SOLITUDE SCRIBBLES

Newscast nonsense Six years ago, I had anxiously awaited the launch of a new television channel in Malayalam. The channel, Kairali, promoted by the state’s Left, had all the hype during its pre-launch days. Interestingly, the channel lived up to its name, though there were (there still are) problems. However, I wasn’t disappointed when I saw the first newscast from Kairali. Left or not wasn’t my concern. The presentation had something unique about it and I enjoyed watching Kairali on day one, two, three and the months that followed. Mind you, I’m not a hardcore Left sympathizer too to talk all things good about the CPI(M) telly airwaves. Six years hence, as the day dawned on August 17, I was left shocked and disappointed and what not. I still haven’t recovered. August 17 saw the launch of Kerala’s most popular (sic) media house’s invasion of the airwaves. The disappointment comes not because MM News was launched. The disappointment is due to the burst of the MM News bubble. Analyse th

Sleaze and the city It’s all sleaze out here. Why does Trivandrum, the Kerala capital, get turned on when it comes to perversion? Every evening, past 7 pm, this little city which is the seat of power, turns into a land where angels fear to read. By angels, I don’t mean the ones with the gossamer wings. Anyone born a girl child fear to venture out into Trivandrum’s streets alone or even in girl groups after 7 pm, as they know -- as if by instinct -- it is the time of the evening when the predators are on prowl. A recent feature by one of Malayalam’s most popular dailies proved beyond doubt this characteristic of the quintessential Trivandrum male. The good friend who volunteered to carry out the first hand account of the travails of the city’s female population is all shock and despair ever since she set out to find how safe the city streets and public places are for the women folk. The tales she narrates makes me curse myself for being part of the thousands of males who reside in this

Krishna, on screen The ‘sambhavami yuge yuge’ mantra is alive and kicking, at least for tinsel town’s dream merchants. Krishna on screen has something very fascinating about him. There used to be a time when men and women thronged thatched ‘cinema talkies’ to see the Lord on screen. Some things never change. The on-screen Krishna aura still remains. He isn’t just god for the Indian. He is one among them, naughty and human, with a dash of divinity around him. Film makers have all through the years been overawed by this character, easy to conceive, but yet complex to be contained in a screen drama.For me, personally, three Krishna depictions on screen stand out. Of them, two graced the telly. And, look how different they turned out to be. The Krishna of Bharat Ek Khoj, Shyam Benegal’s take on Pandit Nehru’s Discovery of India, and the immensely divine and handsome Krishna of the televison epic Mahabharata. Both were memorable caricatures of a god more human than divine. While Benegal tri

The man I watched in awe He didn’t have anything to do with me, personally. But the news that he is no more, came to me as a shock. I still feel someone sobbing inside me. Except for the occasional meeting that didn’t last for more than 15 minutes, he had nothing to do with me. He wasn’t friend, philosopher or guide to me. He wasn’t role model either. He couldn’t be role model to any, because no one could ever emulate him. A man who more often than not took the path never taken. Nawab Rajendran, to me, was rebellion personified. I used to see the name Nawab in awe as he never resembled one. He was the ultimate pauper in old worn-out clothes and unusually thick-rimmed pair of glasses. When he spoke, I felt he had difficulty in opening his mouth. Later on, I learnt that this was because the Kerala state police under K Karunakaran had plucked out his teeth ruthlessly while torturing him for crusading against the ‘Leader’s’ misdeeds. He walked the hot, tarred roads of Kochi in worn-out Haw

When Lajjavathi made me weep When someone does something different, and some others follow it you call it a trend. Malayalam cinema’s recent trend, so many people around me say, is Lajjavathiye…Ninte Kadakkannil… (For the uninitiated, this happens to be something so many people call a song, and it forms part of award winner (sic) Jayaraj’s ‘4 The People). While some call it a revolution in the Malayalam film music firmament, some others dub it as God’s gift to Malayalam cinema via Jassi Gift. Gifted this young man indeed is, because he is termed by so many people as being on top of the charts. Curious enough to know how he managed this, (because the first time and every time I listened to this pile of words and beats blurting out of every radio and TV, I experienced a serious heartburn-constipation combo attack) I spoke to some of my dear, knowledgeable friends in the film industry. Guess how they answered my question? Some simply laughed (reminding me of Harachand’s oft-quoted words:

Ridiculous definitions I have this habit of reading news papers from the back page. This has been so right from childhood days. Maybe, this has been so as I had always felt that sports pages were to be read first. The habit has stayed with me all through the years, and I guess it will be so ever after too. If I pursued this habit during childhood, it was because I was more interested in sports than the usual political stuff. And today, it is so because I think reading sports is better than going through the torture of reading about Atal Behari’s recital of own poetry at international fora. My habit of reading the last page first continues to be so even when I read magazines. Now, if somebody thinks I do so because of the pictures of skimpily-clad women that adorn the last page, I care a damn! This habit of reading the last page first came in for a shock today morning as I got hold of Simply South, the much-hyped south special that the esteemed India Today group gave us free with their

Acting Smart Two-time National Award winning actor, Shobhana, is an admirable lady. This actor of the south has always kept me in awe, not for acting skills but for the tantrums she throws time and again.One old issue of Savvy, which my wife picked up from a lending library close to home, served me much food for thought on this actor’s attitude. When Savvy approached her just before she was to go up on stage to collect her second National Award for Revathy’s Mitr– My Friend, she demanded that none other than Amitabh Bachchan should write a piece on her… The veteran kindly did so, proving that he is a gentleman. But then why did Shobhana make such a demand? I keep wondering to myself – who is Shobhana when compared with Big B’s prowess. Not that Bachchan comes on top of the actors’ list when it comes to acting, but he is some one, who I believe, who stands tall in Bollywood. I decided to read the first person account by Shobhana on Savvy’s pages. My nosiness made me look for something i