Sunday Special

New Delhi, 23 June 2008

Hassan’s Dasaavatram

UNIQUE EXPERIMENT, BUT SEASONAL

By Dr. Syed Ali Mujtaba

Lord Vishnu has been incarnated in various life forms through different ages in situations where Hindu religion was in danger. In Hindu mythology, there are ten incarnation of Lord Vishnu; Tortoise, Fish, Boar, Narasimha, Parasurama,Vamana, Krishna, Rama, Buddha and Kalki.

The Tamil movie Dasaavtaram staring Kamala Hassan has supposedly taken a cue from the 10 avtars of Lord Vishnu and its named as such. However, its storyline does not seem to have any linkage with the avatars of Vishnu and the movie is all about a deadly virus that find its way out of a well-guarded lab in the US, set to destroy the world. But its impact gets mitigated eventually by the killer Tsunami waves that had hit the Coromandel coast in 2004.

Dasaavtaram could really have been a great mythological film, if the 10 avatars could have been fitted into this story of good versus evil. Many movie goers who had gone to the theater with high expectations were disappointed saying it was a “mish mash” of a mega film having nothing to do with their religion.

The film had a perfect opening with much hype built around well ahead of its release. The Vaishnavites sect of Hindus filed a court case praying the movie hurt their religious sentiments. The Madras High Court rejected their plea on the ground that they were complaining without seeing the film. They moved the Supreme Court, which too rejected the plea saying the contention lacks circumstantial evidences.

This happened because the story line of the film was kept a well-guarded secret. Its promos tend to suggest that the movie had strong religious aroma but when it was released finally in theaters on June 13, the moviegoers came out saying Dasaavatram had nothing to do with the Hindu religion.

The movie opens with settings in the 12th century Tamil Nadu, which was a hot bed of intrigue between the Shaivite and Vaishnavite followers of the Hindu religion. The Shaivite King orders a Vishnu devotee Rangarajan Nambi (Kamala Hassan-1) to utter “Om Namah Shiva” (I bow before Shiva), who refuses and instead says “Om Namoh Nariyana” (I bow before Vishnu). Nambi is punished, tied with the idol of Lord Ranganatha, taken in a boat and thrown into the ocean. In the movie, this character of Nambiis over, only the idol of Lord Ranganatha resurfaces in the end, when Tsunami struck the Coromandel Coast three years ago.

Moviebuffs are left wondering about the connection of Nambi’s character with the rest of the movie. ‘Why was this there at all? It looked the last shot where the idol reappearing was meant to justify the opening,’ said Vijay who had seen the movie first day first show. He did not seem to be happy with the sudden end of Nambi’s character and called it a “patch work”, not meant for this movie.  “Perhaps Kamala Hassan was planning a period film and so shot this character with a different story line altogether. But that project could not materialise and thus this character was patched up in Dasaavatram. Such things are common these days among the musicians and this has happened in this case as well,” felt Vijay adding that the common people have been conned.

Another moviegoer, Raghav tries explaining this puzzle in a different way: “Kamala Hassan’s movies are like abstract paintings. One has to see this film from that point of view. Maybe the linkages of Nambi’s character could be traced at the abstract levels to seek justification.’

Dasaavatram’s release was hyped with the audio release of the film. Hollywood actor, Jackie Chang flew into Chennai with his bodyguards to attend the star- studded opening. So did super star Amitabh Bachchan. Controversy dogged the event, when Bollywood’s sex bomb, Malika Sharawat who has starred in the film, sat on stage in a micro-mini skirt.

The mega film supposedly made at a whopping cost of Rs 60 crore created enough excitement before its release. The movie is learnt to have sold its audio rights to Sony BMG for close to Rs two crore. Theatres across Chennai were ‘house full’ for the next 10 days with almost all the multiplexes having six shows a day. Regrettably, in the end, the promise of a cinematic extravaganza turned out just a flavor in the season of entertainment.

