Signing off with a flourish
Now that he has emerged on top politically, has shed off most of his administrative responsibilities as a CM to son Stalin after making him deputy CM, and sure that his son Azhagiri and grand nephew DayanidhiMaran have the Delhi end under control, Karunanidhi is turning his attention to his other love-- films. Recently he met up with director Ilavenil and producer Murugesan , the combo who will make the next film based on his famous novel, Suruli Malai. This duo had made his earlier film Ulliyin Osai and the film, according to Illavenil, did well. Suruli Malai, written four decades ago, will be tweaked a little at the suggestion of Illavenil. "Kalaignar has penned screenplays for family dramas, historical, political, mythological and revolutionary themes. This is going to be the first time that Kalaignar is going to author a romantic piece," says Illanevil, whose film version will be called Nee Indri Naa Illai (You today, me tomorrow). Uday Kiran, the Telugu actor, will reprise the role of the forest officer, while National Award winner Meera Jasmine will play a tribal girl and be the hero’s love interest. Illavenil is very impressed not only with Kalaignar’s flourish with the pen but also how prolific he is. "Despite his spinal surgery which has kept him wheel chair-bound, he discussed the screenplay with us for six hours at a stretch." It’s half-finished and like most writers, Karunanidhi too is possessive about his screenplay. But he adds a note at the bottom of each page, which are basically options for the filmmakers.
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Kalaingar, the philanthropist
Illanevil says he has offered the CM copyright fees for the use of the story and a fee also for the CM’s work in turning his story into a screenplay. But, he has not specified what the "fee" will be. For Uliyun Osai, Kalaingar was paid Rs 25 lakh, all of which he distributed to indigent actors and film folk. He plans to do the same this time too. Incidentally, at his birthday on June 3, Karunanidhi received a gold chain weighing 86 grams from one fan, fruits, flowers, shawls and cash, lots of it. His office claimed that an announcement was made to the hordes who came and wished him at Anna Arivalayam (the DMK headquarters),and his two houses at CIT Colony and Gopalapuram, that cash gifts should not be handed to him but instead sent to the CM’s relief fund, but who was listening? So the over Rs 4.5 lakhs that admirers gave him was turned over to the CM’s relief fund. Among the gifts offered offered on his behalf by Chennai mayor Subramaniam was that all couples who gave Tamil names to children born after 6 am on June 3 at Corporation hospitals (last year 15,000 were born; 90,000 is the figure recorded by the Corporation registry annually from corporation, government and maternity hospitals last year ) would get gold rings.
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Dog in the manger
Popular wisdom was that irrespective of which government came to power at the centre, former union health minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, would be on it. But for the first time in over ten years PMK founder S Ramadoss lost his sense of smell and ended up not only supporting a combination that lost but his party was humbled at the hustings. But he has not lost hisinclination to constantly carp at Karunanidhi. Also with an eye on the future, Ramadoss is trying to divide the Congress and DMK and is therefore fishing in troubled waters. Although Karunanidhi put an end to the state Congress’ efforts to get into power here-- its 35 MLAs support the minority DMK government which has 96 MLAs -- by saying their demand should be routed through the high command, Ramadoss thinks otherwise. "The Congress should be given proportionate representation in the state ministry. DMK is not in a position to dictate terms to the central government as in 2004."But one thing he says does have a ring of truth, because, out of the blue, Karunanidhi has started talking about devolution of power. Ramadoss’ take is:"Whenever the DMK is in a weak position, it takes up issues like state autonomy and anti-Hindi propaganda. Predictably, Karunanidhi has started harping on state autonomy as the DMK’s influence in Delhi hasdeclined."
Vanishing greenery
A former resident of Bangalore says that the title of Garden City actually belongs to Chennai because there’s more greenery here. The forest cover of Chennai Metropolitan Area is 24 sq km, while the 176 sq km area of the Chennai Corporation has a green cover of 2%. But in 35 years, the open space has come down by 60.2 per cent which means even greenery is slowly vanishing as industrialisation including the software industry’s demands for space is slowly gobbling up the lung space. According to Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), this metropolis had 920 hectares of open space in 1973 but by 2006, it had reduced to 366 hectares. But the larger Chennai Metropolitan Area fared worse during the same time period-- open spaces has gone down from 4,822 hectares to 200 hectares. The bad news is that as a result there has been a one degreeCelsius rise in the city’s mean temperature as a result. That’s largely caused by urbanisation that leads to creation of heat islands that push up the temperatures. When buildings are closely packed, there is a shift in the direction of the sea breeze. The trend of glass facades and the use of air-conditioners might keep those inside cool, but only results in the rise of temperatures outside. "Reflective glass does not allow heat to enter a building, so if it cannot be absorbed by the building, it will linger in the streets," says an architect.
