Family Politics

I've written cinema and Philosophy. So I thought why not write about another most talked about topic - Politics. Politics in Tamil Nadu is a blend of Cinema and one's own so called philosophy.

Tamil Cinema has been tagged as 'Kollywood' (referring to Kodambakkam) to make it sound similar to world's biggest (in monetory terms) cinema - Hollywood. What I have realised by seeing what’s happening in recent times is maybe we should rename KOLLYWOOD as GOLLYWOOD (referring to Gopalpuram).

By looking at the amount of market share this family has in the industry, I think that will be an apt name. Every big movie is released by them and most of the times they also end up producing it. Actually, who else have got so much money in these days to produce big films.

Now, if you look at the perks the cine industry has been getting from the TN Govenrment, it makes sense because, this family has invested so much in the industry. It’s like a pvt company run by this family and they are taking care of their employees. The only thing is they are taking care of their employees with the tax payer's money.

Here is where I see a Pseudo democracy. Because they have the control of media and entertainment and they decide what people can hear or see. If you say you don’t like the movie produced by them or their channels or Newspaper, then you will be branded as non-thamizh or anti-thamizh or here is the best – you will be called anti 'Dravidian'.

May be I am a bit paranoid but really I feel soon there will be a day where the election for the assembly will be happening but the voters will only be from this family and they decide who the chief and other ministers and MLAs are. The election commission will be just getting notified. This can be called a very highly refined Pseudo Democracy. (At least the billions of money spent on elections can be saved).

Am I being a sceptic? May be yes, but this is honestly what my feelings are. This family will say I have this feeling not because I am sceptic but because of my origins.

Anyway, I don’t want to lose my self proclaimed Devil’s Advocate tag. So, I say - at lease the people working in the film industry and the “houses” of this family are benefitting.

-- Satish