The film actually begins in the US where an Indian scientist Govind Ramasamy (Kamala Hassan-2) discovers that a deadly virus that could be used as a biological weapon goes missing from his lab. He launches a man hunt for it and the plot takes the line of the infamous campaign “War on terror.”

American President George W Bush (Hassan-3) makes appearances on the screen several times, urging the rest of the world to combat this evil design. The American president is shown as a buffoon contemplating a nuke war.

The most interesting part of the plot here is that the terrorists are not the Al Qaeda or the Afghan variety, as Hollywood movies tend to suggest, but are reputedly referred as American terrorists! The film tries to convey that the destruction of the world does not necessarily have to be in the hands of turban-headed Islamic jihadi, but that Americans wearing western clothes too could trigger catastrophe.

Hassan plays one character after another very well. The story, however, itself is not only weak but quite complex. Scientist Govind has an Indian friend, who has a Japanese wife. Terrorists come looking for the nuclear weapon to his house and in the process kill both Govind and his wife. The wife’s brother Narashashi (Hassan-4) is a marital arts expert in Japan and he plans to take revenge. Govind travels to India for the weapon, and is chased by a CIA agent, Christian Fletcher (Kamala Hassan-5). The bio weapon is parceled to India to an old woman, Krishnaveni (Hassan-6), who yearns for her son’s return. When Govind reaches India, he is hauled up by a RAW officer, Balram Naidu (Hassan-7), who is meant to provide comical relief to the audience with his light character.

The plot gets disjointed and the characters get connected through some unconnected events and others quite predictably in an accidental way. Out of the blues a Sikh pop singer, Avatar Singh (Hassan-8) comes up, the story then wavers to a social activist, Annachi (Hassan-9), fighting the sand mafia in Tamil Nadu. Whew! Attention then shifts to an eight-foot Tamil speaking Pathan, Kalifullah Khan (Hassan-10) a buffoon of a character.

The movie ends up in a high voltage drama centered on the Tsunami of 2004, when Fletcher tries using the bio weapon to destroy the world, but is sucked in by the Tsunami with its salt water neutralizes the bio weapon.

The fast pace of the movie, however, sustains the tempo of the film that does not allow much of thinking. Music is mediocre. The jumble-mumble, however, stands out for its excellent technical work and Hassan’s extraordinary performance in several characters. His make-up and voice modulation is superb that it is a difficult task picking any one character as outstanding. The Tsunami shots are perhaps an outstanding presentation in the movie. 

In the end: Dasaavatram may well go down in the history of Indian cinema as a unique experiment in the commercial circuit, but its span is unlikely to last beyond a season of entertainment.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Political Diary

New Delhi, 20 June 2008

Incredible India

A  CUE FROM BRITS WOULD HELP

By Poonam I Kaushish

India, is Incredible! A trip to London tells you just how much and showcases the warts and all. Let’s start with the new spanking Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway and one hits the first road block. People have their driving lanes all mixed up. Toll payers invariably queue up in the ‘smart tag’ lane. Not that it really matters because the tag system ---to help one automatically cross the toll barrier--- doesn’t work anymore! The toll collector has to now feed in the smart tag code before letting your car proceed.  Might have been better if all the lanes were priced, at least cars would move faster and the queues shorter.

True, Planning Commission Chairman Montek Ahluwalia’s trip to the airport recently had a salutary affect. Traffic moves faster and the queues at the departure gates are way less. But two things Ahuluwalia could not or has not been able to do: remove the people sleeping on the pavements of the departure area. It continues to resemble the railway station. 

Next, the lines at the immigration counters get longer and longer with various airline personnel running through people-lanes screaming flight departures, yanking passengers and breaking immigration queues. Why do the authorities take forever to clear our departure? They definitely need a rapid fire course in people management and politeness. Resourceful Ahluwalia should have given a piece of his mind to the Immigration Authorities, instead of picking a bone with the Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who is the only one delivering on giving a face-over to our airports.

