Saturday, April 05, 2008

YNM - insult

After a long time, I went to a tamil movie today - and regretted it. I was not looking out for a blockbuster or a superb award winnig movie, but just a time-pass. Yet I was disappointed, angry and insulted.

The movie I went to - "Yaaradi Nee mohini" starring danush and Nayantara. Screenplayed by Selvaraghavan and music composed by yuvan, the movie sounded Ok.

The first half was hilarious by virtue of being extremely silly. It is so silly that it is almost an insult to IT professionals. Danush is roaming around without a job. He sees Nayantara on the road, follows her and decides to get a job in the company where she works - "Software Solutions Inc.". He scrapes through the written test (which nayantara later claims she helped pass) and goes through the GD. It is one of the most stupidest GD I've ever seen. And Danush especially says he's not fluent in english and is asked to speak in tamizh. And finally the personal interview - The first question is "What is a foreign key?" followed by "what is multi-threading". He gets ready to leave the place not knowing the answers, but then sees Nayantara and starts answering the questions. I didn't know programmng was so easy !!!! Then starts his work. Right on the first day, he is scolded and insulted by Nayantara and becomes dejected. He is not able to code anything and in his frustration types something random and all of a sudden a siren like sound blares through the hall and all monitors go haywire. Our hero danush has "crashed" the system. And there comes the boss and blasts Nayantara right there in front of everybody for allowing Danush, a trainee to work on the critical project to be delivered in two days. He just throws the project docs in her face.This makes danush feel so bad and he spends the entire night working on the code. Whenever he is stumped, he thinks of Nayantara and starts working harder. And after much hard work the code is completed and Lo and behold !!!there is a bright blue box flashing on the screen that says "Code Activiated". And just like that he is selected to go to Australia on a project assignment. My god !!! If only things were that simple

Now the second half. This is one of the most insulting load of rubbish I've ever seen. Danush's father dies and his friend Karthik (mirchi suchi's hubby) takes him to his hometown for a change of mood. Incidentally Nayantara is Karthik's athai ponnu and they plan to get married. Apparently Karthik and Nayantara are from a brahmin family and had come to city against their grandfather's wishes to pursue their careers. Now the story moves into the brahmin household in the village.
1. Danush goes and sits on an oonjal in the house and Karthik's grandmother (sukumari) comes rushing and beats him with her walking stick. Apparently she is horrified that a guy from some other caste has desecrated the oonjal and washes it off. Karthik then explains that she is slightly out of her mind. Atleast that explains it.
2. Danush then goes to take bath. He is asked to bath in the open space (mitham) of the house where he finds Karthik bathing with a komanam (the small cloth used as a brief). He's shocked and Karthik explain that to be the way they do in that household.
3. Then the next day, Danush is made to get up very early and gather along with the rest of Karthik's family where the grandfather recites a slokha and everyone is made to drink arugampul juice and made to walk for some time to ensure free excretion.
4. Then one by one all the mamas in the household start farting. Danush is very uncomfortable and disgusted.

This was the end of the patience for me and my room-mate and we just came out of the theatre. My god ! It was just plain horrifying. What did they think? They've made a complete mockery of Brahmins. None of what is shown is even true in the remotest sense and these things can be shown of anyone. Why choose a community? Because they're so damn sure that none of us would object. Obviously this can't be done with anybody else. There would be mass demostrations and
protests. Jodha Akbar is being opposed in the north just because of a marriage between two religons and some supposed historical mistake. Hordes of movies and books have been opposed and even successfully banned. Even harry potter was opposed. But everyone would have a hearty laugh at this movie. This is an absolutely disgusting scenario.

This movie is an insult in both halves - insult to IT professionals by the silliness and stupidity of the first half and to the Brahmins by the mocking comedy in the second half.

11 comments:

Raj said...

woah...thought it would be a decent flick...sounds like it is rubbish.

SNMS98 said...

thiruttu pasanga.......

Raghu said...

Vijay I have watched the whole movie in Telugu!!

I would agree with you that it is an insult to the It industry. But there is something I would like to point out that there so many people in the Software industry who cannot speack fluent English.

