
They’re perpetual killing machines.
So humans, if there’re any left,
Make way for them
Let them go marching
There’s that inevitable doom
Waiting for them in hell’s corridor
It’s sure that no one lives forever
Likewise, no one rules forever
As the Wachowski’s would say,
“Everything that has a beginning has an end”

Now its time for us to rise
And bury the ashes of past wounds
Let’s hope for a new day
When the whole world ‘shines’,
Like what India ‘did’ some centuries back.
When the world order changes for good,
And the conquered becomes the conqueror.


Praveen.S.R
04/05/04

Thanks to The Hindu Newspaper for providing me with the inspiration to write this poem. Its the news item that appeared on The Hindu describing the Colonial atrocities at the concentration camp at Abu Ghraib in Iraq that made me write this poem.