Feeling patriotic, one decided to fly Air India to see if our industrialist-turned Minister has really made a difference to the way Indians fly. Definitely yes. The new Boeings, the in-flight service and the food could give any other airline a run for its money. That he intends leaving his imprint was also evident. Crew and passengers described Patel as a “hands on” Minister. Said a crew member, “Beneath the velvet glove is an iron hand. He is very particular about punctuality. Once on a trip back from London he found the AI flight was delayed because of the crew. He simply boarded another flight. But there was hell to pay later. Besides, he is not only accessible but receptive to our problems, solves them, is pragmatic and yet a hard taskmaster and expects results.”    

However, the arrival in London was a let-down. Air India, it seems is being given the step-motherly treatment at Heathrow airport. We appeared to have made a ‘backdoor’ entry as the disembarking area was littered with garbage and the staff rude. Though the immigration line was longer, the authorities were way smarter and the clearance was faster. One had a choice of the mode of transport to the city: taxi, bus or the underground. The Asian mini cabs, driven by Indians, Bangladeshis, Afghans and Pakistanis’ seemed to have elbowed out London’s famous black cabs. They are half the price of what the normal ride costs.  

That apart, London continues to throb, brimming with joy de vivre. Beautiful sunny weather, loads of tourists all over Oxford Street busy shopping as if there was no tomorrow. The summer sales are on too. There are many Asians among them, not a few from Delhi. Many choose this time to travel in the hope of striking a good bargain. Asians today are the revered ‘rich’ customers. There is awe mingled with jealousy and a bit of animosity displayed by shop staff to serve them, who till the other day were disparagingly dismissed as poor immigrants.

Does that mean that the US sub-prime crisis and the ever-rising international crude prices are not hurting the people in London? A simple no. The difference is that people are taking it stoically. From 70 pence per litre (Rs 60) the price is up to 1.20 Pounds (approx Rs 100) and may go up to two Pounds. Sure, people feel the pinch but don’t crib. They realise their Government is doing its best to lessen the hurt.  

Like my Bangladeshi taxi driver said. “The cost of living hasn’t really changed. There is no marked increase in prices of groceries and food stuff and public transport remains the same. In all a tax of 10 pounds per day on vehicles plying in central London is imposed and the only sign of rising inflation is a downward trend in property prices.”

Yet the Gordon Brown Government is worried. Daily news brings reports of economic slowdown, worsening Government finances and rising prices. The House of Commons grapples with how the economy got into this mess and how to get out of it. There is no finger pointing, no acrimony and importantly the aam aadmi is not dragged into the nitty-gritty of prudent government money management.

The Bank of England is hanging tough, the private sector needs to keep wages down and some sense needs to return to the oil markets. Significantly, the Government realises its responsibilities and the need to be fiscally cautious. Towards that end it is making the right noises on the public sector pay rise, which would fuel inflation. Brown’s reply to all: This is no time to abandon Prudence.

What about our erudite Finance Minister Chidambaram? First, like a school teacher he reprimanded the aam aadmi for jumping the gun and promised to bring down prices within two months. Then he blamed the previous NDA Government for the financial mess. Now he has simply washed his hands off by confessing helplessness. Questionably, is that enough? Can we allow our Finance Chief to get away? He owes the country some hard and honest explanation for inflation hitting 11.05 per cent, the highest since 1995.

Scandalously, amidst all this the Government has decided to give itself a pay rise. Explained as ‘babus are poorly paid’. Never mind that the Sixth Pay Commission has added an additional load of Rs 12,000 crores to the fiscal burden. There is no talk of downsizing of staff even as the private sector has gone in for massive pruning and is streamlining its operations to ‘paperless’ offices.

Worse, even as the aam aadmi stoops under the burden of petrol price rise and its cascading affect on daily commodities and expensive travel, neither our netagan nor babudom has cutback on its cavalcade of cars. At times just to ferry them, their wives and kids home. What to speak of the increasing ‘diversions’ the aam aadmi has to take due to VIP movement, sic. So unlike the UK.