The second thing about the Brahmin family, firstly there is something called creative license. If it goes beyond decency limits then we will have to object. Farting is a very natural thing and it is same as burping. If you think burping is not offensive I think farting should be the same. And about Jodha Akbar it is not about inter-religous marriage that there are riots... There is something more to it. There are objections that Jehangir was the one who married Jodha and not Akbar. The confusion being both Akbar and Jehangir being called Salim. Being closer to all this unrest I came to know this.

I know it is a huge comment, but I would like to add one more thing that I am not a fan of Selvaraghavan.

Vijay Vaidyanathan said...

Raghu,

The insult to the IT people, I would say, is in a funny silly way. not a big deal.

But the second half was not like that. We've seen burping and farting jokes everywhere. And we've laughed at them. But this doesn't feel like them. Have a look at the scene. Then tell me how this appears.

Venky said...

At the end of your post, I saw the text "posted by Vijay ...." I was almost compelled to read it as "Protested by Vijay..." :)

Selvaraghavan padatha poi nee thetre la paathadhu oru ardha dhraabai yaana decision! I can't but say that "As you sow so shall you reap!"

Dhanush oru tea kadai payyan maadhiri irukkaan.. avanukku S/W engineer vesham pottrukkaanga.. NRN kitta appove sonnen... 'varavan poravana ellaam edukkaadhaya industry la' nu. kekkala... ippo paaru...

'Brahmana dvesham' is catching up like forest fire. what more can one expect from Selvaraghavan.. avane oru *#$#@^%#^. Raghu, what purpose does creative license serve if there are impositions on its usage? Paadhiriyaar k*** vidaraa maadhiri kaamicha moodindu iruppaangala? nee solradhu ellaam principally good.. nadai muraikku velaikku aagadhu.

Shyam, neeyum naanum onne dhaan solirukkom... but in different ways!

SNMS98 said...

I was so angry and fuming when i wrote this comment that words failed me, i could not think of ho to react and how to put them to words..... that's the reason for such a generic comment.

We are tolerant than anybody else.... and these bastards use that. And even in such a situation we are compelled to look at it logically, radically, to find reason in such a thing, to give them a fair chance....... all in the names of "freedom of art", "creative license" and many more goody goody words. We are the first ones to defend such actions too. I am not taking a dig at raghu but we are brought up that way, to see reason or to see logic in what ppl do, we are like that..... we cannot right away abuse or react harshly to something without thinking about it from all points of view.......I dont think that can be changed or even needs to be changed. If some idiots cannot be radical and cannot be reasonable that is no reason why we should follow suit. then avangalukkum, namakkum vithyasame illama poidum......

R S Ramanujam said...

Ellam vaitherichal... vera onnum illa... ivanunga ennadhan try pannalum onnum kizhikka mudiyala.. ipdi ellam vakkaram a avan avan veriya theethukka vendiyathu...

ivana ellam periya aalu akka koodathu... nammala nambi egapatta vishayangal irukku...

BadhriNath said...

It all started with Sathyaraj I guess. His films openly used the "creative license" to target brahmin community. Guess its time Atlas shrugged and said "Who is John Galt".

Movies nowadays have subtly started attacking hinduism per se in the name of creativity.

Gnans said...

Expected rubbish from Danush I suppose....
but never expected this from Selvaraghavan. I feel nowadays its very rare to see a good, sensible movie.

Rainbow said...

Hey Vijay,
How come you see this in tamil movies only now? I thought its practically mandatory to insult brahmins.

99% of the Tamil movies either have funny dances with people in panchagacham and madisaar, or jokes about our language & accent.

So much so that, like we were discussing the other day, most of our age people remove all traces of being brahmin from their language and habits!

Say if we were the kind of people who would prevent the release of a movie that hurts our sentiments or erupt in violence against movie theatres that show this rubbish (as are some other communities that I will not name) maybe they would acknowledge their mistakes and insults. But that isnt going to happen now, is it?

Venky said...

adhellaam nadakkaadhu rainbow.. we'll be posting blogs and comments forever discussing topics like this... avlo dhaan... 'action' ellaam namakku kadayaadhu!