Is watching a movie Quadrant IV (That is a waste of timeand hence non value added) or Quadrant II (That is highly value added use of time)? The answer, as you've by now guessed, is "It depends!" Stephen Covey lists Recreation under QII. But the word recreation should be spelt Re-Creation. That is the activity should enable us to renew ourselves and gain new insights into life and living. Or it should prepare us physically and/or emotionally for better performance. Classic examples are Music, Aerobics and such. Now Movies cannot be wriitten off as a time waster as there are movies and movies.
For example two recently released Tamil movies were truly classics. They are "Mozhi" i.e. Language. This movie is a gentle comedy that makes us understand the futility of oral communication and the value of the "language of the Heart." As the song in the movie states, "When you have learnt the music of Nature, what is language? Where the language of the heart is heard, do we need language at all?" This is a great movie.
The other is "Paruthiveeran" a stark and realistic movie that portrays the life and behaviour in a remote village in interior Tamilnadu. The ending is not to my liking and the basic message of the movie and its possible impact on viewers is subject to argument, but the movie as such is a flawless portrayal and each frame is work of art in cinematography. Watching such movies makes us realise the value of having intellectual discernment and taste.
Now, we come to "Sivaji". If you have not seen it, you are unfit to live in Tamilnadu! Everyone is crazy about it. So I had to go through the compulsory agony of watching the movie in Abirami Mall.(The place stinks! My vote goes to the Sathyam Cineplex any day!) That was a truly QIV experience!
How many more times will Shankar rehash the "Lets Bring an End to Corruption" theme? How many more times will the Tamil movie-going public be duped into parting their hard earned money to see and listen to ideas for ending corruption that border on childishness and illogicality. Even to call Shankar's concepts Utopian would be to give that perfectly good word a bad reputation by association with the idiotic.
Okay, here's the grand plan for ending corruption once and for all and flushing out Rs.20,00,000 crores of untaxed money also known as Black Money:
You want to flush out black money? Hire a large hall with an annex "office room". Hire a gang of reformed Goondas and dress them up in ill-fitting suits and short ties to make them respectable.
Call all the auditors, accountants, drivers and cooks of rich people to this "secret" meeting and simply "request" them to spill the beans about the untaxed money belonging to their employers/clients! If they refuse send them into the "office Room" and beat them up. That's it.
How will you invite these people? Hey, this is a Shankar movie starring Super Star Rajinikanth! If you ask these stupid questions, they will ask you to "wait" in the "Office Room"!
And, of course, if somebody dies from electrocution all you have to do is give "CPR" or simply pass an electric current through them to bring them back to life!
Even a mentally retarded chimpanzee could have come up with a better story line. (My apolgies are due to the Chimpanzee, of course!)
What is truly pathetic is that with all this masala mania and pandering to the popular palette, Shankar is regarded as a director of repute. Big budgets should not make big directors. Good story, tight screen play and suspense should be the criteria!
Shankar wants to give a message through his movies. But his themes are so jaded and outworn that this has become a formula in itself! The really serious issues like corruption and reform become farcical and outworn! In fact in this movie the Hero actually decides to go the corruption route first. The choice whether it is Gentleman,Indian, Annian or Sivaji is always between Corruption or Violence. The point is both are wrong! He ultimately ends up providing a predictable high budget massage to the popular psyche and emotions with loud and unnecessary music numbers with underdressed starlets running around with an aged superstar who desperately wants to become fair! There is no intellectual finesse in the movie to warrant the popular acclaim it has received.
If Kids enjoy Sivaji, it is acceptable; If Rajini fans go crazy about it, it is understandable; If the mindless mob appreciates it, it is forgivable; but, when the educated intelligentia says it is a `great movie, there must be something seriously wrong with the discerning capacity of Tamil audiences.
Movies like "Mozhi" and "Paruthiveeran" were a welcome breath of fresh air for Tamil Cinema, and then we get "Sivaji"!
For example two recently released Tamil movies were truly classics. They are "Mozhi" i.e. Language. This movie is a gentle comedy that makes us understand the futility of oral communication and the value of the "language of the Heart." As the song in the movie states, "When you have learnt the music of Nature, what is language? Where the language of the heart is heard, do we need language at all?" This is a great movie.
The other is "Paruthiveeran" a stark and realistic movie that portrays the life and behaviour in a remote village in interior Tamilnadu. The ending is not to my liking and the basic message of the movie and its possible impact on viewers is subject to argument, but the movie as such is a flawless portrayal and each frame is work of art in cinematography. Watching such movies makes us realise the value of having intellectual discernment and taste.
Now, we come to "Sivaji". If you have not seen it, you are unfit to live in Tamilnadu! Everyone is crazy about it. So I had to go through the compulsory agony of watching the movie in Abirami Mall.(The place stinks! My vote goes to the Sathyam Cineplex any day!) That was a truly QIV experience!
How many more times will Shankar rehash the "Lets Bring an End to Corruption" theme? How many more times will the Tamil movie-going public be duped into parting their hard earned money to see and listen to ideas for ending corruption that border on childishness and illogicality. Even to call Shankar's concepts Utopian would be to give that perfectly good word a bad reputation by association with the idiotic.
Okay, here's the grand plan for ending corruption once and for all and flushing out Rs.20,00,000 crores of untaxed money also known as Black Money:
You want to flush out black money? Hire a large hall with an annex "office room". Hire a gang of reformed Goondas and dress them up in ill-fitting suits and short ties to make them respectable.
Call all the auditors, accountants, drivers and cooks of rich people to this "secret" meeting and simply "request" them to spill the beans about the untaxed money belonging to their employers/clients! If they refuse send them into the "office Room" and beat them up. That's it.
How will you invite these people? Hey, this is a Shankar movie starring Super Star Rajinikanth! If you ask these stupid questions, they will ask you to "wait" in the "Office Room"!
And, of course, if somebody dies from electrocution all you have to do is give "CPR" or simply pass an electric current through them to bring them back to life!
Even a mentally retarded chimpanzee could have come up with a better story line. (My apolgies are due to the Chimpanzee, of course!)
What is truly pathetic is that with all this masala mania and pandering to the popular palette, Shankar is regarded as a director of repute. Big budgets should not make big directors. Good story, tight screen play and suspense should be the criteria!
Shankar wants to give a message through his movies. But his themes are so jaded and outworn that this has become a formula in itself! The really serious issues like corruption and reform become farcical and outworn! In fact in this movie the Hero actually decides to go the corruption route first. The choice whether it is Gentleman,Indian, Annian or Sivaji is always between Corruption or Violence. The point is both are wrong! He ultimately ends up providing a predictable high budget massage to the popular psyche and emotions with loud and unnecessary music numbers with underdressed starlets running around with an aged superstar who desperately wants to become fair! There is no intellectual finesse in the movie to warrant the popular acclaim it has received.
If Kids enjoy Sivaji, it is acceptable; If Rajini fans go crazy about it, it is understandable; If the mindless mob appreciates it, it is forgivable; but, when the educated intelligentia says it is a `great movie, there must be something seriously wrong with the discerning capacity of Tamil audiences.
Movies like "Mozhi" and "Paruthiveeran" were a welcome breath of fresh air for Tamil Cinema, and then we get "Sivaji"!
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