Significantly, Britons have regaled 7/7 as a bad dream. The rigid checking at Heathrow airport is still there but with a smile. Back home to the dismally long immigration lines one gets a taste of asli Bharat. Of petty clerks who painfully take forever to process your data. While the NRI and PIOs are allowed to sail through. It makes ones blood boil. Are we unwanted? 

The intermittent long queues in the baggage area and the taxi bay says it all. A multitude of humanity seems to have descended from nowhere. The aam aadmi sleeping on the pavement. Indeed, India is Incredible. Even as the 21 Century of Super India beacons we still have a long way to bring asli Bharat and Brand India together. ----- INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Round The States

New Delhi, 19 June 2008

People’s Empowerment

CHHATTISGARH SHOWS THE WAY

By Insaf

People’s empowerment is finally making inroads at the grassroots. Voters in two districts of Chhattisgarh created history by recalling three presidents of Nagar Panchayats or local bodies for non-performance. The election was the first in the State and second in the country’s history. Of the 12,799 electorates, nearly 55 per cent turned out to vote on Sunday last. The ballot paper was simple and to the point, having only two symbols--an empty chair if they wished to recall or an occupied chair if they wanted their representative to continue. The results declared on Tuesday last sent a clear message that the presidents had failed to deliver. They had to vacate their posts as they could not secure more than 50 per cent of the votes polled, as per the law.  

The right to recall a chief of a local body is provided under the Chhattisgarh Municipality Act, wherein under section 47, three-fourth of the elected representatives of an urban body are required to give a written submission to the district collector that they had lost confidence in their chief. Once that happens a fresh election process is to be set into motion. In the present case, two Congress presidents of Gunderdehi Nagar Panchayat and Rajpur Municipal Committee respectively and one Independent heading the Nawagarh Nagar Panchayat, had to bite dust as the ‘empty chair’ votes were far more than those for the ‘occupied’ one. A fresh poll is now to be held within six months.   

The law to recall was first adopted by Madhya Pradesh, and was exercised by voters in 2001 in Shahdol district, wherein a woman president had to vacate her post. Chhattisgrah which was a part of Madhya Pradesh till 2000 adopted the law after fine-tuning it last year. It is pertinent to note that though the Constitution, does not provide for recall, it allows States to enact laws relating to elections of local bodies. Regretably, no other State has sought to empower its people, even though the right to recall under performance or corrupt elected representatives was first sought by Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan way back in 1975. However, it was shelved as there was no consensus. Will the other States follow Chhattisgarh?  Perhaps, it may at least trigger a fresh debate on the right to recall at the national level.   

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Raje Appeases Gujjars, Upper Castes

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has pulled off quite a tricky deal with the agitating Gujjars. Not only will Rajasthan now limp back to normalcy but the State will be the first to rain quotas for the poor among the upper castes. In a historic agreement signed with Gujjars chief Kirori Singh Bainsala on Wednesday last, Raje conceded that Gujjars, Rebaris and Banjaras would be given “five per cent reservation” as a special category. A happy Bainsala called off the 27-day-old violent agitation. However, Raje did not stop there, given the BJP’s anxiety that the pact would upset its upper caste vote bank. The CM promptly announced a special quota of 14 per cent for the poor among the upper castes in the State, including Brahmins, Rajputs, Vaishyas and Kayasthas in addition. A first by any State.  However, Raje has to watch out whether it would hold judicial scrutiny. It surpasses the Supreme Court’s 50 per cent ceiling for quotas in government jobs.      

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Dialogue On Gorkhaland?

