Musings on Tamil serials

I had long wanted to make a post on some of the Tamil T.V serials but haven’t done so since I knew the post would be quite rambling. However in order to increase the dismal frequency at which I am updating my blog I have decided to include impulsive or rambling entries and this would be the first of such.

Tamil serials have often been the object of ridicule for mainly being recycled sob stories and most of them deserve that treatment. However a few of them are good, so let me highlight them first. I would reserve the brick bats for later. The serial which first prompted me to write this is “Devathai” being aired in Raj TV. The story is about a woman who dies in what seems to be a domestic accident coming as a ghost and seeing her family (husband and in-laws) and learning about the true faces of the family members. Though it is still not told whether the death itself was a murder, everyone in the family except perhaps her husband is shown to be suspicious in some way. At least in the first few months, the serial was interesting because of the mystery and the different way in which the story was handled. As a relief there is no crying, except when actually needed. Now it seems to have slowed down, thanks to a comedy segment which is not so funny and a somewhat contrived story which becomes as confusing as it is mysterious. Still it is worth a watch when compared to the other serials.

The other one which I was quite impressed with was “Chitamabara ragasiyam” aired on Sun T.V. This comes in, what I think is the, traditional mystery serial slot in Sun T.V – Wednesdays night. This slot once had the classic mystery serials like “Marma desam – Vidhathu Karuppu”, which looking back now was way better than current serials, not only because it was really thrilling but also in the way its ending tied all the loose threads in a logical way, which is really rare in Tamil serials. That serial was the first time in which I encountered the term, “Multiple personality disorder” and it did seem to explain it in very simple terms. Now coming back to “Chitambara…” though not as logical as “Marma desam”, it is quite thrilling. However thanks to a complex storyline and my infrequent viewing of the serial, it appears quite confusing to me. The story is about a series of murders and how they might be linked to an effort to find cure to AIDS. The base concept which is interesting like a conspiracy theory is based on “Nadi joditham” – where a person’s future can be predicted by inscriptions on certain palm leaves – which is popularly done in Vaitheeswaran temple near Chidamabaram, TN. According to the story there is a manuscript which lists in the form of a song, twelve people in whose Nadi joditham descriptions lies the cure for AIDS. These twelve people (or rather people with the same names) are killed and their thumb print is taken. This theme and also some of the characters like the half-mad scientist woman or some “chittars” provide ample scope to tell some confusing philosophical mumbo-jumbo and this is used to the full extent by the serial. Some of the things are based only on wordplay and are obviously wrong, but at least some thing like this is a refreshing change from the all the serials I’ll list after this. For example the last one was, “A doctor, an astrologer and a psychiatrist(?) should always see how a person dies,…,becomes mad(?)” I am at least sure of the first set, which would have been just puzzling to me had I not seen and read some parts in a book called “How we die” written by a practicing doctor.

Now for the ones which I don’t like or like them just enough not to walk out of a room where they are being played. Radhika’s serials have been steadily decreasing in quality and her current serial “Selvi” is ample proof for that. I started watching “Chithi” only mid-way, but it seemed quite good except of course for the ending which was an anti-climax. Her next serial, “Annamalai” started with a bang by talking about such things like re-birth, but it soon lost its way and of course the climax was as bad as it could be. “Selvi” was not impressive even in its start and soon I figured out that it was really going no where and worse getting quite intolerable. It must be really bad since I was able to convince my parents to stop watching it, which we rarely do for a serial. Still we watch it occasionally like once in a week (which by the way, is enough to keep track of a mega-serial without anybody’s help) and it doesn’t show any signs of improving. Then there are serials like “Kolangal” which would be tolerable if not for the amount of crying in it. And of course I am really irritated with all these serials showing their protagonist as perfect too-good people who sacrifice any thing for any one. I am not an Ayn Rand follower fundamentally against sacrifice, but seeing people sacrifice so many things reduces the value of a sacrifice. The other serials which I happen to watch, at least occasionally, “Anandham” and “Mughartham” are quite average and are at least watchable. Of course I guess there are some even worser serials running in the day time, like “Sorgam” which has been running since god knows when (at least since last 4 years?).

