Chennai Corner

Amma hoping to recreate magic

Karunanidhi with the Malaysian PM

While Chief Minister M Karunanidhi strutted the world stage at the CII Partnership Summit last week, playing host to the Malaysian PM Dato Seri Mohamed Najib Bin Tun Abdul Razak and solicited investments in Tamil Nadu and his presence at the World Classical Tamil conference in June in Coimbatore, AIADMK chief Jayalalitha had more modest goals. She sent letters to each of the newly-elected secretaries of the nearly 1.5 lakh branches of the AIADMK. After being virtually incommunicado since her party lost to the DMK in 2006, Amma is trying to reconnect with her party cadre at the grassroots level. Her letter, after a gap of several years, is one of her efforts to reach out with assembly elections due in 2011, probably earlier. Jayalalithaa used to establish a personal connect with the cadre during the 1980s when she assumed charge as AIADMK’s propaganda secretary by writing to them and encouraging them to serve the party. “Ms Jayalalithaa used to visit the party headquarters almost daily as the party’s propaganda secretary in the 1980s. She used to send her speech copies to the party orators and members of the party’s general council then,” recalled Cholai, one-time speechwriter of Jayalalithaa. Her party is hoping she will be able to rework the magic that brought her to power after the losses on a trot since 2006 including the Lok Sabha election last May.

Spitting in the food
American sitcoms have gags about the character of a waiter/waitress spitting into the coffee or sandwich if they don’t like the customer they are serving. It makes the skin crawl to think someone is violating the food you are paying for. Now comes news that six of the restaurants functioning in the Secretariat are among 35-odd eating places in Chennai that have been sealed because they have been found wanting on the hygiene scale. Health officials who carried out the raid said that the eating joints were dumping vegetable waste and flour mix directly into the sewer without any segregation, resulting in frequent sewer blocks. And even worse news came after the raids. “Most restaurants employ people without any medical checks. Some of the hotel workers who cook are medically unfit,” a senior health official confessed. While growing up, the joke in our circles was that the sizzling sound, causing us to salivate, emanating from a kitchen where a dosa was being fried was actually the sweat dripping from the cook’s forehead onto the tava. Does it make you shudder to think it may be true? The raids, by the way, are continuing and more and more restaurants are being sealed. But will these eating places be back in business after “mamools” exchange hands? A distinct possibility considering that health officials faced stiff resistance from corporation councillors who have opposed the closure of hotels under the Public Health Act.

Maunvrat is not the way to go
But what does one expect from councillors who appear to be observing maunvrat during Chennai Corporation Council meetings. Former PM Indira Gandhi was dismissed as a “Goongi gudiya” (dumb dull) before she morphed into a Durga and vanquished her enemies. Will one see at least some of our 155 corporators evolve from their current avatar?

Here are some numbers to crunch: one-third of our 155 corporators appear to have taken a vow of silence, not saying a word during question hour or zero hour or during the debate on resolutions before their passage. According to an official report at least 14 councillors, including 13 from the DMK and one from the PMK have never spoken, 39 councillors have not raised a single query during question hour, 42 have not uttered a word during zero hour, and 51 remained silent when resolutions were discussed.

One would think that three years being in the job would have given them enough experience and articulation to speak up for those who elected them and come to them with a range of problems. Attending a council session is just a formality for many, it would seem. But the bad news is that some don’t even bother with that. A recent session saw the council falling short of a quorum (which is 50 councillors) to transact business. As a result hardly 10 resolutions were taken up for discussion.

You cannot strong arm Armstrong
But the prize for absenteeism goes to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) councillor and the party’s state organiser K Armstrong who has not attended the Chennai Corporation council session for a year. The elected representative of ward 53 has only signed the official register to mark his attendance (Salary now and pension later is a powerful reason whether you are a councillor, MLA or MP). Armstrong was a regular till December 2008 when he was the lone member of BSP, says a fellow councillor.

Armstrong represents parts of Ayanavaram and Agaram in North Chennai where unchecked encroachments, illegal sewerage connections to stormwater drains, narrow roads, irregular garbage clearance not to mention the problems brought on by the highly-polluted Ainsley canal are problems people living in this constituency have to grapple with.

But Armstrong has his reasons for staying away. “I have to attend party functions in my capacity as state BSP organiser. Anyway raising issues in the council does not evoke a positive response from the civic body,” he said. While the people can dump him when he goes back to them for votes, immediately no action can be taken. Not even by the mayor. As Mayor M Subramanian puts it, “According to the rules, a councillor who fails to attend the council for three months could be terminated. But in this case, although he (Armstrong) may not have been attended the proceedings, he has been signing the atendance register.”

Coming of age for Tamil cinema

A still from Naan Kadavul

Tamil cinema has really come of age from the times when a Sivaji Ganeshan over dramatized and overacted or Rajnikanth hammed but depended on stylish moves to become the megastar he has become. Tamil cinema has stood up to be counted on the international stage – films have been screened at various film festivals – or the national stage – winning the best director award two years in a row, Bala for Naan Kadavul this year and Priyadarshan for Kanchivaram last year that, incidentally, also won its chief protagonist, Prakash Raj the best actor award.

“I would have been happier if my artistes had won it (the National award) instead of me,” maintains Bala, a protégé of the inimitable Balu Mahendru, whose gritty film about beggary took three years to make and featured over 450 handicapped children and adults. Just four films old (after Sethu, Nandha and Pithamagan) in the industry, Bala says, “I have worked with many artistes, but when I worked with the differently abled, I realised that their mental faculties were very sharp, and I think the award has been given because of the kids in the film.”

The other Tamil film director who won acclaim is Gautham Menon, whose Vaaranam Aayiram, won the best Tamil regional film. “I put my heart into the film,” said Gautham whose film created a buzz last year, when it was released, partly because of him and partly because Surya was acting in it. The well-shot film had as many critics as fans, and was partly autobiographical. Confirms Gautam, “I lost my father when I began the film, and the tragedy turned my entire script around. I may have got a little carried away and many critics found fault with some aspects of the film, but as a coming of age film of a character, it worked with the audience.”