The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha’s agitation for a separate Gorkhaland has run into a major roadblock. Its demand been rejected by the West Bengal government. The latter has got an all-party meeting held at the Writers’ Building in Kolkata on Wednesday last to endorse its stand. In fact, while the all-party meet attended by 12 of the 16 invitees passed a resolution against Gorkhaland, the GJM led by Bimal Gurung too held a parallel meeting in Darjeeling and got its resolution for a separate State ratified by representatives of 13 parties. Besides, Gurung rejected any talks with the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government. This, however, could be resolved as the all-party meeting has suggested a political dialogue and asked the Centre to hold tripartite talks. The sooner the better, as it would spare the people of the picturesque hills and adjoining Sikkim the ordeal of an indefinite bandh, which triggered avoidable violence last week.

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Cradle Of Christianity

Thrissur in Kerala has a hallowed past as the “cradle of Christianity in India.” Apostle St. Thomas, who brought Christianity to India, is said to have set foot in a village in Thrissur district of Central Kerala, acclaimed as the State’s cultural capital. Today, Thrissur faces an altogether new and undreamt-off problem: fall in the numbers of the faithful across the State. In the last 50 years, the Christian population has fallen from 24 per cent to 19 per cent. This has unnerved the clergy and forced it to stress the need for more kids. The Church is now going all out to reiterate its opposition to abortion and warning of the danger to the religion if the practice was not given up. The faithful have been asked to observe a “Pro-life Day” and not to stand in the way of bringing to life their progenies as “a gift of God.” Church officials have been directed to organize study classes to enlighten the masses, especially against the backdrop of a rising number of Muslims in the State.

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Why Z-Plus Cover For Rabri?

Himalayan egos of present day politicians continue to play havoc with security of the common man. The latest entrant to Z-plus security cover is Bihar’s former Chief Minister Rabri Devi. But this move by the Centre has been strongly opposed by the State Government of Nitish Kumar. A recent team of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) sent by the Centre to Bihar to assess the security requirements for Devi was cold shouldered by the State Government. And as State officials were reluctant to meet or discuss with the ITBP team, the latter reported back to the Union Home Ministry saying that lack of cooperation would affect facilitating proper security for Devi. As for the State Home Department officials, they argue that Rabri Devi is already being provided adequate security as per the law. She is being guarded by 96 policemen, led by none other than a DSP and her house too is guarded round the clock by over 100 CRPF personnel, thanks to her husband, Union Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, who already enjoys Z-plus cover. A pertinent question would be: why then additional security? ---INFA

Defence Notes

New Delhi, 20 June 2008

US Eyes Defence Market

ANTONY FOR HOME PRODUCTION

By Radhakrishna Rao

Defence Minister A.K.Antony, while inaugurating the new building complex of the Bangalore-based Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE), stressed the need for self reliance in the design, development and manufacture of high precision avionics systems for the Indian Air Force, which is working out a strategy for modernization and augmentation on a massive scale.

Antony has repeatedly expressed his vehement opposition to the blind and wholesale import of defence hardware and advanced technological systems. In fact, he has made it clear that India will clinch a deal for defence hardware and associated technology only as an equal partner. His thesis is that India has technological expertise and an industrial base, resurgent enough to not only absorb and adopt advanced imported technologies, but also to indigenously design and develop state-of-the-art weapons and armaments.

‘High technology products need to be futuristic. Our over-dependence on foreign suppliers must reduce. We must develop our own systems indigenously. A tendency to depend on foreign suppliers may land the country and the armed forces in deep trouble in crucial times in the form of import restrictions, technology transfer denials or even undue and unjustifiable delay in the delivery of already contracted systems or components of critical nature” observed Antony. He did not leave anyone in doubt that he was referring to the US.

In fact, the American sanctions and technology embargo that came in the wake of India’s 1998 nuclear blasts had affected the developmental schedules of a number of projects of national importance including the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), developed by the Aeronautical Development Laboratory (ADA) and the Saras multi-role light transport aircraft, developed by the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore.

Notwithstanding the growing bonhomie in Indo-US relations, many Indian industrial outfits, research institutions and scientific organizations continue to be under the US Entity List. Not surprisingly then, both in the civilian and defence sectors here, the US is not favored as a dependable and reliable partner for projects of critical nature.