The one common, disgusting thing I find all Tamil serials (or rather serials on Sun TV?) is that they all have vendetta as a common theme. And worse they show it mostly among family members – like a daughter-in-law avenging her father’s death by taking revenge on her in-laws (“Anandham”). I feel that watching a lot of such serials daily really creates some negative feelings in our mind, which is why I have really been discouraging my mother from watching these serials. Here’s where I think we should appreciate serials like “Metti Oli”. Though otherwise quite average, it didn’t have vendetta or any other negative feeling as a main theme and instead focused on normal failings of people. I was a bit disappointed that its director, Thirumurugan, wasn’t directing any new serial but it is good to know he is coming to cinema. Talking of directors, I feel a good director and bound script is the second thing which all these serials lack. Stories develop in all directions for sometime and as the number of characters become too much, some are just forgotten for months together, only for them to be reintroduced later whenever the director has to wriggle out of some sudden twist which he has been forced to introduce. To add to all this Sun TV seems to have this irritating policy of allowing serials to continue for any length of time as long as their TRP ratings are high, but wrapping them up as soon as their ratings dip. I believe this has led to the sudden forced endings of many Tamil serials. I don’t have much idea about serials in other channels, though I feel they should be better then Sun TV’s. However, I guess a lot of people like us are stuck with Sun TV serials, simply because you have would mostly missed the starting part of the other serials. This reason may be one of the main reason why Sun TV still seems to have a strangle hold of serials viewership.

Becoming more mundane

As I told in my previous post, the title of the blog was chosen impulsively and like for most decisions taken so, I began to regret it after sometime. The title appeared to grandiose in nature and though occasionally I would discuss such grand ideas, by no means would my blog be composed of only such discussions. After thinking about an alternative name for sometime, I hit upon this title – ‘Pseudo random scribblings’. I would now try to explain the rationale behind this title (assuming there is one!). I was tempted to name the blog as ‘random scribblings’, but after some thought I realised that my writings would not actually be in random areas and I would exclude myself from certain areas while concentrating myself one some other areas.
Some of the areas from where I would exclude myself are – 

•   Active political stands or discussions 
•   Personal issues which are of no relevance to anyone except me (this will not be a personal journal)

Some of the areas where I would like to concentrate are –

• Apolitical discussions on current issues
• Review, criticism on literature I come across (mainly fiction)
• Review, criticism on movies I happen to watch (mainly Tamil, occasionally English, Hindi)
• On other things which affect me in some way (like my first post)

With the bulk of my writings to be concentrated in these areas, I didn’t think it could be called as ‘random scribblings’. True, that this is not exactly pseudo-random either, but I don’t know of any other class of randomness in between these two!
[Even assuming that there is no other class of randomness between random and pseudo-random, what is given above is not a precise definition of the scope of the blog and hence concepts like random & pseudo-random may not be even applicable to this.

Accepted, but I am not immune to the human tendency of trying to explain intellectually the things which are in essence decided at heart.]

Truth , Beauty and Happiness

I have started this blog quite impulsively after seeing that quite a few of my peers in IISc have started one ! For sometime now, i have had some ideas which i wanted to post somewhere, but was hesitant in starting a blog because i knew that i would not be able to update it frequently. But today, in a moment of impulse i have started one and i only hope that i can continue to keep it alive.

Coming to the topic of the blog, for i think it ought to be explained in the first post, i should concede that the topic was also chosen quite impulsively as the page asking for topic was staring at me, as the only barrier for me creating a blog. Nevertheless, this had been a topic which has provoked quite a few thoughts in me. The first time i began to consider truth and beauty as being equivalent, was when i read (actually, re-read)
John Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn. Though, i am not a avid reader of poetry, i first read this as a regular part of our syllabus in high school and though i didn't understand it fully, i was enchanted by it. A few years later in college, i managed to do some searching in net and understood more of the poem. The following lines were present as my mail signature for quite some time (perplexing quite a few !) -

"...Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter;...
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty.'-that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
John Keats in "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
"When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."
--Buckminster Fuller

The whole poem is so enjoyable and thought provoking to read. Just do a google search, you'll find many copies.

The third item in the list - "Happiness" may be considered by many to be equivalent or alteast directly proportional (pardon my terminolgy) to the other two. I always had a vague veiwpoint that while 'true happiness' can be considered to be equivalent to these, the happiness that most of us want and get, which is merely a delusion of our senses, only leads us farther from Truth and Beauty. And then one day by quite a chance, i happened to read a novel by Aldous Huxley - The Brave New World. This not only supported, but also reinforced many times my views on these. This novel is extraordinarily prophetic, as in 1930's Huxley has prophesised a society which has a strong resemblance to our current society, but live in a way which would not be very pleasant to us all. All the inhabitants (well, almost all) are happy, because they are made to be happy, by sensuous delusion of their senses. This is where i think our current soceity influenced by western materialism is heading to. Some may find that some things dont exactly confirm to a capitalist society, like the state control over the subjects, but upon some thought this is the only way there can be some stability in a purely capitalist society. I intent to post a detailed review on it, sometime soon. But for now, here is a tantalizing quote from the novel -
(pardon me that this not exactly a quote, since i dont have the text with me now).

(From the coversation between Savage (a being like us!) and World Controller)
Savage: Do you think God exists now?
WC: Yes, i think so. God manifests himself in various forms at various times....
Savage: Then, how does he manifest himself now?
WC : He manifests himself by his absence