As it is, way back in early 90s the US had coerced an economically emaciated and political unstable Russia into going back on its commitment of transferring the critical cryogenic engine technology to India. Their argument was that the transfer of technology, which is of dual use, constituted a clear-cut violation of the so-called Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Overcoming all the impediments, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has now successfully developed an indigenous cryogenic engine constitution the upper stage of the three-stage GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle).

Similarly, DRDO has not forgotten how the US tried to coerce the Union Government into dropping the development programme of Agni range of surface-to-surface, nuclear capable missiles. Antony notes that “despite technology denials and restrictive export regimes, DRDO has been able to develop strategic systems and advanced missiles”.

Against such a backdrop, India’s defence establishment is fully aware of the implications of getting defence hardware and advanced armament systems from the US. For the denial of spares and refusal to service the hardware in the event of an embargo would mean a serious setback to the country’s defence preparedness. But then, Russia which has supplied India with a vast array of military equipment including combat aircraft and utility helicopters is fast eroding its Indian base. Indeed, the Indian military planners are losing patience with Russia for its failure to stick to the deadline and make available spares on time.

Peeved by the inordinate delay and a hefty price hike in respect of retrofitting the decommissioned aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, naval chief Admiral Suresh Mehta had sometime back questioned the logic of looking at Russia as a reliable and trusted military partner. Similarly, the Russian insistence on a massive increase in the price tag of Su-30 MKI multi-role combat aircraft, which currently constitutes the very backbone of the IAF, has not gone down well with the Indian defence establishment. It is here that the US is trying to step into the Indian defence scenario with robust optimism.

In this context, the statement made by the US defense secretary Robert Gates that military-to-military ties between the two countries would continue to be independent of the controversial Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement, assumes significance. Of course, Indian Government’s lack of political will to go ahead with the deal has pushed it into a “slow and certain death.” Gates was forthright in his assertion, “We ask for no special treatment. We are pleased to have a place on the table. And we believe that in a fair competition, we have a good case to make”.

On its part, US defence and aerospace major Boeing estimates a US$10-15 billion defence market in India over the next one decade. “According to industry projections, there will be a need for around 1000 defence aircraft by 2020, while 70 per cent of the requirement will be filled by the existing orders for aircraft like Su-30s” says Deba Mohanty, a defence analyst with the New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation.

Perhaps the biggest trump card of the American defence hardware and systems is their perceived superiority in terms of performance, efficiency, technology and state-of-the-art electronics and avionics systems in comparison to the Russian defence equipment. The latter’s biggest disadvantage lies in avionics and electronics, which form a major component of an aircraft.  

Both Boeing and Lockheed Martin, keen on grabbing the mega Indian order for the supply of 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft to IAF have offered their most advanced fighter machines to India. The argument of Boeing is that F/A-18E/F Super Hornet that it has offered to India is already in service with the Australian Air Force. Not to be outdone, Lockheed Martin has sweetened its offer of making available F-16 IN Fighter Falcon by hinting at a possible future sale of F-35 JSF of perhaps F-22 combat aircraft if India goes in for F-16.

Boeing which has submitted a proposal for the supply of eight long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft at an estimated cost of US$2-billion is awaiting the nod from defence ministry. The Boeing P-8A multi mission maritime aircraft built around a Boeing-737 aircraft is, however, known to be under its active consideration. In response to Indian request for proposal for 22 attack helicopters, Boeing is offering its AH-64 Apache Longbow.

Meanwhile, US aerospace and defence contractors are awaiting Indian request for proposal for the supply of around 200 light utility helicopters. These helicopters will replace the aging fleet of Cheeta and Chetaks in service with the IAF and the Indian army. Originally, India had planned the acquisition of 300-plus light utility helicopters. But with the Bangalore based aeronautical major HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd) coming forward to develop a hundred plus light utility helicopters, the Indian defence ministry decided to go in for the import of around 200 such rotary wing machines. Is there need to shop elsewhere?  ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)